Eldora ski area
Encyclopedia
The Eldora Mountain Resort is a ski area located in the southwest corner of Boulder County
, Colorado
, near the unincorporated
community of Eldora
and three miles (5 km) west of the town of Nederland
.
(the closest being Echo Mountain Park
). By a large margin, it is the closest to Boulder
, and is one of the few Colorado
ski resort
s on the east side of the continental divide. It is about 20 miles (32.2 km) west of Boulder
and about 45 miles (72.4 km) from downtown Denver. The ski and ride bus, operated by RTD
, departs Boulder
for the ski area five times daily in the winter and serves as easy transportation from town to mountain. The ski area was founded in 1962 and has proven popular partly due to skiers not having to use the extremely busy I-70
to reach the resort.
The summit of the area is at 10800 feet (3,291.8 m) above sea level on Bryan Mountain, with a 1600-foot (488 m) vertical drop. The slopes face primarily east (toward Barker Meadow Reservoir) and north, and the main base area is at 9400 feet (2,865.1 m).
The resort caters primarily to day skiers, although some overnight accommodations are available in Nederland
, and many hotel rooms are available in Boulder
. In addition to alpine skiing
, the ski area also includes 40 km of cross-country skiing
and snowshoe
ing.
Although Eldora is small compared to some of the bigger resorts in Colorado, the terrain variety is well known and challenging. There are beginner friendly trails located on Little Hawk Mountain, intermediate and advanced trails on Challenge Mountain through Indian Peaks, and expert terrain is found in Corona Bowl and the West Ridge trail which varies from 45 to 70 degrees.
Jim Spenst, formerly vice president of operations at Idaho's Tamarack Resort
, was appointed General Manager on April 7, 2009.
After a brief campaign to solicit patron feedback in 2010, an updated master plan was published for 2011. Among the main objectives listed are lift replacements and additions, as well as terrain improvements.
In 1973, two more double chairlifts were opened - Cannonball, which paralleled the T-Bar on the main mountain, and Corona, which opened a new area to the north. An additional two double chairlifts, Caribou and Sundance, were constructed by Lift Engineering
in the late 1970s, on the beginner hill.
Beginning in 1979, the resort actually started losing money, in part because the construction of the Eisenhower Tunnel
on Interstate 70
made it more convenient to reach the larger west of the Continental Divide
ski areas, including Vail
, Breckenridge
, Beaver Creek
, and Copper Mountain
. The resort continued to stay open until 1986, and it stayed closed from the 1986-1987 season because of ownership issues. When the resort reopened the following season, the new management included the former president of Copper Mountain. Under the new ownership, the resort underwent larger expansions.
In 1989, the Corona Bowl, which had been left abandoned for years, reopened. The naming of the bowl is semi-appropriate because of the local area's history. The bowl itself was named after an alternative name for Rollins Pass
, the mountain pass used by the Denver and Salt Lake Railway
to traverse the Continental Divide from 1904 to 1928 prior to the opening of the Moffat Tunnel
. The right-of-way for the Rollins Pass route can be seen from the top of Corona.
In 1992, Challenge, a triple chairlift purchased from Sun Valley
in Idaho, was installed parallel to Cannonball. Two fixed grip quad chairs were installed in 1998 - one which replaced the original Corona lift, and another one just south of it, Indian Peaks, which opened 150 new acres of terrain.
Boulder County, Colorado
Boulder County is the sixth most populous of the 64 counties of the state of Colorado of the United States. The county seat is Boulder. The most populous municipality in the county and the county seat is the City of Boulder...
, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, near the unincorporated
Unincorporated area
In law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
community of Eldora
Eldora, Colorado
Eldora is a census-designated place in Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The population was 142 at the 2010 census.Eldora is located within the Roosevelt National Forest and lends its name to a local ski resort...
and three miles (5 km) west of the town of Nederland
Nederland, Colorado
The Town of Nederland is a Statutory Town established in 1885 located near the Continental Divide and Barker Meadow Reservoir in the mountains of southwest Boulder County, Colorado....
.
Location
Eldora is the second closest ski area to the Denver metro areaDenver-Aurora Metropolitan Area
The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Metropolitan Statistical Area in the State of Colorado that includes the City and County of Denver and nine suburban counties. The Census Bureau estimates that the population was 2,357,404 on...
