As of 5 a.m. Friday, Vail Mountain had seen 17 inches in 24 hours. By the end of the day, that number was up to 31 inches, according to Greg Johnson, vice president of mountain operations at Vail Mountain. Some parts of the mountain saw up to 36 inches.
"This is a truly historic storm," Johnson said. "The snow hasn't let up all day, so we're expecting great conditions throughout the weekend and into next week."
Naturally, no one wanted to miss out on a dream ski day. No. One.
Pretty quickly, multiple videos were posted of skiers flocking to Gondola One. One would think it was opening day at Arapahoe Basin ...
On a video posted by Reddit user abc12me, multiple people pointed out that it would be quicker to skin up the mountain yourself. Although there seemed to be some confusion about the uphilling rules. Let us clear it up: Vail allows uphilling before, during and after operating hours on all designated routes (and it's free).
The ski area said it was a battle in the morning, but all frontside lifts were running by the end of the day. Vail Resorts does not disclose skier numbers so declined to say how many people were using the lifts throughout the day.
"Storms like this aren't very common here in the Vail Valley," Vail Mountain COO Beth Howard said. "The whole team came together to get us moving this morning — it's a herculean effort to dig out lifts and ensure terrain is safe when there is this much snow."
Meanwhile, you won't find any lines at Loveland Ski Area, which was forced to close down Friday due to high winds.
Comment: Also in Colorado, Steamboat Resort received 18 inches of snow in 24 hours on the same day.