Ski Your Day – And Night – Of Arrival.
If you are like most destination skiers that use The Ski Organizers, you don’t live within an easy drive of western scale skiing. You have to fly here. And if the pattern follows, you don’t have 7 days to devote to a ski vacations – perhaps years ago, but now-a-days the average is more like a 4 to 5 night stay. So naturally, you want to maximize your time on the mountain, skiing or boarding to your hearts content. Right?
Well here is good way to stretch that slope time without spending another night.
Ski Keystone your day of arrival. Here is the game plan I recommend to clients…
Keystone, which is a easy two hour drive from Denver International Airport, offers night skiing Wednesdays – Sundays throughout most of the season (ask us for specific dates of operation). So what you do is either select Keystone as your vacation destination (and there are a multitude of good reasons to go this direction) or else plan to visit Keystone on your day of arrival, and buy the 2 PM – 9 PM ticket.
Naturally, you will need an airline arrival time of no later than 11 AM. But that’s no problem, there are any number of flights that arrive at DIA by that hour. In fact, getting an early start from your hometown airport is a good idea always, as that puts you ahead of any airline traffic delays that are almost certain to come into the system as the day wears on.
Next, you will want to select a rental vehicle within your Ski Org vacation package – in order that you are not waiting for the shuttle to leave the airport. Instead, you just grab your gear at baggage claim, hop on the van to Hertz or Avis, pick up your pre arranged rental vehicle, and drive south on Pena Boulevard to I 70 and head west. Turn south at Hwy 6, and 12 minutes later you are entering Keystone.
Look for the River Run parking lot, pull as close as you can (the day skiers are already starting to leave, thank goodness) and park. Walk through River Run (probably the nicest of the several Resort “neighborhoods) and look for the River Run Lift Ticket office, If you bought your lift tickets through Ski Org, then your ticket is waiting for you. You did buy that ticket from us, right?
Hop the Gondola, and within minutes you are at the top of Dercum Mountain, the easiest of the three Keystone peaks. Now cruise down Schoolmarm, a green trail, to the mid mountain Montezuma Express – just to warm up. And then once back on top, assuming you are an intermediate skier or better, immediately drop down Mozart and up Santiago Express to begin skiing the North Peak area.
From here work your way to the Outback. Both of these peaks are Blue and Black terrain only. The idea here is to get yourself all the way to the ‘back’ of the resort before those areas close at 3:30 PM. Actually, that’s when those lifts close, so plan on catching the last Outback Express ride at 3:25 PM, and get that last run in this pristine section of the Resort.
Once The Outback and North Peak close, ski your way back to the top of Dercum Mountain. Now pause for a drink or an early dinner, and wait while the most of the destination and Denver day skiers head for home.
Now the fun ramps up … because you have 2,360 vertical and a dozen long, long trails basically all to yourself. It’s just amazing – and this time of the year, the sun won’t set for another couple of hours. But the lights come long before that ( to help with the lengthening shadows ) – and once it is dark, the runs glow before you. The sensation of skiing this huge mountain after dark, yet with perfect visibility, with nobody it seems but your friends around with you, is utterly unique in western skiing.
Ski or board all the way till 9 PM and I promise you, you will feel like you own this mountain. This time of the day, Keystone is your private playground. Moreover, you will be well satisfied with your first day of skiing Colorado. Why? Because you just enjoyed 7 hrs of ski/board time. That’s basically a full day on any other mountain. And with use of the River Run Gondola and several other high speed lifts, you just skied a ton of vertical and many, many miles of terrain.
So there you are, a great way to stretch your Colorado ski vacation by one, very full day.
