Read skier and snowboarder-submitted reviews on Eldora Mountain Resort that rank the ski resort and mountain town on a scale of one to five stars for attributes such as terrain, nightlife and family friendliness. See how Eldora Mountain Resort stacks up in the reviews, on and off the slopes, from skiing and family activities to the après scene. Read up on pros, cons and other comments in reviews left by fellow skiers and riders. Don't forget to submit your own Eldora Mountain Resort review! Scroll to the bottom of this page to let other travelers know about your skiing and resort experience.
Reviews for Eldora Mountain Resort
Total (3.0)
A ski resort's overall star rating displayed here is not calculated based on a simple average but takes several factors, including the age of a review, into account.
Eldora, as a resort East of the Divide, gets much less snow than other Colorado resorts, has a old lift infrastructure, and very little expert terrain. It is also fantastic for weekday skiing, and even on weekday powder dumps, is usually uncrowded. The terrain offerings for beginners are solid, and there is good separation from the main mountain areas, but the lifts are all old, slow, fixed grip or surface lifts that do not gain much in the way of elevation, leading to short length runs. This is mostly okay for beginners, but rough as a transition for intermediates, since intermediate terrain is woven through the front-side advanced terrain, and has sections that are steep and difficult for skiers trying to advance beyond the bunny hill, flat sections where one must keep speed off the steeper slope, and can suffer greatly from icing due to the more Eastward face of that side of the mountain. This terrain is also served by the only high-speed (Alpenglow 6-pack) lift on the mountain, which is unfortunately sometimes limited to operating every-other chair to reduce crowding on the limited terrain. The Jolly Jug Glades are an excellent introduction for tree skiing, generally not being steep or too narrow, and having reasonable coverage over obstacles, despite being listed a double black. Powderhorn is often ungroomed, and is an alright introduction to mogul skiing, but suffers greatly from icing, so if it has been warm and frozen, or hasn't snowed recently, it is only a good option later in the day after it softens up. There are also a few reasonable intermediate, but with similar steep sections, runs off the Indian Peaks lift. For more experienced intermediate skiers, the groomed black backside terrain off Indian Peaks and Corona can be a nice step up, as can the Alpenhorn-Brian's Glades runs when ungroomed. Advanced terrain on the front can be good when the snow is fresh, or coverage is good and the weather has warmed up, making the moguls reasonable.Off Indian Peaks, Upper Diamondback is rarely skied and usually well covered for moguls, the groomers are usually open and you can push faster speeds and turns, and over towards Corona the Gully and Brian's Glades are good later in the season. Corona's moguls are reasonable, and the groomed trails are good for pushing speeds and turns on steeper terrain even moreso than off Indian Peaks. For expert terrain, IP liftline, Placier Glades, and the West Ridge area are excellent with fresh snow, but can get skied off and feature many obstacles that rarely get covered. The true expert sections are short, but you can't really bail out of them once you start.
Eldora is not worth the day ticket price unless you can swing a sizeable midweek powder day, the season pass is nearly as expensive as an Ikon Pass, and the resort is often crowded on weekends. Luckily you can have a relaxed start on weekends by taking the shuttle from the Boulder Justice Center on 6th and Canyon at 7, 9, or 11 am, and take the return service at 12, 2, or 4:15 pm. There is also the NB1/2 service from Downtown Boulder station, but it can fill up, especially on fresh snow weekends. You do not want to miss the last bus, but you can likely hitchhike if you have no other option.
Ethan Doe
Small compared to other Ikon resorts, steep price for lift ticket w/o ikon pass. However, I've had some spectacularly fun days with Eldora as a half day trip or after night shift mountain. This small size packs a punch, and greatly increases the value of the ikon pass for CO/front range locals.
David Youngquist
Great family feel. My wife, daughter and I loved spending time at Eldora & will be back. There is plenty of terrain for 5 days of skiing & we are advanced intermediate/expert skiers & ski instructors in the midwest
Mack Patrick
The only thing eldora really has that's challenging is its expert glades. There really is a lack of terrain variety and vertical to enjoy for more than a half day visiting. Reminds me of my east coast hometown skiing
Eldora is an awesome ski area that is convenient and friendly. The ski area is smaller than many of the mega-corporate Colorado resorts, and I like the feel and vibe at the ski area. I generally go with one or the other of my kids, and the trails and terrain are always a lot of fun, especially in the trees. They run out of parking on the weekends because of so many IKON passholders, which they don't sell or control quantities on.
Paul Brooks
When we arrived last Friday, cars were backed up three quarters of a mile from the resort, while they cleared the lots of snow and let a few in at a time. Turns out many of their staff isn't showing up, so they weren't ready for the large volume of skiers that day. Finally arrived at the ticket counter at 11:00, and they offered no breaks off the $159 lift ticket. Half-day tickets aren't even available until 1:00, and they still set you back $129 -- for 3 hours! The $99 fundraiser tickets they advertised weren’t available at the ticket window – turns out you had to buy them online the day prior. So we left. It's such a shame... When our boys were little and first learning we would come here and get the lower mountain pass, which got you onto the easy slopes for half price. Since Eldora's acquisition by POWDR Corporation in 2016, that ticket is no longer sold, and the all-mountain lift tickets costs have soared. They are pricing themselves up there with the biggest resorts, but their stats don’t measure up. Eldora is only 680 acres; Loveland is about three times bigger and a 4-pack is half the cost. Copper Mountain’s lift tickets are cheaper on many days, and it’s 3.7 times larger at 2,533 skiable acres. Plus, it offers a $50 lift ticket for beginners to ski on its green slopes.
Morgan
I was contacting eldora via email asking about lift tickets and pricing. I wanted a half day ticket which you can only purchase onsite. When I went to purchase the ticket in person, the man working there was extremely rude and had a bad attitude. He mocked my questions and wasn’t friendly at all. I was confused about the half day price and was just trying to get some clarity.
Liz Wigod
My son purchased a week day pass for me in November 2020. When I went to use it, I was stopped and the lift attendants said that my pass was invalid. I was holding up the lone and felt embarrassed and humiliated. Ended up my son purchased a Nordic pass instead of Alpine pass. We wanted to pay the difference to upgrade to alpine and they made us purchase a guest ticket on top of the pass price that we already paid. We were told to call customer service. After many tries my son gave up and this week, I finally tried. They refuse to refund his pass money and they, now, would upgrade the pass and make us pay the difference. It’s March 1st!! They have gotten so corporate and greedy. Very disappointing.
Leland Pease
Payed 104$ with the ikon buddy pass and the card they gave us didn’t even scan right so it held up the line every time. And on top of it the food is way way over priced it’s 15$ just for a hamburger. There are slow signs everywhere with ski patrol waiting to yell at u and take your pass away. It’s hard to enjoy skiing here when u pay so much for so little. You spend half your time waitng in lines too
Randy undefined
Eldora is relatively small with slow lifts servicing most terrain. It’s well known for its strong, steady winds. The parking lots often fill up early and they close the access road. On powder days and holidays it’s quicker to get skiing at the big mountains considering parking lots fills up and you have to wait parked in your car in Nederland until afternoon for the parking to thin out. Perfect example of over selling, underdelivering.
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