According to Sr's site, Locke is 1460' of vert. Andy, have you ever skied SR because saying it isn't an opening if it's just T2 makes zero sense. Even before they opened Lower Sunday Punch I was lapping T2 and having a blast. It seemed plenty open to me. And for people calling it a "White Ribbon" or a "Little Strip" have no clue of what they're talking about. Look at the pics and you'll see pretty good coverage, Especially for OCT 17.
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Snowmaking underway at Killington
- Thread starter SpinmasterK
- Start date
The red line is from the SR's Locke midstation to the summit station:
Thus, T2 is about 575' vertical.
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Capris cam
Thus, T2 is about 575' vertical.
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Capris cam
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andyzee
New member
I have skied Sunday River once, so I"m no expert on it. Nice mountain really liked it and not knocking it, so please don't think that. Since I only skied it once, I'm far from and expert on the mountain and in fact had to take a look at their map to see where T2 is located, I considered going up until I saw what was open. That is what leads me to ask what can you consider a real opening? Since I didn't know what T2 was or where it was located I looked at their map, and when I saw it, I was amazed. If you look at my picture, you'll see that Killington easily had enough snow on the North Ridge area to open not one but three trails with as much vertical. Guess they figure the hillbilly days are over and not worth the trouble. At the same time plenty of other mountains, I'm sure could have done the same
drjeff
Well-known member
I have skied Sunday River once, so I"m no expert on it. Nice mountain really liked it and not knocking it, so please don't think that. Since I only skied it once, I'm far from and expert on the mountain and in fact had to take a look at their map to see where T2 is located, I considered going up until I saw what was open. That is what leads me to ask what can you consider a real opening? Since I didn't know what T2 was or where it was located I looked at their map, and when I saw it, I was amazed.
Andy, if K was open today with say just Rime, would you consider it being open?? Your answer to that question would be your answer to your "real opening" question IMHO
Plus, I know back in the pre-K1 days, K DEFINATELY considered themselves open as soon as Upper Cascade opened from the mid station
speden
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Noticed some Sunday River vids on youtube from today. Looks like they made some pretty good snow out there.
by reverse logic, would a mountain offering skiing with downloading in the spring really be closed? :razz:
Most years I'm content to wait until mid-November to get out there. The Jones wasn't particularly worse this year than normal. I'll admit my effort was based on the novelty of it being mid-October and I had nothing better to do today. Glad I went though. It was damn fun for what it was and a heckuva deal at $25.
Talked with treeskier on the lift today about how Sugarbush could easily be the king of fall and spring with their Summit chair on North.
Most years I'm content to wait until mid-November to get out there. The Jones wasn't particularly worse this year than normal. I'll admit my effort was based on the novelty of it being mid-October and I had nothing better to do today. Glad I went though. It was damn fun for what it was and a heckuva deal at $25.
Talked with treeskier on the lift today about how Sugarbush could easily be the king of fall and spring with their Summit chair on North.
jerryg
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Sunday River was open top to bottom today, but because they had been making snow into the morning and didn't know how the snow would settle on Sunday Punch, they only announced once trail. T2 was wall to wall and the coverage was better than on Halloween last year. It was pretty crowded but not too bad. There was one guy there from Virginia who had traveled 14 hours. There a lot of Vermont plates in the lot as well.
It was a lot of fun and if the rolls had been reversed, I'd have driven to K. It's not about anything but being able to make turns. Try it before you hate and then get over it.
It was a lot of fun and if the rolls had been reversed, I'd have driven to K. It's not about anything but being able to make turns. Try it before you hate and then get over it.
I realized you weren't knocking it and I don't blame you one bit for not making the trek up. If I couldn't have day tripped it I wouldn't have gone either. But to me if the lifts are running and customers are skiing then it's open. I had as much fun as I had the closing weekend at Sugarloaf last May and the Loaf had 3 trails open. My second comment wasn't directed at you but the people calling it WROD. The coverage is really good.
andyzee
New member
OK,, my point, what do you consider an opening. The following are two videos, obviously I'm being sarcastic, but it to prove a point. Going by some of the comments I've seen, first video has snow, has a slope, has a bunch of kids having fun. One thing missing is a lift, so second video will give you that. Now my point, where do you draw the line, with these, you could consider them opening, perhaps the only thing missing is a charge, but then we don't know that either of these didn't charge. Sunday River is a great mountain, don't want to take anything away from the mountain, just from the PR dept.
drjeff
Well-known member
Lift spinning + downhill snow sliding + need of a lift ticket = open in my book
WJenness
Active member
+1.
Heading up to SR to get my fix in a few hours.
