East Vail Skiing and Snowboarding
East Vail has lots of steep and challenging backcountry terrain. Most of the East Vail backcountry area is prone to avalanche slides, so this terrain is not recommended for tourists or vacationers.
Accessing East Vail Backcountry
East Vail skiing can be accessed from the top of the Mongolia Bowls on the backside of Vail. A quick hike will give you access to Marvins Face; Pictured in the photo below.
Marvins typically has more avalanche slides than the East Vail Chutes. However, you can still see several avalanche slide paths in the photos of the chutes below.
East Vail Chutes
If you traverse across the top of Marvins (Towards Vail Village), you will encounter the East Vail chutes. There are several chutes that descend towards the East Vail area. You can ride the Free Vail Shuttle from East Vail back to the Vail Transportation Center. This will allow you to complete several laps of the terrain in East Vail in one day.
While this is normally a traditional hot spot for backcountry skiers, on the morning of Jan 7, 2014, Anthony Seibert, the grandson of one of the founders of Vail, was killed and three others injured in an avalanche in the East Vail Chutes. Our hearts ache for their families, who might have lost their son and grandson to what he loved most, but lost him too soon.
