Keystone Resort Colorado
Keystone Ski Resort is a very well known resort in Colorado. Keystone Resort is a large ski area with modern lifts, a vibrant village, and the famous night skiing. Of particular note, Keystone is celebrated for its family friendly culture and abundance of activities for kids.
Pros & Cons of Keystone Colorado
Pros
- The Keystone Ski Resort is a great all-rounder, with plenty on offer for a wide range of skiers and snowboarders.
- It’s family friendly and offers many activities to keep everyone entertained.
- The Keystone Resort terrain is decent sized, and the lift infrastructure is efficient and well developed.
- Pros of the Keystone Ski Resort terrain include great terrain parks, excellent intermediate terrain, diverse advanced terrain, and some of the best night skiing in the US.
- Single run snowcat shuttles provide access to nice bowl skiing, and there are also full day Keystone cat skiing adventures adjacent to the ski resort.
- Keystone is in close proximity to various other ski resorts, so you could use it as base to sample other ski areas on the I-70 corridor.
Cons
- Keystone Ski Resort receives significantly less snow than nearby ski resorts.
- It’s on the Epic Pass which is great for value access, but Keystone Resort Colorado is busy, busy, busy.
- There is limited expert and extreme terrain, but this doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- Keystone is a purpose-built cookie cutter village rather than being an old mining-town, so it’s got plenty of well designed amenities but it is lacking when it comes to quaintness.
Keystone Ski and Snowboard Terrain
What you see on the front side from the base area is only a minute portion of the
Keystone ski area available. Keystone Ski Resort has a hefty 3,148 acres of skiable terrain, and the 3,128 feet of vertical is spread across a number of different mountain peaks, all linked by modern gondolas and chair lifts.
The official terrain spread is easiest 12% (green), more difficult 39% (blue), and most difficult 49%, but the statistics aren’t truly indicative of the terrain. Keystone Ski Resort is just OK for beginners whilst intermediates will absolutely love Keystone because there are oodles of smooth cruisers as well as nice steep groomers. Some of the latter are black runs where the rating has been a little over embellished.
Whilst Keystone has no truly extreme terrain, steeps abound which include trees, bumps and some hefty cornices. And if you want something a bit special, there is also cat skiing in several alpine bowls.
Terrain park dudes are extraordinarily well catered for at Keystone. The park culture is very established and Keystone attracts some amazingly high calibre park riders.
In keeping with their family-friendly status, Keystone has a huge area for night skiing which includes the parks and pipe. The lights and lift operations are fully wind powered - it’s good to know that wind has a useful purpose in a ski resort rather than just making it chilly!
Keystone Snow
Keystone sits in the “middle of the donut” with regards to snowfall when compared to the various nearby ski resorts, although 235 inches per season on average is still a respectable amount of cold Colorado powder. Unfortunately the freshies don’t last long because Keystone is a very very popular ski resort. The world class facilities, the proximity to Denver, and a cheap season pass all contribute to the crowds that flock to Keystone, particularly on the weekends.
Where is Keystone Resort Colorado?
Keystone is part of Summit County in Colorado. Conveniently Keystone Resort is located only 90 minutes west of Denver International Airport, and a short distance from the ski resorts of
Copper Mountain,
Breckenridge,
Arapahoe Basin and
Loveland.
Keystone Lodging
Keystone Resort has a few village areas. The largest base area is River Run which has a pedestrian village that includes shops, restaurants and accommodations. The other main villages are Mountain House and Lakeside.
Keystone lodging is mostly in condos and there are also hotels and vacation rentals.
Keystone Accommodation Listings
Activities
There is a family focus at Keystone Colorado, and whilst the nightlife is not absent it certainly isn’t a super party town. In addition to bars and restaurants, Keystone has an abundance of activities on offer including ice skating, sleigh rides, tubing and special events.