Killington 11/17/07

[danny p]

Date(s) Skied: 11/17/2007

Resort or Ski Area: Killington

Conditions: Packed Powder

Trip Report: Caught the fourth gondi up at about 7:50 am. I was immediately impressed by the man-made coverage, the natural snow they had received (approx. 4-5") and the amount of snow guns on and pumping out the white stuff. It was really nice to see the whole mountain white from the natural snow, it made it seem like it was mid-winter. The first two runs were very humbling to say the least. By the third run I had my ski legs back. All the trails were good, there were a few trails that were left ungroomed, but for the most part everything was groomed well, and the corduroy lasted until about 10:00 am. There was a couple inches of fresh, fluffy powder on the sides of the trails on the upper half of the mountain. The mountain was very uncrowded. There seemed to be less people than other years, but the parking lot was full. I think that K did a great job of spreading people out. I didn't wait in a lift line more than a couple minutes, with most times riding right up to the chair. They were skipping chairs on the snowdon triple in order to space out the crowds and it really did work. At any time of the day it seemed as if I was sharing the mountain with 10-15 people. The lack of crowds was a great surprise! Lifties and pass scanners were extremely friendly, it was evident that POWDR is trying to achieve great customer service/satisfaction. Ended my last run at 12:45 and my legs were screaming. If my legs could have held up longer, I would have stayed, it was a really good day. Weather was sunny with flurries for the first hour or so, then the killington cloud rolled in and it was cloudy, windy and more flurries for the rest of the day. A great first day! Here are a couple pictures (all taken around 9 am), more in the gallery.

 

[severine]

I love the 2nd picture you posted! Sounds like a very positive experience. Nice of them to try to space out the crowds like that. Great report!

 

[riverc0il]

The place looks empty. Substantially different than previous November trips I have made to Killington. Hmmmm....

 

[thebigo]

Wow interesting approach by pwdr. Were they still loading the gondi and glades at capacity? Was there a lift line?

 

[danny p]

The place looks empty. Substantially different than previous November trips I have made to Killington. Hmmmm....

Yeah it seemed totally empty from 8-10, and even after it seemed that way even though coming down you could see a ton of cars in the parking lot.

 

[danny p]

Wow interesting approach by pwdr. Were they still loading the gondi and glades at capacity? Was there a lift line?

I can't tell you about the gondi loading situation, I waited in line waiting for it to open, got on at 7:50 (luckily shared it with only 3 other people) and never went back. That's my usual plan of attack, get a couple early gondi runs in and then use all the other lifts to avoid crowds. As far as the glades triple (north ridge triple) there was never more than a minute wait. I was riding by myself on saturday and probably 85-90% of the time I got my own chair on any of the lifts.

 

[Newpylong]

While having the place to yourself is a good thing, it is troubling to keep hearing reports of less people... their profit margin isn't that big where they can loose that much business...

 

[riverc0il]

While having the place to yourself is a good thing, it is troubling to keep hearing reports of less people... their profit margin isn't that big where they can loose that much business...

My thoughts exactly in regards to my earlier thoughts on it being empty. I was curious to see how much the changes at Killington would effect their business. Though the first weekend of operation is hardly a good indicator of the entire season, one can only assume revenue this weekend is down significantly to last year even if total yield per skier is up. Yield per skier don't make any difference if not enough of them show up.

 

[Charlie Schuessler]

based on three decades of skiing, quiet day skiing in October & November are really the norm and not the exception...I 'm confident Killington will not fail to operate...

 

[Newpylong]

The report was for Saturday, and I can't remember many quiet Saturday's with good weather, even in November in the 15 years or so I've been skiing Killington.... The pictures I have seen are not the normal mob scene.

 

[danny p]

while I totally agree that this was an unusual saturday for K, I too am certain that the crowds will find their way back to K. I think Mt. Snow stole a whole heck of a lotta buzz by opening first. If K had opened with them last weekend, I have feeling there would have been more crowds this weekend, just my $0.02.

 

[skiadikt]

skied both days. place was empty though sunday was a bit more crowded than saturday (the opposite is usually the rule). i've been to october openings that were more crowded. pretty much skied onto the lifts both days. trail & lift rollout was typical for the weekend prior to t'giving (excepting last year). thought conditions were very good on any trail that had been recently resurfaced. highlights being mouse trap which had some great bump lines and upper chute which also bumped up. the upper snowden runs were good all weekend. on the other hand, any run that was not resurfaced like upper east fall and particularly lower bunny was poorly groomed. large ice chunks & death cookies. lower bunny was inexcusable since for most of the weekend (saturday afternoon lower chute was open but closed sunday), it was the only trail leading back to the base. as far as i'm concerned the jury is still out on "quality product". do have to give kudos though, at this point they seemed to be concerned with servicing the advanced skier. lower east fall opened sunday morning. gigantic whales & blinding snowmaking made for "interesting" conditions to say the least. regarding the lifts, on saturday they opened the snowden quad late morning and it was plagued by lengthy stops most of the afternoon. sunday it was closed but then it was the triple's turn.

despite the complaints, overall skiing was pretty good. to me the biggest takeaway was how uncrowded it was. definitely something i could get used to.

 

[rachelv]

while I totally agree that this was an unusual saturday for K, I too am certain that the crowds will find their way back to K. I think Mt. Snow stole a whole heck of a lotta buzz by opening first. If K had opened with them last weekend, I have feeling there would have been more crowds this weekend, just my $0.02.

Mt. Snow wasn't crowded on Sunday (the 18th), either. I was there all day and it was much less crowded that I was expecting. I don't know what it was like on Saturday. Very odd.

 

[Geoff]

I skied KMart both weekend days. Saturday was really empty. No lift lines at all. Mahogany Ridge had open bar stools and unoccupied tables. Upper Chute, traverse over the ditch below the poma, Mouse Trap was the best snow. A continuous whale down skier's left of Mouse Trap. Very soft manmade on upper Chute. Downdraft headwall was OK early because they'd blown a little snow on it. It was all gone by Sunday morning. Lower Chute and the Snowdon quad went online around 11:30. The rest of the mountain was firm from the rain on Thursday but groomed out reasonably well. For November when it had rained two days before, it was a very good effort.

Sunday, they dropped the rope on East Fall at 8:30. The top turns were velvet. The middle section was big whales and water bar whoop-dee-doos in the guns, the runout was like going through a car wash in a convertible with the top down. Nice skiing but I had to hit the base lodge to shake everything off and get the goggles functioning after every lap. The Mountain Training Slope next to upper Royal Flush on Snowdon had fresh snow. Upper Chute and Bunny Buster were all bumped up. Lower Bunny Buster on Sunday was golf balls and impervious base and pretty busy. That was the only part of the mountain that felt like traditional Killington November skiing. It was somewhat busier on Sunday but still no liftlines and you only felt it on Lower Bunny.

They blew Skyelark/Highroad/Bittersweet for two days and are now doing upper & middle Superstar and lower Skyelark. They're also blowing Cascade. If they don't get hurt too badly by the projected wet stuff on Thanksgiving day, they should have a pretty good amount of terrain available for Thanksgiving when it's traditionally the most congested days of the year. The new management has reverted to the old Preston Smith rollout where they ignore novice skiing at Snowshed and Rams Head until they know it won't melt out.

The increased season pass price combined with a $60 day ticket fixed the crowding problem last weekend. The staff all seemed very cheerful. The sampling I got of this year's crop of temporary foreign workers appears to have excellent English language skills. There are some Brazilians who don't have any noticable accent at all. I will be most interested to see what Thanksgiving Saturday is like.