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Keystone

Home / Ski Resorts / Keystone Ski Resort

Keystone Ski Resort is an extremely popular ski destination located in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, in the town of Keystone. Since 1997 the resort has been owned and operated by Vail Resorts. It consists of three mountains – Dercum Mountain, North Peak, the Outback – and five Bowls offering skiing at all levels. Many area ski trips will also include its neighbors Breckenridge and Vail Ski Resorts. The resort is less than 2 hours away from Denver International Airport, making it an easy spot for seasoned skiers to get to.

Keystone is known for its impressive and powdery snowfall, averaging around 300 inches per season. The ski season at Keystone typically runs from mid-November into early April.

Keystone also offers a variety of lodging options, including ski-in/ski-out condos, hotels and vacation homes, as well as a variety of dining options, and après-ski activities. Keystone Resort does not offer night skiing, but does have tubing and terrain parks.

We recently ranked all of Colorado's ski resorts, so you can see where Keystone stacks up against all its nearby ski hills!

Season Passes

Keystone is a part of the Epic Ski Pass network. This allows you to buy one season pass, and ski at most of the Vail owned and operated slopes with it throughout the year. There are a handful of types of Epic lift ticket passes available, ranging from 3-7 days, to season-long.

Lodging Options

There are numerous options to stay at Keystone around the resort. Check out the available options with the form below.

Keystone Mountain Resort Terrain Overview

Keystone has a total of 139 ski trails, which are serviced by 20 ski lifts, gondolas and/or trams. The amount of skiable area in this park is huge, with a maximum of 3,149 acres available to skiers. This area is equivalent to 1,274 hectares, 4.9 square miles, or 12.7 square kilometers.

Keystone's slopes see on average 235 inches (6.0 meters) of snowfall a year. That is almost 19 feet every year!

Trails
Total Runs
139
Ski Lift
Lifts
20
Skier
Skiable Acres
3,149(13 km2)
Snow
Annual Snowfall
235"(597 cm)

Keystone Ski Resort Elevation

Keystone Ski Resort has a summit elevation of 12,408 feet, or 3,782 meters. However, not all of that elevation is able to be skied. The base of the ski slope sits at 9,280 feet above sea level, creating a ski hill that is 3,128 feet (953 meters) high. This is referred to as the slope's vertical drop - or a measure of how high the skiable hill is.

The summit of 12,408 feet makes this ski resort one of the highest in the country. The average ski slope summit is around 4,000 feet, so this is extremely high compared to its peers.

Mountain Summit
Summit Elevation
12,408'(3,782 m)
Vertical Drop
Vertical Drop
3,128'(953 m)
Mountain base
Base Elevation
9,280'(2,828 m)

Keystone Ski Resort Difficulty Level

Score
Difficulty Score™
75.8out of 100
←  EasyHard  →
Keystone is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, with a difficulty score of 75.8. This mountain ranks in the top 10% of most-difficult ski resorts in all of North America, mostly due to the fact that it has 49% of its trails rated as expert-level, and a vertical drop of 3,128 feet.
 DID YOU KNOW?

At Parks & Trips, we've created a proprietary Difficulty Score that attempts to show how difficult a particular ski slope is. We get to this number by combining a number of metrics for each resort and comparing them to its peers. Most of the score is based off the amount of easy-intermediate-expert slopes by acreage and the maximum vertical drop of the overall resort, but also includes a few lesser-used metrics as well.

Our algorithm compares each resort’s metrics with all others in North America, then assigns each a Difficulty Score, which we use to rank them accordingly. Resorts with a lower score are easier to ski than those with a higher one. However, a high score does not mean that the resort does not have any easy slopes, or vice versa. This is just an overall score given to the resort based on all its metrics grouped together.

Skiable Terrain by Difficulty Level

Keystone has 3,149 total skiable acres, which can be broken down into the three main groups of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert.

Seeing as Keystone is one of the hardest ski areas in the country, it's no surprise that over 88% of its trails rated as either intermediate or expert-level. This leaves only 12% of its skiable acres as beginner terrain.
Green Circle
Beginner
12%(378 acres)

Beginner trails (identified by a green circle) are the easiest trails on the hill with a gradual 25% or less gradient, and are usually wide to accommodate beginner skiers.

