EMSC
Well-known member
Painful in some ways, very nice in others.
It's been an interesting December in Colo. Mostly dry, though a couple small storms; until the past ~4-5 days. My home resort of Eldora is still not in great shape as temps have been just a hair too warm for nearly 3 weeks of Dec, with lows in the mid-20's and highs in the mid-30's... so no snowmaking and stuck with limited trail count. Also stuck with decent start to natural base, but either no new or 60+mph winds during the couple of small storms in that stretch. I've been stuck at Eldora too between training, running races and my other life schedule.
Finally decided that enough new was falling over several days to refresh things and hopefully make a long drive during the holiday week worthwhile. Jr was, scarily enough, in drivers ed training required to get his permit.
When I woke I70 was closed, Copper was reporting 8" and I just wasn't interested in snowboarding the same handful of Eldora trails so I waited a bit and left the house at 7a which was probably too late. At some point shortly after leaving the house I70 re-opened but between slick road conditions and built up traffic now ahead of me meant slow going once past Idaho Springs. Long story short, 4 hours from leaving my house to standing at the top of the Super B chair (ouch). Fortunately Copper has lighted trail map boards showing lift and trail openings and despite my late arrival, Sierra lift, Storm King and all of Copper bowl & Tucker Mtn were not open. In fact Mtn Chief lift and Tucker mtn remined closed the entire day due to avi control and low visibility. Probably some great powder on Tucker today...
I decided to try out Resolution and after the initial pitch headed into the woods where things were soft and pretty deep. Just what I needed after all the groomers so far this year. Copper is up over 140" YTD and looks/skis like it. Lot of logs to still be aware of in the woods, but quite skiable everywhere.
Of course unbeknownst to me Resolution had just opened for the day and everyone had just gone down it. Longest liftline I have ever seen on that lift. Made for a 45 minute lap from top back to the top on that first run.
Crazily enough I skied that same side again as the wind was blasting pretty good from the West and Resolution faces east out of the wind with guaranteed fluffy soft snow and not wind affected. Plus with decent sized am crowds I figured much of the rest of the resort would have had hours of skiing on it. 2nd lap total time was down to 30minutes.
I then tried out Alpine lift via a combo of far east and too much trails. Soft snow a few fluffy spots but mostly skied. Finished up my 'morning' with a 17 glade run. Due to the upper mtn closures 17 Glade had been skied more than usual, but with sizable patches of new snow if you looked. Here is "Far East" trail with lots of baby trees but no rocks/dirt:
I took a quick break at the bottom of Super B for a snack and then headed back up a now deserted lift finding that the Tbar had finally opened on this side of Copper (Sierra, and Blackjack in Copper bowl also open by then). With Sierra probably either skied out (bowl side) or with terrain directly into the wind I made the decision to stick with the T-bar and Spaulding Bowl which was a ridiculously lucky decision. No line at all and only a handful of people having gone up the T. I found a patroller placing a sign at the top of Spaulding Bowl and didn't realize for about 30 seconds that he had literally just opened it or the day as i was approaching the top. Many of the steepest Chutes of Spaulding are still closed (and one area looks like it slid to the ground at some point). But fairly steep Calendar Chute is open and I managed to be the 4th person in, passing a stopped snowboarder halfway down for 3rd tracks on the bottom portion. Boot top to knee depending on your turn and wind deposition pattern.
While then also hitting the nearly untouched Spaulding glades lower down. It was a definitely weird sensation skiing decent powder down one of what inevitably always becomes a hard packed and icy main vein through the glade for example. I suspect that all the locals were what made it crowded early and then with just visitors in the afternoon no one could see how to even get into Spaulding glade (it's not too difficult, but also not obvious in a snowstorm due to rope lines). I did 2 more laps of roughly the same run though moving further along and hitting untouched sections of Spaulding bowl each lap and being sure not to cross my own tracks in the glade too.
Still some danger to be had with a warm Dec keeping creeks flowing...
Hey bob where are we? Maybe in the middle of a milk bottle?
As you can see, after my first run in Spaulding the cloud and snow picked up quite a lot. At least an inch per hour rate for the final ~1.5 hrs of the day.
Eventually hitting a couple laps of 17Glade on the front side once the 3p closure hit both the t-bar and Resolution.
Snow depth check about 2/3 of the way down Resolution terrain. Pole is a 52" length.
Drive home was much better, but with the afternoon snow it was still slower than normal going. Mostly due to the snow and waiting at the tunnel for hazardous trucks to be let through. About 2.5 hours and home at 7pm (normal one way time is 1hr 40 min with no weather or traffic issues).
Line for the purple route bus (Far East lot) was very long.... Thanks goodness I was in black route line.
I could have had one last run quitting 5 min before 4p, but ended with ~18.6K for my first day on skis for the season (all other days have been snowboarding groomers so far).
Only about a mile of back-up at the tunnels and mostly due to Loveland pass being closed (they let hazardous trucks through once per hour and shut off normal traffic while they do so).
