Storm skiing..... Chasing the snow vs knowing the mountain???

[KustyTheKlown]

love that. exposes killington as the lying liars that they've always been. 1645 true vertical. that's right. killington is pod skiing. aint no one skiing to skyship gondola base unless they are parked and leaving.

 

[cdskier]

love that. exposes killington as the lying liars that they've always been. 1645 true vertical. that's right. killington is pod skiing. aint no one skiing to skyship gondola base unless they are parked and leaving.

I also like that Sugarbush ranks #2 in the east on that site...although you do need to take 2 lifts to access that vertical so you most likely wouldn't do top to bottom every run.

 

[bdfreetuna]

love that. exposes killington as the lying liars that they've always been. 1645 true vertical. that's right. killington is pod skiing. aint no one skiing to skyship gondola base unless they are parked and leaving.

Considering it is possible to ski from the top of Killington down to Skyeship base taking a number of different trails, "lying liars" seems a stretch.

Not only would you be skiing the full vertical but a number of options (not counting Juggernaut etc) that would amount to some of the longest runs in the East as well.

I've certainly never heard anyone complain that Killington only offers short runs or a shortage of terrain.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

my gripe is with their marketing. they tout the big vertical but the big vertical doesn't really exist in a way anyone would actually choose to ski repeatedly. and the true vertical is only about half of their big claim!

 

[bdfreetuna]

widest ski area in the East doesn't sound as good I guess

 

[BenedictGomez]

love that. exposes killington as the lying liars that they've always been. 1645 true vertical. that's right. killington is pod skiing. aint no one skiing to skyship gondola base unless they are parked and leaving.

The first time I saw that I recall being shocked Killington's "real" vertical is less than places like Okemo and Stratton.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

The first time I saw that I recall being shocked Killington's "real" vertical is less than places like Okemo and Stratton.

yet it totally makes sense. nowhere at K is there a true 2000 foot top to bottom run of consistent pitch. okemo and Stratton may be boring, but they are nothing but 2000 foot top to bottom runs of consistent (lame) pitch.

 

[bdfreetuna]

I'm gonna do my best to park at SkyeShip base on Thursday just so I can slay all that vert on my last run

 

[drjeff]

says vert is 2K but all the skiing is to mid MT. But it should be on the list. Want to hit all the VT places I can.

Burke with the upper Quad delivers the verts and the East Bowl area is some GREAT terrain. There's reason why that hill has produced some of the best racing talent in the country over the years!!

 

[kingslug]

Good vert is when i ski top to bottom and im friggin tired. Chinclip..bumps all the way down..rather tiring. Hell even Clairs when its in good shape is a killer Hunter run.
When you ski the huge ones such as Jackson and Revy..then you see the real difference..1/2 hour to get down sometimes when it gnarly..although i found that while Revy has the most vert you are really only skinng the first 3 to 4k...its a 4k mt on top of a 2k base...

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Good vert is when i ski top to bottom and im friggin tired. Chinclip..bumps all the way down..rather tiring. Hell even Clairs when its in good shape is a killer Hunter run.
When you ski the huge ones such as Jackson and Revy..then you see the real difference..1/2 hour to get down sometimes when it gnarly..although i found that while Revy has the most vert you are really only skinng the first 3 to 4k...its a 4k mt on top of a 2k base...

yep. kicking horse last week. one of my days had 7 runs. I skied 26000 vertical. some runs took nearly an hour when factoring in short boot packs, gnarly couloirs that drop into steep bowls and steep glades, rests, etc.

 

[kingslug]

KH was a trip..not knowing what i was hiking up to..then looking down it..scary..then looking at the pics i took from the bottom. We looked like ants up there...

 

[KustyTheKlown]

KH was a trip..not knowing what i was hiking up to..then looking down it..scary..then looking at the pics i took from the bottom. We looked like ants up there...

what is this, a center for ants?

seriously tho, KH really is a trip. there is just no "normal" way down from the top. the one green/blue is basically a narrow winding cat track with steep drop-offs all over the place. get out of the gondola, ski or hike a ridge, drop into gnar. unavoidable gnar. was kind of glad I was there alone. at least one of my regular ski friends would have been very very unhappy there.

did you hike T1/T2? I actually never found it to be necessary. there was plenty of super gnarly terrain available without the big hike. I did do the stairway to heaven>whitewall hike once a day, but never hiked the Ts. fernie has a lot of very short and nonstrenuous hikes to access terrain, which I did quite a bit. the Ts hike at KH just looked steep and un-fun and unnecessary considering the good snow all over

 

[kingslug]

Ants i say..friggin ants lol...

 

[kingslug]

I did T1 ..it was not worth the shlep..good workout if you want to practice moderate hiking.
The hike up the headwall at Revy is a good steep one though..like the one at JH...which still pales in comparison to the hike up Baldy in Utah..at least in BC your under 8 k altitude..10k and above is killer for us flatlanders.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

View attachment 23520
Ants i say..friggin ants lol...

lol. I have a really hard time with posting images to this site for whatever reason, and I mostly post from my work computer where none of the photos are. my trip is very well documented on instagram (@sjs.ski.nyc) if anyone is interested. @bdfreetuna, I know you specifically asked for pics, so check it out.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Kinda looks like parts of Kirkwood to me, but I assume it's probably a lot bigger.

 

[kingslug]

If you look at the map you have to ski to the bottom after the bowl..barely remember what we did but its over 4000 vert..

 

[KustyTheKlown]

If you look at the map you have to ski to the bottom after the bowl..barely remember what we did but its over 4000 vert..

kicking horse just posted a pic that boo woke up! (boo is the bear who lives in the habitat below the gondola)

 

[Zand]

Chased the snow to Sugarloaf this week. The snow was unbelievable. Sugarloaf was amazing. Yet, in my head I was thinking given the same snow totals and consistency, I'd rather be somewhere I know like Killington, Burke, or Jay. I spent the entire morning kinda searching out untouched areas and it felt like I kept finding things about 30 minutes too late. I was also afraid to trailblaze as I was solo and didn't know what lurked in the woods. Given that it was the storm of the year, I ultimately would've rather been somewhere where I knew exactly where I wanted to go.