Date(s) Skied: Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Resort or Ski Area: Killington
Conditions: 90% skied off on the groomers, soft but eratic bumps, great weather, little wind
Trip Report:
Met a couple of friends from NY for a day at K on Sunday. Hollywood from the K message board hooked me up with a lift ticket he had to dump. Guess they gave out a couple to Season Pass holders to give to guests as somewhat of an 'apology' for closing a week early last season. Even without the Hollywood hook up, cheap tickets were more available than buyers. I couldn't give away the BOGO coupon I had from signing up to their newsletter.
My friends, while decent skiers aren't into bumps at all, so it was a day spent pretty much on the groomers. Unfortunately, the conditions pretty much sucked from opening bell. We got on the K1 at 9 and hit Eastfall first. Completely skied off except for the skiers left edge of the trail. Headed over to the Superstar pod and found Skyelark to be the same, lower Bitter wasn't bad. Went over to the Needles area from there. The trail under the short quad had the best groomed snow on the mountain. Panic to Needles was scraped clean, but there was some decent natural snow over near the Gondola. Decided to make our way over to Snodon and found pretty much the same everywhere with skied off middle portions of the trails and a bit of decent stuff on the sides. Header under Ramshead was actually pretty nice snow. Enjoyed a couple runs in the Timberline Park. Nice small to medium size 'old guy' jumps for me. :lol:
By mid-day my feelings were confirmed, I really need to add a solid carving ski with excellent bite to my quiver. It would really make a day like yesterday much more enjoyable.
Grabbed a quick beer and bite then went back out for a couple more hours on the skied off trails. Middle Superstar actually skied superbly even in the afternoon. Wish we had hit it earlier, but my friends didn't want to take the death slide down the headwall to get to the good snow.
Many closed/reserved trails looked real sweet, especially Northstar, but I didn't have the opportunity to ski them. I finished out my day skiing Superstar and Cascade. Though the bumps on Superstar looked real hard from the lifts, I found the snow to be very good. The bumps were pretty eratic though, hard to find a line more than 4 or 5 bumps long before you hit a massive rut or wall. Bumps on Cascade were a bit better in terms of uniformity, but still not real rippin zippers by any means. Maybe if a crew of bumpers got in there and slide slipped a bit they'd be much better.
Despite the overall crappy conditions, I still had a lot of fun on the hill. Weather was real nice and having an abundance of terrain was good. I'm sure it was better than had I gone to Ragged and skied the same 2 runs for a 3rd week in a row.
Some photos. Sorry, camera isn't all that great.
bump comp on lower Skyelark
View from top of Superstar Quad
View down Superstar
Looking up Superstar
View over to Ascutney. Such a hulking mountain. I've always thought if they didn't have the environmental restrictions, Ascutney could be one massive area. Alas, it is no more.
Cascade
Resort or Ski Area: Killington
Conditions: 90% skied off on the groomers, soft but eratic bumps, great weather, little wind
Trip Report:
Met a couple of friends from NY for a day at K on Sunday. Hollywood from the K message board hooked me up with a lift ticket he had to dump. Guess they gave out a couple to Season Pass holders to give to guests as somewhat of an 'apology' for closing a week early last season. Even without the Hollywood hook up, cheap tickets were more available than buyers. I couldn't give away the BOGO coupon I had from signing up to their newsletter.
My friends, while decent skiers aren't into bumps at all, so it was a day spent pretty much on the groomers. Unfortunately, the conditions pretty much sucked from opening bell. We got on the K1 at 9 and hit Eastfall first. Completely skied off except for the skiers left edge of the trail. Headed over to the Superstar pod and found Skyelark to be the same, lower Bitter wasn't bad. Went over to the Needles area from there. The trail under the short quad had the best groomed snow on the mountain. Panic to Needles was scraped clean, but there was some decent natural snow over near the Gondola. Decided to make our way over to Snodon and found pretty much the same everywhere with skied off middle portions of the trails and a bit of decent stuff on the sides. Header under Ramshead was actually pretty nice snow. Enjoyed a couple runs in the Timberline Park. Nice small to medium size 'old guy' jumps for me. :lol:
By mid-day my feelings were confirmed, I really need to add a solid carving ski with excellent bite to my quiver. It would really make a day like yesterday much more enjoyable.
Grabbed a quick beer and bite then went back out for a couple more hours on the skied off trails. Middle Superstar actually skied superbly even in the afternoon. Wish we had hit it earlier, but my friends didn't want to take the death slide down the headwall to get to the good snow.
Many closed/reserved trails looked real sweet, especially Northstar, but I didn't have the opportunity to ski them. I finished out my day skiing Superstar and Cascade. Though the bumps on Superstar looked real hard from the lifts, I found the snow to be very good. The bumps were pretty eratic though, hard to find a line more than 4 or 5 bumps long before you hit a massive rut or wall. Bumps on Cascade were a bit better in terms of uniformity, but still not real rippin zippers by any means. Maybe if a crew of bumpers got in there and slide slipped a bit they'd be much better.
Despite the overall crappy conditions, I still had a lot of fun on the hill. Weather was real nice and having an abundance of terrain was good. I'm sure it was better than had I gone to Ragged and skied the same 2 runs for a 3rd week in a row.
Some photos. Sorry, camera isn't all that great.
bump comp on lower Skyelark
View from top of Superstar Quad
View down Superstar
Looking up Superstar
View over to Ascutney. Such a hulking mountain. I've always thought if they didn't have the environmental restrictions, Ascutney could be one massive area. Alas, it is no more.
Cascade
