Eldora, CO, with an Extended Season, Is Skiing Great Right Now

At this point everyone has read the news that Eldora is about to have its longest season ever—lasting until April 21.

My colleague Ian Greenwood reported it earlier today .

Intrigued, and a lot closer to Eldora than Ian, I decided product testing was in order— late season product testing.

You know: put Eldora through the grind, kicks its wheels, knock it down a bit, and then polish it up if it reacts well—in general, give it hell but play nice.

Kinda.

So, I ventured up from Evergreen—my longtime hideout in the Front Range.

First off, it was bloody cold. There was a tart slash of winter dangling off the Indian Peaks, an area I'd climbed and skied for decades. Old Man Winter was pressing hard on the control knobs. When did Eldora foist such chilly temps in April?

That impressed.

Still, I headed west, toward the Corona Lift, which had been a bit of an issue this season. It wasn't open until Christmas. All Colorado resorts were struggling up to that point. I wanted to check it out.

Icy, icy, icy. I sailed through a bunch of blacks on my edges at lightning speed—as you do when runs are early-morning icy. The groomed runs were okay. The bumped areas were a disaster. Too frozen, too crunchy, two ground-up knees.

The key was to think globally.

Eldora is like any other chunk of the earth's surface. The east side gets the early morning heat. The west side stays cold much of the day. The key is, well, following the sun.

I started skiing lines southeast of the Alpenglow high-speed 6-seater, and as the day jerked along, coursing lines just west of the Alpenglow lift. By the end of the day I was back in Corona-land, and can say I enjoyed one of my best days skiing an entire resort.

The last time I skied Eldora was in 1983.

It had been open for about 20 years at that point, and I remember very limited facilities. But, more better, I remember a good time.

I don't remember planning my day based on the rotation of the earth and the ever-warming snow on the mountain. But that definitely needs to be my strategy moving forward.

Maybe your strategy.

Certainly, there's enough snow here to last probably until June, and while uphilling closes when the resort closes, the Indian Peaks will offer a bumper season this summer.

Unlike a handful of Colorado resorts I've skied in the past two weeks, there are no brown patches at Eldora. There are no weeds or saplings poking through. The snow cover is deep and healthy. Cold and, admittedly, hard in places.

And if the nighttime temps remain as bloody horrible as they were last night, you Eldorans are in for a great early summer.

A great, great early summer.

See you out there.

And, yes, for historical references, even Warren Miller filmed movies here:

See you out there!