Eldora, CO 11-3-19

EMSC

Well-known member
Earliest opening for Eldora in at least 22 years.

And the crowds were there to help celebrate. They opened on Friday the 1st and ran out of parking... on a friday... with only 5 trails open. Crazy new normal for Eldora. Part of it is the simple math of: burn one of 5 days at ABasin? Drive twice as long for 2 trails at Winter Park? or just head up to Eldora in less than a hour which will be at least as good this early in the season.

At any rate, at least there is a 6-pack lift to help gobble crowds now-a-days -though our first lap from line to up, down and back in line took 30 minutes (gulp). We spent much of the day on the Race training lift hitting 350 verts at a time to avoid the crowds. We did manage to hit all the open trails up top. All about the same. Firm snowmaking base with a decent bit of fluff on top.

It appeared that Psychopath had been well skied. Not sure it it was all poaching or if it had been opened at some point (looked like that was the case). That would have been on all natural snow. For Tony's tracking. Eldora claims 39.5" YTD and they look like they need about another 18-24" (that then settles) to really start to open up natural snow terrain. Basically it's really close, but just not quite enough for most places.... Will be interesting to see if Breck can open it's flat blues or greens on the YTD amounts. Plenty of snow to help and to accelerate openings if we can just get that last couple storms is my take.

As for me, It's quite apparent that I need to do some workouts that include side to side movements. Yikes was I feeling it in my hips by the end of the day. At any rate one of my earliest ski days in years.

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EMSC":1sit1u96 said:
For Tony's tracking. Eldora claims 39.5" YTD
Since Eldora hosted lift-served skiing, should that 39.5" YTD stay on the season total or could it be deleted if a big warm-up melted everything and they had to start over? Of course, something like that is unlikely in Colorado as opposed to the northeast, where it's almost expected.
 
jamesdeluxe":3bmvw5wq said:
Since Eldora hosted lift-served skiing, should that 39.5" YTD stay on the season total or could it be deleted if a big warm-up melted everything and they had to start over? Of course, something like that is unlikely in Colorado as opposed to the northeast, where it's almost expected.

Definitely an interesting question. Tony typically removes Oct snowfall with some exceptions. I get the sense he is on the fence for Colo this year since natural snow terrain is not opening up due to the snowfalls. I could certainly question snowfall totals for the entire east under this thought process though. Why would eastern areas get to count snowfalls that melt or get rained out every few weeks... eg does it really count if Killington gets a foot in early Dec which is not enough to open anything and then gets washed away a few days later? But the way Tony counts right now, every inch in Dec in the east counts for their totals.

In reality it's pretty nebulous and not exactly worth the effort to go too crazy on arguing methodology. At least Tony is consistent and can reference an excellent and detailed snowfall database at all, despite many marketing games by wildly varying ownership of disinterested resorts.
 
Consistency calls for a November 1 start date in counting snowfall unless there is compelling evidence to the contrary.

All evidence now is that the entire western US is in for 2-3 bone dry weeks in November. Western Canada will get some snow though.

The problem with the 40+ inches of Front Range snow in October is that it was probably a typical Colorado 7% water content. I question what kind of base is going to be there after 3 weeks of wind and sublimation. I wonder if an Alps-type water supply could create and hold down a skiable base in short order with this kind of natural snow to start.

The backcountry is likely to be deadly for a long time with this kind of start to the season.

It's still better than what we have here, which is nada. Mammoth will get its manmade WROD open this weekend, but no way do I drive that distance for that. November 3 is an impressive opening day. I've only skied earlier than that 3x lifetime.
 
Tony Crocker":3s2q3ylr said:
ll evidence now is that the entire western US is in for 2-3 bone dry weeks in November.

Yep going to be a sketchy avi season. N facing should retain snow for the most part here at these altitudes fortunately.

Tony Crocker":3s2q3ylr said:
November 3 is an impressive opening day. I've only skied earlier than that 3x lifetime.

As noted above Eldora actually opened on Nov 1st... and could have easily opened several days before that (with one less upper mtn trail), but choose to hold to a Friday opening instead of a mid-week opening. Definitely above average for Eldora, Colorado and overall.
 
EMSC":1qhezzor said:
Definitely above average for Eldora, Colorado and overall.
It will be interesting to see how much, if at all, open terrain is above average at Thanksgiving.
 
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