Best east skiing now (12/7)

[ScottySkis]

Mountsnow to get 4 inches of snow tonight to.

 

[bigbog]

Bet Mansfield should get some as well....

 

[El Hombre]

NOAA is calling for 3"-7" overnight for great barrington. opening day could be butterNUTS!

smellytele- grab one of these and find somebody at the ticket window who's about to pay full price http://www.killington.com/winter/2for1/2for1-skimag

Thanks for the link! About to hit the road. We'll see which way the wind blows.

 

[El Hombre]

Went to Killington. Drove up through the crappy weather Friday night and almost hit a deer on Route 7 in Vermont, but made it to Rutland by midnight. $70.00 room at the Red Roof Inn. Free so-so breakfast. Was able to use the voucher--someone gave me $40. Skiing was fairly decent, all things considered. The 4" of snow predicted was only a dusting, but there was a decent amount of terrain open. Snow guns were on most of the day, which is kind of annoying to ski through, but can't complain. Also flurried all day. Visibility was not so good. Some runs were WROD, but was less crowded on the blues and blacks. Met some nice people, and also quite a few punks. The best was a group of teen/twenty somethings who reeked like cigarettes and were sharing swigs from a glass bottle of Captain Morgans on their first gondola trip, reminiscing about all the weed they've smoked in the gondy. I can't say that Killington is the most charming mountain, but was good for early season. I imagine it's pretty good after a good snowfall when everything's open.

 

[Bene288]

That's pretty much the way I feel about Kmart. Don't dig the vibe but it does have some good terrain. Give Pico a try sometime. You'll enjoy the vibe and the terrain is quite good. It's also rarely crowded, everyone drives by and goes to K.

 

[mattchuck2]

Haha, sounds like a typical Killington experience to me! Perfect representation of that place - more terrain, but you have to deal with a lot of riff raff.

 

[Tin]

Great for early and late in the year when their snowmaking makes a difference.

 

[Cornhead]

That's pretty much the way I feel about Kmart. Don't dig the vibe but it does have some good terrain. Give Pico a try sometime. You'll enjoy the vibe and the terrain is quite good. It's also rarely crowded, everyone drives by and goes to K.

My first visit to Killington was about 10 yrs ago on a Warren Miller voucher. It was a Friday, but it was after their first big snow of the year. I was amazed at the crowds on the connector trails. You would literally have to stop and wait for an opening to continue downhill. I knew I could ski Pico on my Killington pass, so I headed over in the afternoon. I was half expecting a blanket on the lift, the contrast was that dramatic. I've got to get to K on a weekday sometime this Winter. It has become my go to place for late season turns, hard to beat Superstar, and it's a hell of a lot closer to home than other late season contenders, Jay, Sugarloaf. Kudos to the new management for their early/late season efforts the last couple years. It worked on me, I had no interest in skiing there mid-season before, now I do. I also skied there 5 weeks ago, and it was pretty good, earliest I've ever skied.

 

[canobie#1]

Stowe or killington

 

[Smellytele]

Went to Killington. Drove up through the crappy weather Friday night and almost hit a deer on Route 7 in Vermont, but made it to Rutland by midnight. $70.00 room at the Red Roof Inn. Free so-so breakfast. Was able to use the voucher--someone gave me $40. Skiing was fairly decent, all things considered. The 4" of snow predicted was only a dusting, but there was a decent amount of terrain open. Snow guns were on most of the day, which is kind of annoying to ski through, but can't complain. Also flurried all day. Visibility was not so good. Some runs were WROD, but was less crowded on the blues and blacks. Met some nice people, and also quite a few punks. The best was a group of teen/twenty somethings who reeked like cigarettes and were sharing swigs from a glass bottle of Captain Morgans on their first gondola trip, reminiscing about all the weed they've smoked in the gondy. I can't say that Killington is the most charming mountain, but was good for early season. I imagine it's pretty good after a good snowfall when everything's open.

Surprised by the WROD part seeing the trails that were opened were covered edge to edge Turkey weekend and most trails at K are wide accept for the cross over trails (which are numerous and can get scary at times)

 

[Newpylong]

Sounds like a usual Killington experience. Great terrain and the worst people.

 

[steamboat1]

K lost quite a bit of snow with the warm weather & fog Wed-Thurs. Then it poured rain early Fri. morning for several hours & froze up immediately afterwards. Fri. was some of the worst conditions I've seen in awhile & I don't imagine it was much better Sat.,especially with the weekend crowds. K is a completely different ski area on weekends compared to mid week. The vibe is totally different during the week.