REALLY psyched they got top to bottom open today.
-w
Andyzee, I just think you are jealous of the people who got to ski and I was one of them on Friday. Your trail map is not fully correct, the midstation is below where your circle ends. I
It was more vert than Killington use to offer from the old Killington double midstation , which if I remember correctly, Pres sometimes did not make snow to the top so some walking was required.
As for the guy in Virgina, 14 hours of driving is twice the distance you would of had to drive!!
It was more vert than Killington use to offer from the old Killington double midstation , which if I remember correctly, Pres sometimes did not make snow to the top so some walking was required.
As for the guy in Virgina, 14 hours of driving is twice the distance you would of had to drive!!
andyzee
New member
Glad you and everyone else had a great time and yes sitting here in Rutland with skis and no snow, I am very jealous. But really after hiking up Killington yesterday seeing all the snow they have up top, but not at the bottom, and not opening becuase they didn't have snow at the bottom, just got me thinking as to what constitutes an opening.
speden
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I don't understand Killington's approach to snowmaking. What's the point of only making snow up high when you have no way to get skiers up there to use it? Apparently they are "stockpiling" it, but with modern snow guns that can crank out huge quantities of snow in a short amount of time, I don't see why it is necessary to stockpile it.
Isn't the trend in modern snow making to have fixed guns and blow trails top to bottom when you are ready to open them? Kind of like "just in time" manufacturing, you don't make the product until you're ready to sell it to someone. Keeping inventory is old fashioned and expensive.
When I see photos of snowmaking at Killington, they always seem to have people physically setting up those portable snow guns with hoses rather than having fixed guns that can just be activated remotely by computer. That looks slow and labor intensive, as well as inefficient.
Also I wonder if they have a capacity problem with their snowmaking such that they cannot blow the top and bottom of their early season trails simultaneously, but need to do it in stages. That's the only reason I can think of for them to stockpile useless snow in mid October. Clearly Sunday River demonstrated that this small window of cold weather was sufficient to open a top to bottom trail with modern snowmaking, yet for some reason Killington was not prepared to do the same.
It seems to me if a mountain wants to take advantage of these early season cold snaps, then it should set up their early season terrain with built in guns that can blow those trails top to bottom simultaneously at the press of a button. Then just a couple nights of cold temps, and you're open.
Isn't the trend in modern snow making to have fixed guns and blow trails top to bottom when you are ready to open them? Kind of like "just in time" manufacturing, you don't make the product until you're ready to sell it to someone. Keeping inventory is old fashioned and expensive.
When I see photos of snowmaking at Killington, they always seem to have people physically setting up those portable snow guns with hoses rather than having fixed guns that can just be activated remotely by computer. That looks slow and labor intensive, as well as inefficient.
Also I wonder if they have a capacity problem with their snowmaking such that they cannot blow the top and bottom of their early season trails simultaneously, but need to do it in stages. That's the only reason I can think of for them to stockpile useless snow in mid October. Clearly Sunday River demonstrated that this small window of cold weather was sufficient to open a top to bottom trail with modern snowmaking, yet for some reason Killington was not prepared to do the same.
It seems to me if a mountain wants to take advantage of these early season cold snaps, then it should set up their early season terrain with built in guns that can blow those trails top to bottom simultaneously at the press of a button. Then just a couple nights of cold temps, and you're open.
mondeo
New member
Nobody can blow their entire mountain at once, by building up their opening terrain up top they'll be able to expand much quicker when they do open. Pretty simple, actually.
speden
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I didn't mean the entire mountain. I was talking about a single top to bottom trail for the early season.
mondeo
New member
I know. But this way when they are able to blow the lower mountain, they'll probably have 5 trails open up top, and can expand to either the Canyon or Snowdon basically immediately. You know, open more than the hated WROD.
Opening in November with 5 trails would be MIGHTY sad.
well, 'when they are able' was this week, which is really what most people are upset about. The only reason Killington was not opening this weekend was economics. They had the same, if not better situation to open top to bottom as Sunday River. Almost 1/2 of what Sunday River offered this weekend was at lower elevation than the base of Snowdon.
One thing I do know is that Sunday River is going to try like hell to be open top to bottom next weekend. If weather doesn't allow, they've got enough snow up on T2 to offer upper mountain skiing again. Eventually the top terrain will be expanded to Upper Sunday Punch and Exstacy, so they can have two lifts going, followed by Cascade down low so that there are two lower mountain option.
Given equal snow making operating windows moving forward, I'm not sure an argument can be made as to which mountain has the better strategy in terms of quick terrain expansion. I guess the proof will be in the numbers/acreage offered in a couple of weeks.
