Presidents vacation week

[DiMe]

If you avoid the novice areas at Snowdon and Rams Head and the three signature lifts (K1, Skyeship, and the new Skye Peak Express), Killington isn't particularly crowded during holiday periods. A big slice of the season pass base is blacked out. This weekend will likely have some trail crowding issues since it thawed and people aren't spread out on the natural snow trails and in the trees.

I'd expect you will have minimal lift lines at the Bear Quad, Needles Eye, and Superstar. Maybe 5 minutes between 10:30 and 11:00. There likely won't be any line at the Snowdon triple, Northridge triple, Southridge triple, and Canyon quad.

Park at Bear Mountain up to the left of the base lodge and you can probably still get a near-slopeside parking spot at 10:30. ...or park at Skyeship base.

Sounds great actually alot better than I was expecting to hear How long do you suspect the K1 line gets seems like the only good option to get to the top. I havn't been to killington yet I've been stuck on Stowe and Jay Peak past seasons.

 

[KingM]

Report from Sugarbush. I skied this afternoon and conditions weren't actually too bad. Everything was open and they're blowing on a bunch of trails. Of course we could use some fresh snow, but it was better than I was expecting after the thaw.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Report from Sugarbush. I skied this afternoon and conditions weren't actually too bad. Everything was open and they're blowing on a bunch of trails. Of course we could use some fresh snow, but it was better than I was expecting after the thaw.

good to hear Castlerock held up..

 

[KingM]

The Rock is all natural, of course, but they did get a few inches of snow after the rain ended. (They say five, but I think it was more like three or four.) It was bony in a few places.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

The Rock is all natural, of course, but they did get a few inches of snow after the rain ended. (They say five, but I think it was more like three or four.) It was bony in a few places.

are you 100 percent booked for Presidents week?

 

[KingM]

are you 100 percent booked for Presidents week?

Not yet, but bookings aren't that bad, weather and economy considered. We're all booked this weekend and about 80% for next week. We'll probably fill in at least half the remaining holes, maybe more.

 

[4aprice]

Good News for me. Camelback is firing up the guns tonight. Several trails to be hit but most important to me is a new coating on the bumps on The Asp. Didn't think it was going to be a good moguls weekend but now I'm excited. Oh yeah it's also Captain Morgan Weekend which should be all sorts of fun.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Good News for me. Camelback is firing up the guns tonight. Several trails to be hit but most important to me is a new coating on the bumps on The Asp. Didn't think it was going to be a good moguls weekend but now I'm excited. Oh yeah it's also Captain Morgan Weekend which should be all sorts of fun.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Blue is going to blow tonight as well..they definitely have plenty of water in their snowmaking pond..I'm not expecting an all out assault but 3-4 inches of that sticky manmade Pocono Poe could keep the conditions from turning mad sweet and low(Loose Granuler) for an extra hour or two..AtomicSkier is tuning my Elan S12s for tomorrows fresh cord or manmade Poe..and it looks like the winds will die down..it's gonna be a great Presidents weekend in PA..the resorts are going to be making money hand over fist.

 

[ERJ-145CA]

I skiied Hidden Valley this afternoon and the snow was pretty much bulletproof but it was fun to get out after 2 days of not skiing. They were moving their fan guns around so I asked and they said they were going to start blowing as soon as the temps allow, it's supposed to be in the teens tonight so it's a good night to make snow.

The holiday weekend skiers were already out. I saw a turkey tuck, a couple of blue jean skiers and a few brightly colored fartbags. There were also a lot of people with rear entry boots and really long straight skis.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I skiied Hidden Valley this afternoon and the snow was pretty much bulletproof but it was fun to get out after 2 days of not skiing. They were moving their fan guns around so I asked and they said they were going to start blowing as soon as the temps allow, it's supposed to be in the teens tonight so it's a good night to make snow.

The holiday weekend skiers were already out. I saw a turkey tuck, a couple of blue jean skiers and a few brightly colored fartbags. There were also a lot of people with rear entry boots and really long straight skis.

Wow a degree in latitude makes a huge difference. Mount Pocono was below freezing this afternoon..Blue was in the upper 30s and spring snow and here in the Lehigh Valley..low 40s.;.I bet Elk was a skating rink..