It's been an interesting December in Colo. Mostly dry, though a couple small storms; until the past ~4-5 days. My home resort of Eldora is still not in great shape as temps have been just a hair too warm for nearly 3 weeks of Dec, with lows in the mid-20's and highs in the mid-30's... so no snowmaking and stuck with limited trail count. Also stuck with decent start to natural base, but either no new or 60+mph winds during the couple of small storms in that stretch. I've been stuck at Eldora too between training, running races and my other life schedule.
Finally decided that enough new was falling over several days to refresh things and hopefully make a long drive during the holiday week worthwhile. Jr was, scarily enough, in drivers ed training required to get his permit.
When I woke I70 was closed, Copper was reporting 8" and I just wasn't interested in snowboarding the same handful of Eldora trails so I waited a bit and left the house at 7a which was probably too late. At some point shortly after leaving the house I70 re-opened but between slick road conditions and built up traffic now ahead of me meant slow going once past Idaho Springs. Long story short, 4 hours from leaving my house to standing at the top of the Super B chair (ouch). Fortunately Copper has lighted trail map boards showing lift and trail openings and despite my late arrival, Sierra lift, Storm King and all of Copper bowl & Tucker Mtn were not open. In fact Mtn Chief lift and Tucker mtn remined closed the entire day due to avi control and low visibility. Probably some great powder on Tucker today...
I decided to try out Resolution and after the initial pitch headed into the woods where things were soft and pretty deep. Just what I needed after all the groomers so far this year. Copper is up over 140" YTD and looks/skis like it. Lot of logs to still be aware of in the woods, but quite skiable everywhere.
Of course unbeknownst to me Resolution had just opened for the day and everyone had just gone down it. Longest liftline I have ever seen on that lift. Made for a 45 minute lap from top back to the top on that first run.
Crazily enough I skied that same side again as the wind was blasting pretty good from the West and Resolution faces east out of the wind with guaranteed fluffy soft snow and not wind affected. Plus with decent sized am crowds I figured much of the rest of the resort would have had hours of skiing on it. 2nd lap total time was down to 30minutes.
I then tried out Alpine lift via a combo of far east and too much trails. Soft snow a few fluffy spots but mostly skied. Finished up my 'morning' with a 17 glade run. Due to the upper mtn closures 17 Glade had been skied more than usual, but with sizable patches of new snow if you looked. Here is "Far East" trail with lots of baby trees but no rocks/dirt:
I took a quick break at the bottom of Super B for a snack and then headed back up a now deserted lift finding that the Tbar had finally opened on this side of Copper (Sierra, and Blackjack in Copper bowl also open by then). With Sierra probably either skied out (bowl side) or with terrain directly into the wind I made the decision to stick with the T-bar and Spaulding Bowl which was a ridiculously lucky decision. No line at all and only a handful of people having gone up the T. I found a patroller placing a sign at the top of Spaulding Bowl and didn't realize for about 30 seconds that he had literally just opened it or the day as i was approaching the top. Many of the steepest Chutes of Spaulding are still closed (and one area looks like it slid to the ground at some point). But fairly steep Calendar Chute is open and I managed to be the 4th person in, passing a stopped snowboarder halfway down for 3rd tracks on the bottom portion. Boot top to knee depending on your turn and wind deposition pattern.
While then also hitting the nearly untouched Spaulding glades lower down. It was a definitely weird sensation skiing decent powder down one of what inevitably always becomes a hard packed and icy main vein through the glade for example. I suspect that all the locals were what made it crowded early and then with just visitors in the afternoon no one could see how to even get into Spaulding glade (it's not too difficult, but also not obvious in a snowstorm due to rope lines). I did 2 more laps of roughly the same run though moving further along and hitting untouched sections of Spaulding bowl each lap and being sure not to cross my own tracks in the glade too.
Still some danger to be had with a warm Dec keeping creeks flowing...
Hey bob where are we? Maybe in the middle of a milk bottle?
As you can see, after my first run in Spaulding the cloud and snow picked up quite a lot. At least an inch per hour rate for the final ~1.5 hrs of the day.
Eventually hitting a couple laps of 17Glade on the front side once the 3p closure hit both the t-bar and Resolution.
Snow depth check about 2/3 of the way down Resolution terrain. Pole is a 52" length.
Drive home was much better, but with the afternoon snow it was still slower than normal going. Mostly due to the snow and waiting at the tunnel for hazardous trucks to be let through. About 2.5 hours and home at 7pm (normal one way time is 1hr 40 min with no weather or traffic issues).
Line for the purple route bus (Far East lot) was very long.... Thanks goodness I was in black route line.
I could have had one last run quitting 5 min before 4p, but ended with ~18.6K for my first day on skis for the season (all other days have been snowboarding groomers so far).
Only about a mile of back-up at the tunnels and mostly due to Loveland pass being closed (they let hazardous trucks through once per hour and shut off normal traffic while they do so).
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