bdfreetuna
New member
Original plan was Killington but Pico's trail count went from 25 to 50 between Thursday and Friday evening's projected count for Saturday. 5" of snow from a day ago. I like Killington but for me it's more of an early and late season destination. Pico has the goods with less complication.
So Pico. Now, cold morning (5 degrees on the car thermo) and storm on the way for MA and CT. So crowds were pretty light. Ski on to the lift most of the time. Plenty of seating in the lodge and the bar upstairs for lunch.
First run was Gold Rush over to the Summit Chair. WOW such excellent corduroy, hero groomer snow. Best groomed trail I'd yet skied this year. Went fast, loved it.
Next up, Summit Glades. Great ungroomed surface. Everything from well formed bumps, to loose bumps, to bermy type stuff. Just nice packed powder, some scrapy spots but very forgiving overall. My Dad was with me and he loved it.
Then Upper Giant Killer, which was excellent. Big fan of this trail, I love the pitch of it. Chopped up powder on the right side and nice bumps on the left. Very fun trail to attack the fall line on.
Went into Poma Woods from Giant Killer. My Dad went the "right way". I took a sharp right into the woods thinking I'd score fresh pow. Which I did, but also ended up jumping a couple streams and hopping a log among other obstacles due to the just-passable snow depth. Thought I was gonna wipe out but I held on for the ride.
There was some nice loose powder on the sides of some trails, some untracked powder if you really hugged the sides on others.
Took a ride up Little Pico thinking let's try A-Slope. Upon inspecting it closer from the lift, thought this is a great idea to destroy my skis. As much rock and brush as snow. So took the A-Slope Cutoff which was really excellent and dumps you out below the rockiest part of A-Slope, so it was all good. Looking up from the Cutoff was doubly glad decided not to try A-Slope as it looked like a disaster. Did see a couple guys skiing it though-- and really well at that. They got a well deserved holler from the chairlift.
Tried some more woods after that like KA Glade (pictured below) and Pike Glades, they were good.
Only complaint was Outpost trails were "Open" but the lift wasn't running. Did not feel like hiking over there. I guess the lift is running tomorrow so if you're heading up there get those freshies.
Also I brought my wife's Killington Express Card by accident instead of mine, one of the ticket scanners saw it and starting talking like he had to confiscate it and how I was "busted". I was like, no this is my wife's, didn't realize it, no way are you taking this >>> went back to ticket counter got a voucher. Can't blame the guy for doing his job but it was an honest mistake and a harmless one at that (as we both have Express cards anyway and she's in Puerto Rico right now). At least customer service in the ticket office was much better and they didn't even question me about it.
So basically stuff like that all day, really good day out I'd say #2 so far this season just behind the pow day at Burke.
The guy in the pic in the woods below is my Dad. 63 years old and he skis any trail and most woods unless they look crazy.
So Pico. Now, cold morning (5 degrees on the car thermo) and storm on the way for MA and CT. So crowds were pretty light. Ski on to the lift most of the time. Plenty of seating in the lodge and the bar upstairs for lunch.
First run was Gold Rush over to the Summit Chair. WOW such excellent corduroy, hero groomer snow. Best groomed trail I'd yet skied this year. Went fast, loved it.
Next up, Summit Glades. Great ungroomed surface. Everything from well formed bumps, to loose bumps, to bermy type stuff. Just nice packed powder, some scrapy spots but very forgiving overall. My Dad was with me and he loved it.
Then Upper Giant Killer, which was excellent. Big fan of this trail, I love the pitch of it. Chopped up powder on the right side and nice bumps on the left. Very fun trail to attack the fall line on.
Went into Poma Woods from Giant Killer. My Dad went the "right way". I took a sharp right into the woods thinking I'd score fresh pow. Which I did, but also ended up jumping a couple streams and hopping a log among other obstacles due to the just-passable snow depth. Thought I was gonna wipe out but I held on for the ride.
There was some nice loose powder on the sides of some trails, some untracked powder if you really hugged the sides on others.
Took a ride up Little Pico thinking let's try A-Slope. Upon inspecting it closer from the lift, thought this is a great idea to destroy my skis. As much rock and brush as snow. So took the A-Slope Cutoff which was really excellent and dumps you out below the rockiest part of A-Slope, so it was all good. Looking up from the Cutoff was doubly glad decided not to try A-Slope as it looked like a disaster. Did see a couple guys skiing it though-- and really well at that. They got a well deserved holler from the chairlift.
Tried some more woods after that like KA Glade (pictured below) and Pike Glades, they were good.
Only complaint was Outpost trails were "Open" but the lift wasn't running. Did not feel like hiking over there. I guess the lift is running tomorrow so if you're heading up there get those freshies.
Also I brought my wife's Killington Express Card by accident instead of mine, one of the ticket scanners saw it and starting talking like he had to confiscate it and how I was "busted". I was like, no this is my wife's, didn't realize it, no way are you taking this >>> went back to ticket counter got a voucher. Can't blame the guy for doing his job but it was an honest mistake and a harmless one at that (as we both have Express cards anyway and she's in Puerto Rico right now). At least customer service in the ticket office was much better and they didn't even question me about it.
So basically stuff like that all day, really good day out I'd say #2 so far this season just behind the pow day at Burke.
The guy in the pic in the woods below is my Dad. 63 years old and he skis any trail and most woods unless they look crazy.
