Noel and Dick on an empty Needles Eye

Noel and Dick on an empty Needles Eye

The temperature this morning said roll over. The sunshine said hurry up and get to the mountain. The sunshine was right. Today was a gorgeous day to ski at Killington.

The temperature when I left the inn this morning at 8:40 was a crisp - 8 degrees (Minus 22 if you like your temperature in degrees C). The good news is that there was only a light wind, and 100% available sunshine. Driving up the Killington Road the mountain looked stunning against a backdrop of a deep violet sky. Snow guns were blasting away on Superstar. Random snow guns scattered around the resort were kicking up plumes of snow which hung over the mountain.

We decided to start our day at Bear Mountain (it is closer to the equator so it is warmer). The Superstar lift from the K1 Base lodge was cold but acceptable. The run over to Bear Trap on Gateway was a nice combination of firm machine groomed packed powder, with wispy pockets of new snow. Flat, fast, and very edgeable. You could tell right away it was going to be a good day. We took a quick run through the terrain park on Bear Trap. Mary even went up on a couple of the hits, but only with enough speed to coast over the tops. The first run down Viper Pit I thought was very good, although Mary though it was a little too firm. Of course, I went straight down with maybe 1/2 a turn, while Mary was doing her normal sweeping carves. When we got to the Bear Mountain Base Lodge, we were rewarded. The Outer Limits chair was running. Sweet... we were able to make a couple more quick loops through Bear non-stop, no waiting, as they say, as the OL chair is soooo much faster than the Skye Peak quad.

On Outer Limits, it looked like every available snow gun that the resort could connect to a water and air line was pumping out snow. The trail was not open (rumor has it it opened late this afternoon) when we were doing our loops. From what we hear, the plan is to have it opened officially tomorrow.

We then traversed over the Needles Eye area and hooked up with Dick and Noel Gluck for a run. Cruise Control was very flat and fast. Needles Eye was very nice. It rated do overs. A loop through Skye Lark to High Road completed the runs through the Needles Eye area.

We then headed towards "The Box" at K1. I took Superstar, Mary took Skye Lark to get there. Superstar was a tail of two trails today. Yesterdays soft middle Super Star was not groomed, so it turned into a very firm surface overnight. Good edges prevailed however, because I wanted to get down slope where the guns were blasting away. Yesterday, they had a rope across the lower headwall, so you needed to take the exit to Lower Skye Lark. Today...no rope. So down I went. Whoa... multiple feet of fresh (man made) powder. Of course, I could not see a thing because there were so many snow guns running... but it is really easy when you have taken multiple courses of physics studying for an engineering degree... Gravity will guide you down the hill every time. And because the surface was so deep and consistent, it was really easy to just let it rip down the hill. A great ride.

From the K1, we took a couple of runs in the North Ridge Area. I started by doing Downdraft from the peak. Mary took Great Eastern. The temperatures at the peak seemed cooler than on the Bear side of the mountain. This time of year the sun barely hits the slopes on the Kpeak side of the resort, so I am sure it was actually cooler. After a few loops, we called it quits. A great ski day under our belts. Let it snow!