Skied The Key For My 1st Runs ~ No Snow, No Legs, Just Fun 03Nov25

Keystone has done a solid job again with snow-making early season, on the open white ribbons. There is precious little snow elsewhere out here. Despite it being 62° at the base today (I helped a chunky 5" lizard back to the sun after he'd wandered into shade & cold), I had a good time on all 3 open lifts (I didn't take Ranger) and associated runs. Snow wasn't scraped off after WE but for one smallish section, and the bottom was warm and malleable. I was surprised that even on an early Monday the River Run lot was filling up... to park on my favored N side of the lot I did take the back row. On the hill and lifts the skiers were not as noticeable and all white ribbons were navigable without incident. Woohoo; it begins. I tried to hit Last Chance on the way home but alas construction has them closed for the time being. 

Skiing With Steve & Jim 19Jan22-21Jan22

I snuck up to Summit for some runs with Bro Brown and Yoho. Steve & I started on a cold and dry, but sunny, day at Keystone. We ran a 17.5K day starting in the back on Outback and working forward - that's kindof our typical play. While I chose the wrong skis, since there was no new snow I needed more stability at speed rather than 118 underfoot float, we had a great time capped with some Last Chance pizza and beers.

Jim arrived Wednesday night and we enjoyed some closeout NestT tunes before resting for an onslaught at Breck with some hopeful snow conditions. We did get some needed snow and headed to Breck all three in the Crusher Too. We started on Pk 7 to access Pk 6 and made a number of runs there before getting Steve on Freedom for the 1st time. It wasn't powder conditions, and I did choose the 105s given yesterday, but we found some stashes in the trees. We cooked up a plan to self-award a badge for skiing every peak @ Breck on this day and so crossed quickly using the T-Bar, then down Pk 8 to E, then down Pk 10 to Interconnect, then down Pk 9 to our bus pickup. We got them all and I laud our efficiency in hitting every peak in the least number of lifts - we crossed Breck's very wide trail set quickly. We stopped at Broken Compass for some ColoRADBro and lamented there are no food trucks there ~ we capped the outing with some ORB beers and Bird Cafe thai food. The night continued at the Nest with spa time (yeah, it blew up), Dave's pizza and voyeurism on good backcountry outings via Mediocre Amateurs.

We rallied to again hit Keystone on Fri. There was more snow and more people this time - but conditions are still pretty thin IMO. We ran the normal back-to-front scheme sketching out on occasions when ice patches weren't evident or when big hard moguls were the only path down. Our best softer runs were on Big Horn. Another fine day capped with a stop at Steep Brewing (not the one at the hill 'cause it was mobbed, but the one on Rt 6). We headed back to for a spa soak at Steve's where my Saturday plan's changed when Steve slid out on his spa steps and gouged his back. Jim and I had a NestT session that eve after enjoying good bowls of pho.

I installed a space heater in the drained spa and made a service appointment with Heavenly... grrr.