Keystone Opening | Day 10 of 30 Days on the Road

November 5. Back on the road, I drove up to Keystone for their opening day. Coming from Boulder I had no desire to leave early enough to be there at 9 when the gondola started up, and when I pulled in around noon the parking lot was packed and the gondola line was huge.

Keystone’s gondola moves people pretty quickly though, and before long I was whisked away to 11,660 feet. The gondola ride up gave a good overview of the 60 rideable acres open. The Gondola ride is always a great opportunity to check out snow conditions. In this case the loud scraping sounds made it clear that the run was pretty firm.

The last few minutes of the ride gave a great view of the park layout. Keystone’s park crew was hard at work keeping more than 20 features, including a 25′ step-down table, in good riding condition. This was no easy task, as the park was swarming with hundreds of skiers and snowboarders getting their early season park on. Keystone has really stepped up it’s game in the last couple of years, and this year is no exception. There are a couple of new features, and a whole bunch of oldie-but-goodies. The angled mini-ramp shaped box is awesome, although it claimed about half of the people I saw attempt it (very nearly including me the first time I hit it), and the quarter-pipe/ramp box to tree pole is pretty incredible too. The park’s flow is still a little rough, with lots of snaking, cutting, and zig-zagging, but some of that is thanks to front-range etiquette as well…

As I had observed from the gondola, the “white ribbon of death” was pretty icy, so it’s no wonder everyone was hanging out in the park. I made a couple of laps through the park and down to the bottom, but I wasn’t really feeling like pushing myself too hard on my second day of the season. However, with the park so crowded it was a great opportunity to play photographer, so I stopped by the car, picked up the camera and went to work.

You can check out the Keystone opening day photo gallery here: Keystone Opening Day 2009

I was testing two products today, the Sandbox helmet and the Spider Holster camera belt clip. Both were awesome today, bonus I ran into someone else with a Sandbox lid, didn’t know they were available in the states yet. The Spider Holster is an innovative piece of hardware that mounts to the tripod threads on the base of the camera, with a locking clip that goes on your belt.

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“30 Days on the Road” is a blog series tracking my travel for thirty days in October and November; from leaving Alaska on October 27th until Steamboat opens on November 25th. Due to a series of cool opportunities I don’t have to be back at a “real job” until 11/26th, and after a summer that seemed way too long, I’ll be making the most of my free month with as much snow and snow industry fun as I can cram in. The goal is two-fold, first to get you pumped about the upcoming season, and two to help keep track of time as I wander aimlessly for a month.

I’ll also be posting updates on Facebook and Twitter, so make sure and check out the action there too.