In a weekend packed with movie premieres and beer festivals the fine folks over at Keystone delivered up stoke in a completely different fashion by hosting summertime rail jam. In a scene more reminiscent of a lazy spring day than a blazing summer one, throngs of anxious shredders were on hand to get their jib on. Over 170 showed up at 9am to register for the event. Kids were decked out in mid-winter gear rocking goggles and bandanas. Quite the scene when juxtaposed against the bright yellow aspen trees, DH mountain bikers and khaki short wearing summer hikers. But why not rock your new kit? This was the first taste of winter, even if it was served up on a few thousand pounds of snow cone ice (yes, actually that kind) and topped off with some good old fashioned ice shavings from a near by ice arena.
The rail set up had a high sketch factor. Not because of a half assed set up, rather because the rails were straight up advanced and the landing zone required you to shut 'er down immediately or ollie over the hay bails into rocks and grass (this happened more than a few times). The feature was built on a staircase with flat/down rails on either side and a big old cannon bar in the middle. It was an advanced feature beautifully situated at the bottom of a grassy ski run. And if you didn't have confidence in your ability to grease the rail and stick your landing, your day was going to be either very short or very long.
The competitors brought their A-game to say the least. Blind 270s on quickly became the bar in the early rounds to have hopes of making the finals. When the finals did come around, transfers became the name of the game. While everyone had a great time, Keystone did have some prizes to give away, so winners had to be chosen. Here are the results:
Women
1st Courtney Cox
2nd Emily Bluit
Men
1st Josh Carreola
2nd Jeffrey DeForde
Best Crash: Chris Tulien
In the end, the true credit goes out to the Keystone park staff. They most definitely proved that with enough time and effort, anything is possible. Kudos to the crew and thanks to everyone at Keystone for delivering up a ton (literally) of winter stoke in September.
*Photos: Tucker Burton / Keystone Resort