(the closest being Echo Mountain Park
Echo Mountain Park
Echo Mountain is a ski and snowboard area located in Clear Creek County, west of Evergreen, Colorado. As of the 2008–2009 season, it claims to be the “Denver's Closest, Cheapest and Freshest Ski and Ride Area.”-Description:...
). By a large margin, it is the closest to Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
, and is one of the few Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
ski resort
Ski resort
A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing and other winter sports. In Europe a ski resort is a town or village in a ski area - a mountainous area, where there are ski trails and supporting services such as hotels and other accommodation, restaurants, equipment rental and a ski lift system...
s on the east side of the continental divide. It is about 20 miles (32.2 km) west of Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
and about 45 miles (72.4 km) from downtown Denver. The ski and ride bus, operated by RTD
Regional Transportation District
The Regional Transportation District, or RTD, was organized in 1969 and is the regional authority operating public transit services in eight of the twelve counties in the Denver-Aurora-Boulder Combined Statistical Area in Colorado. RTD is governed by a 15-member, publicly elected Board of...
, departs Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
for the ski area five times daily in the winter and serves as easy transportation from town to mountain. The ski area was founded in 1962 and has proven popular partly due to skiers not having to use the extremely busy I-70
Interstate 70 in Colorado
Interstate 70 is a transcontinental Interstate Highway in the United States, stretching from Cove Fort, Utah to Baltimore, Maryland. In Colorado, the highway traverses an east–west route across the center of the state. In western Colorado, the highway connects the metropolitan areas of Grand...
to reach the resort.
The summit of the area is at 10800 feet (3,291.8 m) above sea level on Bryan Mountain, with a 1600-foot (488 m) vertical drop. The slopes face primarily east (toward Barker Meadow Reservoir) and north, and the main base area is at 9400 feet (2,865.1 m).
The resort caters primarily to day skiers, although some overnight accommodations are available in Nederland
Nederland, Colorado
The Town of Nederland is a Statutory Town established in 1885 located near the Continental Divide and Barker Meadow Reservoir in the mountains of southwest Boulder County, Colorado....
, and many hotel rooms are available in Boulder
Boulder, Colorado
Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...
. In addition to alpine skiing
Alpine skiing
Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
, the ski area also includes 40 km of cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing
Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...
and snowshoe
Snowshoe
A snowshoe is footwear for walking over the snow. Snowshoes work by distributing the weight of the person over a larger area so that the person's foot does not sink completely into the snow, a quality called "flotation"....
ing.
Although Eldora is small compared to some of the bigger resorts in Colorado, the terrain variety is well known and challenging. There are beginner friendly trails located on Little Hawk Mountain, intermediate and advanced trails on Challenge Mountain through Indian Peaks, and expert terrain is found in Corona Bowl and the West Ridge trail which varies from 45 to 70 degrees.
Jim Spenst, formerly vice president of operations at Idaho's Tamarack Resort
Tamarack Resort
Tamarack Resort is a four-season mountain resort in the Long Valley of west central Idaho. It is located on the west shore of Cascade Reservoir, southwest of Donnelly in Valley County, about north of Boise. The resort is currently in foreclosure; the ski area was closed for the 2009-2010 season...
, was appointed General Manager on April 7, 2009.
After a brief campaign to solicit patron feedback in 2010, an updated master plan was published for 2011. Among the main objectives listed are lift replacements and additions, as well as terrain improvements.
History
Eldora was first conceived in 1961 when four men purchased a 400 acre parcel of land from the Forest Service near Nederland. This land was taken up by the base area lodge and the parking lot. A shelf road from Nederland was constructed the following year along with two T-Bars. To stay competitive with many of the other front range ski areas (all of which are now defunct, with the exception of Squaw Pass), a lodge was erected and the road was regraded. The resort installed their first chairlift, Little Hawk, in 1967. The lift, which was constructed by Miner-Denver, still runs today.In 1973, two more double chairlifts were opened - Cannonball, which paralleled the T-Bar on the main mountain, and Corona, which opened a new area to the north. An additional two double chairlifts, Caribou and Sundance, were constructed by Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering
Lift Engineering, more commonly known as Yan Lifts, was a major ski lift manufacturer in North America. Founded in 1965 and based in Carson City, Nevada, the firm came under scrutiny by state safety officials after a fatal accident in 1985, and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July...
in the late 1970s, on the beginner hill.