 

[KingM]

Wow a degree in latitude makes a huge difference. Mount Pocono was below freezing this afternoon..Blue was in the upper 30s and spring snow and here in the Lehigh Valley..low 40s.;.I bet Elk was a skating rink..

And it was 14 degrees with a biting wind at SB. Guns were blowing a lot of snow, the wind was sending much of it elsewhere.

 

[billski]

Direct report from the top of Mansfield (Stowe) is "maybe 3 inches" on the trails and bullet-proof moguls. Mountain reported 3-6". Lots of blowing moved the freshies around considerably. without the fresh, it would be nearly un-ski-able. My bud quit after a half-dozen runs, not much fun. The entire fleet of groomers is pounding the mountain tonight. I'm really prayin' the resorts can straighten this mess out. ain't much time.

 

[ERJ-145CA]

Wow a degree in latitude makes a huge difference. Mount Pocono was below freezing this afternoon..Blue was in the upper 30s and spring snow and here in the Lehigh Valley..low 40s.;.I bet Elk was a skating rink..

It's weird, I expected spring conditions but it was pavement when I got on the snow about 1:00 and it never softened up by the time I left at 3:00. The sun was shining the whole time and that didn't help either. Weather.com was predicting a high of 38 but I don't know what it actually got to, it seemed cold but it was windy as hell so it's hard to tell what the actual temp was.

 

[poconovfr]

It's weird, I expected spring conditions but it was pavement when I got on the snow about 1:00 and it never softened up by the time I left at 3:00. The sun was shining the whole time and that didn't help either. Weather.com was predicting a high of 38 but I don't know what it actually got to, it seemed cold but it was windy as hell so it's hard to tell what the actual temp was.

Fella's it is still Feb.14.........you know,dead middle of winter......all this has just been our normal Jan. thaw a few weeks late. Oh yeah, it'll be bullet proof again for a few more weeks.

 

[riverc0il]

Fella's it is still Feb.14.........you know,dead middle of winter......all this has just been our normal Jan. thaw a few weeks late. Oh yeah, it'll be bullet proof again for a few more weeks.

I would argue this is much worse than a January thaw three or four weeks late. The later a thaw of this magnitude, the longer and harder it will be to recover. This is also a thaw going into one of the biggest money maker weeks in the industry... which does not bode well for going late into April if resorts don't make money now and need to reduce expenses later to stay in the black.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Blue mountain was less crowded than a normal weekend...maybe people had Valentines day plans..since Valentines day is usually on a weekday that holiday usually has little impact on Presidents weekend crowds..

Areas that haven't seen snowmaking are mad sweet and low..deep sugar snow..mad Homer Simpson..Doh!!!

 

[4aprice]

Fella's it is still Feb.14.........you know,dead middle of winter......all this has just been our normal Jan. thaw a few weeks late. Oh yeah, it'll be bullet proof again for a few more weeks.

It was bullet proof today. Worst conditions I've skied this entire season. Asp was mowed down but hopefully they'll blow snow on it tonight and start a new crop of moguls. The bumps on Cleo had been freshened up and were the best skiing of the day. Base is holding up well.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[Geoff]

Sounds great actually alot better than I was expecting to hear How long do you suspect the K1 line gets seems like the only good option to get to the top. I havn't been to killington yet I've been stuck on Stowe and Jay Peak past seasons.

Killington was even less busy than I was expecting. The K1 corral was full whenever I looked at it. That's around 15 minutes. Like usual, the new lift at Bear also had a full corral. The Needles Eye quad was on wind hold and that produced a line at Skyeship midstation. Even that was only 10 minutes. There were no cars parked on the Killington access road below Superstar. The Bear lot was maybe 1/3 full. There were a few cars across the street from the Skyeship base on Route 4. The Rams Head and Snowshed lots were completely full but you'd expect that during a Holiday period. I wouldn't want to be buying a day ticket at Rams Head or Snowshed. Snowshed had a line. Rams Head had a little bit of a line. The rest of the lifts at Killington had no line at all. You could get a seat at a table at Mahogany Ridge in KBL at noon. The usual weekend congestion points were there and the thaw pushed more traffic onto the usual boulevards.