Eldora, CO 3-14-09

[EMSC]

I lied. Just enough time for a quickie TR. Mostly Pics.

All except deep in the woods was very firm & kind of Icy (with a bit of soft fluff on top in places - they had 4" on Tues). Great for racing, not quite as good for the public. Warm-ish & little wind, but only enough to soften the couple of East facing trails. Ended up filling in for a missing J5 coach. Both Terrain/obstacle course day and the resorts 'Retro' day. lots of classic outfits & gear to be seen. Had the cam today as the team does team pic day with the obstacle course... Guess who ended up doing the 'official' shots.

Hitting Copper Sun.

 

[Skidog]

Looks like fun.

Man though its depressing seeing those wood with like zero snow.......ill try to blow really hard towards CO next time a storm passes through UT.

M

 

[jamesdeluxe]

EMSC, what's the deal with Eldora's Wx conditions? When I lived there, I think it got 180-ish per season.

Very close to the divide, but in a bit of a snow shadow, right? My friends lived in the switchbacks up above Nederland and there used to be a noticeable difference between the snow levels there (lots) and at Eldora.

 

[EMSC]

Man though its depressing seeing those wood with like zero snow.......ill try to blow really hard towards CO next time a storm passes through UT.

Please do. Eldo especially needs the snow, though even Copper today had not particularly good surface conditions... (Though much better than Eldora). Though the pics I used are overstating the brown-ness of things a bit. Those areas in the pics are both wind blasted and sun-baked areas, so very quick to melt out in a year like this.

what's the deal with Eldora's Wx conditions? When I lived there, I think it got 180-ish per season.

Sounds about right. I'd call it close to ~200 in a typical year. Last year was up closer to ~250 I think. I love all the marketing material that claims 300". Eldo gets snow in two ways. From 'streamers' of snow coming over the divide (think lake effect snow bands concept and the variability of the wind direction, etc.. affecting the amounts), and from up-slope storms that back in against the mtns from the front range side (the bigger dumps for Eldora come this way).

Almost no up-slope storms for the past two seasons. As for the streamers coming over the divide, it's amazing how the 'backside' of Eldora gets a lot more than even the front side, and Nederland High school on the access road 1-2 mi away gets almost no snow in comparison. Snowfall and surface/powder, etc.. at Eldora was good up though end of Jan; OK/decent with smaller refreshers till maybe 20th or so of Feb and hardly any new snow since (while central mtns did get additional refresher storms).

 

[Tony Crocker]

Loveland/A-Basin, which get hammered on those upslope events, have been lagging relative to other areas the last 2 seasons.