Killington Peak.
Covered in snow once again!

Killington Peak.
Covered in snow once again!

Last night when I went to bed at 2:30 AM, I set my alarm for 8:00 AM so I would get up and go skiing. I was not expecting very much when I went to sleep. There was a little precipitation falling from the sky, but it was not supposed to amount to much. So you can imagine how surprised I was this morning when I woke up and saw the grounds of the inn covered with 2 to 3 inches of beautiful, sweet, white gold, er... snow.

Killington base lodge at 8:45. Where is everybody?

I rushed to put my ski gear on, wanting to get up on the mountain to catch the first chair. When I got to the mountain, I was in for my second shock of the day. There was no one there! I usually meet all kinds of people at the base lodge in the morning. Usually there are 20-30 locals I know always there, looking for someone to take a few runs with. But at 8:45 AM the base lodge was empty... vancant, no one... very weird... everyone must have rolled over and gone back to bed.

Unsure of the snow surfaces because of the weather at Killington the last couple of days, I went over the the K1 Gondola to take a few runs on the North Ridge trails, formerly known as the Glades. It happened again. Was I still asleep and this was just a dream???

Rime. Untracked powder... No one in sight!

When I skied off the gondola. There were a few college kids fooling around with their equipment at the peak. I skied off towards Rime. I did the courteous skier routine and stopped before entering the trail. Looking up slope I was shocked. Fresh untracked powder. Untouched except for the snow mobile track on skiers right which brought the lifty to his post at the top lift house. Wierd and wonderful at the same time. I did 2 runs on Rime. The surface conditions were 3 inches of light powder on top of a loose machine groomed base. The runs were just classic carving runs. Very exhilarating in a positive way. (read no ice any where to be found... just great edge-able snow with a light powder coating.)

Skiers coming down Great Northern at the top of Cascade

After Rime, I popped over to Cascade. The surface conditions were basically the same, although by the time I had gotten there a half a dozen skiers and riders had already come through. Unlike last Thursday, when Cascade was covered with soft snow from new snow making, Killington had groomed Cascade over night to spread the base around. The base had not had a chance to ice up before it started to snow last night, so the 3 to 4 inches of powder on top just made Cascade fun. No face shots of powder, mind you, just a very consistent soft surface great for carving sweeping turns and kicking up rooster tails.

Snow Shed has snow again!

After Cascade, I took the Snowdon Quad for a run over on Bunny Buster. Again nice. I then boosted over the Peak on the K1 and headed to Bear Mountain. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not as kind to the Bear side of Killington; after all it is closer to the equator. When I got there, Bear Trap was closed. The rope was down on Bear Claw but that looked sketchy. So I went over to Cruise Control. Cruise Control was in ok shape on skiers left. A lot of exposed rock on skiers right. Needles Eye was closed. They will be starting all over again there with new snow making. I then took several runs down Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet off of the Superstar Chair. Snow making operations were in full swing on both trails, with big mounds of man made snow all over the place. After a couple of runs through the guns, I decided to call it quits.

I have since decided that I was not dreaming this morning (the camera had pictures in it to prove I was on the mountain), so I would like to thank all of you for your snow dances. Great Results this morning! But don't stop! We need more help. So Keep Dancing!