4 inches of fresh and 12 in the last two days. It was 20 degrees and snowing. It was the first real winter day of the season; an appropriate thing to happen on opening day

After watching the webcams for the last week, I couldn't see how Keystone could open the River Run trail to let people ski to the bottom, and they couldn't. At the end of the day one had to download from the gondola mid station. However 1665 feet of vert was available off of the Montezuma lift, the upper gondola, and the Spring Dipper blue trail.

The place was packed. The River Run free parking lot was almost full. I started at 10:15 becasue there was no way I was going to stand in the huge opening hour line to get on the gondola. There was no line at 10:15. Instead I stood in long lines to get on Monetezuma. Using the singles lane made it bearable. As time passed, the Montezuma lines started shortening -- same as last year. Trail behavior by everyone was surprisingly civil.

Conditions were pretty good considering the  lack of snow making temps They did make snow all day today.By the third turn of the first run I was skiing pretty well. By the second run I was skiing dynamically. By the end of my day, it was as if I had never left the place. It's nice when it comes back that rapidly.

So has anyone else made any turns this season?

http://www.summitdaily.com/news/18932600-113/live-coverage-of-keystone-opening-day

Good for you, boo hiss jealous!

My real season began last Monday. I'm a happy camper..

A lot has changed at Keystone in the almost three weeks since opening day.Most of it is a result of the three feet of snow that fell last week. Conditions are fantastic. They are so good that I only saw one snow gun making snow yesterday. There's so much snow that Keystone does not need to make snow. I don't recall that being the case over the last quarter century. Keystone just does not get big early season snows.

The Outback opened last weekend. I don't recall it opening ever before Thanksgiving.

Hope that you all have great turkey days. I'll ski again today, and then not again til next Monday. I jave no desire to ski with a milllion of my closet friends over the holiday.

Enjoy and save some for me.  We'll be there on Feb 17th!

Bob, did you see this:  http://www.epicski.com/a/keystone-co-a-pictorial

No powder pictures, but you are the star of the 5th photo from sunny day last March at Keystone.

Blue Don 1982 wrote:

Enjoy and save some for me.  We'll be there on Feb 17th!

Asssuming that my schedule does not change, I'll be there too. If you want, I can show you around

JimK wrote:

Bob, did you see this:  http://www.epicski.com/a/keystone-co-a-pictorial

No powder pictures, but you are the star of the 5th photo from sunny day last March at Keystone.

Thanks Jim. Maybe we can do it again. some time..

Skied again today. Keystone opened at 8:30 for the first time this season. The place has been packed all week. Now I know why.

Rode up with a patroller who told me that Keystone has had more snow this year than any other Vail owned resort: 80 inches. Things like that just do not happen at Keystone - the regular "low snow" winner of Vail owned hills.

North Peak opens Friday with a nice mix of groomed black and blue terrain and fresh ungroomed blacks. It appears that the entire hill will be open. Keystone is even trying to get Mozart open on the backside of Dercum Mountain so people don't have to take the Outpost Gondola to North Peak. Best news: Diamondback may open this weekend and there is a chance that MineShaft will too.. Both are black. One is groomed and one isn't. I've never heard of Mineshaft opening in November.

Considering how bad things looked less than three weeks ago, things sure are looking very good now,