Category: Trip Reports

2015-2016 Season, Killington, May

Killington: Beast of the East

Superstar

Standing at the top of Superstar, I couldn’t help but smile. Today was something I had been wanting for months… a perfect sunny spring day with top to bottom bumps. It made up for at least a third of this shitty season. May was more than halfway over and Superstar was still going strong despite one of the worst seasons on record.

Killington did not have to do this. Everyone would have understood if they had not blown Superstar a lift tower deep in man made snow. No one would have criticized Killington if they called it quits on May first like the other major resorts in New England. Years ago, we grew used to Killington closing with Superstar still edge to edge and top to bottom.

But not this season. Perhaps, never again will we have to make excuses. Maybe, never again will Killington make prudent financial decisions instead of running their business like the late season means something. Like the mountain has soul.

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2015-2016 Season, April, Sugarbush

Sugarbush

Super Bravo

This was the last weekend of operation for the Heaven’s Gate Triple so I thought it prudent to use my voucher for Sugarbush before Lincoln Peak closed for the season. Sunshine and warm weather combined for a fun day despite the lack of quality bumps.

Organgrinder was pretty much it for a full bump run. Ripcord had occasional bump lines. Stein’s Run had horrific widely spaced mounds in between hard pack icy crust. But my most enjoyable runs were down Lower Organgrinder.

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2015-2016 Season, March, Smugglers Notch

Smuggs

Mansfield from Sterling Summit

March was not quite a complete meltdown (it was no 2011-2012). But given the abnormally low snow base depths, it felt like the end was closer than it should have been (even during a bad year). My frustration with the lack of snow was compounded by unused vouchers. It was a race that I knew I was going to lose big time. I picked Smuggs to burn a voucher due to seeing some ungroomed trails (which I thought might mean spring bumps). Alas, my read of the snow report was not accurate.

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2015-2016 Season, Killington, March

Killington: When the Drinking is Better than the Skiing

I normally reserve my two Killington vouchers for either early or late season. But despite this only being the second week of March, it IS already the late season. Saturday was the pick up the weekend with projected low 50s but with a slight breeze. I gave Stowe and Sugarbush some consideration but ultimately I thought further south would be best for any possibility of good corn snow. In hindsight, there wasn’t going to be good snow anywhere this weekend, let alone good corn snow.

I arrived at Killington surprised by what I found: a resort still busy with guests (probably due to advanced booking and not being able to cancel). I was dumbfounded to see Snowshed and Ramshead bustling with activity and skiers. Given the conditions I skied today, it would be a safe assumption that those skiers did not have a good time.

I assumed lower elevation and southern facing Bear Mountain would be the best place to start so I ascended via Superstar and made my way south. Conditions were dismal and atrocious everywhere. Soft slush piles of pushed around snow alternated with frozen, scraped, and icy slides for life. I quickly got in the rhythm of skiing into the piles and making turns on top of the slushy mounds. But most beginner and intermediate skiers fought for dear life. These conditions were found on all trails including main beginner thoroughfares such as Great Eastern.

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