And Then There Was One

[bvibert]

The ride to the Whites is a bonus. Catch the basin on the ride home.

Dammit Bob, you're putting visions in my head! :angry: If only the Whites weren't so damn far away from here...

 

[skiadikt]

it is sad to see the mighty beast fall if only because it's the end of an era. i discovered late season skiing in 1980 (actually tuckerman's) and i can not remember a year when killington was not the last to close and had the longest season. through much of the 80's they had a competition going with sugarbush. i remember my first time skiing in june (1982), we had skied tucks over memorial weekend and hit k on the way home. there were some workers in kbl congratulating each other on outlasting sugarbush to be the king of spring. they seemed to take pride in their accomplishment. sunday river, mt snow also had a bunch of years where they were part of the late season skiing mix. one year hunter mtn, in the catskills no less, skied into may. those days are over. i think from here on out, this season is gonna typical of what we'll see. mid november-may1. for nearly 25 years i'm assuming late (and early) season skiing had to make some sense or else they wouldn't have done it for all those years. don't know why it changed. is it global warming, economics, lack of skier interest, all of the above? in the old days at killington, last weekend of april often had superstar, k1/kchair, snowden triple and sometimes the needles chair. hard core season (superstar only) didn't begin until 1st weekend of may at the earliest. now 1st weekend of may there's essentially no ski season (my apologies to bw).

it'll be at least 6 months before the lifts begin turning again. in the glory years the wait would be 4 to 4 1/2 months. i guess i can go to tucks, but for lift served, this is going to be the longest summer in 25 yrs. end of an era.

 

[ozzy]

well put skiadik.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think it has to do with, as previously said by AndyZee or some other Killington expert, that the focus there is to make as much as we can without spending anything. Back in the day the focus was on the skiing: put out a good product and hype it and the people will come.

This season was tough weatherwise. Real tough.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

It is hard to believe that Killington was not the 1st to open or the last to close this year. Looks like Wildcat was the 1st to open and Bretton Woods the last to close. Hard to believe.

I could be wrong but wasn't Woodbury Ski Area the first in NE to open the last couple of years?

 

[JimG.]

I think it has to do with, as previously said by AndyZee or some other Killington expert, that the focus there is to make as much as we can without spending anything. Back in the day the focus was on the skiing: put out a good product and hype it and the people will come.

This season was tough weatherwise. Real tough.

In the late 80's through the 90's, bump skiing ruled the roost. Anyone who was any kind of skier spent time on bump technique. Late season skiing fit right into that demographic.

That's changed alot since 2000...bumpers are treated like spit today. Everyone wants terrain parks and tree skiing. Everyone wants groomed trails to carve big turns on. Let's face it...May isn't the time to go tree skiing or boarding in the park, or look for alot of groomed terrain. So there's no sound business reason for anyone to stay open past May 1.

We can all bitch and moan and blame the big resorts, but if I owned a ski area I would do the same thing and close on May 1. You can all throw stuff at me next time you see me, but if you think about it you would reach the same conclusion.

 

[andyzee]

skiadikt, very well put, damn you almost had me shedding a few tears!

it is sad to see the mighty beast fall if only because it's the end of an era. i discovered late season skiing in 1980 (actually tuckerman's) and i can not remember a year when killington was not the last to close and had the longest season. through much of the 80's they had a competition going with sugarbush. i remember my first time skiing in june (1982), we had skied tucks over memorial weekend and hit k on the way home. there were some workers in kbl congratulating each other on outlasting sugarbush to be the king of spring. they seemed to take pride in their accomplishment. sunday river, mt snow also had a bunch of years where they were part of the late season skiing mix. one year hunter mtn, in the catskills no less, skied into may. those days are over. i think from here on out, this season is gonna typical of what we'll see. mid november-may1. for nearly 25 years i'm assuming late (and early) season skiing had to make some sense or else they wouldn't have done it for all those years. don't know why it changed. is it global warming, economics, lack of skier interest, all of the above? in the old days at killington, last weekend of april often had superstar, k1/kchair, snowden triple and sometimes the needles chair. hard core season (superstar only) didn't begin until 1st weekend of may at the earliest. now 1st weekend of may there's essentially no ski season (my apologies to bw).

it'll be at least 6 months before the lifts begin turning again. in the glory years the wait would be 4 to 4 1/2 months. i guess i can go to tucks, but for lift served, this is going to be the longest summer in 25 yrs. end of an era.

 

[Vortex]

Ozzy and Skiadikt keep posting.

Skiadikt I read your post and just reflected for a while. Your post was great. I grew up in Vermont and K was king and that was it.

 

[skiadikt]

I think it has to do with, as previously said by AndyZee or some other Killington expert, that the focus there is to make as much as we can without spending anything. Back in the day the focus was on the skiing: put out a good product and hype it and the people will come.

