WWF-VT
Well-known member
I had a great weekend in VT and this is a combination hike and ski trip report. On Saturday I left my condo at about 10:30 AM to check out the snow on Mt Ellen. I hiked up Lower FIS to Spin Out to Looking Good and then Rim Run to get to the summit. It was sunny and around 40 degrees when I started. At the summit it was 18 degrees and windy.
I saw this moose at the point where the Slide Brook lift crosses Lower FIS. Of course my camera was in my backpack so I got a crappy shot as she was headed into the woods.
There was basically a dusting of snow once you got about half way up the mountain. Lower FIS is steep and not an easy hike
Here's a view of Black Diamond and FIS from Looking Good.
A view lake Champlain.
Without snow coverage, FIS is rocky and seems steeper than mid winter.
A view north to Camels Hump and MT Mansfield
I went down Bravo and cut over to Elbow where I saw one snowboard track that had risked a trip on the snow coverered grass. Overall it was a fun hike and a great way to get excercise in anticipation of skiing on Sunday.
On Sunday we woke up to a dusting of snow at Mt Ellen and reports of 4-6" of new snow at Killington. We made the 50 mile drive to the K-1 base lodge, took advantage of a $39 lift ticked with my son and loaded onto the gondola by 11 AM. Killington had full snow coverage on the mountain and you could see skiers and riders making their way down "closed" trails on the gondola ride. When we first started out it was cloudy and around 30 degrees.
Here's a view of the line which wasn't as bad as we anticpated:
Looking uphill:
There were a few park features on Reason that my snowboarding son liked. The guns were on East fall but the shut off around 1 PM. Conditions were pretty damn good for October 30th. There were OK mogul lines on the sides of Rime and East Fall was getting limited skiers and riders so it was funky snow but fun.
Looks more like January than October:
Funny, as the clouds went away so did a lot of the people:
Around 2 PM it was full on sushine and basically ski on at the lifts.
We called is a day around 3 PM. My son and I had a great weekend and were glad that we had the chance to be in VT and ski & ride in October.
I saw this moose at the point where the Slide Brook lift crosses Lower FIS. Of course my camera was in my backpack so I got a crappy shot as she was headed into the woods.
There was basically a dusting of snow once you got about half way up the mountain. Lower FIS is steep and not an easy hike
Here's a view of Black Diamond and FIS from Looking Good.
A view lake Champlain.
Without snow coverage, FIS is rocky and seems steeper than mid winter.
A view north to Camels Hump and MT Mansfield
I went down Bravo and cut over to Elbow where I saw one snowboard track that had risked a trip on the snow coverered grass. Overall it was a fun hike and a great way to get excercise in anticipation of skiing on Sunday.
On Sunday we woke up to a dusting of snow at Mt Ellen and reports of 4-6" of new snow at Killington. We made the 50 mile drive to the K-1 base lodge, took advantage of a $39 lift ticked with my son and loaded onto the gondola by 11 AM. Killington had full snow coverage on the mountain and you could see skiers and riders making their way down "closed" trails on the gondola ride. When we first started out it was cloudy and around 30 degrees.
Here's a view of the line which wasn't as bad as we anticpated:
Looking uphill:
There were a few park features on Reason that my snowboarding son liked. The guns were on East fall but the shut off around 1 PM. Conditions were pretty damn good for October 30th. There were OK mogul lines on the sides of Rime and East Fall was getting limited skiers and riders so it was funky snow but fun.
Looks more like January than October:
Funny, as the clouds went away so did a lot of the people:
Around 2 PM it was full on sushine and basically ski on at the lifts.
We called is a day around 3 PM. My son and I had a great weekend and were glad that we had the chance to be in VT and ski & ride in October.
