If they really want to open Keystone early, Vail needs to go back to doing what the dog food company did before selling the property to Vail: open the Mountain House side first. Mountain House needs 1600 vert coverage while River Run requires 2300 ft of coverage.

Purina always opened the place by mid October - 20+ years ago.

https://www.summitdaily.com/news/vail-resorts-plans-to-open-keystone-resort-as-early-as-possible-in-october/

They are replacing Peru express this summer so that may not be an option. I’m sure they make more money out of river run too.

If they really wanted to open early could utilize the mid station on the gondola and open with some really short runs.

I forgot about the Peru replacement.

Keystone wouldn't open the gondola to just.the midstation. That only leaves one relatively steep blue to get to the base. They like to open on green terrain.