Killington Announces Installation of Skye HSQ and Pass Prices

[mondeo]

Great, so I get one weekend of spring skiing on O.L., and it sounds like they're ramping down the other lifts pretty heavily too.

Yep, the King of Spring.

To the lift issue, hopefully they do Skye Peak this summer, and Snowdon next. I like Snowdon for my low speed, low pitch practice sessions, but that lift is just too damned slow, cold, and windy.

 

[danny p]

i hope they leave the slowdon lift alone. high speed in that area would ruin the terrain. the cold and slowness of the lift over there keeps the terrain the way it should be.

 

[deadheadskier]

i hope they leave the slowdon lift alone. high speed in that area would ruin the terrain. the cold and slowness of the lift over there keeps the terrain the way it should be.

If over-crowding is a concern, wouldn't replacing both th triple and the quad with one HSQ be middle ground? That effectively would keep the traffic the same, yet quicken the ride for those who wish to ski over there.

 

[BeanoNYC]

If over-crowding is a concern, wouldn't replacing both th triple and the quad with one HSQ be middle ground? That effectively would keep the traffic the same, yet quicken the ride for those who wish to ski over there.

If I ruled the world. I would get rid of the triple, keep the FG quad and run the poma full time. But I'm a weirdo.

 

[andyzee]

I miss ASC

 

[danny p]

If I ruled the world. I would get rid of the triple, keep the FG quad and run the poma full time. But I'm a weirdo.

add me to the weirdo club, that's exactly how i'd do it. Removing both lifts and adding a HSQ would encourage more people to ski/ride over there, tracking out and beating up the surface much faster. As it is now, usually only the triple OR the quad run, so either way it keeps the traffic down. Now, if they ran both of them at the same time this would be true:

If over-crowding is a concern, wouldn't replacing both th triple and the quad with one HSQ be middle ground? That effectively would keep the traffic the same, yet quicken the ride for those who wish to ski over there.

 

[thetrailboss]

If I ruled the world. I would get rid of the triple, keep the FG quad and run the poma full time. But I'm a weirdo.

That makes sense in my mind because the Triple is going on 30 years + now.

 

[BeanoNYC]

That makes sense in my mind because the Triple is going on 30 years + now.

Any idea how old the poma is?

 

[drjeff]

Any idea how old the poma is?

Carbon dating might be needed to determine that!

 

[drjeff]

If I ruled the world. I would get rid of the triple, keep the FG quad and run the poma full time. But I'm a weirdo.

makes sense, since the snowdon quadrapeligic would be able to run more often in the wind and/or icing conditions than a bright shiny new detachable.

 

[drjeff]

I miss ASC

How scary.......but true (atleast with respect to K)

 

[RENO]

Those snowden lifts suck. They have to go. Replace them both with 1 HSQ. Other than maybe Saturday I don't think it's gonna be a crowding issue. Saturday's are a zoo anyway. I like to add 1-2 midweek days when we come up so it would be great for us.:-D :wink:

Someone mentioned either here or KZone about running the new HSQ up the mountain in line with the Poma and removing the Poma. I agree, although you could move the Poma skiers right on Bunny Buster instead of getting rid of it.

Also, a pet peave of mine, all this talk about new lifts at Skye Peak, Snowden, etc... and they have a perfectly working HSQ at Needles Eye that they hardly ever run except on weekends and Holidays:???: So that lift basically runs about 25-30% of the time. I would rather that lift run than the Skyeship stage 2 Mon, Thurs and Fri...

 

[andyzee]

How scary.......but true (atleast with respect to K)

For me it''s more than that, K, yes. But also, cheaper prices, more mountains, more opportunity to get together with other AZers. Now everyone is spread out, some have gone to Mt. Snow, others to Sunday River, etc.... Season has been shortened, more blackout dates added to limited pass. And on and on and on......... I gave Powdr five years before they bail, I'm sticking to that prediction, can't see them lasting.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Any idea how old the poma is?

Supposedly it dates to 1958 -- so 49-50 years!

 

[millerm277]

Someone mentioned either here or KZone about running the new HSQ up the mountain in line with the Poma and removing the Poma. I agree, although you could move the Poma skiers right on Bunny Buster instead of getting rid of it.

Why would you though? The Poma serves a purpose, and the current Quad liftline is pretty much perfect...low, and mostly out of the wind.

