Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Want to ride DH at Eldora?

We all know that Eldora is the perfect location for mountain bike activities - connected (somewhat indirectly) to the great Magnolia area trails, located on an RTD bus route, and close to Boulder. Until recently, they have refused to even consider allowing bikes in the summer (and in fact I've been yelled at for just riding up the service road to get to the pipeline/Rollins pass). But it seems they USFS requires them to update their master plan periodically, and the BMA thinks they may be sympathetic to opening up for bikes in the near future (that means a few years, not this summer). From the BMA:

Eldora Mountain Resort is in the process of planning out their next decade and BMA is pushing to get some great summer use out of our favorite local winter ski resort!

Because of the ski area sits on USFS land, Eldora is required to have a master plan and periodically update it.

As part of Eldora's plan to make their resort a more desirable day use ski area, they are hoping to replace the two main front lifts with a high-speed sixpack that would get skiers up to the top faster and safer in high winds (or as they called it "breezes"). These high-speed lifts can be mounted with bike carriers in the summer, which is great news for us. Last Wednesday, several BMA members went to an open house at the Boulder Public library and lobbied for summer biking at the resort. It seems our Action Alert has already had an impact with a about 100 separate comments asking for summer programming. The officials we talked to said that they were going to take a look at the economics side of having a summer biking park there!

Although it will be several years before Eldora secures financing and implements the new lifts that make summer biking possible, one cannot discount how HUGE this is for mountain biking in BoulderCounty. If hopping on a lift and bombing some great trails sounds like a blast to you, please go to this link and fill out their survey! At the bottom of the page, in the "other comments" box, type in something about how you'd be willing to pay $$ to ride the lifts at Eldora and eat something at their cafeteria after some hard riding! Maybe, we'll all get our wish!

1 comment:

chris said...

It would be stupid for El-doo-dooo to not have DH MTB. Everyone who lives in the area knows how popular it would be. The trails here in Winter Park have not exploded yet, but people simply do not know what they are missing. Imagine if you could DH in the morning on your free-ride bike, then ride trails either to Ned or all the way to Boulder. It's definitely 'If you build it they will com' scenario.