Killington 1/26/2008 (with lots of pix)

[danny p]

Date(s) Skied: 1/26/2008

Resort or Ski Area: Killington

Conditions: Powder/Packed Powder

Trip Report:I don't have much time to write a report tonight, but today was an awesome day. Third chair up at Snowdon Quad at 8:00 am. Rode until 2:00. Natural trails had snow on them but most of them were scraped at the top and great midway/bottom of the trail. Snowdon, Skye and Bear trees were amazing! If you enter at the top of the marked runs, it's scraped and nasty, but if you enter a little further down or enter and immediately traverse, there is some really nice powder, anywhere from about 8"-14"(my best aprox.). Definately some hidden obstacles but altogether great in the woods. Spent most of the day in the Snowdon trees, but forced myself to leave and hit up skye peak and bear. Great Eastern was riding really well, as was Wildfire. Vagabond was thin cover, Northstar and Great Bear were good early, but not sure later in the afternoon.

Great Bear on the first lift ride up:

Trees off Chute first lift ride up:

Northstar early am:

Low Rider:

Low Rider Again:

Boot Deep and Board completely submerged in the fluff:

Some nice Skye Woods I never rode before:

Vagabond first run:

my handywork:

unnamed snowdon glade that kept me coming back (untracked fields of powder!):

 

[BeanoNYC]

Nice pics. Vagabond looks sweet. By far one of my favorite trails at K. I thank Andyzee for turning me onto that trail.

 

[2knees]

nice pics and report. you must've been out real early.

 

[Greg]

Sweet! Really psyched for Monday now! Thank you.

 

[powhunter]

nice pics!!! cant wait to get up there tomorrow!!

steve

 

[danny p]

I'll try to write a more concise report now that I have some time. Like I said, yesterday was really good, but if it was a natural trail or a steep trail that hasn't seen a lot of snowmaking chances are the top section was scraped down to ice or grass. On the flipside, midway to the bottom of these types of runs was piles of beautiful snow that had been pushed down the trail. Sides of the trails were also powdery. For you guys going up Monday, I would recommed just looking at the trail before you drop in and determine where the snow would get pushed. It will be there. Trees were absolutely amazing. I think people were scared away because if you entered and stayed on the main route that everyone was taking it was pretty scary. Just traverse, sometimes as little as 5-10 feet left or right and there was amazing powder to be had. Snowdon trees was the typical snowdown blower pow. Skye peak had some amazing fat-flake fluff pow, as did Bear. I would recommend staying out of any really steep trees, probably scraped down to a nasty layer. There are definately some exposed boulders in some of the trees, and watch out for stream beds (i had a couple mandatory log jibs crossing over stream beds). Bottom line there are some great pow runs in the trees, but its not a midwinter tree base in there, so ski/ride responsibly and be on the defensive (protect your base). I made it out with no damage to my base. Almost all the trails on Skye were riding good. Rams Head was nice as well, I ducked into Squeeze Play (closed) and if you know where the good snow usually is you can find it. Timberline terrain park is a blast, if you have never taken a ride through there it is well worth the lift ride over to Ram's Head. All sweet little jumps, boxes, and rails. All the snowmaking trails were very, very fast. 1-2" fluff on top of a very hard frozen groomed surface. Made for super fast but still somewhat soft runs. By the afternoon the trails that had a snowmaking base were softening up nice with the new snow and the frozen groomed layer mixing together to form a nice softish granular surface. I again have to recommend riding down to the skyeship gondola via Great Eastern. Excellent coverage and probably about the most entertaining green circle trail on the mountain. Fun to see and feel the elevation changes and see the different vegetation/type of snow surface on the way down. Skyeship gondola is also a super long lift ride, so it gives you some recovery time. Sorry I can't recommend more trails, but I was riding untracked in the trees for probably 4 out of the 6 hours I rode. Have fun out there!

edit: forgot to mention that it snowed all day long. lake effect machine in full gear. Moderate snow for most of the day, with some flurries in between. Looks as if it will continue today, hoping you guys get a nice top coat of fluff for tomorrow.