Eldora, CO 4-8-18

EMSC

Well-known member
When did I move to the Sierra's?

The big Pineapple express storms have been kind in the SWE they have accumulated for at least Northern Colo, but the snow (and even some R@!#) has been some of the densest snow I've skied an a very long time. Eldora had 10" on Saturady followed by the liquid variety of precip that turned back into crazy dense snowfall with 3-4" on the frontside and 6-8" on the backside of the ski area on Sunday am. It made things so unstable that all of the super steeps under IP lift and to lookers right of Corona lift were closed due to snow instabilities. However the snow stuck like glue so you virtually never felt any underneath icy surface.

The weather was super changeable, with good snow falling for the first hour or so, then sunny-ish and slight breeze followed by very windy conditions which dried out the very top layer of snow and started blowing it around, making for some smoother and refilled tracks by mid-day. Eventually the wind began to calm somewhat - at least on the front - and it was clear that things were turning to mank/soft by late afternoon on the east facing, less snowed frontside.

I was skiing with Jr who wanted to go up with me so not being able to hit the real steeps was not much of an issue for me anyways. The snow surface was surprisingly fun and I'm sort of glad it wasn't any deeper than the 6-8" on the backside. It was the kind of snow that you could very easily tear your ACL or otherwise tweak your knees. At one point skiing some fluffy bumps I walked right out of my right ski, only to do the same with my left ski only a minute later. THAT kind of crazy dense snow (both pre-releases were of the heel). My son also did one of those later in the day.

Anyway we spent most of our time on the backside where it was a bit deeper and hit some classics like now on the trail map Gully glades (used to be referred to as the Canyon of Doom prior to it being on the trail map). Although the resort simply put up a trail sign and officially opened it without clearing anything so it is a fairly mediocre glade for an official one, being way to tight for the most part.

Not all that crowded today, but a decent amount of people there for early April. It will be an interesting experiment this year for Eldora since they will stay open one week later than normal - all the way until April 22; which is later than many of the big boy resorts on I70 this year...

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