Hometown Of Eldora Mountain Expected To Take Over Ownership
The town of Nederland, Colorado, has announced it will purchase nearby Eldora ski and snowboard mountain from POWDR Corp.
The sale is expected to be finalized in October, and the small town (pop. 1,500) west of Boulder said it will finance the cost -- estimated to be between $100 million and $200 million -- through the sale of municipal bonds, grants and private partnerships. Under town ownership, the resort will operate as a non-profit.
If the sale goes through, Eldora will remain on the Ikon Pass. POWDR will continue to operate the mountain for the next two years while a group of industry experts prepare a management organization for the long term. All 700 Eldora's peak-season workers will become town employees.
Town officials propose to annex Eldora into the town, and said use revenues -- estimated to produce a surplus of $2 million to $5 million -- will create a "long-needed, sustainable way to fund (town) infrastructure" and foster local control. Summer operations are in the plans, but no mention of chairlift upgrades or on-mountain changes.
Ski area revenues from lift tickets, Ikon Pass, food and beverage sales are expected to cover cost of interest paid annually to bondholders, and to build up a reserve fund to cover infrastructure upgrades and poor snow years.
Located less than an hour from metro Denver, Eldora (680 a., 1,400 vert.) has long been a day-trip favorite of Front Range skiers and riders. The regional bus service runs regularly up from Boulder, and there is daily shuttle bus service from downtown Denver. Parking at the mountain is tight, and often full on busy days. On weekends, holidays and powder days, solo drivers have to pay $10.
Opened in 1962, Eldora's trail map spreads across forests beneath 10,800-foot-high Bryan Mountain within sight of the Continental Divide. It leans toward advanced terrain, from the double-diamond blacks of Salto Glades to skier's left, across to the blue groomers off Alpenglow chair to the compact beginner-terrain park area out of Indian Peaks Lodge.
It has seven chairlifts, with one detachable six-pack installed in 2017. Rest of system 25-plus years old.
Annual snowfall can approach 300 inches, especially if moisture-laden Front Range storms prevail. The entire mountain can be covered by snowmaking.
POWDR bought Eldora in 2017, at the end of a buying spree that began in the 1990s with Park City Mountain, Boreal, Mt. Bachelor and others. The Park City-based company added Camp Woodward action sports to its portfolio. In recent years, POWDR has consolidated its holdings around mountains with Woodward facilities, selling off Killington-Pico and Eldora, and put others up for sale.
Pending sale closing, Eldora joins four other municipally owned resorts in the West, including Alaska's Eaglecrest, Colorado's Ski Cooper, Nevada' Diamond Peak and Wyoming's Hogadon Basin.
