Killington 3/25-3/26/22

[Zand]

Resort or Ski Area

Killington

Date

Mar 25, 2022

Snow Conditions

1. Slush or Spring Snow

Started on the bubble at the opening bell in some light rain and soupy fog. Ran through Chute, East Fall, and Cascade on the buttery corduroy but definitely some water flows to ski through as well from last night's rain. Moved over to Bear where the sun was out and it felt like another planet. Skyeburst was fun and corny early (though not without some real thin areas) as were Northway, Cruise Control, and Panic/Needles. Wildfire was pretty ugly. Hopped over to Superstar for a few runs on creamy Skyelark and Bittersweet and then a freshly opened ungroomed Superstar. Very weird surface...like a corny frankensnow type surface. It was fun and interesting but at the same time not something I wanted to run back to.

Headed off the hill for lunch, then came back around 2 for the afternoon shift. A few ungroomed trails had the ropes dropped, including Great Bear which had fun bumps up top and then was decent the rest of the way. Took Bunny Buster to Chute which was a mess by then, followed by Mouse Run (ROTD for groomers, awesome carvable snow all afternoon) to a deep corned Highline. Headed up intending to hit Escapade but instead went to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of the Light. Probably the only woods with sufficient coverage on the whole mountain, but also very lonely in there so only went once. Cascade was getting slick, but moved over to Downdraft the next couple runs which had some great corn and a few shitty bump lines. But probably my favorite from today. Finished up with a few Mouse Run/Highline combos.

Thankful that it was just warm enough to soften everything up today. The corn harvest ended up being a successful one for sure. Hopefully the same for tomorrow. The coverage is getting real ugly in a lot of places, but with the big chill coming I'm sure they will shore up some of the high traffic trouble spots (and pile more onto Superstar, which is not quite where it usually is in March for depth, but might be after one more snowmaking romp).

 

[Zand]

Woke up this morning to the summit fogged in and the temp below freezing, so decided to go get breakfast and then headed up around 10. Rams lot full with a big line, Snowshed almost full, Snowdon lots all full, and then Vail lots pretty empty but I didn't feel like waiting in the Rams line so I just drove away and headed to Pico. Just didn't have the patience to deal with crowds to ski frozen corral.

Only skied for about 2 hours. Not many people at Pico but the upper mountain was frozen solid with death cookies, boilerplate ice, and frozen groomer tracks abound. Had more fun on the softer lower mountain, but unfortunately nothing good open from Little Pico to keep it interesting and the stuff off Golden is mostly flat. Fun while it lasted, but decided to head out early.

 

[eatskisleep]

Thanks for the TR!

 

[thetrailboss]

Well, you can say you skied at Pico on its closing day. Looks really thin there. What a fun place when there is snow!

 

[Zand]

For whatever reason yesterday was only my 2nd time at Pico and first in 15 years. Both visits were late March with limited terrain. Definitely going to make it a point to spend a day there midwinter next year. It's literally bigger than any of the peaks at Killington and has some terrific pitch to it. Looks like it has a ton of good tree skiing too. Not sure why I've kind of ignored the place so much but I've been missing out.

 

[thetrailboss]

For whatever reason yesterday was only my 2nd time at Pico and first in 15 years. Both visits were late March with limited terrain. Definitely going to make it a point to spend a day there midwinter next year. It's literally bigger than any of the peaks at Killington and has some terrific pitch to it. Looks like it has a ton of good tree skiing too. Not sure why I've kind of ignored the place so much but I've been missing out.

Your observations are correct. Granted it has been about 11 years since I last skied there but I imagine it is pretty similar. I skied there quite a bit from 2000-2007 or so. It has GREAT glades and narrow runs. It has at least five distinct trail pods (seven before ASC removed the Poma and Birch Double Chair). It HAD a lot of snowmaking, but it was pretty old and I think POWDR has dismantled some of it. Upper Sunset '71, Upper KA, Summit Glades are all favorites of mine. Upper Giant Killer is pretty gnarly. The old Poma Line is also pretty technical. And I am not even mentioning Outpost--some really short but steep and technical skiing off that lift. The old Yan HSQs are pretty neat. If it were anywhere else but right beside Killington I think it would have done very well. But it is where it is (and was there about 20 years or so before Killington existed). Heck, the "original" ski area (Little Pico Triple) is still open and legit (A, B, C slopes).

 

[gnardawg]

For whatever reason yesterday was only my 2nd time at Pico and first in 15 years. Both visits were late March with limited terrain. Definitely going to make it a point to spend a day there midwinter next year. It's literally bigger than any of the peaks at Killington and has some terrific pitch to it. Looks like it has a ton of good tree skiing too. Not sure why I've kind of ignored the place so much but I've been missing out.

I thought everybody knew Pico stinks and no one should ever go there.....