Keystone – Summit County long has been known as a summer destination of choice for cross country and road bikers. But with the addition of the new Drop Zone park, suddenly freeride mountain bikes are reigning at Keystone.
“Keystone is stepping up,” said Chris Marriott, a local Summit freerider of five years. “If Keystone is not the best place in Colorado to come riding, it soon will be.”
The buzz on the opening day of Keystone’s lift- served mountain biking season Friday was the new Drop Zone freeride park, a ridgeline of four alleys offering 5- to 14-foot aerial plunges, rock drops and what trail designers call “North Shore” bridge features atop the double-black diamond Paid-N-Full trail on the east side of Dercum Mountain. All of the new drops are built to meet the growing demand for expert freeride and downhill terrain, punctuated by the 14-foot “Jaws” jump that demands something closer to 20 feet of air in order to avoid a ferocious bite from the jagged boulder prominent in the technical landing zone.
“Some people wanted me to get rid of the rock, but I said no,” bike park designer and supervisor Greg Rood said. “That’s part of the thrill. You’ve got to clear the rock. It’s scarier that way.”
Most bikers are scared right onto the other, more modest drops, beginning with the 5-footer known as “Piranha” or the 7-foot “Barracuda.” But no matter which route they rode, the consensus among riders is that the Drop Zone is an immediate hit.
“I try to ride this stuff as much as I can, usually over here,” said Matt Mason, who drove over from the cross country mountain bike mecca of Fruita on opening day. “We don’t have anything like this in Fruita.”
According to Rood, the move toward more aggressive downhill bike terrain at Keystone simply makes sense. Keystone is a downhill skiing area in the winter months, so why not do more to maintain that identity among the growing cadre of downhill dirt demons come summer? Rood has put in an application with the U.S. Forest Service to build seven more trails – six for expert downhillers and one for intermediates – three of them as soon as this summer.
“We focused on our cross country trails in the beginning, but my thing is that this is a gravity sport and we already have a lift, so I’d really like to have both,” Rood said. “We want to keep the cross country folks over on the west side and these guys on the east side. That separation is key.”
The model is not unlike that used by many ski resorts when it comes to building terrain parks for skiers and snowboarders. Basically, give the daredevils what they crave most, but let them do their thing someplace among the mountain’s 60 miles of off-road routes where they can’t hurt anyone but themselves. Another similarity lies in the use of so-called “progression parks,” such as the ASX Skills Park at the base of the Summit Express lift and the Decatur Practice Park near Keystone Village, where beginners can develop their skills on a variety of stunts before moving up to the big leagues.
“Keystone is by far the best riding in the state. They’ve been more progressive and cater more toward the riders in the summertime than any other resort in Colorado right now,” said Doug Steinhour, 28, a five-year downhiller from Fort Collins. “They are really pushing the sport and helping us out as riders.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughbycan be reached at 303-820-1993
or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
