Zand
Well-known member
Date(s) Skied: Saturday and Sunday 3/19-3/20/11
Resort or Ski Area: Killington, VT
Conditions: Slick on north-facing trails, spring bumps on south-facing trails, 40ish and sun both days
Trip Report:
Started out at Snowshed around 10 and immediately headed for Bear. High Road down to Northbrook and Great Eastern down to bear were both pretty hardpacked and a bit slick. Hit Wildfire and OL at Bear... both were already pretty soft and fun. Bear base was a zoo so got out of there after a couple runs.
Hit Skyelark and Superstar next which were both complete sheets the entire way. Superstar was a death trap both days after noon, never saw so many people slide an entire headwall in my life as yesterday afternoon on the lower headwall. Headed up Snowdon after that to see what was open... pretty much ended being a run down Great Northern as it was all groomers up there too. Detour down Mouse Trap proved rock solid bumps and an otherwise slick steep.
Headed back for the other side, but first took a long cruise down Great Eastern all the way through Home Stretch to the bottom. Nice and soft down low which was nice. Took Skyeburst down to Bear from the Gondola which was pretty nice on the 1st half, but once all the other trails started merging in it was total chaos.
Took a couple runs through the Stash to check out the features and also took another run on OL, which was full of people who shouldn't have been on it. Crowd at the base was starting to lessen a bit but still crazy considering how little room there is.
Headed back across the resort again, hitting Bittersweet which was a rink and over to the Snowdon triple. Took Caper over to Ram's and hit Timberline a couple times. Nice park with my size features (except the halfpipe... that stupid thing is a waste of space lol).
Had time for a couple more, so I hit Cascase which was another rink, then finished up on the upper mountain traverses over to High Road and down Snowshed to finish it off. Overall, other than Bear, didn't find too much good stuff to hit on Saturday. Did enjoy a nice dinner at Sirloin Saloon afterwards though... love that place.
Sunday started off colder, but finished off a lot warmer and opened some trails that were closed Saturday. Started off on K-1 up to Cascade which was already slick at 10:15, same for Double Dipper. Highline was soft though, also bumpless so probably the only cruisable soft trail on the whole mountain. Headed across to Panic Button and Needles from there... Panic was a sheet and Needles was ok... only because it has less pitch so less snow being skiied off the trail. Did a short jaunt over to Bear for a Stash run as well as a lap down a nice (at that point) OL before heading down Bittersweet for lunch at KBL.
Afrer lunch, did an Ovation to Superslick lap. Sucked, but was worthwhile as I got a nice view of an OPEN Royal Flush... beeline! Took two runs down it... nice soft bumps with a few bare spots. Crazy going from crappy slick frozen groomers to soft spring bumps in one run... gotta love Killington.
From there, figured I'd go see if Bear softened up anymore. Took Pipe Dream which had a breakable crust because it wasn't being skied in very fast. At the bottom of Falls Brook, I saw that for the first time ever Devil's Fiddle was open for me. What a run that was... wall to wall BIG bumps. I couldn't handle it... made a fool out of myself. I finally found a good example on bumps that are too tough for me to ski, and most of those on DF were above those limit. I did find a few lines that were more my size. Trail itself was very fun... wish there was more snow to huck the cliff lol.
Hit Wildfire next just so I could actually ski some bumps instead of flailing through big ones. It was good at the top and bottom, but the middle part where Stash intersects was a zoo and scraped clean. OL was next... VERY slick in most spots. Bumps on the right were getting very firm due to the shade, but a lot better than sliding down the middle. Hit DF one more time and tried following people to find some lines, but still got my ass kicked.
Headed back to K-1 and had time for one more down Royal Flush, then schlepped back to the car after an excellent Sunday. Hopefully will get back in May for some bumps on Superstar. Next up is Burke Tuesday with 6-12" on the way. Everytime spring starts showing up, it gets shoved back out this year. Bring it on.
Resort or Ski Area: Killington, VT
Conditions: Slick on north-facing trails, spring bumps on south-facing trails, 40ish and sun both days
Trip Report:
Started out at Snowshed around 10 and immediately headed for Bear. High Road down to Northbrook and Great Eastern down to bear were both pretty hardpacked and a bit slick. Hit Wildfire and OL at Bear... both were already pretty soft and fun. Bear base was a zoo so got out of there after a couple runs.
Hit Skyelark and Superstar next which were both complete sheets the entire way. Superstar was a death trap both days after noon, never saw so many people slide an entire headwall in my life as yesterday afternoon on the lower headwall. Headed up Snowdon after that to see what was open... pretty much ended being a run down Great Northern as it was all groomers up there too. Detour down Mouse Trap proved rock solid bumps and an otherwise slick steep.
Headed back for the other side, but first took a long cruise down Great Eastern all the way through Home Stretch to the bottom. Nice and soft down low which was nice. Took Skyeburst down to Bear from the Gondola which was pretty nice on the 1st half, but once all the other trails started merging in it was total chaos.
Took a couple runs through the Stash to check out the features and also took another run on OL, which was full of people who shouldn't have been on it. Crowd at the base was starting to lessen a bit but still crazy considering how little room there is.
Headed back across the resort again, hitting Bittersweet which was a rink and over to the Snowdon triple. Took Caper over to Ram's and hit Timberline a couple times. Nice park with my size features (except the halfpipe... that stupid thing is a waste of space lol).
Had time for a couple more, so I hit Cascase which was another rink, then finished up on the upper mountain traverses over to High Road and down Snowshed to finish it off. Overall, other than Bear, didn't find too much good stuff to hit on Saturday. Did enjoy a nice dinner at Sirloin Saloon afterwards though... love that place.
Sunday started off colder, but finished off a lot warmer and opened some trails that were closed Saturday. Started off on K-1 up to Cascade which was already slick at 10:15, same for Double Dipper. Highline was soft though, also bumpless so probably the only cruisable soft trail on the whole mountain. Headed across to Panic Button and Needles from there... Panic was a sheet and Needles was ok... only because it has less pitch so less snow being skiied off the trail. Did a short jaunt over to Bear for a Stash run as well as a lap down a nice (at that point) OL before heading down Bittersweet for lunch at KBL.
Afrer lunch, did an Ovation to Superslick lap. Sucked, but was worthwhile as I got a nice view of an OPEN Royal Flush... beeline! Took two runs down it... nice soft bumps with a few bare spots. Crazy going from crappy slick frozen groomers to soft spring bumps in one run... gotta love Killington.
From there, figured I'd go see if Bear softened up anymore. Took Pipe Dream which had a breakable crust because it wasn't being skied in very fast. At the bottom of Falls Brook, I saw that for the first time ever Devil's Fiddle was open for me. What a run that was... wall to wall BIG bumps. I couldn't handle it... made a fool out of myself. I finally found a good example on bumps that are too tough for me to ski, and most of those on DF were above those limit. I did find a few lines that were more my size. Trail itself was very fun... wish there was more snow to huck the cliff lol.
Hit Wildfire next just so I could actually ski some bumps instead of flailing through big ones. It was good at the top and bottom, but the middle part where Stash intersects was a zoo and scraped clean. OL was next... VERY slick in most spots. Bumps on the right were getting very firm due to the shade, but a lot better than sliding down the middle. Hit DF one more time and tried following people to find some lines, but still got my ass kicked.
Headed back to K-1 and had time for one more down Royal Flush, then schlepped back to the car after an excellent Sunday. Hopefully will get back in May for some bumps on Superstar. Next up is Burke Tuesday with 6-12" on the way. Everytime spring starts showing up, it gets shoved back out this year. Bring it on.
