At Keystone Resort, the season doesn’t end when the snow melts; it shifts. Senior director of mountain operations Kate Schifani helps lead the transition from winter into summer, overseeing everything from lift maintenance and trail work to runoff management and on-mountain activities, all while laying the groundwork for the next ski season. Across Colorado, ski resorts trade powder days for bike laps, exhilarating ropes courses and alpine slides, and packed calendars of festivals and events. But there’s a lot of work being done that no one ever sees, and here Kate lets us in on the careful coordination and constant forward thinking that shift requires. Here’s what it takes to move a mountain between seasons.
What does the transition from winter to summer look like? “Two parallel things are happening at the same time: transitioning into summer and preparing for the next winter. We start almost immediately after we close, staging snow guns on trails we can’t access later and planning lift maintenance while there’s still snow on the ground, since it’s much easier to move around. At the same time, we’re getting ready for summer, making sure lifts are ready, managing snowmelt and runoff, and preparing activity areas.”
Why does so much of that work start before all the snow is gone? “It’s way easier to move around a ski area when there’s still snow. We can take a snowcat or snowmobile almost anywhere. Once it starts to melt, everything gets more strategic.”
How much of the mountain has to be reset for summer? “We spend a lot of time on revegetation. Whenever we disturb the natural mountain setting, we have to restore it to a healthy state. We’re also clearing roads, opening drainage, and getting trails ready. We’ll go looking for trash and all kinds of things. Honestly, we could do it every day of the entire summer and still find stuff people have left behind. We found a pager last year and a scooter the year before. It’s just bizarre, the things that people leave on the mountain.”
What does the summer snowtubing look like at Keystone? “At the end of the ski season, we move a large amount of snow to the tubing hill and pack it in. It’s pretty wild to be tubing on a giant pile of snow in the middle of July—but it takes a lot of work. Our team does an incredible job moving snow into the area and preserving it. At around 11,000 feet, the tubing hill is north-facing, so it holds snow well and doesn’t melt as quickly, and it gradually gets smaller until we call it the end of the season.”
What makes summer on the mountain special? “Summer is just fun. The bike park is a big part of that, with trails opening as the mountain melts out. We also brought back a free concert series at the top of the mountain, where you ride the gondola up for live music and a great community atmosphere. It’s really for locals, and last year’s turnout exceeded expectations. This summer, we’re planning several shows with local bands, good weather, and a fun vibe that’s hard to beat.”
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