 

[Rogman]

A single HSQ probably would put fewer people on the hill than the quad, the triple, and the poma, assuming POWDR actually ran all three. Doubt the triple ran more than 20 days this season. Pretty much Saturdays only. Crowding isn't really a problem there anyway.

If you are going to replace both aerial lifts, then putting the lift in the center of the peak makes sense, otherwise, you have a massive regrading effort at the top of the hill. Snowdon faces east, so a NE breeze has a pretty good fetch. That may be a consideration, but it isn't as though the current lifts are down out of the wind, either.

The terrain the Poma serves is pretty flat, and is pretty much used only by novice racers. It belongs in a museum, but then, so do many of the lifts at Killington. It is a problem with the entire NE region.

I doubt POWDR does much on Snowdon until there is a village plan approved. New lifts on that side of the mountain need to be integrated into master plan that involves the village, and moving people in from further down the mountain. The plans shown so far were in massive denial about that necessity.

The replacement Skye Peak Quad will make it reasonable to lap a few blue trails, and make it easier to get out of Bear. But by far, the best way out of Bear is the South Ridge Triple, which runs on the few days they remember where it is. They are obsessed with "fixing" the problems with the Great Eastern/Snowshed crossover, but don't see that their neglect of the SRT is a big part of the problem.

 

[mondeo]

Why would you though? The Poma serves a purpose, and the current Quad liftline is pretty much perfect...low, and mostly out of the wind.

Except for the last three minutes, where you're pretty much at the top of the mountain and the wind is being channeled right at you by the trees. That, and being more of a beginner/intermediate lift, it stops all the time. Beginners have an easier time with HSQs. Don't forget that Snowdon's significantly colder than the other chairs (that I ride, at least.)

 

[RENO]

Why would you though? The Poma serves a purpose, and the current Quad liftline is pretty much perfect...low, and mostly out of the wind.

For the reasons rogman gives. To replace 3 crappy lifts with 1 HSQ. To do this you would have to run it up the middle to access all the terrain that the triple and quad access now. Like I said about the Poma, you could always just move it to the other side of BB.

Speaking of the Poma, have any snowboarders on here ever used that thing? I tried it 1 day a couple season's ago. Almost broke a few bones in my body and ripped my arms out of there sockets! LOL! I did manage to get up 3/4 of the way after 4 tries just holding onto the bar. I keep checking to see how other boarders use it, but haven't seen any in a longggg time. I was thinking of trying it this season and holding the disc between my legs with both feet in the bindings and somehow try to keep the board straight. I hate that thing! Just wasn't meant for boarders. Another reason I don't care if it's gone! Plus it only accesses a small area that's usually closed for racing anyway. I've done it many times on skis which is a piece of cake...

 

[2knees]

I guess its a good thing the spq got replaced but the terrain it serves is not something i spend much time on anyway. Personally, i agree with the thinking that one hsq at snowdon would be ideal. I rarely ski killington weekends so crowding isnt really much of an issue but the lifts over there are so damn slow, i just cant get into it. I know alot of the k regulars swear that is the best tree skiing around and i do like northstar for a mellow bump run but it feels like 30 minutes up for 15 minutes down. I realize it isnt that bad but when you're freezing your arse off, it feels like it. The needles eye quad serves my favorite runs there. I've been lucky in the fact that asc always seemed to run it when i skied there. The fact you can lap vertigo, arguably the best bump run at killington and needles liftline keeps me happy. I have only been to killington once this year so i have no idea how often that lift ran. I know it was running friday april 20th last year. Pretty stoked about that. Course, skyeship had closed for the season by then.

 

[skiadikt]

replacing the spq certainly is a good thing but i do worry about the top of skye peak getting too crowded. other than skye burst (and maybe dreammaker, the lower 1/2 of which is a terrain park), it doesn't really service a lot of terrain you'd make laps on. it's main use is as an interconnect lift providing quick access to the superstar pod or the needles area. it will ease the burden on great eastern/snowshed crossover since many of us take the bear quad and the crossover to get needles or back to the front.

i agree that nothing's happening on snowden until the village plan is approved and that all the snowden lifts should be replaced by a hsq going up the poma line to provide easiest access to all the snowden trails. you could make a case for keeping the triple for early season since the triple requires fewer trails to be open than the quad.