Tower guns making snow on lower Bear Claw

Tower guns making snow on lower Bear Claw

Today was a study in contrasts at Killington. But overall it was a really nice day to ski.

I arrived at the mountain just before 9, parking in the 4th spot in the Bay 1 parking lot next to the K1 gondola. Aside from being cold (-9F when I left the inn at 8:55) 2 things struck me as I arrived at the resort...Killington peak was devoid of color, totally covered in a heavy gray overcast and... there seemed like there was no one at the resort. Over the next 60 minutes or so, my initial outlook would change considerably, but when I walked from the car to the K1 base lodge, with the wind blowing and no sunshine, all alone, there was an eire sense of foreboding.

As I was running about 5 minutes late, the friend I was going to ski with today was already heading from the base lodge to the Gondola. We agreed we would meet at the top of the North Ridge triple at 9:15. Seemed like a reasonable plan. He headed to the lift, I went into the lodge to put my boots on.

By 9:05, I am in the gondola, headed to the peak. The wind is howling, the car stops several times, but never matter, this is Killington, I have seen this behavior before. I ski down Great Northern over to North Ridge. The chair is not running... No one is even there to get the chair running.. My friend is now where to be seen. This is not good. So I ski down Great Northern back to the K1 Gondola. Other than being dark, remember the gray cloud, surface conditions were excellent. I was literally the only one on the trail the whole way down back to the box. The feeling of foreboding came back about halfway down the mountain as I realized I was traveling at warp speed with a very stiff wind at my back. If something unfortunate were to happen, I would have launched into the woods and possibly not be found for days...It was actually a weird feeling.

I looped the K1 gondola again, this time going down East Falls. East Fall was in great shape. I was able to make broad sweeping GS style turns from top to bottom, as again I was totally by myself. I did pass an instructor and his student on the run out on Spillway back to the box. But my friend was no where in sight.

I headed back up the box and decided to traverse the top of the mountain to go to Bear. As I skied down Blue Heaven towards South Ridge, there was a noticeable change in the environment. I had skied past the edge of the gray cloud hovering above Killington Peak into brilliant sunshine and a bluebird sky. I was still basically alone, but the sun was glorious. It had an immediate impact in lifting ones spirit. The Killington resort, being so big, can be like that some days. One side of the mountain can be socked in with weather, the other side can be beautiful. Today was one of those days.

After an uneventful traverse, I came to the top of Bear Trap. I bounced off several of the features in the park before heading down the Viper Pit to lower Bear Claw. The tower guns were going on Bear Claw. Skiing under them was just simply glorious. The surface was a pristine velvet carpet of fresh snow punctuated by snow whale bumps directly underneath the towers. If you can't ski on a powder day, this was almost as good, and definitely more consistent.

On my next run down, I took Wildfire. Wednesday, Upper Wildfire was fresh powder and icy bumps. The bumps had been groomed but fresh powder was being supplied by tower guns here as well. And there at the bottom of Upper Wildfire, at a little trail called Anti Venom, stood my friend watching me play in the snow. In about an hour, my day at Killington had been transformed from being alone in a cold, gray, foreboding environment, to skiing on fresh powder in brilliant sunshine with a good friend. Life is good!

By this time, some people are starting to wake up and come out of the condos at Sunrise. My friend does not like to ski the guns, but I convinced him to give it a try. Since the tower guns are up high, there is a nice space which forms under the arc of snow from the guns. The spray keeps most people away, creating a great place to play. We did a couple more loops on Wildfire, Bear Trap and Bear Claw, each one on a new pristine surface...

After Wednesday's outing, I was curious about Dream Maker, so I sucked my friend into taking a run over there. Dream Maker had seen some more snow making, but had not yet been groomed. Lower Dream Maker was a nice collection of small bumps interspersed between huge snow whales. The surface was very solid, but it was not ice by a long shot. When Dream Maker is groomed out, it should be just fantastic for some easy cruising.

By now I had to get back to the inn. (Skiing does come at a price after all.) We boosted back up to the top on the Skye Peak Quad. At the top, it was dull and gray again with a stiff breeze. I went down Superstar. I wish I had some headlights. Surface conditions were good, especially in the wind blown piles of snow on skiers right on the lower headwall. But the day had turned gray again. I guess it was time to go back to work.

Let it snow!