A record-breaking year of attendance: The sun was out and the powder was fresh. On Sunday, April 16, skiers celebrated on the mountain and out in the parking lot during Eldora’s closing weekend. PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER KELLEY[/caption]

Eldora celebrated their 60th anniversary this past season, which officially closed on Sunday, April 16, but not before a perfect final weekend full of exciting competitions, live music, and enticing deals and giveaways.

Thanks to hard-working staff, the most the mountain ski resort has seen post-pandemic due to increased hiring efforts, and to the opening of their brand new parking lot, Eldora’s 60th year was a great success.

“It’s been really a rewarding and fun season,” General Manager of Eldora Mountain Ski Resort Brent Tregaskis told The Mountain-Ear.

“We had the highest number of employees we’ve ever had, over 650 employees this year, and our guest relation scores are way up in part because of it.”

“After Covid we were grossly understaffed at times; I think last year we were 120 employees short of what we wanted. But this year we hired more people at the beginning of the season and kept more staff all the way through to the end,” Tregaskis stated proudly.

Eldora’s heightened focus on bolstering hiring efforts was just one factor contributing to the recreational giant’s successful season. The opening of a new parking lot, creating smoother traffic flow with 800 parking spaces and multiple points of entry, was a major factor to Eldora’s great year.

“We have not backed traffic into town all year long,” Tregaskis said proudly. “By having two entrances to the resort and having this $10 fee for single occupancy vehicles it has really worked to our benefit and we have not had to shut down the road except for just three hours the whole year.”

“We’ve had years where we backed people all the way through Ned and into the canyon; we didn’t have any of those kinds of days this year even though we’ve had the most skiers than ever before.”

In addition to what was a “record breaking” year as far as attendance and traffic control, Tregaskis was excited about the amazing weather that had graced the closing weekend.

“We got ten inches this week and it has ended up being the greatest closing day I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been here for eight years! It’s phenomenal!”

“It seems like it snowed an average of six inches a week, I don’t know of a week that it didn’t snow. It’s been like that all season long, so I’m sure we’ll end up having a record year!” Tregaskis said.

Live musical artists played all weekend at either the West Wing Lodge or the Timbers Deck as part of the Eldora Music Series, including Mental 69 on Friday, DJ Milk and Rolling Harvest on Saturday, and Pomegranate Sounds and The Alcapones on Sunday.

There was a 40% to 60% “Blowout Retail Sale” that took place all weekend long, as well as a special giveaway of a set of Nokian brand tires that was held on Friday and Sunday. Also, bus service was offered for free throughout the weekend.

On Sunday enthusiastic skiers arrived as early as possible, set up their chairs, blasted their car stereos, and fired up grills, throwing multiple tailgating parties throughout the parking lot. From 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. the University of Colorado Boulder Ski Team, 20-time NCAA Division 1 Champions the CU Buffs, held their annual intra-squad competition, the Nor-Alp Schralp, which included Alpine and Nordic racing.

“Eldora has been the home training venue for the CU Ski Team for the past 60 years,” Eldora Marketing Director Sam Bass stated. “The CU Ski Team’s student-athletes include Olympians and World Cup racers in both alpine and cross-country racing disciplines, and they are up here training at Eldora before class almost every day in the winter.”

The event forces athletes out of their comfort zones, with alpine athletes racing on cross-country skis and cross-country athletes racing on alpine skis. Teams will consist of two athletes apiece: one alpine athlete and one cross-country athlete.” Bass explained.

While also acknowledging and celebrating a fantastic year, Tregaskis and the whole Eldora team have a lot of exciting projects coming to fruition that have been in planning phases for quite some time.

“We are going to break ground on a multi-million dollar building here this month that is for Ignite, our adaptive ski school,” Tregaskis announced. “It’s a two-year build to get this done but we’re really excited to get this project underway. We have people who are blind, people who are deaf, a lot of war injuries, a lot of veterans…it’s just the right thing to do for the underserved communities that have adaptive issues.”

Tregaskis added that on the top floor of this new building Eldora will host its own ski school for young skiers.

“There will be an outdoor deck for parents to be able to watch their kids on the Little Hawk course and it’ll be ideal for beginners.”

Eldora still has a million dollars worth of work ahead of them associated with the new parking lot, including the addition of bus stops, lighting, and Wi-Fi for the lot, and the replanting of plant life in areas disturbed by the construction.

Eldora is also working in collaboration with the Town of Nederland on an environmental conservation project.

“We’re creating some wetlands down by the Fisherman’s Lot,” Tregaskis excitedly mentioned. “It was at one time a wetlands, then it became a parking lot for many years, and now we’re bringing it back and we’re doing it in conjunction with TEENS, Inc.” Tregaskis noted that the project received votes of support from Nederland’s various boards and commissions.

“We could’ve gone a different route but we felt it would be good to do a project with Nederland and show that we’re part of the town in our own way.”