Pico 2/26

[rocojerry]

Cross-copy-paste from my own trip blog--

"The drive up to VT last night was one of the longest drives of the winter, probably taking 4.5 hours with the roads not in the greatest shape. With most of the storm for north country wrapping up in the evening, we knew we were in for a great day of skiing. We made our way to Pico a bit late for the 8:00 start, but decided to hit the A-slope lift first, a nice warm-up with some steeps for the first runs of the day. The snow was great, but considering this trail was closed prior to the storm -- you could start to see that what was underneath the new snow wasn't the ideal base. We then headed our way over to the Outpost area, and killed each of those runs. Bronco was in great shape, with tons of snow on skiers left, getting the full effect of fresh turns through 14"+ of snow. We then opted for an early lunch, since we skipped breakfast (powder for breakfast). Getting back out there, we checked out the summit glades and birch woods, both were a lot of fun with nice soft snow and some bumps. Great day at Pico once again!"

Few pics and gps track may be updated here eventually

 

[xwhaler]

Nice! I was at Pico yesterday; my first ever visit to Pico and I'm now able to cross off my top 5 list for big mtns in New England I havent been to but want to.
Were staying down near Ludlow at my uncles house. Left there about 7:40 and pulled into Pico about 8:30 or so. Not bad considering the roads were slick and took a little time getting through Ludlow with the Okemo crowd.

Warren Miller 2fers worked beautifully; cant beat $31 powder days. Got booted up and were headed towards the Upper quad by 9:15.
First run down Upper KA....nice and soft, I enjoyed the twisty run reminds me a lot of Saddleback trails where I normally am.
Next up, Upper Giant Killer as I wanted to see what the hype was all about. This trail is the real deal....big bumps, scratchy in the troughs and boot to shin on top made for a challenging but enjoyable run. Definately the most sustained steep on the mtn it seemed.

Then hit Sumitt Glades with my wife. She's a strong intermediate but not comfortable in the bumps and powder. I was glad she challenged herself through here because this is truly a special trail. While it's never very steep I love the way they left the trees in there providing for little chutes and gulleys to cruise through. Really a beautiful trail that I'm glad we both got to experience. Again, boot to shin deep in here.

Headed over to Little Pico for 4 runs on A Slope and 1 run on B slope. A Slope is a lot of fun, yesterday was really great skiing it with soft shin deep fluff. Best part about this area is it was generally empty and most skiiers were hitting B slope so A slope stayed super nice.

I did see some tracks on the liftline but never saw anyone launch the cliff.

Went in for lunch at the pub where the wife called it a day. I went back out for 5 runs over on Outpost...all very enjoyable. I can see why ppl like this area as it's short but offers good vertical right to the lift w/o the runout that plagues the upper quad. Good spot to lap turns on a powder day.

I really enjoyed Pico. Price is right, they offer a nice mix of terrain and it doesn't get crowded next to big K. I was trying to come up with a comparable and the best I could offer was a hybrid of Bolton Valley and Saddleback. It shares Bolton's steep upper third before flattening out while retains many of the old style New England trails that I love at Saddleback.

 

[rocojerry]

Warren Miller 2fers worked beautifully; cant beat $31 powder days.
.....
Then hit Sumitt Glades with my wife. She's a strong intermediate but not comfortable in the bumps and powder. I was glad she challenged herself through here because this is truly a special trail. While it's never very steep I love the way they left the trees in there providing for little chutes and gulleys to cruise through. Really a beautiful trail that I'm glad we both got to experience. Again, boot to shin deep in here.
.....
Went in for lunch at the pub where the wife called it a day. I went back out for 5 runs over on Outpost...all very enjoyable. I can see why ppl like this area as it's short but offers good vertical right to the lift w/o the runout that plagues the upper quad. Good spot to lap turns on a powder day.

Nice! I used my WM 2fer on Saturday, price was definately worth it... The WM coupon is what drove me to get there, but once I'm there, I would have probably been ok with full-price.... Pico is one of those mountains, that I need to be in the area to consider it, but pretty much head there anyday over K-ton.

This weekend was my first voyage into summit glades too, I really liked the trail... It reminded me of an 'easy' Muleskinner alla Saddleback...

We did all the runs over lapping Outpost and managed to get pretty tired doing so, looking at the clock I think we did them all in 40 minutes... I was checking out my GPS track on google earth, and you really can see how short they are.... but your're right, no run-outs really, which is nice.