Beginning in 1979, the resort actually started losing money, in part because the construction of the Eisenhower Tunnel
Eisenhower Tunnel
The Eisenhower Tunnel, officially the Eisenhower–Johnson Memorial Tunnel, is a dual-bore, four-lane vehicular tunnel approximately west of Denver, Colorado, United States. The tunnel carries Interstate 70 under the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. With a maximum elevation of above sea...
on Interstate 70
Interstate 70
Interstate 70 is an Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a Park and Ride near Baltimore, Maryland. It was the first Interstate Highway project in the United States. I-70 approximately traces the path of U.S. Route 40 east of the Rocky...
made it more convenient to reach the larger west of the Continental Divide
Continental Divide
The Continental Divide of the Americas, or merely the Continental Gulf of Division or Great Divide, is the name given to the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas that separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain...
ski areas, including Vail
Vail Ski Resort
Vail Ski Resort is located in Eagle County, Colorado, next to the town of Vail. Vail Mountain, at , is the largest single mountain ski resort in the United States, featuring seven bowls and intermediate gladed terrain in Blue Sky Basin...
, Breckenridge
Breckenridge Ski Resort
Breckenridge Ski Resort, or just Breck, is perenially one of North America's top 2 most visited ski resorts, and is located in Summit County, Colorado in the town of Breckenridge...
, Beaver Creek
Beaver Creek
- Places :United States*Beaver Creek, Colorado*Beaver Creek, Maryland*Beaver Creek, Minnesota*Beaver Creek, Montana*Beaver Creek Township, Michigan*Beaver Creek Township, MinnesotaCanada*Beaver Creek, Yukon, a town in the western Yukon...
, and Copper Mountain
Copper Mountain
-Landforms in Canada:*Copper Mountain in Alberta*Copper Mountain in British Columbia-Landforms in the United States:*Copper Mountain in Alaska*Copper Mountain in Arizona*Copper Mountain in Colorado...
. The resort continued to stay open until 1986, and it stayed closed from the 1986-1987 season because of ownership issues. When the resort reopened the following season, the new management included the former president of Copper Mountain. Under the new ownership, the resort underwent larger expansions.
In 1989, the Corona Bowl, which had been left abandoned for years, reopened. The naming of the bowl is semi-appropriate because of the local area's history. The bowl itself was named after an alternative name for Rollins Pass
Rollins Pass
Rollins Pass is a high mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of north-central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located on the continental divide at the crest of the Front Range southwest of Boulder, at the boundary of Grand and Boulder counties.-Description:Rollins Pass Rollins Pass (el....
, the mountain pass used by the Denver and Salt Lake Railway
Denver and Salt Lake Railway
The Denver, Northwestern and Pacific Railway was a U.S. railroad company incorporated on July 18, 1902, by David H. Moffat, Walter S. Cheesman, William Gray Evans, Charles J. Hughes, Jr., George E. Ross-Lewin, S.M. Perry and Frank P. Gibson...
to traverse the Continental Divide from 1904 to 1928 prior to the opening of the Moffat Tunnel
Moffat Tunnel
The Moffat Tunnel is a railroad and water tunnel that cuts through the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado. Named after Colorado railroad pioneer David Moffat, the tunnel's first railroad traffic passed through in February 1928....
. The right-of-way for the Rollins Pass route can be seen from the top of Corona.
In 1992, Challenge, a triple chairlift purchased from Sun Valley
Sun Valley
Sun Valley is the name of several places in the United States of America:*Sun Valley, Idaho, a ski area and resort community in central Idaho*Sun Valley, Los Angeles, in the San Fernando Valley*Sun Valley, Nevada, a suburb north of Reno...
in Idaho, was installed parallel to Cannonball. Two fixed grip quad chairs were installed in 1998 - one which replaced the original Corona lift, and another one just south of it, Indian Peaks, which opened 150 new acres of terrain.
External links
- Eldora Mountain Resort - official site
- Colorado Ski History.com - Eldora history
- Colorado Ski Country USA - Eldora
- MSR Maps - USGS topo map & aerial photo