Killington 4/18-19

Karl and I went to the big K this past weekend.

First off, Killington please stop abusing your defenseless snow! WAY WAY WAY too much grooming. The trails for the most part sucked this past weekend. Conclusion had a short stretch of decent bumps, but for the most part the rest of the mountain was nothing but GS slush piles. Total crap.

But in the end it didn't matter because there was a TON of snow left in the woods. Even steep tree areas had plenty of cover, but required some thrilling hike outs at the bottom. Anyway, that's where we spent the weekend, in the woods. Plenty of nice tight lines in there. And few skiers.

So we had a great time. I think it was the best tree skiing I had all year...which just means I spent too much time at Hunter where it hardly snowed this winter.

Nonetheless, it was a great weekend.

Great JimG. TR. Gotta get some more time in with you next year beyond a few distracted runs on Gunny.

I figured someone else would post a weekend report. My son and I were there on Sunday. This was our fourth out of five Patriot Day ski days. First, trip to Killlington since my early teenage Boston Ski Club days or was it Blizzard Ski Club...Anyway, I was trying to figure out if it was my ski technique deficiencies or were the conditions not great - probably a bit of both.

First a comment about my 13 year old son, I told him to set the alarm clock and wake me up. Sunday morning right at 5AM - "Dad, wake up!" Got to like a new minted teenager's enthusiasm when they want something! We were skiing before 9AM.

It had rained after 2PM Saturday and the first run down SuperStar was a series of skid turns on a "firm" granular. Note to myself: get edges sharpened before heading to Mt. Washington. Took until 1PM or so until things got softened up - then it was mushy bumps with soft boilerplate in between - which I couldn't get an edge into.

As usual, fell apart when the terrain was really steep and really bumpy but the runs of the day were Ovation and Skye Hawk. SuperStar left-side, the bumps were too big for my ability, the right-side, they were too far apart.

We skied right until 4PM and probably took 25 runs. My back is sore from hitting so many bumps!

Afterward, we drove over to Bear Mountain - all new in the last 32 years! Wow, I think that's a very impressive ski hill. My next comment is some of the houses/condos being built over are situated at over 2,000' - I bet they're big $$$ but the weather conditions at such a high elevation with a NW exposure in central vt must be pretty brutal - comments? I was - in general - astounded by the enormity of the place though - the place is huge.

All the traverses were a pain. After this week's forecasted rain they won't have much terrain open to end the season but SuperStar definitely has enough snow to get to May 2.

My son's comment was that Killington and Stowe have about the same # of really good skiers but Killlington has too many novices cluttering the slopes.

Angus said:

Afterward, we drove over to Bear Mountain - all new in the last 32 years! Wow, I think that's a very impressive ski hill. My next comment is some of the houses/condos being built over are situated at over 2,000' - I bet they're big $$$ but the weather conditions at such a high elevation with a NW exposure in central vt must be pretty brutal - comments?

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I was soaking in a hot tub up there looking at Outer Limits this afternoon. Bear is the warm part of the mountain and it's fairly sheltered since it's in the lee of the prevailing winds. The big winds are usually up on the ridge lines above 3000 feet.

I was lamenting the lack of snowmaking on Devil's Fiddle and pointing out where they blasted the cliff area in the mid-1980's to make skier's left more accessible to the masses. That was always Killington's best steep spring skiing bump trail. East-facing so the first thing to soften. More interesting than the over-hyped Outer Limits.

Angus said:

I was - in general - astounded by the enormity of the place though - the place is huge.

All the traverses were a pain. After this week's forecasted rain they won't have much terrain open to end the season but SuperStar definitely has enough snow to get to May 2.

My son's comment was that Killington and Stowe have about the same # of really good skiers but Killlington has too many novices cluttering the slopes.

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The Canyon area will have no problem making May 2nd. The runout won't make it. A good PR move would be to run the Canyon Quad instead of the Glades triple. People can ski to the bottom by going down Snowdon.

Those novices cluttering the slopes generate the revenue to keep the lifts spinning. When more of the mountain is running, you don't see novices in the advanced skiing areas.

Geoff said:

I was soaking in a hot tub up there looking at Outer Limits this afternoon. Bear is the warm part of the mountain and it's fairly sheltered since it's in the lee of the prevailing winds. The big winds are usually up on the ridge lines above 3000 feet.

I was lamenting the lack of snowmaking on Devil's Fiddle and pointing out where they blasted the cliff area in the mid-1980's to make skier's left more accessible to the masses. That was always Killington's best steep spring skiing bump trail. East-facing so the first thing to soften. More interesting than the over-hyped Outer Limits.









The Canyon area will have no problem making May 2nd. The runout won't make it. A good PR move would be to run the Canyon Quad instead of the Glades triple. People can ski to the bottom by going down Snowdon.

Those novices cluttering the slopes generate the revenue to keep the lifts spinning. When more of the mountain is running, you don't see novices in the advanced skiing areas.

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fiddle rant on ... awesome spring trail. i too remember the fiddle before they blasted the cliff and re-routed the upper section. i kinda remember them absolutely burying that cliff area w/ snowmaking. amazing! now they won't even blow a minimal base on the thing. sure it skis fine the day after a 2 ft dump but that's it. while most of us prefer natural snow trails, the fiddle never was intended to be a natural snow trail. you'd never design a trail with that steepness & width at that elevation & exposure without snowmaking. madness ... while i'm on it, same thing with lower ovation. the new owners don't seem to have the commitment that's needed to keep it open and skiing well.

skiadikt said:

fiddle rant on ... awesome spring trail. i too remember the fiddle before they blasted the cliff and re-routed the upper section. i kinda remember them absolutely burying that cliff area w/ snowmaking. amazing! now they won't even blow a minimal base on the thing. sure it skis fine the day after a 2 ft dump but that's it. while most of us prefer natural snow trails, the fiddle never was intended to be a natural snow trail. you'd never design a trail with that steepness & width at that elevation & exposure without snowmaking. madness ... while i'm on it, same thing with lower ovation. the new owners don't seem to have the commitment that's needed to keep it open and skiing well.

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I would have to agree with everything here.

The grooming in the Spring has gotten ridiculous! Many of the bumps on SS in 2knees video from 4/17 were mowed Friday night and all that was left were the severe double fall line bumps hard left on SS.They groom all the air out of the snow and all that is left is that sugary crap. Throw in some rain and a freeze and it's plain junk.

JimG. said:

They groom all the air out of the snow and all that is left is that sugary crap. Throw in some rain and a freeze and it's plain junk.

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I was talking with Pat about this very thing today. It seemed like the based was so pinned down that it would take a week of 60 degree temps to get the base soft enough, deep enough, to get any decent bumps forming, and that's only with serious constant ripper traffic. Just ain't gonna happen.

JimG. said:

The grooming in the Spring has gotten ridiculous! Many of the bumps on SS in 2knees video from 4/17 were mowed Friday night and all that was left were the severe double fall line bumps hard left on SS.

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The bumps we skied on Friday were still there Saturday. I think that right most line of skier's left may have been groomed for Sunday (can't remember,) but at that point they had left skier's right alone, which produces better bumps anyways.

Greg said:

I was talking with Pat about this very thing today. It seemed like the based was so pinned down that it would take a week of 60 degree temps to get the base soft enough, deep enough, to get any decent bumps forming, and that's only with serious constant ripper traffic. Just ain't gonna happen.

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cascade, double dipper and even downdraft have the same problem. for the most part there's nothing that remotely resembles snow on them. it's that same chopped crap on top of solid ice.