Eldora

I drove up to Eldora this afternoon to ski—after hours—on their nordic trails. The drive is narrow and twisty and gains >4000 feet, but that meant there was snow on the ground (it was 60 in Boulder but 30 up at 9k feet). The snow was transformed in places and deep, deep powder in others; it seems to depend almost solely on the exposure. In any case, kick was variable, but I skated, and it was very good. The trails are hilly and fun, and I was reminded of the altitude every time I hit a headwall.

We parked outside the gate (I had been assured it wouldn't be closed but didn't want to take any chances) and we skied until around dark. There were snowmobiles buzzing around the trails, but they didn't seem too concerned with us skiing around after hours—none stopped to let us pay our trail fee. We had to jump across a bit of a stream on the way out—I dropped my skis in to it but no harm done. I'll be back later this week; in the mean time there's another foot of snow forecast for tomorrow!

Eldora is great in that it's 35 minutes from Boulder, although it would be even better if it had night skiing and bus service after 4:00. Oh, yes, hourly (or so) bus service from Boulder to the ski trail.

Oh some "make my friends jealous" pictures:

Before the sun went down.

Views through the woods.

Tracks and clouds.

Danny practices his double poling (not bad for a first-timer).

Danny then pulled my skis out of the stream I had thrown (well, slid; I threw them across the stream and they slid back in) them in to.