There is a member here named Bob who has made several hundred forum posts since 2008.  I noticed a while back that he had a lot of knowledge about Colorado skiing, especially Summit County.  Before my big trip I exchanged many private messages with Bob and he gave me some great tips about making the best of a visit to Colorado.  I finally got a chance to ski with Bob for two beautiful days in late March.  Bob is a boomer-groomer-zoomer and loves to ski at Keystone where he knows many employees by name.  Keystone has an excellent array of high speed quads that Bob utilizes to rack up close to 80k vertical sometimes in a single day.  Bob has been a senior ski bum for most of the 21st century and knows the ropes in Summit County like nobody's business.  Thanks Bob for your Colorado hospitality!

Keystone has some great views.  This is Dillon Reservoir.

Bob heading down one of his favorite trails at Keystone, Diamond Back.

Diamond Back has a beautiful view of the slopes of Breckenridge.  Bob used to live in Maryland so maybe there is a Diamond Back/Terrapin reptile connection and affinity??

Bob loves his Line skis.

Bob carving a nice arc in soft spring snow.

Keystone's North Peak in the background.

Bob's happy place is on the slopes.

Bob and I with another friend between us at Keystone, CO in late March 2015.

Great pics Jim!  Sorry I missed meeting Bob.  Yesterday I was riding a camel in Morroco, three weeks ago skiing with you in Colorado...my internal clock is still messed up!   

The Colonel

>Keystone has an excellent array of high speed quads that Bob utilizes to rack up close to 80k vertical sometimes in a single day. 

yikes!  I cant do that.  More power to him!

Maybe he measures both up & down!  I remember getting near 50k vertical one day at Snowbird in my younger days with non-stop go-go all day; even if I physically could try again, I would not.  I vivdly remember flying (literally) off of an unseen cat track on Wilber chair slopes trying to catch last chair in order to get a seasonal 200k vertical total.  I launched near sideways noticing the cat track at the last second. Somehow I survived and made my goal!

The Colonel

Let's see.  The front side of keystone is not nearly as good as the back.  You get about 1600' for getting to the backside in the morning and about 2000' for going back down to the base in the afternoon.  Now we need another 76,400' in about 6 hours.  The northface and outback lifts are also about 1600' vertical. Take 76,400 /1600= 47 trips on those lifts.  That makes for 6*60/47= 7.7 minutes per lift ride round trip.  Bob is one fast skier !!   [Someone double check that]  One day I want to be like Bob - spending a lot of my winter in Colorado.  

ps.  i do think the terrain on the outback lift is really good, i could spend many days there in a season.

I hope Bob sees this thread and chimes in.  He told me the day he skied 78k vert a couple years ago at Keystone he actually left 45 minutes of ski time still on the table and regretted not using it to break 80k.  There are a fistful of HSQs at Keystone with verts in the 1600-2000' range and you can rack up big vert there if you ride them all day and zip right down.

I suppose it is theoretically possible.  We needed 7.7 minutes for the round trip and on the backside you have:

Santiago express (north peak) lift is 1600' vert and 4.5 minutes (that is fast).  Stick to this one for max vert.

Outback express lift is 1482' vert and 6 minutes

Ruby express lift is 1600' vert and and 6 minutes

Wayback (fixed) lift is 1300' vert and 7 minutes, but is not necessary for navigating the mountain.

The frontside lift is 2303' vertical and 9.5 minutes, but again, not as interesting.

Sorry for the diversion, but I love trivia.  Bottom line, no doubt Bob is the man!

Hi Jim.

Thanks for posting the story  and pics. It was great skiing with you and I look forward to doing it again in the future.

Sorry for not seeing your post sooner, but I've been skiing. Friday I decided to ski Beaver Creek(3), Vail(2), Breck(2) and Keystone(4) in a single day. The numbers in parens are the number of runs at each place. It's something I do once a year.

I closed down Keystone yesterday with  bookends (skiing both opening and closing days). The forecast was for intense sun and 55 degrees.  Instead we got mostly cloudy, temps in the low 30's and a bit of snow. It was the best day in the last 3 weeks.

Based on comments above this one, I'll make a couple of comments.

1) It actually is pretty easy to get in big vert days at Keystone, The Santiago lift gives you 1600 feet of vert for a 4.7 minute lift ride.That is the fastest ride in Colorado. It isn't faster than any other high speed lift, it just covers less ground becasue it is goes up steep terrain. It's pretty easy to get in 6-7 trips an hour (9600 to 11,200 feet of vert), and there are hours when you can get in 8 trips or 12,800 feet of vert. The chair is open for 6.5 hours per day. I normally ski both the Santiago and Ruby lifts in order to get some trail diversity. Doing so I normally can get in 10,000 to 10,500 feet of vert per hour.

2) Actually anyone can get used to skiing big vert every day. I takes committment to skiing nonstop top to bottom runs, and it takes getting used to skiing pretty hard. When you start, it'll wear you out. After doing it for a while, it really does get pretty easy. My first day over 40 k of vert was at Lake Louise a long, long time ago. I was a wreck at the end of the day. Now 40k is like an easy walk in the park.

To close out my season, I'll get in a few more days at Breck and maybe Vail this week. It's supposed to snow on Wednesday.

BTW, I don't get in 70+k of vert regularly. It' something I've done maybe 6-7 times in my life. I don't plan on doing big days. They just happen. The light has to be right. The snow has to be right. The lack of people has to be right. My skiing has to be right, and my attitude has to be right. When the stars are alligned, big days just happen.   40k is pretty regular.