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USSA Proposes World Cup At Killington

KustyTheKlown

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the disco biscuits are playing albany 11/23 and 11/24. i really wanted to go 11/23 and then ski the next day. killington is gonna be such a shitshow tho. i hope stratton is open and worthwhile that weekend.
 

Newpylong

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Perhaps, but the money going into lifts and South Ridge trail resurrection (however controversial to the vocal minority) this year certainly is trending towards revival. Won't see a full rebirth until (and if) that interconnect is ever built to replace lost acreage, but they're on the right track with the Cup, early and late openings, etc. If I was a K regular or called it home there is not much to complain about going into this year.
 

mister moose

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Perhaps, but the money going into lifts and South Ridge trail resurrection (however controversial to the vocal minority) this year certainly is trending towards revival. Won't see a full rebirth until (and if) that interconnect is ever built to replace lost acreage, but they're on the right track with the Cup, early and late openings, etc. If I was a K regular or called it home there is not much to complain about going into this year.

Not sure what South Ridge Trail resurrection you're talking about. There are no new trails. We do get back the lift, but no one is expecting it to run weekdays, and even some weekends it might not. The SR triple used to run only on holidays or big event weekends after Bear opened.

The rebirth to many of us was when Killington returned to the "First to open, last to close" mode.

The real estate market is so slow that the announced Bear Condo project has quietly been shelved.
https://vermontbiz.com/news/april/killington-prepares-110-million-upgrade-bear-mountain
No word on the concurrent Bear lodge renovation. If ski-in condos at Bear won't sell, how are you going to sell a more expensive Village that isn't even slope-side? Add in flat skier visits to the State of Vermont, and the interconnect looks a long way off.
 

Newpylong

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I am aware of how little the "fridge" ran, I've been going there since the mid 80's. By resurrecting I mean reinstalling the lift (which is crucial to servicing that pod), and fixing the Pipe Dream snowmaking. Though there are some who think SR is their private stash and enjoy a 45 minute lap down into Bear, up Skye and over K-1 to do it all again, as both an occasional K customer and someone involved in management (elsewhere), I consider that a waste of terrain.



I also don't see the Interconnect happening - not until those visits get way back up.
 
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ss20

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Yeah it's a real shame about those bear condos not happening (for now, at least).

Owning a condo at the base of Devil's Fiddle or Outer Limits would be incredible. Imagine the grill running at noon on a 60 degree April spring day. Build a snow bar and have a couple cold ones while watching people on some of the most unrelenting and legendary terrain in the East.
 

ss20

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Just wondering when does Bear peak usually open and close for the season? I usually only ski K early or late season.

Usually 3rd week of December to the 1st or 2nd weekend in April. They host the mogul challenge and then open the weekend after as a "bonus" weekend (that's they're typical spin on it at least). 2 years ago they went to the 16th (Easter Sunday) and it was amazing with temps in the 70s.
 

Pez

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Haha. The Bear mountain condo project just popped into my head last night. I was thinking how amazing it would be to look out in the early morning at devil's fiddle with the sun coming up.
 

sull1102

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the disco biscuits are playing albany 11/23 and 11/24. i really wanted to go 11/23 and then ski the next day. killington is gonna be such a shitshow tho. i hope stratton is open and worthwhile that weekend.

Mount Snow will likely have significantly more terrain open than Stratton. Last year at that point in the year Snow had the most terrain in the east by a pretty wide margin. After the World Cup(see I'm not going off topic) Killington turns the guns on everywhere and caught up very fast and blew past Snow before Christmas.
 

cdskier

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Mount Snow will likely have significantly more terrain open than Stratton. Last year at that point in the year Snow had the most terrain in the east by a pretty wide margin. After the World Cup(see I'm not going off topic) Killington turns the guns on everywhere and caught up very fast and blew past Snow before Christmas.

I'm going to bet he mentioned Stratton instead of Snow because he has an Ikon pass.
 

thetrailboss

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It is great to see this happening on the east coast, however I think "revival" is a bit of a leap.

You think so? Interesting. Obviously it has been a while since I was at Killington, so I am watching from afar. Interested in other comments as to this.
 

bdfreetuna

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Killington is definitely on the upswing. I just hope they don't price themselves out of the "cool" segment and start charging Vail prices. Killington does best when marketed as a place everyone can enjoy and not in an elitist way.

AFAIK they are still offering 2 for 1 & 50% off midweek tickets with deals through Ride and Ski NE Card and others. That's all I need them to keep doing. But then again 50% of $140 means I go somewhere else so window price needs to stabilize.

Pico is their hidden gem basically, although not so hidden on weekends, the interconnect is a dumb idea and I pity the fool who wastes their time and money on a Killington pass and takes 7 lifts to get over to Pico for 2 runs before heading back.
 

skiur

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Killington is definitely on the upswing. I just hope they don't price themselves out of the "cool" segment and start charging Vail prices. Killington does best when marketed as a place everyone can enjoy and not in an elitist way.

AFAIK they are still offering 2 for 1 & 50% off midweek tickets with deals through Ride and Ski NE Card and others. That's all I need them to keep doing. But then again 50% of $140 means I go somewhere else so window price needs to stabilize.

Pico is their hidden gem basically, although not so hidden on weekends, the interconnect is a dumb idea and I pity the fool who wastes their time and money on a Killington pass and takes 7 lifts to get over to Pico for 2 runs before heading back.

Actually, if you parked at k1 or ramshead (where majority of people begin their day) you would only have to take 1 or 2 lifts, not 7.
 

bdfreetuna

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Well of course. Maybe if you start at Ramshead , Pico could be a better option than moving in the other direction on some days. Only benefits passholders though since day tickets at Pico are cheaper, you'd think most people would go in the opposite direction.

Better off avoiding that mess, they're 2 fine ski areas with different appeals and neither one is short on terrain for a day of skiing. K pass lets you ski Pico anyway if you have multiple days, just park there one of the days.
 

Smellytele

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Well of course. Maybe if you start at Ramshead , Pico could be a better option than moving in the other direction on some days. Only benefits passholders though since day tickets at Pico are cheaper, you'd think most people would go in the opposite direction.

If they had the interconnect there still maybe a Pico only ticket but there might not be. But there would be no way that you could ski on the cheaper Pico ticket at K. If you wanted to ski both you would have to by the whole mtn ticket kind of like Sugarbush/Mt Ellen
 

cdskier

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If they had the interconnect there still maybe a Pico only ticket but there might not be. But there would be no way that you could ski on the cheaper Pico ticket at K. If you wanted to ski both you would have to by the whole mtn ticket kind of like Sugarbush/Mt Ellen

As soon as I started reading your response I immediately thought of the Sugarbush/Mt Ellen example. Mt Ellen only tickets are still available for less than a Sugarbush one. But if you want to take the Slide Brook lift from Mt Ellen over to Sugarbush you have to have a regular Sugarbush ticket and not a Mt Ellen-only one. K/Pico could easily do that same setup where you need the "higher-end" ticket to be able to get on the Interconnect lift from the Pico side.

Of course all that said, I'm still in the camp that doesn't want to see the two areas connected and think Pico is great kept separately (as long as it is financially viable to keep it separate).
 
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