Killington/Sugarbush/Pico - MLK trip...

[Tonyr]

Resort or Ski Area

Killington

Date

Jan 17, 2025

Snow Conditions

1. Packed Powder
2. Ice
3. Moguls

Just going to post pictures from our trip this weekend. The first leg starts with Killington, we got out today around 10.30 and skied until 3 pm, there were zero lines. The highlight runs were Catwalk, Big Dipper, Outer Limits, and we ducked the rope to ski Julio which is my favorite run at the resort. To say the tree runs were very thin and boney today was an understatement! ...



You can see that the top part of Julio was great, we almost couldn't believe the run wasn't open. It wasn't until we got to the bottom part of the run that I realized why it was closed. The last section was absolutely brutal, it had snow cover but was essentially the equivalent of skiing down a run with all rock and tree stumps hidden by a light dusting of snow. Tomorrow we are day tripping up to Sugarbush...

 

[Tonyr]

Today we day tripped up to Sugarbush from Killington. We got into the parking lot around 9.30, the place was packed and to make matters worse Mt Ellen had very few lifts running through the morning and Lincoln Peak had Heaven's Gate on wind hold until 12.30. Here are how the lines looked, it was the worst I've ever seen them at Sugarbush...



From 9.30 to 11.30 we waited in long lines and only skied Stein's Woods and Egan's Woods. Both runs were great Stein's held more snow, the drop-in was worse and I think alot of people were avoiding it...



At 11.30 we took an hour break and grabbed lunch hoping Heaven's Gate would finally open...

 

[Tonyr]

Our patience paid off as thankfully HG opened around 12.30. We did a run down Lew's line then took the trip up HG doing the Long Trail hike over to Castlerock...


The hike took about 20 minutes or so and wasn't too bad, as you can ski some of it. We wouldn't have done it twice but we were glad to ski Castlerock. The snow was fantastic in Rumble and on our final run into Paradise Woods which is probably one of my favorite tree lines anywhere in the country.

From 9.30 until about 3.30 we skied 5 runs which was kind of frustrating but we made them all count! My son and I are going to try Pico for the first time tomorrow to close the trip out...

 

[Tonyr]

We ended our MLK trip at Pico today which is a mountain that I've never visited before. While this is a small resort, we had a fantastic time. Was really impressed with the tree skiing here. We got to the mountain around 10 am thinking it wouldn't be so busy. The parking lot was full when we arrived so we had to park out on the road. Thankfully the lines today were still not bad at all.

From 10.30-ish to 1 pm we skied Upper Giant Killer, poached the Poma line twice, hit the Busted glades which is a sidecountry tree run off of the Poma line, skied the Poma glades twice and hit the Doozie glade which is lower on the mountain and had thin coverage.




The Busted glades were probably the best run of the entire trip. You had to ski down past the two hardest sections of the Poma line to even drop into those glades so there was tons of untouched powder stashes to be had. That run dumps you right off into the Poma glades so you don't have to worry about getting lost either. It's really a world class east coast sidecounty tree run that I'd highly recommend! Here are a couple photos of the run. I'll add a separate post on the Poma Line...

 

[Tonyr]

I wanted to add a separate post in regards to the Poma Line. It is a nasty unmarked trail at Pico right next to Upper Giant Killer. This was actually a Poma t-bar lift years ago that was removed. I don't know who had the bright Idea to put a lift in here at the time but what they left behind is quite possibly the hardest ski run in the East Coast within a resort boundary. I put this one up there with Pipeline at Stowe which is located to the skiers left of Upper Goat right behind the Octogon lodge at the top of Mt Mansfield. Poma Line is extremely narrow as you can see from the photos, the trail is also littered with the original concrete towers and lift cables as well...



The trail is so tight that it is almost unskiable. You need to either edge or hop turn down the whole way. If you for some reason, decide that you want to try this run, there is a small section through the trees at the top of Upper Giant Killer that shoots you right on to this. As you get midway down there are two brutal sections that with low snow, like we had today, still had the Poma cable sticking out. That cable makes you lose control as soon as your skis touch it.



The 2nd attempt down Poma Line was much easier as we learned that rather then trying to ski over that cable pictured above, it was better to drop to your butt and slip down a little bit until the footing got better.

The real payoff here is the access you get to the untouched powdery sidecountry called the Busted glades which is to the skiers left of the Poma Line. We entered those glades midway down but I know you can get into them higher up as well with the entrance being behind some sort of communications tower at the peak which was roped off today.

The Busted glades are incredible as I mentioned earlier and the fact that you most likely will have to get down the Poma line to access these glades means lots of fresh tracks! I hope you all had a happy holiday weekend and enjoyed this trip report almost as much as we did skiing it!