Keystone Resort

A little about Keystone…

Keystone is located 10 miles from the Frisco Inn. With three unbelievable mountains, tons of outdoor adventures, lodging and dining all in two unique villages,  Keystone is a great place to experience the best of the Rocky Mountains. The fun and excitement is all in one convenient location!

Creating an unforgettable Rocky Mountain vacation is easy at Keystone. With an abundance of activities for every season, a host of restaurant options from casual to fine dining, and plenty of sightseeing options, there’s no need to go anywhere else.   Keystone offers 3,148 skiable acres, 20 lifts and two gondolas, all nestled at the foot of 2 unique villages in Summit County.

Summer at Keystone

The ‘lazy days of summer’ is a relative term at Keystone.  Two award-winning golf courses wind along the Snake River and up through alpine meadows.  Nearly sixty miles of trails – from scenic singletrack to screaming downhill runs – provide some of the best mountain biking in the country.  And then, of course, there’s all the hiking, horseback riding, fly-fishing, whitewater rafting, festivals, films, concerts, and so much more to do.  It’s a good thing we have 300 days of sunshine each year.  For more information, visit www.keystoneresort.com

Keystone Resort is the largest ski resort in Summit County located in Keystone, Colorado, United States. It was founded on November 21, 1970 by Max Dercum. The resort is owned and operated by Vail Resorts which also operates three other resorts in the state (Vail, Beaver Creek, and Breckenridge) and three in the Lake Tahoe region (Heavenly Ski Resort, Northstar at Tahoe and Kirkwood Mountain Resort.)

Keystone consists of three mountains named Dercum Mountain, North Peak, the Outback, and five Bowls (Independence, Erickson, Bergman, North and South Bowls) for skiing at every level. The first three mountains mentioned connected by a series of ski lifts and gondolas. Collectively, the mountains form the largest operation in Colorado to offer night skiing, where several trails are lit by large floodlights, and lift operation can run until late into the night. Night skiing takes place after sunset until as late as 9 p.m. on as many as 15 of the resort’s trails.

Keystone is known also for its five-acre resurfaced skating lake, sleigh rides and many Zagat-rated four- and five-star restaurants. There are over 3,000 condos in Keystone, all within a short walk or free shuttle ride to one the two base areas called River Run (newest) and Mountain House (Original, less crowded).

In summer, Keystone also is a home for lift access mountain biking, biking parks, and hundreds of miles of single-track mountain biking.

Resort statistics

Elevation

• Base: 9,280 feet (2,830 m)
• Summit: 12,408 feet (3,782 m)
• Vertical Rise: 3,128 feet (953 m)

Trails

• Skiable Area: 3,148 acres (12.74 km²)
• Trails: 135 total (19% beginner, 32% intermediate, 49% advanced/expert)
  • Bowls: Independence, Bergman, Erickson, North, South, Puma, Lower Packsaddle.
• Longest Run: Schoolmarm – 3.5 miles (5.6 km)
• Average Annual Snowfall: 230 inches (580 cm)
• Terrain Parks:
  • The A51 Terrain Park, a section of the resort with various features including for trick performance. The terrain park is the largest in Colorado to be lit at night.
  • 51 rails and funboxes.

Lifts

• 20 total
  • 2 gondolas, River Run and Outpost
  • 5 high-speed quad chair lifts, Summit Express, Montezuma Express, Peru Express, Santiago Express, Outback Express
  • 1 high-speed six person lift, Ruby Express
  • 1 quad chair lift, Wayback
  • 1 triple chair lift, Ranger
  • 3 double chair lifts, A-51, Argentine, and Discovery
  • 6 surface lifts

Terrain Park

Keystone Resort features the “A51 Terrain Park” on Dercum Mountain, which has been noted as one of the more progressive terrain parks in the region.

Summer Activities

During the summer, visitors to Keystone resort often participate in hiking, horseback riding, fly-fishing, whitewater rafting, and mountain biking. Keystone resort is also home to two 18-hole championship golf courses.

Forest Service

Keystone ski area operates on National Forest System lands under special use permit to the Forest Service. The 30-year special use permit only assigns a portion of the bundle of rights to the permit holder normally associated with real estate ownership. For the privilege of using federal lands the ski area pays an annual fee of about one dollar per skier visitor to the U.S. Treasury. Twenty-five percent of those fees are returned to Summit County, Colorado, for roads and schools. The Forest Service approves all master development plan revisions, environmental impact statements, summer and winter operations plans, and construction plans prior to opening. The 1984 Land and Resource Management Plan and 2002 Revision, authored by Erik Martin, Program Manager for Ski Area Administration (1972–2003), WRNF, established the final expanded boundary perimeter for Keystone Resort, including eventual expansion of developed skiing onto Independence Mountain. The 2002 Forest Plan Revision suggested an aerial transportation corridor and south portal be constructed in the Swan Valley to provide direct access between Keystone ski area and the Town of Breckenridge to improve traffic safety, reduce vehicle congestion, decrease dust and hydrocarbon emissions, and increase skier convenience. Independence Mountain was an olympic finalist and nearly selected for the signature alpine skiing downhill event for the ill-fated ’76 Winter Olympic Games initially awarded to Denver, USA. Lands owned by the Denver Water Board at the base of Independence Mountain were given serious consideration by the Forest Service as an alternative staging area for Keystone ski area to reduce vehicle and skier congestion at the existing portals, and as an alternative ski lift connection and new portal serving the backside of Arapahoe Basin ski area. Speculation about conflicts in the Snake River Valley with the lynx reintroduction program stifled further study and land allocation. Prior to formal expansion of Keystone ski area onto Independence Mountain this terrain was under permit by multiple guide and outfitters in the 1970s and 80s using snowcats and helicopters for alpine skiing.

For more information on Keystone Resort