K1 Base Lodge
from High Line
February 23, 2006, 12:00 Noon

K1 Base Lodge
from High Line
February 23, 2006, 12:00 Noon

I did sneak out today to ski for about an hour at 11 this morning. It was snowing when I left the inn. We received a couple of inches. When I arrived at the mountain, it was coming down pretty hard with poor visibility. The K1 Base Lodge area had 3 to 4 inches of new snow. The peak was approaching 6 inches in untracked areas. It was a fairly wet snow, so it will compress down pretty quickly.

I usually ski on days when the mountain is relatively empty, so skiing in the middle of the holiday week crowds was interesting. But, using local knowledge, I was able to do 6 runs in an hour. I took the singles line on the Superstar Lift and headed over to Needles Eye. Surface conditions were variable, alternating between fresh snow and hard-pack, but Needles was quite skiable. The Needles Eye Quad was running, so I looped it a couple of times, once going down Cruise Control, the other time doing Bitter Sweet to High Road.

Boosting up the Skye Ship, again in the singles line, I took Four Way to Falls Brook to the South Ridge Triple. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the South Ridge Triple, it is a mid mountain lift which traverses from Bear Mountain to just below Killington Peak. It features a sharp left hook in the middle of the lift. I have included a picture of the mid-station wheel for your amusement. On busy days and weekends, this is a critical lift to optimize skiing and riding, as it allows one to go from Bear Mountain to the Canyons area without going through the K1 Base Lodge and associated lifts. It is a real time saver, but it can be cold if the wind is blowing (This particular area is nick named "South Fridge").

From South Ridge, I played in the Canyons. Cascade and East Fall were similar to Needles Eye. By this time, I needed to leave so I exited via High Line. High Line was in excellent shape, with nice snow cover. Since you really need to know how to get to High Line, it was not seeing any real skier traffic. I stopped in the middle of the trail to take today's main picture of the Killington Base Lodge. It was still snowing pretty heavy at the time, with the forecast for continued snow squalls straight thru the weekend.