The season at Eldora ends, 4/13/03.  3 Pilots use the north flank to invade Tuk-Tuk.

The last day at Eldora, a season ends too early once again.  However, instead of twiddling our thumbs bumming out at the local ski mountain's closure this past Sunday, three IGSS Pilots suited up and made the best out of it.  With DV8 at home with some alien disturbance in his bowels, Meriwether, King NIMBY, and the Hillbilly used alternative transportation to get to the mountain.  Starting near the townsite of Eldora, we put skins on our respective snow-surface sliding devices and started climbing up an oft-ridden singletrack trail named after what DV8 was having to deal with at home (Bowel Movement).  It took us over 2 hours to get up to the lift, getting only slightly turned around along the way.  We passed two or three mining cabins and pits that no trail has led me to before & it's amazing how one can keep unintentionally finding new stuff after all these years of trying to find more stuff.  

The uphill took way longer than it should (but we're not training for anything so who cares!?) because we went off course and ended up doubling our approach time no doubt--what' s new.  
Since the mountain closes today, from now on, we're heading into the backcountry for our turns & even though today was just a partial - earn your turns  day, it was definitely nice to get out of the car for the route up to the mountain.


     
King NIMBY on his splitboard

 
The Shelf Road & the alternate auto-assisted route.

 
The lookout over the elevation gained & so far.

 
gotta love the silver tassles and a cow-print belt on the pilot uniform.


 
The Redneck looking at South Arapahoe Peak from an unknown location.



 
The destination appears!  65 degrees at 9300ft!


 
King NIMBY and the Guatemalan SCUD dismount the lift.
 

Meriwether pretends he knows how to telemark.

The snow was deep slush & easy to sink a ski into and lose it.
So wet that three runs down the hill and one barleywine later, we decided to huff it back down the mountain back to the vehicle.  
After the sweet deep slush descent, we headed to Annies Cafe and Bakery for some fixings and a food coma.
The lift-accessed season has ended, let the climbing begin!!