Bont Shoes

As presented in www.FirstLightSports.com

Standing at the peak apex Keystone pure mountain over 12,000 feet, I watched with amazement the surrounding landscape. I've been to Colorado many times and each time it takes me a while to latch-up sensitivity of the Midwest me for the Rockies. Initially, the sapphire blue sky and white snow of the mountain incredibly shocked and delighted me. I had been aloft for a full day already and was ready, breathing almost normally for a full day of skiing at Keystone.

My home for this trip was a comfortable condo in Frisco, Colorado. We had only a short 15 minutes drive from Montezuma parking lot of Keystone at the base of River Run Village. It was the Tuesday following a busy Presidents' holiday, and the fate did not seem too crowded at 8:30 in the morning. We rolled our group during Keystone Sports where the manager, Chris, we set up with skis for today. The mountain has been steady conduct and Chris recommended a set of skis K2 Apache-Sport-174cm. This proved to be an excellent choice and they ran well and ran fast on the track, and felt alive and nimble in the bumps. Chris told me that if it was powdered I swap in a pair of powder skis wider. Conditions remained nearly the same for a few days, so I could not try his choice of skiing powder. Passing through the River Run village a day or two later, I do stop to say hello Keystone Sports. As we talked about skis for a little, Chris was Tony, a ski technician, post a fresh coat of wax on my skis. I like a service organization.

At the base of River Run are two elevators to service the main face of the mountain. The River Run Gondola and Summit Express high speed quad lift. Early in the morning, waiting for the cable car can be a bit long, that day it was only about 5 minutes. But there is absolutely no waiting for the quad, so we went and directed. The peak of Dercum Mountain (11,640 feet) is a busy place, six different lifts / gondolas all get there. Here is also the House Summit a large building with equipment and facilities for skiers need food, rest or a bio-break.

As we prepared for the day Tuesday I had the chance to meet with people from the Keystone resort. We ran into Lindsey Fussenegger the Media Coordinator and Spencer Wagner a mountain guide experts to the ubiquitous Starbucks Coffee Shop. I spoke with Lindsey & Spencer for some time as the other members of my group received their packages and ski hire. They were naturally animated in their attitude towards their "mountain." Lindsey has spoken with enthusiasm about the wonderful programs (ski school, "Play-it-Safe," Fest Betty, etc.) and was particularly proud of the leaders world-class operation of upscale restaurants Keystone. They both offered to ski with our group for the morning, and I could not refuse the chance to get the perspective of an insider. When the rest of my group got there we gathered our equipment and headed for the elevators.

We took Spencer in the gap and ended shortly after on another groomer called Whipsaw blue. We skied the race a bit and then talk about Spencer stopped for a moment. "What is different about the conditions here," he said. None of us explain how this race is unlike the last. "Spencer explained that this side of the front has been widely used for the ski school and that the tracks here were prepared in duplicate. The drivers set their snow blades Cat Grooming for a deep pass, and then do a run with more grooming blades in depth basis. The result is a race maintained the skis almost like a fresh snow run. Basically we took the quad lift again, and returned to our first race, adding a little more speed.