| Eldora Mountain Resort | |
|---|---|
| Location | Boulder County, Colorado United States |
| Nearest city | Nederland - 3 mi (4.8 km). (5 km) Boulder - 21 mi (34 km). (34 km) |
| Vertical | 1,600 ft (490 m). - (488 m) |
| Top elevation | 10,800 ft (3,300 m). - (3292 m) |
| Base elevation | 9,200 ft (2,800 m). - (2804 m) lowest chairlift 9400 ft. - (2865 m) main base area |
| Skiable area | 680 acres (2.8 km2) |
| Runs | 53 total - 20% easiest - 50% more difficult - 30% most difficult |
| Longest run | 3 miles (4.8 km) |
| Lift system | 8 chairlifts - 2 quad - 2 triple - 4 double 3 surface lifts |
| Terrain parks | 4 |
| Snowfall | 300 in. - (762 cm) |
| Snowmaking | yes |
| Web site | Eldora.com |
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.
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Eldora is the second closest ski area to the Denver metro area (the closest being Echo Mountain Park). By a large margin, it is the closest to Boulder, and is one of the few Colorado ski resorts on the east side of the continental divide. It is about 20 miles (32 km) west of Boulder and about 45 miles (72 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 10,800 feet (3,300 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 9,400 feet (2,900 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 snowshoeing.
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.[1]
Jim Spenst, formerly vice president of operations at Idaho's Tamarack Resort, was appointed General Manager on April 7, 2009.[2]
After a brief campaign to solicit patron feedback in 2010, an updated master plan was published for 2011.[1] Among the main objectives listed are lift replacements and additions, as well as terrain improvements.
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 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.[3]