Category: Vermont

2010-2011 Season, Earned Turns, Killington, October, Powder Day

Never Cut Your Loses: Killington

Steve on Royal Flush

The thought had been nagging me for the past few weeks: I was decidedly not ready for the season to start from a gear perspective. Nothing had been pulled out of the closet. An inventory had not yet been taken. New jackets still retained their store tags. My recently mounted new Dynafits had not been inspected for DIN setting accuracy nor tested so I could learn the features. Ready or not, the season starts now. Ready? Set. GO!

Killington or Mansfield? Reports had confirmed a foot of snow near the summit of Killington but I repeated my mantra not to bet against Mansfield. Besides, I hate the drive from Ashland to Killington even though it is twenty minutes shorter than Ashland to Stowe.

While I should usually not bet against Mansfield, I should also know by now that one in the hand is better than two in the bush. That you never get greedy when you know of a sure thing. You keep hammering the known quantity as long as it remains good because you might get skunked when you go in search of something better.

Sheets of rain blowing sideways greeted me at the Mansfield Gondola. The snow barely started near the base of the slopes and was very thin and spotty for a few hundred feet. The Front Four did not look in play from the parking lot. I suspected skiing was likely good up high but I resolved that I was not skinning in a drenching rain.

Rather than wait for the rain to stop, I opted to drive to Killington where I suspected they had top to bottom skiing, more snow, and no rain. I guess I never learn… But this was rather defaulting back to the known quantity when the greed did not pan out. Sure enough, I made the wrong decision when I left home but made the right decision in revising plans.

(more…)

2009-2010 Season, April, Killington

Closing Weekend at Killington — THE BEAST is Dead

 

Much to the dismay of Killington pass holders, Killington die hards, and spring bump skiers everywhere, Killington recently announced that this would be there last weekend in operation despite having previously promoted that they would ski into May if conditions allow. As we would find out throughout the afternoon, conditions most certainly would allow at least one more weekend of skiing if not two more weekends with a little effort. Three weeks ago, I skied Killington and asked whether or not THE BEAST is back. In answer to the question I posed, Killington will write the words “Closed for the Season” in the new flowery and flowy script of Powd’r and not the big bold letters of the beast of old.

With a freeze overnight, we arrived at Killington shortly after 10 A.M. and went about booting up at a leisurely pace to allow the sun and temperatures to work their magic. Even as early as 11 A.M., some surfaces were still a little firm and variable. By by noon time, epic spring bump conditions arrived and it was game on for a great afternoon of bumps.

The center of Superstar was groomed which proved to be a disaster. The snow formed long well spaced out mounds of snow. Right and left sides had bumps but lines were fairly irregular though things did get better after noon. Upper Ovation was a narrow ribbon down skier’s left and I would be surprised if it was still open on Sunday. There is a 10 foot break in the snow mid-trail. Sensible folks were taking off their skis and down hiking but more adventurous folks, such as yours truly, just pointed the skis straight down the wet grass and went for it. The portage back to Superstar was short and not the problem.

(more…)

2009-2010 Season, April, Sugarbush

Closing Weekend at Sugarbush

With prepaid vouchers in hand, it was “use it or lose it” time regardless of conditions. And conditions truly were not worth the drive to ski Spring Fling and Stein’s off the Valley House Double. Meanwhile, skiers at Wildcat were enjoying a foot of fresh due to the storm moving faster than anticipated. Suffice to say, this was probably my worst call of the season on a destination.

My hopes were high as I skied off the lift and down Snowball to Spring Fling. Two inches of fresh provided a creamy surface. Skier’s left on Spring Fling was untracked and surfy and skied extraordinarily well. However, halfway down Spring Fling, the creamy new snow transitioned into sticky wet snow on top of frozen cat tracks necessitating careful skiing that was better where the new snow had been cleared down to the base. I lapped Spring Fling a few times chewing up what was left of the untracked surfy snow on upper Spring Fling.

Eventually, I tired of dealing with the wet and manky snow on lower Spring Fling and opted to try Stein’s which was bumped from top to bottom.Conditions were extremely variable on Stein’s with better turns where traffic had already slid off the new snow. An extreme amount of effort was put forth for minimal enjoyment. My knees were rather sore after my run down Stein’s and I knew that would be my only run in the bumps for the day.

I took the lift back up for one more run down Spring Fling. The mountain was empty with no more than fifty people on the mountain including the lift operators and patrol. Sugarbush had planned on staying open one more weekend, but with so little snow at the base and so little demand, it makes sense for them to close up shop this weekend.

2009-2010 Season, April, Jay Peak

Jay: April 11th

Jay has retained impressive coverage considering the past month’s weather. As many lifts were running as there were available routes (read routes, not trails) which is in sharp contrast to typical late season operations at most other areas. But Jay’s setup neccesitates the number of lifts due to its horizontal spread out nature.

Available routes included Northway off the Tram, Goat and Green Mountain Boys off the Bonnie, and Jet, Haynes, and Motrealer/Wiggle off the Jet. Snow ran out at the end of Wiggle about 50 feet shy of the Bonnie (which was required to get to Tramside). There was no snow between Stateside and the Jet which required a walk  (but that is to be expected this time of year). Other than those two hiking aspects, all open trails were wall to wall coverage with no bare spots excepting parts of the bump line under the Jet.

Jay got some snow this weekend and it was snowing/sleeting when arrived at the mountain. Snow conditions were loose wet granular. Fairly decent skiing though the fog made for low visibility. Goat was promoted to a black run per signs as it was rather slick. Other than the small bump line under the Jet, there are no moguls which was a little disappointing. But given the weather, I will take good snow conditions on groomers over a barely skiable bump run.

Jay has plenty of snow for the next weekend and I am sure they can do two more weekends. Three though, might be a stretch but they are planning on staying open until the first weekend in May.

2009-2010 Season, April, Killington

Is THE BEAST Back?

That is difficult for me to judge as I have never skied Killington during the spring. So I have no basis for comparison. The the new Killington logo with its foofy elegant script juxtaposed to the big bold THE BEAST logo is an identity crisis at its worst. Powd’r wants to demonstrate that this is a different Killington while simultaneously retaining, rediscovering, and redeveloping its prior culture and image.

Is THE BEAST Back? It may be too early to judge. But they are setup to go as late into spring as weather allows. I see no reason why they could not be last to close in the east. Whether or not they do depends if Killington wants to write the word “closed for the season” in flowery and flowy script or big bold lettering. Time will tell.

I worked the mountain south to north starting at Outer Limits and working back to the Canyon area. Having never skied south of Skye Peak at Killington nor the Canyon area, I tried so ski every steeper pitched open trail on the mountain and finally completie my knowledge of the terrain to a sufficient level (minus the trees). Snow varied from just past prime corn to sloppy mush. Conditions were best on moderately steep bumps and worst on flatter terrain, especially groomed out blue squares.

(more…)