Keystone Opening Day 11/2/12

While Loveland and A-Basin raced to open and started turning lifts in October, I’ve been busy preparing and waiting for the Opening of Keystone in Colorado. Yesterday we got to sample the goods before the public did which was a great start to the season and today I was on the mountain working to capture the Opening Day experience through social media.

Thanks to a coffee on the way to work, I was wide awake at 6am and ready to start the season. By 7:30 when the crowd started growing, it was time to head outside. We had compiled a couple swag giveaways including a GoPro prize to hang out to the early birds in line. The morning crowd was great, really stoked and it was fun taking pics of everyone and throwing out goodies.

We had a ceremony to welcome the Bergman family and honored them with their own Bergman gondola (#2 on the line). Last year was the Dercum gondola and this year was the Bergman’s. Both of them are a huge part of Keystone’s history.

After many people got their first turns, it was time to head up and get in my lap for the day. I headed to A51 first to get shots of the park setup, action and team riders to update on social media before taking a groomer lap and helping out along the mountain if I could. It was a busy one lap of photography that took some time to get what I needed. All of the photos I took can be seen on the Keystone Facebook and A51 facebook pages today. Love that it’s my job to have fun, capture the moment and get people stoked!

Here’s a shot from my run down River Run face of the village and final run before the bottom. It was great to see the snowmaking and mountain operation crew pull together this run for Opening. Even better to shred down it.

Since I captured the full day of riding for everyone else, I didn’t focus so much on myself since I was working. It was good to get my legs back under me but definitely need to build up my calf muscles again. Little sore off the mountain. Either way, stoked on today’s opening day and can’t wait to keep riding Keystone this season.

Here’s the Opening Day edit from today. I have a couple cameos, throwing out prizes and blowing the bullhorn for first gondola. Glad to be part of  great marketing team and an awesome mountain.