No More Ski Lifts

Just when the skiing in Colorado reaches its peak, all the resorts shut down. I heard various explanations for this, such as the forest service requires the resorts to shut down for elk breeding, and that the contracts with all the seasonal employees terminate in the middle of April. At any rate, the last day of the ski season for nearly every ski resort in the state was today. As a direct result and in anticipation of this, I skied at Eldora on Friday, Arapahoe Basin on Saturday, and again at Eldora on Sunday.

Friday at Eldora was one of the best days at the resort I've ever experienced. There was 6 to 12+ inches of fresh snow over a base that covered a large percentage of the rocks (unusual for Eldora). To top it off, there was no wind and enough clouds to prevent a sunburn.

Saturday at A-Basin was a celebration of "Thrift Store Day". Despite the ensuing snow storm, most of the people at the resort were dressed in costume and partying heavily on the beach, a strip of parking spots right along the edge of the ski area.


Ashley (The Canadian) and Jessica (Bjork)


Tony, Ryan, and Jim

Ashley and I attended this 'event' with a bunch of Ashley's friends from work and some other acquaintances. The snow was great, but the skiing took a back seat to the festivities, which included a Chinese Downhill race, fashion show, live music, hot tub, slip-and-slide, etc.


Going with the philosophy, "If it's not in style now, it probably was at some point, therefor it's retro."

It was a super fun day with the only two downsides being my crash into a snowbank on the way to the mountain and the severe facial sunburn I received despite the fact that the majority of the day we were in a blizzard.

On Sunday Ashley and I went to Eldora with Sean and Allison to be a part of the season-ending day. Once again, this is cause for dressing up in costume, and my favorite ski costume involves my traditional Scottish Highlands Kilt.


The Scottsman


Ashley skiing in a dress

There was a dramatic change in weather this day, which was sunny and quite warm (yes, I took the initiative to put sunscreen on today). We arrived at the mountain at noon and skied two runs before having a BBQ in the parking lot. Post BBQ we skied a few more runs before saying a sad good-bye to our ski area at the 4:00 closing.


Grilling in the parking lot

The good news is that spring skiing in the backcountry is just starting, and I anticipate having many more good ski days before storing the skis for the summer!