DJ Z Trip Invades Colorado

America’s Best DJ (DJ Times and ClubDistrict.com) Z-Trip blazed through Colorado in a whirlwind weekend with a Friday night show in Denver, a quick flight back to Los Angeles to accept the 2009 Spike Video Game Award for DJ Hero on Saturday, then turned around and flew back to get some shred on at local Summit County resorts Copper Mountain and Keystone Resort. It's the life of a man on the move, and with Z-Trip's schedule, there's no time to spare.

Z Trip headlined the sold out show at the Ogden Theater with a worthy opening act in misty Canadian DJ Kid Koala, creator of graphic novels, soundtracks, album and, as he puts it, "new tours including but not limited to: a puppet musical about a robot who works at a cookie factory (complete with turntable orchestra pit), a quiet-time headphone/beanbag tour for the non-dancing listeners, and a hilarious Roller-rink tour which should be fun for the whole family."

Kid Koala got things going and warmed up the crowd for the musical beatdown that Z Trip was about to unleash. He even played actual vinyl the whole time, a rare sight in these days.

Supplies for the night.

By the time Z Trip hit the stage, the place was packed with people ready to get down.

It was on!

The Ogden is a great venue with plenty of room to move around.

Things started to heat up.

The girls hanging out backstage.

The dance floor was crackin'.

Anya and Co.

Cuttin' it up.

Kevin in the house.

So get out ya seat and jump around, jump up jump up and get down.

Kid Koala came back out for a little a tag team action.

Rock on.

The show was a great success, bug ups to Denver for turning out in force as usual. It nice to see so many people who appreciate real talent instead of the wack dance club "DJs" who don't even rock real turntables anymore.

A day later, we found ourselves in the middle of a certified blizzard as we made our way into the mountains. Summit County was ground zero for two converging low pressure systems rapidly moving across the Rockies. Utah got a couple feet out of the storm, while Copper and Keystone benefitted a good 6-8 inches to help soften things up.

Copper had just played host to the first Grand Prix Olympic Qualifier event on final, in which Shaun White took first and our lil' "tiny dancer" buddy Louie Vito nabbed second with double cork 1080s sealing the deal. On Sunday they were prepping the massive 22-footer for an AT&T commerical shoot with Women's Snowboarding Olympic champion Gretchen Bleiler.

It was dumping snow all day long, making for awesome riding conditions and pumping up Colorado's much-needed base. Things are really starting to fill in up here.

We cruised around exploring Copper's vast terrain on their multiple high speed chairs, just a little different experience from the old school double chairs at the last couple places I've been riding (Wolf Creek and Argentina).

These things have trail maps built into the bar. It was easy to notice Copper even has a run named Bariloche! Small world.

With plenty of terrain and Colorado's only open Superpipe this weekend, Copper is a good place to be in Summit County right now.

After a mellow night having twitter wars in Breckenridge with JJ Thomas, Louie Vito and Todd Richards, on Monday it was over to Keystone to hit up the spacious gondola and the fresh snow that had fallen overnight.

Keystone is yet another Summit County snowboarding mainstay that has made vast improvements since opening its slopes to shredders back in 1996 or '97 (can't remember, but that year was good). Since then, they've made a valiant effort to claim best park status with A51—their network of trails serviced by its own lift, filled with all kinds of jib, boxes, rails and jumps.

Some of the big booters starting to take shape.

We were joined by Denver's DJ Klaw, who came up to help us plot and scheme the next takeover. Looks like it's going to be Belly Up, Aspen, December 29th...

Keystone's got a lot of new terrain opening daily as well, and a full mountain tour was in order, all the way to the backside. The new snow made everything nice and soft to explore stashes on the side.

Two DJs and their snowboards...

At the end of the day, we noticed a previously closed run had opened up and an untouched wide open powder field awaited below. This was Z Trip's chance to get another taste of what it's like to ride real snow, and he pulled through like a champ, slashing his way to freedom. It was the perfect way to end the day, and a good sign that Colorado's winter is finally on the right track. Special thanks to Copper Mountain and Keystone Resort for letting us visit, and stayed tuned for more adventures from the hill soon to come.