Killington - Infrastructure Collapse Pending

[Highway Star]

I'm looking for the exact quote.

Mike Solimano: We were disappointed as well when South Ridge needed to be taken out due to age and type of technology. Although many of the older lifts can be refurbished over time it was not possible with South Ridge Triple.

 

[Highway Star]

Here's where they took it out, with no advance notice.......

http://www.killingtonzone.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=32424

 

[marcski]

I heard from a reliable K-mart business owner that Powdr sent Nyberg to "clean house". He got rid of the "extra weight" and did precisely what upper mgt wanted him to do. Hence, he was actually promoted in 2012 by Powdr who then put Solimono in place to bring back the old Beast in a more profitable way. Nyberg just left Powdr's employ about 2 mos ago.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Has there been any "talk" of the K-Pico interconnect still happening?

 

[cdskier]

Has there been any "talk" of the K-Pico interconnect still happening?

From the Killington-Pico Interconnect page on the NewEnglandSkiHistory site:

In February of 2014, Killington President Mike Solimano told Ski magazine that the Killington-Pico interconnect was still a future possibility.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Yeah, other than that?

 

[skiNEwhere]

Here you go highway star, I found killingtons master development plan on the Internet, happy?

 

[joshua segal]

That plan must be from an archive, complete with the abandoned Sunrise Area, but before the expansion plan into Parker's Gore! What's the area just SE of the Snowshed Area?

 

[Newpylong]

Obviously not official. Someone built that fantasy map on Kzone in the early 2000s using an old map after Lower Sunrise was abandoned, I remember when it came out. Crazy.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Lower Sunrise was not "abandoned." A land swap occurred to allow for the Pico connection to take place.

 

[Newpylong]

We can argue semantics all day. It was abandoned for lift served skiing as part of the Killington Resort.

 

[deadheadskier]

That plan must be from an archive, complete with the abandoned Sunrise Area, but before the expansion plan into Parker's Gore! What's the area just SE of the Snowshed Area?

Just speculation, but maybe lift serviced slopeside real estate? If there's one area Killington is sorely lacking as a resort compared to many of their competitors, it's ski in, ski out lodging. I know the village is meant to address that.

 

[joshua segal]

Lower Sunrise was not "abandoned." A land swap occurred to allow for the Pico connection to take place.

Negative. They ceded expansion into Parker's Gore in the land swap. Sunrise WAS abandoned. Once the expansion south and east was not going to happen, Sunrise became a white elephant.

 

[ThinkSnow]

SUNRISE VILLAGE TRIPLE (YAN) - Originally installed as the Northeast Passage Triple chair in 1982, this lift traveled 12 minutes
from the Sunrise Base Lodge on Rt 100 to the current terminus on Sunrise Mountain. The lift was shortened in 2001, cut off at the
mid-station at the Sunrise Village. In the late 90's the lift rarely ran and slopeside condo owners were upset as they had no
ski in ski out access to the resort. The lift was shortened as part of a land swap giving Killington the acreage needed for the
yet to be built "Killington-Pico interconnect." Lost were some really nice expert trails as the lower 2/3 of the lift and Hill
were permanently closed.

 

[Highway Star]

Lower Sunrise was not "abandoned." A land swap occurred to allow for the Pico connection to take place.

No, the land swap was between parkers gore and killington basin developable lands. Neither the interconnect or sunrise were involved. They could reopen sunrise if they wanted to, just would need an ACT250 permit to install a lift.

 

[Highway Star]

SUNRISE VILLAGE TRIPLE (YAN) - Originally installed as the Northeast Passage Triple chair in 1982, this lift traveled 12 minutes
from the Sunrise Base Lodge on Rt 100 to the current terminus on Sunrise Mountain. The lift was shortened in 2001, cut off at the
mid-station at the Sunrise Village. In the late 90's the lift rarely ran and slopeside condo owners were upset as they had no
ski in ski out access to the resort. The lift was shortened as part of a land swap giving Killington the acreage needed for the
yet to be built "Killington-Pico interconnect." Lost were some really nice expert trails as the lower 2/3 of the lift and Hill
were permanently closed.

Sorry, this is often repeated but it is not accurate information.

http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/skiareaexpansions/Vermont/killington/parkersgore.php
http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/skiareaexpansions/Vermont/killington/sunrise.php

It's really too bad about Parker's Gore, had they expanded over there, Killington would be nearly twice as big as it is now. Add on the Pico interconnect, and they would be in the real skiable 2500+ acres range, and over 7 miles across. I think some time in the 80's when they went to build the first lift over there, they were limited to having to close it on April 1st, thus they kept pushing that issue and didin't succeed. Juggernaut and Solitude trails are toeholds into the area and would have become access trails if it was developed.

One of my favorite random ideas is to run a diesel powered drag lift up the north side of Shrewsbury peak, that would give you access to 500+ acres of tree skiing on the east side of the peak, and you would traverse out to the current bottom of sunrise. Given the popularity of Sugarloaf's expansion, and Vails Poma in the back bowls, it's not entirely unrealistic.

 

[ThinkSnow]

Ah well, whatever. Found that info just trying to figure out why the Sunrise chair was shortened. Haven't really bothered with K since then. Sunrise lift from Rt. 100 was nice because you could totally avoid the usual crowds.

 

[Savemeasammy]

Sunrise would be (would have been) WAY more appealing with a high speed lift. I think I parked there once, and that lift was a huge waste of time...


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[Newpylong]

Sun Dog was actually an awesome trail, as were the steeps off Hawk's Nest. The lift sucked for sure though.

Another boneheaded and short sighted ASC move to remove it.

 

[deadheadskier]

The lift sucked, but if coming from the South there was some benefits to not driving to Bear or Skyeship.

If you wanted a nice lodge to get ready in, Sunrise offered a better option than heading to Bear or using the Skyeship. It was easy to get Rock Star parking right next to the lodge and be able to find plentiful seats inside. As long as you didn't want to go back to the lodge during the day, it worked really well. IMO the convenience compared to the other locations more than made up for the long lift ride.

Coming from Ludlow, our family parked at Sunrise 90% of the time as a kid. Only time we didn't was if it wasn't open. Another factor was we lived only ten miles down the road. If my folks were done for the day, they'd peace out and I'd ski until the end of the day and call them on a pay phone to come pick me up.

This all said, I recognize my family's situation represents the minority and it didn't make much sense to keep the lift and base lodge operating.