This season was tough weatherwise. Real tough.

exactly the point. the focus was on skiing. too much was not enough for the old beast. and that's what hooked me. felt like the place was run by a bunch of ski fanatics, not bean counters. but i bet they counted plenty of beans ...

weather certainly sucked this year but in 1979-80 they received 138" and still opened early october, closed may 23 and skied over 220 days. i think this year they barely made 170 days.

as for woodbury, i think they've actually opened first a couple of recent years. but can you really take it seriously. my gfriends driveway is longer & steeper than the run woodbury opens.

 

[thetrailboss]

skiadikt has hit the main theme. I wonder if K-mart has gotten similar sentiments. Tell me you're going to be around when we quiz Killington for the AZ Challenge.

 

[Vortex]

TB you make me laugh. I sent him a Pm last year asked him to participate.

 

[Greg]

Sunday is free at BW:

http://news.alpinezone.com/8485/

:beer:

 

[andyzee]

I don't know for a fact, but my guess is that what killed ASC is too many investments in other areas such as real estate and lodging.

exactly the point. the focus was on skiing. too much was not enough for the old beast. and that's what hooked me. felt like the place was run by a bunch of ski fanatics, not bean counters. but i bet they counted plenty of beans ...

weather certainly sucked this year but in 1979-80 they received 138" and still opened early october, closed may 23 and skied over 220 days. i think this year they barely made 170 days.

as for woodbury, i think they've actually opened first a couple of recent years. but can you really take it seriously. my gfriends driveway is longer & steeper than the run woodbury opens.

 

[thetrailboss]

I don't know for a fact, but my guess is that what killed ASC is too many investments in other areas such as real estate and lodging.

You got it!

 

[skiadikt]

skiadikt has hit the main theme. I wonder if K-mart has gotten similar sentiments. Tell me you're going to be around when we quiz Killington for the AZ Challenge.

unless i'm out skiing;-)

jimg is right about the bump thing. spring is for bumps. k could market it and have mogul mini-camps on weekends in may. folks go to timberline in the summer for a variety of ski camps. so why not k in may.

like i said, for those 20-25 years when k was having their pre-season planning meetings, i'm wondering if someone just didn't say "pres (smith), maybe this making snow in october and skiing til june thing just doesn't make sense'. didn't happen. they opened in october and skied til memorial day and beyond for almost 25 years. so it must have made some sense. it took asc to bring the whole thing down. maybe attitudes have changed and now spring comes and it's time to get out clubs, hop on the bike or get the boat ready. not for me. i got all summer to lose golf balls.

 

[PowderDeprived]

Well, Last season people were hiking at Sugarbush and skiing top to bottom into May, and were skiing runs like Stiens and F.I.S into June. They officialy closed south on the 9th as usual, and Mt Ellen top to bottom a week shy of the last weekend of the month, which they made to by the way this season with alot less snow!

K-Mart probably blew their snowmaking budget mantaning their terrain parks, if they blew 20 feet on Superstar they would be open well into may. Sugarbush cheaped out and never made the super pipe this season, and scaleld down the Mt Ellen terrain parks and as a result there was great pretty good coverege, although the best was at the lincoln peak area, on spring fling, Organgrinder, and Jester. Also absent at sugarbush were the terrain parks at south which were not listed on the map this season. In addtion the snowmaking coverege on the Gatehouse area was a bit sketchy, especialy on sleeper and hot shot, which closed in early april. They were able to push snow off slowpok, and pushover onto Easy Rider to keep the village chair open for beginers.

The coverege at the top of both Mt Ellen and LP at Sugarbush were as if there were 250 inches this season, but you were lucky to find 6" at the base of natural trails, like the Mall etc... in early april.

It is clearly just a matter of how much money you want to spend on snowmaking, and how long you want to run the lits. When you start to loose money running lifts for 20 people, paying the groomers to go up and work their magic for 12 people, what is the point. Anybody serious would rather hike for some bumps, than an easy green, or blue.

I think that it is unfourtionate that terrain parks get so much priority for snowmaking, as they require tremendous resources, and I wish resorts would pick a nice steep bump run (like k-mart and retarded-star) and a bread and butter blue cover them with enough snow to get well into may.

 

[ga2ski]

I have been there the last 4 weekend days and the snow was good. I had a blast. The ride to the Whites is a bonus. Catch the basin on the ride home.

Brake for moose . .especially on the ski trails.:uzi:

 

[Vortex]

I did see a moose on the way to BW on sunday that had been hit by a car.

oops I made BW 3 out of the last 4 weekend days. I went to K last Sat.

PowderDeprived I will get flack for this. I like the groomed terrain and I go until the lifts stop. I consider myself fairly serious and have no problem skiing on a blue or green run that is groomed late season. I understand folks want the bumps, but some just like to cruise.

 

[andyzee]

K-Mart probably blew their snowmaking budget mantaning their terrain parks, if they blew 20 feet on Superstar they would be open well into may.

Actually I think a lot of their budget went on blowing snow at Outer Limits for the National competition. They blew a ton on OL and less then usual on Superstar.

 

[thetrailboss]

Green, blue, black. Hell, if I'm skiing in MAY I don't really care what the terrain is!!! Better than NONE. :wink: