Killington Peak framed in snow.

Killington Peak framed in snow.

The sunshine was beautiful. The deep azure sky was resplendent as a backdrop for the surrounding countryside. If you factored in a 90 degree temperature difference, you might almost think you were in Rio de Janeiro. But string bikinis were not in vogue today at Killington. It was all Pillsbury Doughboy outfits. Layer upon layer upon layer.

Light dry snow continued falling around Killington last evening till around midnight. Strong winds pushed it around, contorting it into random drifts. This morning, when I left for the mountain, the snow stake had recorded an additional 3 inches on the ground. Not too shabby for early December.

Just before 9:00 AM as I was parking my car, the temperature read a balmy -1 degrees. A good sized gust hit the car, blowing snow in a small cyclone around me as I stepped out. Brrrrr.. So it goes.

Snow surfaces on the mountain were a varied mix of boot deep powder (in areas sheltered from the wind), wind-blown powder, and frozen granular surfaces scoured by the breeze. When I arrived at the K1 base lodge, I met a few of my friends. They were not distraught that I was a few minutes behind schedule. It was not going to be a real powder day. And dawdling for a few extra minutes in a warm base lodge seemed like a good thing to do.

For the first run, we took the K1 Gondola to Killington Peak and headed down East Fall. The snow on Great Northern at the peak was extremely sticky. Vigorous polling was in order to make any forward progress across the flat top of the peak. Upper East Fall was scoured pretty slick, although near the junction with Rime there was some wind packed drifts to negotiate. The traditional East Fall (why do trail names keep changing anyway?) was boot deep with firm wind packed powder. My skis wanted to work it, but my left leg cramped up pretty solid. I told the others to go along, as waiting for me in the cold was not going to be pleasant. I headed back to the K1 Base Lodge to strip off the boot to get rid of the cramp...so it goes.

After walking around the base lodge for a few minutes the cramp went away. I went back out and headed to the Superstar Quad. I figured that even with the cold, that swinging my leg under the chair would help prevent it from cramping up again.

Pico from Nivis Walk to the left of the upper lift terminal on Superstar. (Click to enlarge.)

While cold, the Superstar Chair was not that bad. The breeze was blowing up slope with the chair, so except for an occasional gust or mini cyclone, it was not a factor. Once above the lower headwall, the lift was in full sunshine. My black ski suit just soaked in the rays. I won't call it warm. And I certainly did not have any areas of exposed skin. But it was comfortable enough to do 8 loops before calling it a day.

From the Superstar Quad, conditions were all over the place. Bittersweet, Skyelark and Upper Superstar were all groomed some time during the night. Because of it's orientation to the wind, Bittersweet had sections near the trees on skiers left where several inches of soft powder had held against the wind. Skylark was also fairly soft, once off the very top. Superstar was scoured clean to the lower headwall. It was a firm cruiser, but the upslope wind in your face made it a little on the chilly side.

Two runs stick out today. Old Superstar, between Superstar and Ovation, was a legitimate powder run. Calf deep powder was across most of the trail from Launch Pad to High Road. For comic relief, the resort had a "Thin Cover" sign at the entrance on Launch Pad. I guess it was thin as there still was some brush poking through the 2 feet or so of snow on the trail. While I was on the trail, it was not even a consideration as I was going through the fluff.

The other run which was a mess in a negative way was Lower Superstar. On my loops on the Superstar Quad, I kept noticing that on skiers left under the chair there appeared to be a good amount of packed powder bumps. For my last run of the day, I decided to try it, figuring that if I burned out my legs...I was going in anyway...so what the heck. Well, those powder bumps were wind blown cornices on top of rock hard Volkswagen Bug sized bumps. I went down 3 times in the process. On one occasion, I skied through some soft snow, and all of a sudden there was nothing underneath me...pretty strange feeling. On the other two, I buried a tip into the snow, only to strike the frontside of a frozen bump underneath. Overall it was not pretty...but I got down without any major bruises (to my body or ego). It probably looked pretty funny from the chair, however, now that I think about it.

All in all, however, it was another good day on the mountain. Beautiful sunshine, stunning views, and fresh snow........let it snow!