Skiing is not only a tradition at Vail Mountain School but also an opportunity for students to learn valuable life lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom. According to the faculty, VMS has been skiing at Vail since the school was built and it is an important part of the student education. One of VMS's main goals is to have a strong community between students and the faculty, creating an environment where everyone can feel safe. In the classroom, students may sometimes feel restricted from expressing themselves for who they are, whereas in the mountains, they feel freer to express themselves and the same goes for the faculty. Students and faculty are divided into small groups in their school sections (Upper, Middle, and Lower School), allowing them to meet new people or strengthen relationships. In addition, VMS has the honor of being located so close to a ski resort, allowing students to learn how to appreciate and enjoy the nature surrounding them.

However, VMS Ski Day has changed over the years. Originally, when VMS was built at the base of the gondola, skiing was their P.E. class, and students skied every afternoon. In the early 1970s, due to an increase in student enrollment, the school moved further away from the mountain, but they would still ski every afternoon. By 1978, VMS moved once again, limiting skiing to Wednesday and Friday afternoons while we were still very close to the mountain. Skiing was no longer the P.E. class, however, it remained an opportunity for students to get outside the classroom. As the school community continued to grow, VMS was officially recognized as a school in 2004, and a larger school was built to be able to occupy everyone as this is the school that we are still using. Furthermore, this new location was much farther from the mountain, leading to the reduction of skiing having just one full day on Fridays instead of a lot of half-days. Around five to six years later, when COVID-19 hit, ski days were temporarily canceled. Once they were able to resume ski days, the faculty decided to further reduce ski days to just six half-days per school year. Currently, there have been other factors that led to this drastic decision to reduce ski days including the transportation of the growing community making it more difficult and expensive. Another factor was student's participation in ski days. Many students now opt out of ski days for various reasons, such as injuries, scheduling conflicts with after-school activities, or simply not enjoying skiing. 

While interviewing students and faculty members, opinions on ski days were all different. Some students don't like that they're separated from their friends and are forced to be with other people they might not know as well. In other opinions, Ziva Seller said that she loves ski days and hopes we could increase the days we could go skiing as well as hoping we could also mix school sections (upper, middle, and lower school) so students could further expand their community. In Maddie Lindley's opinion, she loves that we are now doing half days since she loves the chaos of going to school in the morning and the afternoon going skiing. Lastly, Pema'i Aungae's opinion was that she loves how to ski days include all levels of skiing so no one feels unwanted and you can meet new people you normally couldn't talk to.

Even though ski days at Vail Mountain School have changed over the years and everyone has experienced this opportunity differently,  the main goal has remained. Ski days at Vail Mountain School strengthen our community and help students feel more comfortable talking to other people beyond their close friend groups. We will harbor this tradition for years. With ski days even being reduced the students and faculty this is what makes us a part of the VMS community.