High Road between Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet
March 14, 2006, 11:30 AM

High Road between Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet
March 14, 2006, 11:30 AM

Yes it did! Mother nature shot a bullet at Killington; but Killington Lives!

Ok, so much for irrational exuberance. Now the facts.. The last 3 days have not been kind to ski resorts in the northeast. Killington, which has been blowing snow all winter, was hit hard, but it is a long way from being out.

Mary and I casually got to the mountain this morning around 10:00 AM. Temperatures were in the low 50's, with mid overcast and a 20 MPH wind. As the grass around the inn is now showing, we did not know what to expect. We took the K1 directly up to the peak. On the way up we got a good look at the Canyons and Cascade. Both looked quite skiable, with no ice or water bars showing, however, they were roped off and closed. Downdraft at the peak was also roped off and closed, but it looked good as well. Why these trails were closed is anybody's guess. East Fall was open. While we did not ski it, it looked in good shape with some small bumps on it.

We traversed across the mountain to Bear on Great Eastern. The traverse was very dicey because of high traffic (it is Canadian week up here eh!) There were a few spots where pond skimming for 10 feet was in order. Killington will need to blow a lot of snow on the cross over in the next couple of days.

When we arrived a Bear, we took Wild Fire. Sweet. Really good snow cover, nice soft little bumps, with a consistency somewhere between mashed potatoes and vanilla ice cream. A lot of fun. The terrain park on Lower Wild Fire was closed (from the Skye Peak lift it looked in tough shape) so we took lower Bear Claw. Again, nice soft little bumps with plenty of snow cover.

After Bear, we did a lap over on Cruise Control. Skier's left was in good shape (under the guns); skier's right had some thin spots as usually develop in the spring. Skye Lark top to bottom was in great shape. Super Star also survived quite well.

Thus far, the mountain has survived. Temperatures are going lower this afternoon with snow forecasted (from flurries to out an out snow) over the next 3 days. The resort has a lot of work ahead of it over the next couple of days to repair the damage from the warm weather, but conditions could have turned out much worse. I will hazard to guess, that ski conditions this coming weekend should turn out pretty good...with the caveat that you should sharpen your edges as the mountain will firm up when the temperature drops.