Bill and Mary hiking Killington

Bill and Mary hiking Killington

Oh! We are going to be sore tomorrow!

It was a beautiful, sunny day here in Killington. Temperatures at the K1 Base lodge just before noon time were approaching 50. Mary and I felt we needed a little exercise. We love being out on the mountain...so we decided to hike up Killington.

We started our hike from the Bay 1 parking lot around 11:30 AM. We proceeded to hike up Great Northern. When we got to Lower Chute, we decided to hike straight up, versus looping out towards Ram's Head. Lower Chute was snow covered, and very slippery. It is also surprisingly steep when you are hiking up. When we reached Lower Bunny Buster at the bottom of Mouse Trap, we decided to get back on Great Northern again, bypassing Middle Chute and Mouse Trap.

We ran into the first signs of serious snow making as we approached the junction of Great Northern and Conclusion. Huge whales of snow were blown on Great Northern from Highline to Klink. We ran into one skier who had hiked up earlier in the morning. He had really earned his turns.

By the time we reached the junction of Klink, Pipeline and Great Northern, the trail was like a staircase. So many people had hiked up Pipeline over the last several days that the climb from Klink was quite easy. Footprints in the snow had frozen over night to form a comfortable set of stairs to aid the climb. We both remarked that who ever made the first climb on this part of the trail surely paid a heavy price to break through the snow. But it sure made our effort a little easier.

We continued our hike up Great Northern to Birch Run, formerly West Glade. The snow whales blown on the trail were over our heads in many places. It was almost like climbing over sand dunes at the beach, only a little cooler.

We crossed between Powerline, Rime, Reason, East Fall, and the Canyons. A huge amount of snow had been laid down in this area by Killington's snow guns. In several places, as we were cresting the whales, we were concerned that we might find a snow mobile coming up the other side, as they were so tall you could not see over them until you were nearly to the top.

Being never satisfied to see the same terrain twice, instead of going back down Snowdon, we decided to hike across the front of Killington and head over towards Superstar. We took Great Eastern to Launch Pad. We were not sure how much snow on these trails was natural, or the result of wind blowing snow from the snow guns, but by the time we got to the top of Ovation the snow started to thin a little bit. The top of Ovation, Superstar, and Sky Lark had snow ranging from a thin crust to boot top deep, depending on how the wind had blown it around.

To descend the mountain, we climbed down Sky Lark to High Road. At Bittersweet, we took a little diversion to Skye Bits, as it was an easier walk than the top of Low Road. Skye Bits branched back under the lower headwall of Bittersweet, allowing us to merge with Low Road to make the final walk down via Yodler and Highlander. We were back to the car at 2:30.

Now, the 64 dollar question... Should Killington Open?

Killington snow makers have laid down a very solid base on the upper mountain at Snowdon from about the 3000 foot level (maybe 3200 feet... I didn't have a GPS with me). While some natural snow has accumulated on the mountain, it is very clear that none of the trails at the lower elevations are skiable by any number of people. Killington/Mother Nature still has a lot more work to do below 3000 feet to connect the top of the mountain to the K1 base lodge. Temperatures during our climb were down right balmy. During the entire climb, I was dressed in a light jacket, with no gloves, and only a baseball hat on my head. (Of course, I had a shell, wool cap, and gloves in my knapsack in case I needed them) It was just plain warm. It wasn't until we got near the peak that we noticed the temperature coming down a bit. But even then, I did not need to put on any extra layers. From what I could tell, Killington did make the right decision to hold off for a while before opening.

When will Killington open? It is very hard to tell. Temperatures are forecasted at Killington to be unfavorable for continued snow making for the rest of this week. And Killington probably needs 3 to 4 more days to make snow to open, unless there is some help from Mother Nature. Based upon what we saw today, if I were a betting man, I would guess that opening day would occur some time between November 13th and November 18th. But given the unpredictable nature of New England weather in November, anything is possible.