Killington Map questions

[oakapple]

I'll be visiting Killington for the first time this weekend. I am thinking about my strategy for optimizing time on the mountain(s), and have a few questions.

How do you get from Snowshed base to Ramshead base? Some websites have mentioned either a bridge or a tunnel, but it is not clear if you can do this on skis, or if you have to remove your skis and walk.

The map shows a number of run-out trails to various condominiums (High Ridge, Whiffle Tree, Trail Creek, Sunrise) with no apparent way back up again. If you take one of these trails, are you basically in for a long walk back to the closest lift?

Juggernaut has a tortured history, and as now shown on the map it is in two separate segments. It ends near the top of the Sunrise Village Triple, then resumes below the Bear Mountain Lodge. The lower portion of it looks like it comes out of the lodge, without an upstream connection from any other trail. Older maps did show a connection, back when Juggernaut went all the way down from Killington Peak to Skyeship base. Can you ski directly to lower Juggernaut via Bear View and Bear Cub? Or has the area been built up so that this is no longer possible?

 

[RootDKJ]

It depends. Usually I would just take the tunnel over.

 

[millerm277]

To address all of your questions:

- There is a tunnel that you can usually ski through (if I remember correctly), however, there's a hill on either side....so you're going to be walking, or wish you were walking, at some point. Not that long, but if you're skiing for the day, it's way easier to connect into snowshed from making a sharp left on High Road coming down from Skye Peak.

- Those trails are nearly cross-country. (Also - The High Ridge/Fall Line trail, you ski down Snowshed Slope and make a right onto Northbrook Crossover, it's off of that trail, NOT off of snowshed slope) Not bad for skiing home, but not something you want to ski otherwise. There is a shuttle bus that runs every few minutes through around the beginning of April from all of those condo developments to Snowshed Base for free, during the day, and it's what I usually use to get to the mountain when I'm staying at those condos.

- Stay the hell off of Juggernaut unless you like walking on alpine skis, or *maybe* if it's a bitterly cold and icy day you could keep up momentum on it.... As for your question, no, you cannot. You merge back into Bear Cub, and then keep going straight at the bridge instead of making the left to go across it? Can't quite remember. Anyway, either way....the trail ends at the bear parking lot, and you need to walk across it to get on the lower section of Juggernaut, I think there used to be a ski bridge across the road, but a truck hit it.

 

[Highway Star]

- Stay the hell off of Juggernaut unless you like walking on alpine skis, or *maybe* if it's a bitterly cold and icy day you could keep up momentum on it.... As for your question, no, you cannot. You merge back into Bear Cub, and then keep going straight at the bridge instead of making the left to go across it? Can't quite remember. Anyway, either way....the trail ends at the bear parking lot, and you need to walk across it to get on the lower section of Juggernaut, I think there used to be a ski bridge across the road, but a truck hit it.

I've never been able to access lower juggernaut from the bear parking lot. One time I went over there, there was a major snowbank, and the trail was closed and not groomed. If you're really interested, ask a ski patroller or guest services (at Bear Mt.).

Juggernaut is fine if it's firm/hardpack conditions and you have waxed, fast skis. There is also Solitude which has a similar feel but is not as long and a bit more pitch.

Stay off Carpenters Run at the bottom of Needles, that is actually the flatest trail on the mountain....really.