Keystone - Outpost Gondola | Dercum Mountain to North Peak (4K)

The Outpost Gondola at Keystone Resort Colorado, is a six person detachable gondola that travels between the Dercum Mountain and North Peak summits. It is over a mile long, and has quite an impressive lift profile. The purpose of the lift is to bring riders between the two summits of Dercum and North Peak, and is a great choice for riders looking to bypass either the Prospector (North Peak side) or Mozart (Dercum side) trails, avoiding a ride on the Santiago or Ruby chairlifts in between the two peaks. Between the two stations, the middle part of the lift line is flat with little elevation. As the lift line bends down into the Bergman gulley, and back out, it crosses over the Prospector trail that leads from the top of North Peak. Below the gondola are what’s known as The Windows, an all natural experts only set of glades and gullies, that requires hiking from the Dercum Mountain summit in order to access. The Outback gondola does not service any lapable terrain from either summit, but riders can access either end of Keystone resort from just one ride. Outback was built in the same year as the Outback and Wayback lifts in 1991, but is the only lift on the mountain with custom terminal buildings on either end. This can make an seemingly uninteresting loading queue stand out amongst other chairlifts at the resort. It's also worth mentioning that some of cabins the Outback utilizes were originally on the former River Run gondola, which operated on the front side of Keystone. The former River Run gondola was a VonRoll system, with the same type of gondola models as Outback. After the River Run gondola was retired in 2008, some of the cabins were shifted to and re-purposed to operate on the lift, and given new Doppelmayr D.S grips. Lift Info: Builder: Doppelmayr Year Built: 1991 Capacity: 2,400 riders/hr Vertical: 1,198 feet Length: 7,522 feet Design Speed: 1,000 Feet Per Minute / 5.08 Meters Per Second Speed During Recording: 986 fpm / 5.01 mps Ride Time: 7.9 Minutes Shot on 1/8/25.