EMSC
Well-known member
10" Powder Day
Well it was quite the Epic Pass $#!* show at Eldora for no real reason that I can discern. 10" is a nice number but not all that super deep and epic exactly (sometimes Eldo can get 2+ feet in a good spring upslope storm). It was a Thursday, not a Friday or Monday to tag to the weekend. It's already April and mostly warm on the front range, etc... Just a weird, weird vibe with tons of Epic passers hitting everything as hard as possible for 2-3 hours and then leaving. As a snobby long time local, I won't be sorry to see the Epic pass go away next year. Too many passes sold for such a small and close ski area to be on it without some sort of a decent add-on premium.
Anyway I made it up ~9:05 and (as I found out later) they spun the lifts early at closer to 8:30. At 9:05 I was 3/4 of the way back in the main lot already... The only saving grace being that the Epic passers aren't all that smart per se and can't find the slightly hidden slots on the main glades nor of course know the resort as well so will never find my hidden staches. It was the only thing that saved the day, powder wise for me. Otherwise I'd have been skiing on even less than chowder. They really hammered the obvious lines and fast. There was even a short lift line on the Corona quad that serves the backside. Something that frequently (in years past anyway), might not have a liftline even on the weekend!
Anyway, the snow was not pixie dust, yet almost too light. On many turns you hit the hard under-surface. Fortunately not always, but more than I would have expected for a double digit powder day. I skied as many laps as I could dream up lines on the main runs that would likely be overlooked, hard to spot or etc... even by the hordes. I think I got something like 5 of those runs in before one final lap before a short lunch was skiing leftover, leftovers, mostly soft snow, but not what I had come for.
It was time to switch to my staches which as always provided the best skiing of the day for many laps, though I'm not really sure if I skied powder or not since there are times that I, gasp, actually have to cross my own tracks at times. I know, I know, how dare I count that as part of a powder skiing day, lol. I forget how many runs it was in those spots, but enough to keep my busy for a few hours. The sun even started to come out in between snow squalls and felt super warm. Fortunately the temps were cold enough and the sun was brief enough not to affect the snow conditions. Probably my final day at Eldora on the steeps (they close April 13). Maybe one more with Jr and maybe one Abasin day before I pull the plug. We'll see. I counted 21K of vert skied when I stopped at the car at 3pm.
Well it was quite the Epic Pass $#!* show at Eldora for no real reason that I can discern. 10" is a nice number but not all that super deep and epic exactly (sometimes Eldo can get 2+ feet in a good spring upslope storm). It was a Thursday, not a Friday or Monday to tag to the weekend. It's already April and mostly warm on the front range, etc... Just a weird, weird vibe with tons of Epic passers hitting everything as hard as possible for 2-3 hours and then leaving. As a snobby long time local, I won't be sorry to see the Epic pass go away next year. Too many passes sold for such a small and close ski area to be on it without some sort of a decent add-on premium.
Anyway I made it up ~9:05 and (as I found out later) they spun the lifts early at closer to 8:30. At 9:05 I was 3/4 of the way back in the main lot already... The only saving grace being that the Epic passers aren't all that smart per se and can't find the slightly hidden slots on the main glades nor of course know the resort as well so will never find my hidden staches. It was the only thing that saved the day, powder wise for me. Otherwise I'd have been skiing on even less than chowder. They really hammered the obvious lines and fast. There was even a short lift line on the Corona quad that serves the backside. Something that frequently (in years past anyway), might not have a liftline even on the weekend!
Anyway, the snow was not pixie dust, yet almost too light. On many turns you hit the hard under-surface. Fortunately not always, but more than I would have expected for a double digit powder day. I skied as many laps as I could dream up lines on the main runs that would likely be overlooked, hard to spot or etc... even by the hordes. I think I got something like 5 of those runs in before one final lap before a short lunch was skiing leftover, leftovers, mostly soft snow, but not what I had come for.
It was time to switch to my staches which as always provided the best skiing of the day for many laps, though I'm not really sure if I skied powder or not since there are times that I, gasp, actually have to cross my own tracks at times. I know, I know, how dare I count that as part of a powder skiing day, lol. I forget how many runs it was in those spots, but enough to keep my busy for a few hours. The sun even started to come out in between snow squalls and felt super warm. Fortunately the temps were cold enough and the sun was brief enough not to affect the snow conditions. Probably my final day at Eldora on the steeps (they close April 13). Maybe one more with Jr and maybe one Abasin day before I pull the plug. We'll see. I counted 21K of vert skied when I stopped at the car at 3pm.
