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Vail Mountain
Vail Mountain in Vail, Colorado
is one of the finest ski areas in the world, with more than 5,000
acres of skiable slopes, 193 marked trails on three faces, the back
bowls, Blue Sky basin, 33 lifts, 300 days of sunshine and the front
side. The seven back bowls are named Siberia Bowl, Outer Mongolia
Bowl, Sun Down Bowl, Inner Mongolia Bowl, Sun Up Bowl, China Bowl
and Teacup Bowl, and the site was named as the top ski resort in the
world by SKI magazine during the 2006-07 season. There are many
folks in the United States that believe it is the best ski region in
the world, claiming that there is nothing like it on earth,
anywhere; but then aren't we biased for our nation. During WWII, the
10th Mountain Division would train here for the many dangerous
missions that they would be involved in during that horrific war,
and when it was over, two veterans came back to Vail and stood at
the very top, looking down and around, dreaming, hypothesizing and
praying. The two men would open a resort there in 1962, and people
from all over the nation and soon enough the world, would be coming
here for the most exciting and exhilarating experiences and
adventures of their lifetimes. Charles Vail, would be the chief
engineer for the state's highway department that would cut a highway
over the pass and into the valley, with the two vets of the 10th
Mountain division that turned that no name mountain into one of the
finest, if not the best, ski resort and location in the world. It
would be Earl Eaton and Pete Seibert that transformed a lonely
unsettled mountain area into the most romantic brand name in the
nation; as they saw the possibilities of that first two thousand
foot drop from the mountain top to the valley below. When it opened
in 1962, there were four houses and one phone, with five lifts and a
gondola that would span from the base to the bowls on the backside
and the first folks that arrived here were perfectly happy to just
ski it, from one side to the other, up and down, the whole day long.
And as the American skiing adventure began to grow, it would evolve
into one of the top sports in the world and then it would settle
down to just a fascinating and thoroughly exciting adventure, a
lifestyle that made Vail a big part of it all.
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