Eldora, CO 2025-26

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Sorry no skiing yet. But thought I'd start a thread for this year as I had reason to be up at the mountain today anyway.

I think they have enough snow made to open, though it would be just barely. Not to mention super warm temps Sun-today (supposed to cool off finally sometime tomorrow). It was 55F this afternoon and they are keeping the piles as whales to keep the thermal mass. Though the Mtn biking has been good when I can sneak it in.

Otherwise hot and dry...

The other not exactly ski related news is the big fire that destroyed literally ~half the businesses in the town of Nederland a few weeks ago (population ~1500). All I know is that knowing some folks that live right behind the grocery who woke up and took pics before even the fire dept was there is that the fire started somewhere on the 2nd story of the only big plaza in town. The only good news was that there was no wind that night so the next door grocery store for example was saved. No idea if the story made it beyond Denver area though.

Sample news stories:
CBS
Colorado Sun Article

Pics of it almost a month later:

 

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I doubt I'll have too many updates this year, but thought I'd add a few just to keep track.

This update is about the huge winds in Colo last week. For the first time ever Xcel Enery pulled the same stuff as the california utilities - pre-emptive power shut offs. Mostly in the foothills and immediate plains at the base. That said winds were pretty huge (over 100mph gusts) on wed and fri of last week with fairly slow power restoration due to various damage.

At my house 12 miles from the base of the foothills we lost power 4 times. Twice for an hour on Wed and Thurs, for 5 hours on Fri and a short 15 minute outage on Sat. By far the longest outages ever in 14 years at this house.

Eldora itself was in the preemptive shut off area and was closed Wed-Fri. While they re-opened on Sat 21st they still did not have power and ran the 6pack on back-up diesel power with no other lifts operable, and no services or food and beverage. They finally got power back on Sat at approx 6pm, making Sunday at least normal-ish, though with very limited food options.

So we can add this story to the very unusual start to the western ski season.