It was an instant classic.
After Keystone announced on Friday morning that they would open for the 2019-2020 season on Saturday October 12, positioning themselves as the first ski resort in North America to do so, Arapahoe Basin poached their line.
In a surprise twist at 1:41 p.m., The Legend announced that it would fire up the Black Mountain Express that very afternoon from 3:30-5:30. A news helicopter buzzed overhead. Semis honked on Highway 6. An A-Basin truck drove through the parking lot with its driver shouting “We win!” out the window. Lift tickets cost $15, beers $5. The shortest off-season in the ski area’s history ended at 99 days.
Ski season turned on. And skiers turned out.
“When we heard that they were going to open, we started screaming, grabbed all our shit, and ran out the door,” said Genevieve Brusilow of Breckenridge. She and her buddies Mark and Dave had to stop in town to buy snowpants en route.
“This was the last thing I thought I’d do when I woke up this morning,” said Dan Hutchins of Dillon.
Meanwhile, Greg Myers of Vail woke up Friday morning to his first day off since May. After he heard the news about A-Basin, his wife asked if he would bring his new skis. “I’m like, they aren’t even mounted yet,” he said. Then he had to scrape the storage wax from his other setup. “I left myself a Post-it to scrape my skis because I knew I’d want to just grab them and go.”
Then he forgot his gloves. Bare-knuckling his poles beside Black Mountain Lodge, he said, “Whatever. It ain’t that cold out.”
Similar stories vibrated through the lift line, which never felt all that long. Patrollers snapped group shots. A-Basin’s chief operating officer Alan Henceroth buzzed around happily, reminding employees that their first drink was on the house. Snow forecaster Joel Gratz of OpenSnow made the trek from Boulder after his wife, Lauren, let him off the hook for picking up the kids.
For my part, I was in the middle of updating social media and a few posts on this ski blog to spread Keystone’s excitement. When A-Basin broke their news, I did it all again. Then I grabbed a pair of skis, almost forgot my boots, and drove maybe a little too fast up I-70 as Greta Van Fleet blasted a live show in my Tacoma. In the High Noon parking lot—the main A-Basin lot was full by 3:45—I donned the only ski attire in my truck: a circa-1980 ketchup-n-mustard Marmot outfit that was gifted to me by my older brother two weeks ago. He refers to it as “the huck-suit.”
For two hours, vibrant mountain people lived their best lives, cheering with every helicopter flyover and trucker honk. Then they blitzed the 6th Alley Bar & Grill where rockstar bartenders handled the throngs with mid-season flair. As for the skiing, the single open trail, blue-square High Noon, was covered wall-to-wall. Corduroy gave way to some bumps and manmade fluff along the ropes. The East Wall, wrapped in a white blanket from Thursday’s snow, teased the winter to come. And while it may have been ousted at the wire, Keystone still opened Saturday, marking the resort’s earliest kickoff in more than 20 years.
Ski season is back.
Read about the race to open first.
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