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PICO closing weekend 4-4-15

frapcap

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
364
Points
16
Sure, the ticket would have only been $25, but I still had 4 Ski VT passes to use!

The day started very early in the pouring rain just outside of Providence. It hammered down on us all the way up until we were about 7 miles from Killington and Pico. You could literally stand on one side of the 'line' and get soaked, and on the other you'd just be standing in huge flakes.
SO WEIRD!

We got to a nearly empty parking lot at 9:30am, got our tickets and got on the slope. I got to try our my new boots- Technica Mach 1 series. They were fantastic, leaps and bounds better than my old atomics. Thanks to those of you who pushed for me to get new boots vs liners for my beat up clod hoppers.

So, empty parking lot, empty lodge, empty mountain. They got about 3-4" of snow up top, which was an awesome refresh for the mountain. The bottom had sunshine and warm temps in the high 30's. Mid mountain had some cooler air, the top 1/3 was in a snow storm all day.
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We skied as many trees and glades as we could find. Some bush wacking was required. We ended up in trouble a couple of times because the mountain doesn't have the steepest pitch for the deep snow still in the trees.
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The snow was a little crusty on top, but after a run of 'breaking it in,' the tracks were awesome.

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Mike (Shock) is a tall dude, he ended up stuck in this up past his knees as we tried to make our own path through some trees:
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Pretty good day. Best runs were in the trees and on the far skiers right of the mountain (east and west glade?). Loads of soft, rhythmical bumps.

We also saw lots of NYers and NJers with jeans and sun glasses. I watched one dude purposely run into an active water bar (after I advised that he not do that), ice his skis, try to turn, and promptly face plant in the snow.

The day was great, but I felt the mountain was alright, but really lacked the steepness that I hoped we'd find there.
 

xwhaler

Active member
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
2,943
Points
38
Location
Seacoast NH
Nice report! Pico has plenty of steeps but nothing overly sustained. Was A Slope chair and Outpost open?
Some nice pitch on both of those.
I really like Pico---underrated for a 2k' vertical mtn. Definitely best to ski in pods though.
 

frapcap

Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
364
Points
16
A slope wasn't running, but Outpost was. We lapped Outpost a number of times later in the day. The sun softened it up really nicely- some of the best snow on the mountain. We also opted to jump/ski down the ledge to the right of the classic entrance into Doozie instead of using the chute entrance. Its a tight line, but was an awesome ride since no one else had bothered with that area.

I wasn't upset that there wasn't anyone there, that part rocked. We skied Wildcat a couple of weekends back, you could say we grew accustomed to their pitch and making the transition to Pico made it feel less steep.
 

keyser soze

Member
Joined
Nov 16, 2008
Messages
282
Points
18
I was there Friday and once the fog lifted the skiing was fantastic. Nice soft bumps in the glades and no lift lines as usual. I went there Saturday morning after it rained all night and it was foggy again at 0800. I planned on leaving early anyway and figured it would be a couple of hours before the vis improved,so I decided to head home early.
 
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