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Keystone 2/24/16

dlague

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Keystone

Conditions: PP, firm base

With lots of debate and family in fighting actually me against the rest, we decided to ski Keystone. I had wanted to ski Copper. So I lost and had to ski what some called Bretton Woods of the west. I call bullshit. Their runs are long and their several of their blues are steeper than many blacks in New England IMO. The bump runs were steep and long which was all my legs could take at this point. A couple of those runs and it was over, between Cooper Glades on Monday and bump runs and some steeps at A Basin and now runs here the legs were toast. Well I think altitude had something to do with it. For most of the day we stuck to cruising blues and non bumped blacks. A local had told us that Keystone was skiing like an east coast mountain - he was far from wrong. The conditions were great PP and very fast. East coast like for westerners but perfect for us.

We started by riding up the Gondola where to bring your skis in with you. Then we worked our way to the Outback on various trails and lifts. Our military said son who convinced my wife and other son to go to Keystone wanted us to ski the Outback. Runs to get there were Mine Shaft to Mozart to Santiago Lift then Spillway to Fox Trot then up Outback Lift. We got there and hiking was involved so we said no since we were still dealing with altitude issues. However, our youngest went with him and the hacking kicked his ass. Smart choice for us IMO. Rather we skied s couple runs from the Outback Express Lift on runs like Oh Boy, Porcupine and Pika before heading up Way Back lift. Oh Boy was a good and seemingly long blue bump run and Pike was a narrower trail through trees and was bumped up as well. From North Peak we skied a few more runs off Satiago Lift then we ate at the Outpost. Word of advice do not eat there. It was like Spruce Lodge at Stowe - higher end cafeteria food. Eat at the base. After eating we skied back to the Way Back lift on Anticipation and then worked our way to the front slopes. The runs off the front are long long long. After a couple runs there we stopped for a sun induced beverage at the village which is very nice BTW. Made me feel like I was at Disney World of skiing. Our boys rented ski bikes which they had fun on but we never caught up to them on our next runs. The goal was to to ski all the way to the Outback area and work out way back on trails we had not skied. The idea of taking the Way Back Out lift was of no interest since it seemed slow. Instead she skied several runs from Santiago lift. One of the most fun was Last Alamo which was steep for a blue trail. Ambush, a bump run, was killer since my legs were trashed at this point. After that we worked our way back to the front again to hit trails that we had not skied over there. We headed back to our place around 3. The front runs we skied were Spring Dipper to Santa Fe, Flying Dutchmen, Bachelor, Frenchmen, Wild Irishmen. There is a run which we did not do that is 3.5 miles long. However, all the runs there seem to never end.

We really enjoyed skiing Keystone. We had a bluebird day with temps in the upper 20's and great conditions. If you want to ski bumps, there are a boat load of long bump runs, you want to cruise the runs go on forever it seems, like to hike well there is that too - we had no interest. Our boys skied on their own and my wife and I skied together and we had a great time.


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steamboat1

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I also enjoyed Keystone a lot when I skied there. It's not at all an easy mountain as some would believe from it's reputation. Yes there are plenty of groomers but there are also lots of challenging runs.
 

Edd

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I also enjoyed Keystone a lot when I skied there. It's not at all an easy mountain as some would believe from it's reputation. Yes there are plenty of groomers but there are also lots of challenging runs.

I agree. It wasn't what I expected.
 

dlague

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ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690273.483564.jpg

Hard to see from a picture but the second run from the left is steep and a blue run. The bump runs are the two right of that and tired me out.

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690304.817644.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690405.200506.jpg




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dlague

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Boys hiking to Outback
ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690487.245397.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690553.371094.jpg

View from the deck at Oupost
ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690591.043209.jpg

ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690659.735637.jpg

Peek into the Village
ImageUploadedByAlpineZone1456690685.189854.jpg


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SkiRay

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Hmm. I have never been to keystone. What is the elevation and vertical profile of that place. Looks very pretty, loads of trees too. Any exposure on top?
 

dlague

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Hmm. I have never been to keystone. What is the elevation and vertical profile of that place. Looks very pretty, loads of trees too. Any exposure on top?

Open Acreage - 3144ac
Base - 9280ft
Summit - 12408ft
Lift served Summit - ~11600ft
Vertical Drop - 3128ft
True Vert - 2400ft
Longest Run - 3.5mi
Snow Making - 662ac

Exposure - minimal for lift served terrain. Most of the exposure is at the Outback where elevation is 11850 lift served.

Keystone has quite a bit of hike to terrain or ride a Snowcat to ($10) and that does have exposure.

Bump runs are long tree skiing is long and groomers have great pitch including blue trails. From an all around skiing experience - IMO it was great.
 

steamboat1

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I remember one particular semi-gladed trail off the Outback chair that my daughter & I really enjoyed. I think the name of it was Wolverine. It was long & fairly steep.
 

dlague

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I remember one particular semi-gladed trail off the Outback chair that my daughter & I really enjoyed. I think the name of it was Wolverine. It was long & fairly steep.

We skied Pika in that area. Looks short on the trail map bit not so much when you ski it.

BTW my family is ready to go back to Keystone. What am I saying my family is ready to back to everything in CO.
 

steamboat1

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It snowed everyday while we were in Summit County. I think we were there 7 days. Not a lot only a few inches each night but it snowed. The day we left was the biggest storm. It was snowing hard with quite a bit of accumulation when we left our hotel at Breck that morning at 5am to catch what was supposed to be an 8am flight. Figured it would stop once we got past the tunnel. Nope snowed all the way down into Denver & our flight was delayed several hours. Thank God as we would have been late catching our flight due to slow driving conditions. They had to de-ice the plane before take off. This was April 22 & they had to cancel the opening day Denver Rockies baseball game because of snow. Only reason we went out there was because New England was washed out.

edit: Got an unbelievably cheap all inclusive deal that week from United Travel (the travel agency of United Airlines). Round trip air, 6 nights lodging right across the street from one of the chairs at Breck, 5 days skiing with tickets good for anyone of the Vail resorts & a rental car for $349 each. It cost me an extra $100 to upgrade the rental car to an SUV which as it wound up we really needed.
 
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SkiRay

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We skied Pika in that area. Looks short on the trail map bit not so much when you ski it.

BTW my family is ready to go back to Keystone. What am I saying my family is ready to back to everything in CO.

HA I bet. My family has never been. We made investments this year in the East again. Season house $$$, passes then passes to a few Eastern mountains that we have not and will probably not get to use, which is both sad and frustrating. We got 56 days last year and I was in India for 10 days for work. This year, we are at 23.. Most of it just OK skiing though as I said earlier and documented in our video, making the best of it.

Need to get Keystone on our list of places to go visit though not sure if we can swing that this year. Our season looks to be sadly almost done and we have our house until May 1st.
 

steamboat1

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Loveland,A-Basin, Keystone, Breck & Copper are all relatively close to eachother. Vail & Beaver Creek are a little further out but an easy day trip from any of those areas.
 

dlague

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Loveland,A-Basin, Keystone, Breck & Copper are all relatively close to each other. Vail & Beaver Creek are a little further out but an easy day trip from any of those areas.

Main reason we stayed in Dillon! It worked out to be the perfect location.
 
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