Barbara Lawlor, Boulder County.  As of Monday morning, four trails, one long glorious trip down the mountain, were open and skiers appreciated every inch of it.

As recent as last Thursday, it seemed hopeless. For weeks, Eldora Mountain Resort snowmakers have been hanging out in their weather center, crossing their fingers, holding their breath, pleading with the cloud, as 60 degree days plagued the intrepid team.

Every now and then a patch of white would bisect a trail as snowmakers did their best to create a base. But the sun would rise again and the melted man-made snow would seep into the thirsty earth.

It's hard to be a skier with summer temps in late fall. The one good part of it is that the snowmaking crew got to practice, get it down, know the process inside and out as they waited for temperatures to drop.

Friday was scheduled to be Eldora's opening day, but even as most of the big resorts up the I-70 corridor had to postpone their opening date, Eldora added their name to the delay list.

And then, like the ubiquitous miracle in a Hallmark Christmas movie, cold moved into the air and snow began pelting Denver. Lovely, white, moist snow. It stuck on the trees and the grass and the roads and then on the EMR trails. The EMR snowmakers were ready and soon there were snow fountains all over the top run of Indian Peaks and down to the front of the mountain.

Nature's snow mixed with man-made snow and even though warm weather returned on Sunday, the trails remained white and Eldora hit them with everything they had. They sent out the joyful press release that our hometown resort had done it. They had made a blizzard from water, oxygen and cold and were indeed going to open on Monday, just 48 hours later than originally planned.

Die hard skiers were there early in the morning and after the ski patrol did the first run, locals Dirk Larsen and Melody Loar grabbed the first civilian chair, waved their poles to the crowd and were whisked up the hill.

The skiers and snowboarders came down the hill, giving the slopes a thumbs up.   The snow was as good as it could get considering it had been non-existent four days ago.

The Nordic Center will open as soon as possible and so will additional trails, as always, depending on the weather.    This week's heroes are the EMR snowmakers.