Eldora, CO 12-21-14

[EMSC]

Don't have the time to write too much this season so far. Work has been insane, but also in a very interesting good way too which is hard to imagine.

2nd day with Jr. as he turns 5 in a few more days. he has an odd struggle going on this year where either his tips are close but then so are his feet, or his feet and tips are 2 feet apart, never quite hitting a true pizza. Weird stuff, but I'm letting him manage his speed most of the time, but still leashing him on 'steeper' short sections for a few dozen yards then letting him go. Eldora has multiple beginner lifts but not a lot of good true learning terrain so there are short almost low end blue pitches stuck in the middle of the runs.

As to Eldora, they got good snows back in Nov and have had several inches here and there over the past week, but not nearly as much as central Colo. So no natural snow runs open at all. They did manage to get Corona trail open for this weekend finally which is actually roughly on average for that lift/trail. Snowing decently at times today and more expected over the next 24-36hrs.

It was just me and Jr today as the Mrs has had the flu for the past week. On hill just before 11am and done at 1pm for today with 7 runs. Finally started falling crossing tips, etc.. but was really working on what I asked him to today and I think he had quite a bit of fun so hopeful we can get his pizza figured out and get him independent-ish. Probably put him in the Trek program for 2nd half of the season (1st half is sold out, not that I care. He can skip the brutal windy & cold days in Jan if/as they come up, and instead can ski the usually less windy 2nd half weekends).

 

[jimk]

You're a good ski dad! Emphasizing the nice spring ski days sounds like a good plan for a five year old. Keep it up, the rewards are great.
I have fond memories of Eldora. It's the bomb compared to anything we have in the mid-Atlantic. The only time I skied Eldora was for two days just before Christmas in Dec 2003 with my family including my son who was age 13 at the time. My son did not get a ton of ski time as a youngster and was cautious and slow to develop advanced ski skills (plus he took a detour into the snowboard world for a few seasons), but in those two days at Eldora he had a very memorable skiing breakthrough. Just for grins he asked to rent snowblades for those two days and everything came together. He experienced what is now almost the stereotypical thing about snowbladers, a huge boost in confidence and parallel technique, willing to charge on terrain they might have previously considered over their head. I remember we skied Corona together. Even better, we did three more ski days elsewhere in CO on that trip and he went back to his own longer skis and skied them just as aggressively and successfully. In fact, I remember off chair 1 at Loveland for the first time he beat me down a black diamond run. Watch out. At the rate you're going your son may do that to you when he's 7 or 8. 8-[
I haven't beaten my son down a black diamond run for a long time now. In March 2014 he passed his PSIA Level III skiing exam.

 

[Tony Crocker]

2nd day with Jr. as he turns 5 in a few more days. he has an odd struggle going on this year......

This piqued my curiosity. I have often posted references to my older son Adam, who has good coordination and was highly motivated to ski since age 2. His age progress benchmarks were blown away by both of JSpin's kids in Vermont a few years later.

My documentation for my younger son Andrew is more sparse. He inherited his coordination from me :lol: and was considerably less motivated, so I had to rely more on ski school. I put him in Taos ski school 3 days shortly before his 4th birthday in April 1993.

Next notes 1/29/94:

Get Andrew on ch 11 3PM without leash. He can wedge but doesn't have timing yet.

2/26/94 I took him up to Kratka Ridge and this is the first time I have notes of Andrew wedging under control and getting on and off a chairlift without assistance.

And finally 4/10/94 just before 5th birthday:

Andrew skis 5,700 on ch. 2&6 w. good wedge but few turns.

Note the last phrase. Further progress was gradual as Andrew did not take direction from me that well. The 1994 season also included a couple of lessons at Big Bear and Mammoth.

I don't recall how many days EMSC's son got last year. Eldora is ideally situated for bite-sized sessions for a young kid that either gets tired or has a short attention span. But the bottom line is that every kid is different. I knew not to push Andrew too hard into skiing or make comparisons to his 4 year older brother. Nonetheless I'm sure Andrew observed that 9-year-old Adam was skiing bell-to-bell with Dad at Mammoth and going off separately to Tahoe and Utah on school breaks.

I am far less qualified as a ski instructor than EMSC or JSpin. Either admin or I could provide JSpin's contact info if you want it.