Howie holding court in the box
before our run down Double Dipper

Howie holding court in the box
before our run down Double Dipper

What a difference 50 degree temperatures can make.

Conditions this morning were pure spring skiing with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 50's. We did not take any where near as many runs as we did last Friday, but the legs got a really good workout.

Overnight, the resort had groomed pretty much everything. Since snow surfaces were very soft and wet, the first few runs were punctuated with evasive maneuvers around huge cat track scars carved in the soft snow. But after a little skier traffic, the trails smoothed out nicely. Great conditions for a warm day.

We spent our ski day on the Killington Peak side of the mountain, figuring that it would stay firmer than the trails with souther exposure at Bear. Starting with multiple runs down Rime to loosen up the legs, we did East Fall, Double Dipper and Downdraft in rapid succession(ok... not so rapid succession as we needed to traverse down to the K1 Gondola each time as the Canyon Quad was not running). All of the runs were in beautiful shape with a soft base of heavy wet snow. We did not encounter any firm spots on the runs down thru the Canyon area.

We finished our morning on the mountain with laps on Superstar. The upper Superstar headwall was creamy soft from the new snow the resort had blown onto it last last week. Middle Superstar had a water skiing feel to it due to melting snow. Because it was groomed, there were no bumps in middle Superstar, so wide carving turns were in order. Lower Superstar was very soft with no skid plates in sight. By the time we were in it (11 AM) it was starting to feel the effect of skier traffic with little wet piles of snow building up through the middle of the trail. After a couple of loops we decided to call it a day and head for a late breakfast.

At the inn the snow stake this morning was reading 18 inches. Over the last week, the snow pack in the back of the inn has melted/compacted about 8 inches. Overall there is plenty of cover left for several weeks of skiing if warm temperatures continue. But this is March in New England, and we should expect at least 1 or 2 more snow storms before the season is done. Let it snow!