Ethan B. Holland

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Celebrating with a sentimental walk around town and a gondola ride: Vail YOLO Adventure Part VII

September 7, 2026

The day after our hike to the top of Grand Traverse, Rori and I walked around the town of Vail together. Because we hiked a day earlier than planned, we had all of Thursday to celebrate and explore. We started with breakfast at The Little Diner in Lionshead, right around the corner from where I used to work.

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The Little Diner is one of the few mom-and-pop restaurants left in Vail, and I wanted to support them. They’re losing their lease, I think, and are doing a GoFundMe to try to stay in business given the high cost of rent. Our waiter was from Argentina and had all sorts of cool stories to share with us.

After breakfast, we wandered through Lionshead. We stopped at the Häagen-Dazs where Caleb and I rendezvoused on the first day we arrived in Vail in 1994. We didn’t have cell phones or the internet, so before we left, we agreed to meet there. We flew in on separate flights and took separate shuttles from Denver to Vail. We picked the Häagen-Dazs because we found it in the Yellow Pages back home.

We walked over to one of my favorite places in the world, the Born Free Express chairlift. Because I worked for the ski resort back in the ’90s, our employee passes gave us a head start on the tourists. We got first tracks pretty much every morning. I actually thought “first tracks” meant being the literal first person to make tracks on the entire mountain. I didn’t realize people just meant skiing untouched snow. That’s pretty funny in hindsight.

I told Rori that Born Free Express was always our first ride of the day. No matter what, Caleb and I would take it to the top and dive-bomb the same blue groomer once just for fun. Then we’d ride Born Free again, cut across Cubs Way to Avanti, and head into Game Creek. That was the kickoff of our day.

One of our favorite morning rituals was clicking our skis together as we crossed over Gore Creek. The high-speed quad lifts slow down as you get on, then whisk you away at full speed just as you start to cross the creek. That burst of wind was one of my favorite feelings in the world.

It was supposed to rain all day, but as fate would have it, the sky stayed pretty clear aside from a little drizzle, and the gondola was running. I decided Rori and I should ride to the top, recreate Born Free, and look across the valley at Grand Traverse and the Gores.

As we glided over Gore Creek, the gondola accelerated to full speed and the wind came through the windows. It felt just like when I lived there 33 years ago. The smell was the same. The sun was radiating off of the trees. It was really cool.

As we rode up, we could see Grand Traverse across the valley with I-70 between us. That was the route I used to run every night after work, five miles home to East Vail because I didn’t have a car. I took the shuttle into town every morning, but I ran home at night just because it was awesome.

So fun to think that we were on top of that mountain the day before. My running route very night in 1994 ewas to the the right of the highway.

It’s kind of crazy that I never really worried about what I wore, even though I was running five miles at essentially 9,000 feet in the middle of winter. I wore sneakers and used my ski gloves. I didn’t wear a watch. I just had the best time running home under the mountains, with the full moon and Orion often keeping me company.

My YOLO tattoo is a tracing of the Grand Traverse.

We walked around the top for a while, then took the gondola back down and headed to the library to work for a few hours. I was preparing for a board presentation, and Rori had some work to do for her job at the University of Colorado rec center. She’s in charge of the student employees, which is a really cool job.

The Vail Public Library is gorgeous and sits right on Gore Creek. After working there for a while, we made our way from Lionshead over to Vail Village.

The Vail library has six Eames lounge chairs with a view of Gore Creek.

Walking around Vail after working in the library.

Rori has always liked secret rooms and speakeasies, so we checked out Chasing Rabbits Vail in Vail Village. It’s an upscale restaurant with a cool secret labyrinth of hallways in the back, with a game room and DJ lounges hidden behind false doors.

We ate dinner at the Bully Ranch Restaurant in the Sonnenalp Hotel Vail. It’s one of my favorite cozy spots.

As luck would have it, a storm covered the Gores that evening, and a beautiful rainbow appeared as a bow on top of one of the most meaningful weeks of my life.

We finished the night with ice cream at Sundae Artisan Ice Cream in Vail Village, then rode the shuttle back to Lionshead, just like I did when I was a kid. It was an absolutely epic day together.