Junction of Cascade, Downdraft, Double Dipper, and East Falls

Junction of Cascade, Downdraft, Double Dipper, and East Falls

----- Extra ----- Updated at 5:20 PM -

Late this afternoon the Killington Resort announced that they would extend their ski eason by an extra week based upon current snow conditions.

In the letter from Dave Rathbun, Director of Marketing, Sales, Reservations and Golf for the Killington Resort and Pico Mountain, the planned closing date for the resort is now slated to be Sunday April 20. Initially, the resort had planned on closing on Sunday April 13th.

The new announced operating schedule is:
- Ramshead Lodge and lifts, Skye Base Station and Skyeship Stages I and II close after Sunday, March 30 (all daycare and children's programs will still meet at Ramshead Lodge through April 6)
- Bear Mountain Lodge and lifts, Needles Eye Express, Northridge Triple, Snowdon Quad and Triple and Snowshed Lodge close after Sunday, April 6 (Snowshed Lodge bathrooms and beginner lifts will operate April 7-9 to accommodate the last UK school groups)
- Canyon Quad will operate "as needed" through April 13
- K1 Lodge will be the main base lodge from April 7-20
- Superstar Express and K1 Gondola will operate daily through April 20

Rates during the extended schedule are:
- Regular Season rates are in effect through Sunday, March 30
- Late Season rates commence Monday, March 31 and are valid through Sunday, April 13 ($60 adult, $48 young adult and senior, $42 junior and senior plus)
- Rates for April 14-20 will be $49 / $44 / $39
Additional information will be posted on Killington's website.

------ End Extra ------

Another day with beautiful bright blue skies, 100% sunshine, and late winter temperatures.

Conditions today were ever so slightly softer than yesterday. Why is hard to tell, as temperatures are still holding everything frozen. But I would guess that another day of grooming combined with moderate skier and rider traffic is loosening up the surfaces just enough to beat back the residual effects of last weeks ice storm.

Today was your basic double black diamond day. After a warm up run down Highline, the group did laps up in the Canyon area. All of the trails were firm, but were quite receptive to edges, promoting fairly high speeds with wide sweeping turns. Cascades, Downdraft, and East Falls all appeared to have been groomed overnight. Between 9 and 10 this morning, all were in great shape. Downdraft, which can on occasion become an icy mess, rated a highly unusual 3 do overs this morning. It was both challenging, and nice to ski on...something unusual on a trail with the pitch that Downdraft has.

On the Bear Mountain side of the mountain, Outer Limits was also softer than yesterday. It was worthy of a couple of runs. It is still pretty firm, and there is no evidence of a bump course for this upcoming weekends Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, but it was worth doing over just the same. Upper and Lower Wildfire were starting to release from the grip of last weeks ice. Both were developing a nice layer of ground packed powder. Lower Wildfire was the softer of the 2, being south facing and in 100% sunshine.

Back on the Killington Base side of the mountain, we also did some laps on Superstar. Superstar was basically like yesterday with a firm base covered with loose granular. If I were to pick a run of the day, I would have to go with Downdraft. While Superstar, Wildfire, Bear Claw, Outer Limits and Cascades were all good, I don't remember a ski day where I wanted to ski Downdraft over again....until today.

Let it snow!