Highline from the K1 Gondola

Highline from the K1 Gondola

It was a brisk -8 when we left the inn this morning. But the sky was bright blue, and there was no wind. Other than an extra layer under the jacket, it had the makings of a great ski day.

We started out doing laps on on the K1 Gondola. Our first run took us down Upper Downdraft across Great Northern to Highline. All were beautifully groomed and glorious for cruising. For our next loop, we decided to do Downdraft top to bottom. it was in great shape, except as is usually the case this time of year, the lights went out on lower Downdraft. It was completely in the shadow of the mountain, and since we had been in bright sunshine at the peak, it took a few spooky turns on the steepest section of the trail for our eyes to adjust. We finished up with another loop on Highline. We noticed that we were doing the same route and keeping pace with a local group affectionately called the "IRT". We decided we needed to slow the pace down a bit so we headed over to Bear Mountain.

We did a few laps down Bear Trap, Bear Claw and Wildfire. Outer Limits looked OK so we decided to give it a try. As we were going up the OL lift, someone in the chair in front of us dropped their goggles at roughly lift pole 7. When we got to the top, we discovered that it was an english school group. The instructor with them stopped me and asked me if on my way down OL if I would mind recovering the goggles. No problem, so off we went. No problem except upper OL was polished to a high gloss finish. Skid, turn, slide, I made my way over to lift pole 8 and went under the ropes. I skied down in the powder, found the goggles, and retreated back to the slide for life. (I should have skied all the way down in the roped off area. The snow was great. But I did not for fear of hitting some snow making hoses.) Mid-way down OL, the resort had groomed the snow whales on skiers left. They provided a nice carving surface to negotiate the lower half of Outer Limits. While it was probably not pretty going down OL, being a good samaritan has it owns rewards. (And I got to officially duck under the ropes!)

The team rescues Carolyn, a visitor from the UK stuck on Skye Burst

We took a quick break then did a few more loops, ending up in the Super Pipe on Dream Maker. We decided after the pipe to take the Skye Peak quad up to the top, ski Skye Burst to Cruise Control and play in the Needles Eye area for a few turns before going home. Nope.. Not today.

When we got near the top of the Skye Peak lift, we saw a skier about 10 feet from the peak frozen solid and screaming. The snow surface was a little slick, but all in all it was not bad. Plenty of snow to maneuver in. I skied down to find out if we could lend some assistance. When I got there, I discovered an English girl (we have a lot of visitors from England at Killington this week) absolutely terrified, shaking, and crying her eyes out. The people she was with had skidded her off the top of Skye Peak, where she proceeded to freeze with fear. She was totally stuck in place and shaking. The people she was with had just left her there. They were no where to be found.

I skied around her and got on the down hill side to keep her from sliding if she fell. Howie got in position above her to keep people from running into her. Then Bill B skied up beside her and tried to coach her to get her moving. After a couple of minutes, we were able to calm her down a little bit. Bill was then able to get her to side slip down to the junction of Frost Line (get out your maps... it is a little used green trail 200 yards below the top of Skye Burst). From their, Bill got her into a snow plow wedge and we skied with her around Great Eastern to the Snow Shed Cross over and down to Snow Shed. This whole process took about an hour, and since the temperature was in the single digits, we had all gotten a little cold.

Bill B and I did one more run on Super Star before calling it a day. Super Star was ok, nothing to write home about, but we needed to have a good hard run to finish the day after spending the last hour in a side slip.

Tonight, all eyes are to the sky. Local forecasters are calling for 2 storms the next 2 days. Tonight's storm is supposed to cover the area with about 6 inches of fluff. The storm on Wednesday and Thursday is supposed to leave over 2 feet of snow around the area. If that happens, it will be the largest snow storm the area has seen since Hurricane Wilma on October 25/26 in 2005. Let it Snow!