Blue Square
Intermediate
39%(1,228 acres)

Intermediate trails (identified by a blue square) are usually the most popular and crowded runs, which have a slope of anywhere between 25-40%.

Black Diamond
Expert
49%(1,543 acres)

Expert trails (identified by a black diamond... or two) are the hardest slopes on the mountain, and have very steep gradients over 40%.

Is Keystone Ski Resort good for beginners?

This is one of the hardest ski areas in the country to ski at, so it is not great for beginners. Keystone Ski Resort ranks in the top 10% of the most-difficult ski resorts in the country. It has 49% of its trails rated as expert, or black-diamond level.

Keystone Ski Resort Location

Keystone Ski Resort is located in the state of Colorado, USA. This ski area is nearest the town of Dillon, CO.

Address:
Dillon, CO 80435 USA
View on Google Maps

Website:
keystoneresort.com

GPS Coordinates:
39.60000, -105.95000

Getting to Keystone Mountain Resort

By Car: If you are driving, you would set your GPS to either the ski resort's name (Keystone Ski Resort), its coordinates of 39.60000, -105.95000 (latitude, longitude), or simply drive towards the town of Dillon, CO to get close.

By Air: If you are coming in from across the country, then you may need to board an airplane to get here.

A large airport has scheduled major airline service with millions of passengers per year. This type of airport always accepts international flights. Here are the closest large airport(s) to Keystone Ski Resort.

NameCodeCityDistance
Denver International AirportDENDenver, CO70 mi

A medium-sized airport has scheduled regional airline service. This type of airport may or may not accept international flights. Here are the closest medium-sized airport(s) to Keystone.

NameCodeCityDistance
Eagle County Regional AirportEGEEagle, CO52 mi
Aspen-Pitkin Co/Sardy FieldASEAspen, CO55 mi
City of Colorado Springs Municipal AirportCOSColorado Springs, CO86 mi

There may also be much smaller regional airports next to Keystone Ski Resort, but we didn't list them here due to the fact that no major airlines go through them.

Other Nearby Ski Resorts

Skiers will - especially if coming from far away - try and visit a couple different slopes all in the same trip. Here are the closest other ski slopes within 100 miles of Keystone Ski Resort.

NameLocationSummitDifficulty Score™Distance
Loveland Ski AreaDillon, CO13,010 ft65%6 mi
BreckenridgeBreckenridge, CO12,998 ft83%9 mi
Copper MountainFrisco, CO12,441 ft69%15 mi
VailVail, CO11,570 ft79%22 mi
Winter Park ResortWinter Park, CO12,060 ft86%22 mi
Echo Mountain ResortIdaho Springs, CO10,650 ft28%24 mi
Ski Granby RanchGranby, CO9,202 ft32%24 mi
Ski CooperLeadville, CO11,700 ft56%25 mi
Beaver CreekBeaver Creek, CO11,440 ft64%31 mi
EldoraNederland, CO10,600 ft50%31 mi
Aspen Mountain Ski ResortAspen, CO11,212 ft82%54 mi
Aspen Highlands Ski ResortAspen, CO11,675 ft78%56 mi
Aspen Ski ResortsSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft70%60 mi
Aspen SnowmassSnowmass Village, CO12,510 ft68%60 mi
ButtermilkLarkspur, CO9,900 ft34%61 mi
Arapahoe Basin Ski AreaDillon, CO13,050 ft81%62 mi
Bluebird BackcountryKremmling, CO9,845 ft60%64 mi
Crested ButteCrested Butte, CO12,162 ft77%75 mi
Sunlight MountainGlenwood Springs, CO9,895 ft66%75 mi
MonarchSalida, CO11,952 ft53%76 mi
Howelsen Hill Ski AreaSeamboat Springs, CO7,136 ft46%77 mi
Hoedown HillWindsor, CO5,000 ft1%80 mi
Cranor Hill Ski AreaGunnison, CO7,000 ft0%86 mi
SteamboatClark, CO10,568 ft79%98 mi

Keystone Ski Resort Mountain Stats

NameStatistic
Summit Elevation12,408 ft
Base Elevation9,280 ft
Vertical Drop3,128 ft
Trails139
(12% Beginner,  39% Intermediate,  49% Expert)
Lifts20
Skiable Acres3,149
Avg. Annual Snowfall235 inches
Keystone Ski Resort Mountain Stats
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