I know you already did your trip but I have a suggestion for you if the same opportunity arises again. I live in NYC myself but on the southern end not the northern end. What I've been doing lately is driving up early in the morning. I can make K in about 4 hrs. 45 min door to door with no rush traffic leaving the city early in the morning. I'd imagine you could knock off close to a 1/2 hour being you live on the northern end. Besides beating the rush hour traffic I do this for two reasons. One is I get to spend another night in my own bed although it's a short nights sleep. Getting up there at midnight isn't much better. The other reason is that I can ski two days & only pay for one nights lodging. Same thing for longer stays (3 days skiing only two nights lodging & so on). You could have skied two days with the only additional expense a $40 ticket (assuming you would have printed out two 2fer1's) & a little extra food.

 

[El Hombre]

K lost quite a bit of snow with the warm weather & fog Wed-Thurs. Then it poured rain early Fri. morning for several hours & froze up immediately afterwards. Fri. was some of the worst conditions I've seen in awhile & I don't imagine it was much better Sat.,especially with the weekend crowds. K is a completely different ski area on weekends compared to mid week. The vibe is totally different during the week.

I know you already did your trip but I have a suggestion for you if the same opportunity arises again. I live in NYC myself but on the southern end not the northern end. What I've been doing lately is driving up early in the morning. I can make K in about 4 hrs. 45 min door to door with no rush traffic leaving the city early in the morning. I'd imagine you could knock off close to a 1/2 hour being you live on the northern end. Besides beating the rush hour traffic I do this for two reasons. One is I get to spend another night in my own bed although it's a short nights sleep. Getting up there at midnight isn't much better. The other reason is that I can ski two days & only pay for one nights lodging. Same thing for longer stays (3 days skiing only two nights lodging & so on). You could have skied two days with the only additional expense a $40 ticket (assuming you would have printed out two 2fer1's) & a little extra food.

I see the logic, but I'm a night owl anyway, so I'd much rather drive at night and wake up later closer to the mountain. It was an unusual opportunity as the rest of my family was elsewhere Friday-Saturday and I wanted to be home Sunday anyway. The hotel was cheap enough. The snow wasn't that bad, all things considered. I had also freshly tuned my skis, so they were fine on the icy trails.

 

[El Hombre]

Surprised by the WROD part seeing the trails that were opened were covered edge to edge Turkey weekend and most trails at K are wide accept for the cross over trails (which are numerous and can get scary at times)

It was mainly the cross-over green trail Great Northern, which you either had to take to get other places, or cross over it. Wall-to-wall people. Fortunately it's not steep enough to bomb down, but I definitely had to ski closer to other people than I'd care to.

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

The other reason is that I can ski two days & only pay for one nights lodging. Same thing for longer stays (3 days skiing only two nights lodging & so on).

I always assumed from your location info you had your own place in Pittsford, VT?

 

[steamboat1]

I always assumed from your location info you had your own place in Pittsford, VT?

Belong to a ski club with a lodge in Pittsford. I'm there mostly during the week & more times than not have the house to myself so it's like having my own place. Even when there are others in the house it's usually only a few people who I've known a long time. Weekends on the other hand are usually full. I don't do the early morning drive to save money on lodging since lodging is only $24 a night. I do it to spend less evenings by myself which can be boring. Also getting out of the city with no traffic is a treat. I suggested the early morning drive to the OP because he mentioned that money was a factor. It was a way for him to get more bang for his buck.

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

Belong to a ski club with a lodge in Pittsford. I'm there mostly during the week & more times than not have the house to myself so it's like having my own place. Even when there are others in the house it's usually only a few people who I've known a long time. Weekends on the other hand are usually full. I don't do the early morning drive to save money on lodging since lodging is only $24 a night. I do it to spend less evenings by myself which can be boring. Also getting out of the city with no traffic is a treat. I suggested the early morning drive to the OP because he mentioned that money was a factor. It was a way for him to get more bang for his buck.

Pretty cool. I wish I had something like that before I moved to VT.

I've spent many nights in the basement of Turn of River.

 

[dlague]

Sounds like the best skiing east will be just about anywhere this weekend 12/14-15 only limited by the amount of terrain open!

 

[steamboat1]

Stowe is up to 72 trails.

 

[canobie#1]

Ragged has some awesome snow today! Barnyard area, northface, ragged mountain and spear are all open today! They're looking to open glades tomorrow. They are also planning to blast on headwall, lower ridge, raggedy andy, birches, showboat and cardigan this week!