{"id":802259,"date":"2019-12-12T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=375843"},"modified":"2019-12-12T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:30:00","slug":"fort-fun-kidtopia-holiday-spectacular-in-full-swing-with-snow-castle-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/fort-fun-kidtopia-holiday-spectacular-in-full-swing-with-snow-castle-open\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort fun: Kidtopia Holiday Spectacular in full swing with snow castle open"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Kidtopia Snow Fort opens Saturday, Dec. 14, at the top of Keystone Resort\u2019s Dercum Mountain.<\/strong>
Daniel Milchev \/ Keystone Resort<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

KEYSTONE RESORT \u2014 Since 2016, Keystone Resort has put on its Kidtopia Holiday Spectacular for local and visiting families. This year\u2019s event is now even more special with the opening of its Kidtopia Snow Fort on Saturday, Dec. 14.<\/a><\/p>\n

While the resort\u2019s Holiday Spectacular has been happening since River Run Village was illuminated in November<\/a>, the festivities truly ramp up with the completion of the snow fort and the display of the Keystone Chocolate Village. The village, made by Keystone Executive Pastry Chef Gabriel Geers with more than 7,000 pounds of imported chocolate, can be seen daily through Jan. 6 in the lobby of the Keystone Lodge and Spa. You can pick up some specialty chocolate at the Edgewater Caf\u00e9 if the edible gondola, waterfall and Christmas tree whet your appetite.<\/p>\n

The village is also one of the stops for Santa Claus from 3-6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 22. The big man in red also can be seen Saturday, Dec. 14, during Ripperoo\u2019s Parade and Sunday, Dec. 15, at Go Big Burger at Mountain House.<\/p>\n

From 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Dec. 24, Bighorn Bistro\u2019s Jingle Bell Breakfast is the final opportunity to meet Santa before he has to deliver presents. Breakfast reservations can me made by calling 970-496-4386.<\/p>\n

All other Kidtopia activities are still ongoing during the Holiday Spectacular, as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my favorite things that is taking place this year is a free, cross-country ski lesson at our Nordic center,\u201d Keystone spokeswoman Loryn Roberson said. Lessons are available from Dec. 19 through March 19.<\/p>\n

Solstice celebration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Arguably the most exciting visit with Santa occurs during Kidtopia\u2019s Mountaintop Spectacular on the winter solstice Saturday, Dec. 21. It is the only day the snow fort is lit up in holiday lights, and the evening features two firework shows \u2014 one at 6 p.m. at the mountain and one at 7 p.m. at the base, with the best views for the latter being on the gondola.<\/p>\n

Unofficially the world\u2019s largest snow fort, the Kidtopia creation measures 85 feet deep and 95 deep long above the resort\u2019s tubing hill at the top of the intermediate Spring Dipper run on Dercum Mountain.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s as big as we can possibly fit it in that area,\u201d Keystone Terrain Park Manager Tucker Baer said.<\/p>\n

Baer and his A51 Terrain Park team have been working on the project alongside regular collaborator Keith Martin of Snice Carvings. The design discussions between the two began in March to hammer out details on mazes, slides, tunnels and towers.<\/p>\n

Once snowmaking began in October, Baer\u2019s crew moved the necessary snow to Spring Dipper, so \u201cpeople are skiing on it without evening knowing,\u201d he said. \u201cThen it takes anywhere from two to three weeks to create the snow fort to its final state, and that all starts with us pulling the snow we hid on Spring Dipper and processing it to make sure its a safe and malleable snow, and then we push it basically into a big rectangle.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeith helps us with painting lines and space out all of our angles for our walls and where we\u2019ll put our entrance, and then we\u2019ll match the design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Keystone Resort\u2019s Holiday Spectacular is the one night the Kidtopia Snow Fort is illuminated and two firework displays burst in the air.<\/strong>
Tom Cohen \/ Keystone Resort<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Some of the tools of the trade include excavators, snowcats, chain saws, wood-carving tools and Martin\u2019s modified snowblower named Fluffy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put like 9 feet of snow on certain spots, and Keith goes and chisels out this square of snow into this beautiful tower,\u201d Baer said.<\/p>\n

The castle has six towers \u2014 the most it has ever had \u2014 along with a number a slides, a kid\u2019s entrance and intricate carvings of a dragon and a yeti. The same amount of slides as last season will be present, but in a slightly different configuration that has racing slides in the middle and a larger slide that transports kids toward the exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor kids who are feeling a little bit more adventurous, they can climb up on top of our walls, walk around on the towers and have a beautiful view from the snow castle of our surrounding peaks, and then there\u2019s a slide that you can go down,\u201d Baer said.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Slides and tunnels fill the Kidtopia Snow Fort at Keystone Resort, unofficially the world\u2019s largest snow fort.<\/strong>
Daniel Milchev \/ Keystone Resort<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Baer is proud of the work his team has accomplished. He\u2019s grown up in terrain parks and this is his first year as manager at Keystone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very natural for us to take on this project and make a snow fort out of nothing,\u201d Baer said. \u201cAll my guys are really passionate about that, and they do a really good job with their machines and doing things that other people couldn\u2019t even imagine doing in a sandbox as a kid.\u201d <\/p>\n

The fort closes at the end of the season due to warmer weather, yet the snow is repurposed for the resort\u2019s summer tubing lanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is pretty unique to Keystone and pretty awesome that the snow fort allows us to have that as an option for our summer guests,\u201d Baer said.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kidtopia Snow Fort opens Saturday, Dec. 14, at the top of Keystone Resort\u2019s Dercum Mountain.Daniel Milchev \/ Keystone Resort KEYSTONE RESORT \u2014 Since 2016, Keystone Resort has put on its Kidtopia Holiday Spectacular for local and visiting families. This year\u2019s event is now even more special with the opening of its Kidtopia Snow Fort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 09:16:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}