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Killington - New Years Day 2013

bdfreetuna

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I sort of planned to go to MRG but the neighbors were keeping me up late and I slept in slightly much to make the 3 hour drive to MRG. But the 2+ hour drive to K was doable, and I got there just after 9:00. I was pretty stoked because when I got within 5 or 10 miles of K it started snowing pretty heavily, and looked like it had been doing so all night. I had no hangover and this being my 5th day skiing in an 8 day time frame I was feeling strong and ready to go.

Conditions were powder in the trees, mostly packed powder some hard pack / machine groomed and/or windswept on the runs. Lots of moguls on the diamonds and doubles. There was very high winds at some points during the day and also very cold. Sun peeked out a few times through the clouds which was really nice but mostly it snowed and felt like a real wind chill. The woods were obviously sheltered so I spent most of the day in the woods, as was the plan anyway.

Here's what I remember skiing and how it was. I started on K-Peak, then Canyon area, then Superstar > Bear Mountain > Skye Peak > Canyon Reprise > Superstar again.

Double Dipper / Big Dipper Woods: DD was getting blasted with guns but the Big Dipper woods were really nice. The side closest to the trail is more of a glade and that was okay with soft snow and some sticks coming through the snow, but the woods further away from the trail were incredible. Deep soft snow and lots of freshies.

Powerline: Never skied this before. It's narrow and bumpy.

Superstar: Kind of scratchy but some people with better hardpack skiing skills than myself were skiing it well. Skye Lark was the same.

Woods to the right of Superstar: These aren't on the map but I followed someone in here looking for shelter from the wind. Snow was deep untracked and there were some water spots to watch out for. I caught a ski on something and ended up upside down in a snow hole. Not really buried, but it took me 10 or 15 minutes to pop my skis off and figure out how to get myself out. Snow was very deep and there trees were ghosts in the higher terrain, so use caution if you are making fresh tracks.

Somewhere / Nowhere Woods: Soooo sweet. Snow was awesome. I liked these.

Downdraft: Kind of icey at the top, I scratched my way down a couple sections because I didn't want to lose control of speed on such a steep run. Got better a bit lower down.

Outer Limits: Had about 20 guns blowing on it. Mostly it was very soft and medium size and some large bumps. Never skied this trail with actually good conditions before. Always been an ice rink with massive moguls in my experience.

Anarchy: I went in these sort of randomly but when I ended up on the top of Flume I realized what I had skied. Some pretty steep areas in here, but the snow was great. No fresh tracks, just big soft bumps and a few rocks and sticks to make it interesting. These woods get steeper towards the bottom I actually entered them thinking they looked like some easier woods but I ended up taking my time getting down the bottom half or so. Not quite as steep as Paradise at MRG but there were a couple sections that had me wondering how Paradise was today.

Wildfire: This run sucked. There is a little headwall on this trail, which was made of ice so I had to schuss it. Below that was hardpack and some death cookies so I probably felt less in control there than anywhere else that day.

The Throne: This is my pick of the day. It's a moderately steep glade next to East Fall. Really quite snowy in there and mostly untracked. I meant to return to it but instead ended up in...

Chop Chop: Similar to The Throne but more tracked out and more opened up as well. So technically I did ski Snowdon but only the woods :)

I skied a bunch of other runs but this is what stands out to me looking at the map now. Plus I should stop writing at some point. Never had to wait in line more than a minute today, mostly skied on.

The Canyons was the best area and IMO the best part of Killington. It was nice to ride the Canyon Quad a few times and just stay in that area.
 

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JimG.

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Glad to hear it's still good after the weekend.

You skied many of the same areas we did. And yes, Anarchy and Julio get steeper as you descend towards Flume. The exits can be very sketchy at times. But not this past weekend.
 

bdfreetuna

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Thanks. Yeah I can see the exit of Anarchy and Julio being sketch in icy conditions. Lucky if I could make that exit in one big side scrape!

Photo #1= Anarchy
Photo #2= The Throne
Photo #3= Big Dipper woods
Photo #4= top of Bear Mountain
 

BeefyBoy50

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This might sound really stupid to most of you (granted it was pretty stupid) but last year I was in Killington with my friend who isn't quite at the same level as I am. I think it was president's weekend. I showed him a couple glades and he was really excited with the tree skiing. He was also fairly competent on the groomed part of outer limits so I figured he could ski anything on the mountain. Naturally, we looked at the trail map and saw Julio was the biggest, baddest glade on the mountain. Now as KTon hadn't had much snow before then, the trail was closed. We silly teenagers thought, however, "ha! how hard can the east coast really be. we can handle this..." Besides we saw 6 inches of untracked snow and it was not steep at the top. So we ducked the lines and skiied down. The snow started off a little crunchy with hard ice underneath but in places we found the best powder on the mountain. Now it got progressively steeper as we skiied down, and at the bottom, almost within sight of the flat where the gondola goes by, we found we were somehow atop a cliff band covered in ice. I found it was my responsibility to help my friend down as I stupidly took him on the trail, and now I could see why it was closed. I wasn't just gonna jump the small cliffs and leave him anyway, and it was steep so I was nervous how he would be. I skiied down a bit first, grabbed a tree, and told him to come to me and grab me if he fell. Well he fell, and he grabbed me alright, but so hard that he pulled us both over the little cliff and down the icy slope. I couldn't believe I was about to die skiing in the east. Somehow we both slid down and to a stop in the powder being lucky enough to glance off only a few logs and stumps without getting hurt. But my friend's ski had come off- atop the cliff! So I tried climbing back up twice to get it only to slide down again at a dangerous speed somehow still not getting hurt. I wound up leaving my friend when I made sure he had his phone, I got on superstar, and skiied the entire run again just to get the ski 30 feet above us. We really averted a disaster. I guess what i'm trying to say here is don't under estimate julio (or other difficult glades in the east) in sketchy conditions.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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He was also fairly competent on the groomed part of outer limits so I figured he could ski anything on the mountain.

He was "fairly competent" on a groomer so you thought he could handle anything? Mistake # 1.


"ha! how hard can the east coast really be. we can handle this..."

Mistake # 2

Personally I wouldn't have left my buddy and gone back up the lift. Might have been better to click out of your skis or board and hike up to help him. I have been on Julio where that steep section was nothing more than rocks and a little ice coating so I understand the dilemma. I also don't think I have ever skied Julio and Anarchy without ducking the ropes. They are almost always closed so you really need to make a solid judgment on snowpack before going in.

Hey what's skiing without a little adventure right? =)

Hopefully you both come out of it smarter skiers!
 

bdfreetuna

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Now I'm not sure if I skied Julio or Anarchy that day. The description of the bottom sounds exactly like what I remember. And it dumped me out halfway down Flume or so. Probably was Julio... I'll have to make a point to ski them both next time.

Adventure is the heart of skiing!
 
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