Keystone – Independence’s day finally has arrived at Keystone.
Three years after opening approximately 600 acres of hike-to and Sno-Cat-served terrain in Bergman and Erickson bowls spanning the high alpine ridge above North Peak and The Outback, the popular Keystone Adventure Tours (KAT) has expanded north along the ridge to include the coveted north- and southwest-facing terrain of Independence Bowl.
The 278-acre expansion opened to the public last weekend, rounding out the “backcountry lite” offering with the type of terrain – and snow – KAT has been lacking since its inception.
“The past couple years it’s been our job to tell people that (Bergman and Erickson) was where it’s at,” Keystone ski patroller and KAT guide Brant Owens said. “And it is, but now we’ve got all this, too. It’s all here.”
The push for steeper, north-facing terrain in Independence Bowl has been in the works since November 2005, when Keystone officials proposed approval of the expansion – which already fell within the resort’s permit area – under a streamlined review process by the U.S. Forest Service. But concerns of potential impact to rare Canada lynx habitat in nearby Jones Gulch on the perimeter of the expansion area prompted an in-depth study to more thoroughly evaluate the effects of expansion.
“We wanted to make sure we worked through the process properly and addressed all the issues adequately before we approved the project,” said Shelly Grail, the USFS Snow Ranger for Summit County. “But this area has been designated for skiing since the new forest plan was released in 2002.”
Tucked between the 12,614-foot peak of Independence Mountain and the recently designated “wildlife study” closure at Jones Gulch, the new bowl is Keystone’s latest answer to a growing demand for a controlled backcountry experience, said mountain operations director Chuck Tolton. Although there are no plans for lifts in the area, a cat road is maintained and the surrounding terrain is monitored and swept daily by the ski patrol.
“It’s a well-known fact that in Europe (ski touring) is an extremely popular activity, and with an increase in this equipment getting to the United States, we’re seeing an increase in both the U.S. and Canada in this kind of activity,” Tolton said. “It’s my personal view that the ski area over there with its groomed trails and bump runs is just practice for this.”
The KAT program offers a dozen skiers a day the opportunity to sample the back-to-nature sensation of a guided backcountry experience within the boundary of the resort.
For a fee of $81 (on top of a daily lift ticket or season pass), skiers and snowboarders are carried away from the lifts to the ungroomed terrain along the ridge for as many runs as they can cram in before 2:30 p.m.
Although skiers are never out of sight of the resort, the terrain offers a sense of isolation with the bonus of an enclosed Sno-Cat to carry them back to the top in about 15 minutes. The bowls also are open to hikers willing to walk up the ridge.
The shaded northern aspect of Independence Bowl offers steeper pitches occasionally exceeding 35 degrees with a vertical drop ranging between 730 and 1,132 feet. In contrast, the KAT’s original 577 skiable acres covered pitches ranging between 18 and 30 degrees in the two sunny, south-facing bowls dropping about 800 vertical feet.
Keystone’s vision includes further extension of its ski terrain over Independence Mountain and into the north-facing bowls that are within its permit above the town of Montezuma.
Although the proposal remains “very preliminary,” Grail said, a cat road could eventually lead to a small, environmentally sensitive yurt camp on a nearby mining claim owned by the resort, where guided tours would be offered.
“I think this (expansion) completes what we have today. We’ll ski this for a year or two, evaluate with the forest and see where it may lead us,” Tolton said. “With the south-facing component of Erickson, west-facing, low-angle skiing of Bergman, and now you have north-facing as well as southwest-facing on Independence, it definitely rounds out the operation.”
