Plastic Bottles, Ski Equipment Among Treasures Unveiled With Snow Melt At Keystone Ski Resort
KEYSTONE, Colo. (CBS4)- It's a treasure hunt of sorts at Keystone Ski Resort, not gold but ski equipment, sunglasses, sometimes even wallets or cellphones. Volunteers are scaling the slopes to see what they can find now that all the snow has melted.
Under a bright sun and alongside dozens of new friends, Jed Danbury spent Wednesday morning on the slopes, without skiing or boarding equipment. He's helping find those lost items and help keep the mountain clean in the process.
Hundreds of thousands of people tackle the slopes at Keystone every season. They leave behind a lot of stuff. From ski poles to pocket knives, litter is buried and only when the snow melts, does the shear amount left behind become a reality.
"It's all of our area, that's why it's good to clean it up and make sure it's as clean as possible for everyone to enjoy," Danbury said as he picked up some plastic.
"There's a lot of stuff that falls off from the lifts, but there's still too much snow up at the top so we're starting at mid-mountain working our way across," he added.
More than 100 volunteers used recycled pillowcases to pick up the trash to avoid further plastic waste.
So far this year, volunteers from Vail Resorts and the community discovered a set of car keys, a large pocket knife, ski poles and lots of missing ski passes. They also are picking up bags full of water bottles and beer cans.
During past cleanups, crews have found jewelry, cash and valuable ski gear.
The amount of stuff found this year is still being collected and the value being evaluated.