Keystone opening day

Photos by Leisa Gibson. Keystone

Keystone opened a week early with more than 2 feet of snow - the real stuff, too - and, as you can see, boarders hit the A51 terrain park. 20 features are ready, so... quit reading and hit it.

What's open? Lift access from the River Run Village base area for Spring Dipper (intermediate run) and Kokomo (mountaintop beginner learning area). And, of course, A51.

Plan ahead and hit the mountain next Friday and you can ski 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

If you head over there before that, you may see the U.S. Ski Team, which begins training there tomorrow.

Dumping on our playgrounds

Attention, fellow Front Rangers:

Folks at Vail sent these photos and word they woke up to 4 inches of snow in town - and more on the mountain.

(Vail Village at 9 this morning / Vail Resort)

(Beaver Creek at 8 this morning. / Beaver Creek Resort)

They're expecting more snow through Friday morning with another storm predicted to start Saturday night.

They're making snow at Keystone and Breckenridge, getting ready for a Nov. 9 opening. Vail kicks off Nov. 16 and Beaver Creek, Nov. 21.

Everyone's touting new equipment and terrain and lodging/skiing/boarding packages. We'll take a look in an upcoming Out There section of The Gazette, or you can poke around the resort Web sites for details.