It was the perfect weekend to head out of Steamboat to ride another mountain so I took up the opportunity to visit Tom down in Summit County. I left Steamboat Saturday afternoon after taking advantage of some much needed rest. The drive to summit county was really quick, took an hour and a half to make it to Frisco.
Stayed the night crashing at some house with rad people. Beer Pong was the game of the night after the X-games went down.
Getting up today was definitely rough. Tom and I hit up breakfast and eventually made our way to Keystone to ride for the day.
By the time we were on the chairlift, I realized I had left the camera in the car so the pictures I do have are from my camera phone (not the best quality).
We hit up the A51 terrain park for the entire day. I was definitely stoked by the features set up, wall rides, boxes, barrels. Tom hit up the main street jump line which is all the large jumps right below the chairlift. I stuck to hitting the half pipe and some of the features on the way to the half pipe including a super fun huge barrel Jib.
It was a mix between clouds and sunshine for the day. Watching Tom hit the jumps was awesome and that line of the park was pretty busy all day. I rarely had anyone in the half pipe with me so I was stoked to keep making laps through there by myself. The conditions in the pipe were good. I hit up the mini pipe one run and that wasn’t the best so went back to the superpipe.
It was awesome to see people just throwing down in the park, riding up the chairlift you can watch everything going on in the park and definitely watch the large jumps close up. We were both surprised by how many skiers were up there throwing down today, way more than snowboarders.
We took a lunch break to get some beer and yummy food before heading back out onto the snow. I took some pretty good falls, bruised my knees when I caught my edge coming off the barrel and a couple falls in the pipe including a good fall in the mini pipe.
The day went by pretty quick, we ended the day at 4pm mostly cause we were both tired and dehydrated. I was totally cottonmouth getting off the hill and in much need of some water. Plus I’ve been sick lately so riding definitely was harder today.
End of the day shot…Tom with his crack lips of sunscreen and me barely in the photo
The drive back to Steamboat wasn’t too bad, a storm rolled in so it took a bit longer cause I went a lot slower in the snow and whiteout on Rabbit Ears Pass. But it was an awesome weekend to get out of Steamboat and hit up Keystone.
Crispy
January 28, 2008 at 12:16 pmHey, Shay. Some friends of mine are trying to decide between going to Keystone or Steamboat in mid-March. What would you recommend?
Shayboarder
January 28, 2008 at 12:38 pmHmm depends what kind of riding you are into. For park and pipe, Keystone definitely beats Steamboat no contest. But freeriding and trees, Steamboat to me has more. But I haven’t taken advantage of too much of keystone yet. So yeah depends. Keystone is more touristy and lines cause it gets more front range traffic. Steamboat is pretty good in March.
Anonymous
January 28, 2008 at 7:03 pmGo with Keystone because you can hop the swan mountain flyer and go to A basin or Breck. You’re lift ticket is good at both places. The backside of keystone on a dump can be fun if you know what you’re doing and where you’re going, as well as going up to A basin and hitting Pally chair or shooting over to Breck and riding peak 9. Let alone Breck has one of the sickest parks in the US right now.
Crispy
January 29, 2008 at 5:55 pmThanks for the advice. I’ve passed it along. I personally won’t be going on this trip, but I hope to make it out there sometime.