I’ll be honest, the snow hasn’t been great in Summit County. It’s only been in the last few weeks that we’ve seen a lot of fresh snow up there. This was the first “real” day of skiing for me (opening weekend was just for practice).

We headed up to Keystone on Friday night to catch the Friday Night Lights free concert by Girl Talk. The turnout was amazing and as long as you kept dancing around you could stay warm in the 20-degree air.

After the concert a lot of people stuck around in River Run and headed to spots like Parrot Eyes, Wolf Rock Brewing Company, etc. We hung out for a bit and then went back to the condo. We woke up in the morning and were ready to hit the slopes.

Saturday morning saw a lot of new runs opened. Going from 7 to 44 was a dramatic difference, but meant huge crowds. This was the first time ski patrol allowed access to the Outback via the Outpost Gondola (runs like Mozart aren’t opened yet). Apparently a lot of people were excited for extremely rough, pre-season terrain. Check out the line to the Outpost Gondola:

This weekend also saw the opening of Area51, Keystone’s terrain park (with small, medium, and large areas).

Overall this weekend was a great time to “start” the season at Keystone. With some new snow this week, new terrain, and a fun concert, I couldn’t have asked for much more.

COSNOW TIP: if you’re coming down the front side towards the Montezuma lift, don’t expect a short line. Go beyond it and head towards River Run. Follow the signs to the Mid Mountain lift. Sure, you have to take off your gear but there is significant lack of lines.