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Summer 2018 Northeast Offseason Improvements

JimG.

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That's for sure the way it works at mt snow.... For a lift I seldom ride on weekends/holidays it was an amazing upgrade for the rest of the mountain's sake.

Yeah Snowdon will now be a shit show on weekends. I loved the old lift on weekends because it was usually pretty empty. Didn't care that it was slow. Anything that keeps crowds away is a plus.

No more. Just means I'll spend more weekdays at K. For that schedule the new 6 pack will be a true bonus!
 

ALLSKIING

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Yeah Snowdon will now be a shit show on weekends. I loved the old lift on weekends because it was usually pretty empty. Didn't care that it was slow. Anything that keeps crowds away is a plus.

No more. Just means I'll spend more weekdays at K. For that schedule the new 6 pack will be a true bonus!
It will be fine Jim. The intermediates wont ski the trees or North Star ect and it wont take 10 mins to get back up the hill.

Sent from my SM-N950U using AlpineZone mobile app
 

WJenness

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Worth noting that Great Bear now has snowmaking and the 'cop out' has been removed, the trail will now be marked black top to bottom.

source: Killington's website: https://www.killington.com/the-moun...ain-improvements/snowdon-trails?season=winter

I wouldn't be surprised to see them try to open that up early to have another black open. (Though it isn't exactly a full length run, you'll have to ski Chute & GN to lap it.

Bonus: New trail map at the link above as well.
 

bdfreetuna

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keep the faith
Hopefully the "removal" of Mouse Trap along with the greater continuous flow of Great Northern as well as Chute & Bunny Buster achieves the expected results. Improved skier flow and less icy high traffic confusion.

Not sure why they are spending any $ on Great Bear especially considering how early that trail often opens on natural snow. A tunnel? Ok. Kind of a low-traffic trail but maybe they want to change that.

Gotta give K props for addressing the most common complaints (Snowdon congestion in particular).

I'm always in favor of black diamonds getting turned into blue squares (just to combat the plight of trail rating inflation). Not sure if it will be any less steep in that section but I assume it'll be groomed a lot more.
 

Newpylong

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Bear Trap is actually a familiar name. It used to be the current day Upper Bear Claw right next door, and Upper Bear Claw used to be the Stash before the park went in. So the names will swap with Lower Stash park closing.

The snowmaking is going in to Great Bear to provide more downhill capacity with the new lift going in. It won't be a signature trail, but it will become more of a core run after the tunnel goes in next year.

I like the changes in general, but especially to Bunny Buster basically returning to the its original routing/name before they built Mouse Trap which blew away Middle Bunny.
 

ALLSKIING

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ss20

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A minute from the Alta exit off the I-15!
Crowding will balance out on the hill. With the old Quad going to South Ridge, the new 6 pack is completely a net gain in eating people. Figuring around 90 chairs total, 45 going uphill averaging 5 people per chair is 225 people going up. Add in another 200 in line (that's a reasonable 5 minute wait or less). That's 425 people net gain to Killington's capacity. Figure a higher utilization of terrain on South Ridge and it's fair to say the mountain can comfortably handle another 500 people. Not a huge number for a resort that can attract 15k on a busy Saturday but enough to take some pressure off the rest of the mountain for sure.

Another way to look at 500 people...
10 tour buses
125 family SUV's
63 full gondi cabins.
 

drjeff

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Plus the cripple will be running on those days.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if the cripple, when it runs, will be for the KMS athlete's only the majority of the time. The public's best chance for access wouldn't surprise me if it was just during times when they're waiting to get the Snowdon 6 de-iced. Time will tell....
 
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