EMSC
Well-known member
Nice day.
We got up to the hill on the early side and were on snow 3 minutes before opening. I had been surprised to see Corona open in the morning report so we headed straight to the backside for 4 laps of corduroy. It was just open as Aroud the Horn to get there was quite narrow and lots of snowmaking gear on the side. Corona trail itself was essentially half open, but given how wide it is, was basically a normal trail width. So they still need some more snow on the way over and for the other half, but being open for Turkey weekend is well above average.
Eldora had gotten 14" of snow this week and they opened several trails on natural only; and either had opened several more for a few hours randomly for skier compaction, or patrol simply looked the other way at massive amounts of poaching - one or the other.
It was also surprising in many ways. A clear inversion going on today with temps still in the low 20's and overcast on the front range, but mid- 30"s and sunny on the hill. A 5-10mph breeze finally kicked up about 1p signaling the next system somewhere not too far off.
It was also fairly crowded which is become a little too normal anymore. 15 minute lines on the 6pack, nearly full chairs on IP and a short line on the one trail open Corona lift... Of course it is also true that I-70 shut down early this morning due to rock slides so very very few folks made it up to Summit county or beyond. In fact a few diverted over to Eldora where for the 3rd time this week the lots completely filled.
Anyway, the snow was soft and many groomer marks were skied, especially early; headed toward small bumps and scrapey by early afternoon as usual on a crowded weekend. Lots more terrain is oh-so close if the storms keep coming. I still argue for at least the front range ski areas to have the Oct snows count. Most of it stayed and is definitely speeding up openings with very limited snowfall (another example is Timberline lift, t-bar and Sierra at Copper opening this weekend on almost exclusively natural snows. Not a lot, but impossible without the oct snowfalls. Further S and W areas may have melted out It'll be a tough one for Tony to arbitrate this year)
We got up to the hill on the early side and were on snow 3 minutes before opening. I had been surprised to see Corona open in the morning report so we headed straight to the backside for 4 laps of corduroy. It was just open as Aroud the Horn to get there was quite narrow and lots of snowmaking gear on the side. Corona trail itself was essentially half open, but given how wide it is, was basically a normal trail width. So they still need some more snow on the way over and for the other half, but being open for Turkey weekend is well above average.
Eldora had gotten 14" of snow this week and they opened several trails on natural only; and either had opened several more for a few hours randomly for skier compaction, or patrol simply looked the other way at massive amounts of poaching - one or the other.
It was also surprising in many ways. A clear inversion going on today with temps still in the low 20's and overcast on the front range, but mid- 30"s and sunny on the hill. A 5-10mph breeze finally kicked up about 1p signaling the next system somewhere not too far off.
It was also fairly crowded which is become a little too normal anymore. 15 minute lines on the 6pack, nearly full chairs on IP and a short line on the one trail open Corona lift... Of course it is also true that I-70 shut down early this morning due to rock slides so very very few folks made it up to Summit county or beyond. In fact a few diverted over to Eldora where for the 3rd time this week the lots completely filled.
Anyway, the snow was soft and many groomer marks were skied, especially early; headed toward small bumps and scrapey by early afternoon as usual on a crowded weekend. Lots more terrain is oh-so close if the storms keep coming. I still argue for at least the front range ski areas to have the Oct snows count. Most of it stayed and is definitely speeding up openings with very limited snowfall (another example is Timberline lift, t-bar and Sierra at Copper opening this weekend on almost exclusively natural snows. Not a lot, but impossible without the oct snowfalls. Further S and W areas may have melted out It'll be a tough one for Tony to arbitrate this year)
