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Killington skiing into June.!

AdironRider

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Agreed. Killington gets my respect. Lots of people in this thread thought that June 1 was a sure thing. The lesson here is that Mother Nature gets the last word.


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Wasn't it over 90 degrees like a week ago back there? Impressive run regardless of the weather. 200 day season is pretty kickass no matter how you slice it.
 

dlague

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I had a feeling this week's weather would be K's death knell. I've been making the pilgrimage every weekend for the last five, and was always amazed how much snow loss had occurred from one weekend to the next. I guess I shouldn't be, it is almost Summer after all.

I've skied on Memorial Day Weekend once before, but not with the benefit of a ride to the top. The fact that K provided a continuous path of snow from the top to the bottom of the quad, at least for ⅔ of the weekend, was quite impressive, kudos. Here's to making it to June 1st and beyond in 2016. I'll have fond memories of my late Spring turns until I'm back hiking the stairway next Fall.

Agreed. Killington gets my respect. Lots of people in this thread thought that June 1 was a sure thing. The lesson here is that Mother Nature gets the last word.


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I called it after hearing that walking was required on Monday and seeing liquid snow and a blow torch in the forecast. At least we were all hopeful. I skied the latest in a season ever this year. Definitely have respect for k town. There are others who could try the same stuff but are too far from NY to make it worth while.
 

yeggous

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Don't forget those Joey's from New Jersey.

Absolutely ruin the place.

Couldn't agree more. It's a comparable (or shorter) drive for me to get to K-Mart, but I avoid it because of that crowd.


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Newpylong

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And the clientel to support an extended season.

And a better snowmaking system.

And IMO, better terrain.

If we are talking about early season the only advantage is clientele.

Sugarbush would be able to put just as much snow in marginal temps on Upper FIS and Rim Run as Killington on Rime/Reason/Upper East fall and there would not be walking.

Terrain on Summit Quad vs North Ridge is exponentially better and more plentiful. 5 distinctly trails with snowmaking from inter to expert that actually have character.

Of course, they would have to want to do this.
 

Newpylong

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Have fun with those stairs. Did it once and never again so long as there are other options. I'll be at Sunday River, Wildcat, or Bretton Woods.


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Well, you won't be at any of those except Sunday River that early.
 

deadheadskier

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Bretton Woods and Wildcat were both open last year (Wildcat top to bottom) while you still needed to use the stairwell at Killington. I think K probably beat them to be open by a week, but not much more than that.
 

joshua segal

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Bretton Woods and Wildcat were both open last year (Wildcat top to bottom) while you still needed to use the stairwell at Killington. I think K probably beat them to be open by a week, but not much more than that.
I consider the stairway to be a positive. With the limited open terrain, I think that the stairway keeps the crowds on a relatively small pod to manageable (although I was told that the lift line was close to a half-hour on the first open weekend). But for me, the criterion is simple: Killington: 2hr. drive; BW: 3 hrs.; Wildcat: almost 4 hrs. The stairway (I was told) cost $60K. Chris Nyberg was quoting as saying, that they made it all back and more the first season it was open.
 

deadheadskier

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It is a positive. It gets them open earlier and you're right, it keeps the crowd down compared to the old days of Upper Cascade off the double. I'm sure they've had an excellent ROI. No one was arguing against those factors.

It's 2.5 hours to Killington or Bretton Woods for me. I normally ski Killington early season. This year I opted for Bretton Woods. The two top to bottom trails they had open early season were the better option than Glades area terrain at Killington. Longer runs, more vertical, no walking. $19 a ticket. no brainer

Glad people have choices
 

machski

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The advantage to the walkway is Killington can open and be fairly sure they can stay open up on that pod and ride out most warm weather that can happen early season. Same with SR on T2, the difference is SR will only operate weekends until TTB where Killington opens continuous. Any talk of moving late season off SS is nuts. Elevation does not matter too much given the only skiable section is the lowest elevation on the trail right now. Has to be a combination of drainage on the trail, base depth and angle to the sun given how the melt out occurs.
 

Cornhead

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Just remember to bring your lunch with you, I went hungry because I didn't want to hike the stairs twice.
 

SIKSKIER

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Pretty sure this is where the mid unload was.This 1994 Google Earth is pretty low res but I believe its just to the left of this marker.That would make about 700 vert.
 

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Newpylong

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It was there, just before lower Cascade peeled off, and just after where you could hop over and get on from Upper Downdraft.
 

dlague

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Just remember to bring your lunch with you, I went hungry because I didn't want to hike the stairs twice.

Been there done that! The first year we skied there early season, they were cooking burgers and hotdogs at the lift and we did not have any cash. Now we bring a pack and leave it on the ground at the top of Canyon Quad including adult beverages! We have only done the early season gig 4 times and learned from the first experience. However, on time we skied on October 30th and were able to poach trails to the base.
 

dlague

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Gotta hand it to these two, and there will probably be more, for getting it while it lasts.

killingtonhiking.jpg
 

skiadikt

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k opened on monday nov 3 on the north ridge (glades) pod with the stairs and went t-t-b on sat nov 15.

for those who missed it, after they installed the k1, for a few years they used trucks to move skiers back & forth to the north ridge. here's a video i made back in '98 documenting that madness. this was saturday october 24. they shut it down the following day.

 

yeggous

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k opened on monday nov 3 on the north ridge (glades) pod with the stairs and went t-t-b on sat nov 15.

for those who missed it, after they installed the k1, for a few years they used trucks to move skiers back & forth to the north ridge. here's a video i made back in '98 documenting that madness. this was saturday october 24. they shut it down the following day.


Yes, I remember you poor souls were still hiking the stairs to wait in line to ride the triple. Meanwhile in New Hampshire we were running express quads with no lines a week before Killington opened to the bottom.


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