Mary at the entrance to "The Stash"

Mary at the entrance to "The Stash"

Aside from the fact that the Killington Cloud was in full force, today was a really good day to ski Killington. Temperatures in the early morning hours started in the low 20's. By noon time, temps were approaching the freezing mark. Temperatures around the inn peaked this afternoon at 32 before starting to fall back as the day progressed. Although I don't keep temperature data, it is probably the warmest day at Killington since just after New Years.

Snow flurries overnight, combined with warming temperatures, produced consistently soft surfaces all across the Killington Resort. If we had just a little bit of sunshine, it would have been a truly great day on the slopes. Instead, I would rate it as just very good!

We started the day with a ride up the K1 Gondola. Killington Peak was completely encased in cloud. Fearing a repeat of yesterdays cloud covered Pico experience, we traversed across Bear Trax to Bear Mountain. The traverse was flat and fast with a few visibility surprises thrown in for good measure. We were by ourselves on the traverse so we were moving at a quick pace. Most of us, at one point or another, found ourselves airborne after hitting an unseen bump in the trail. I probably covered about 30 feet off one bump where Gateway and Bear Trax merged. Nothing like a little excitement to start out your day!

The trails at Bear Mountain were beautifully soft. Upper Wild Fire was groomed on skiers left and softly bumped on the right. Lower Wild Fire was groomed flat, supporting broad, sweeping turns. Outer Limits was groomed. Snow surfaces were soft and relatively deep. It seemed like 3 to 4 inches of snow were being moved with each turn. Not quite powder, but very soft by Outer Limits standards.

Upper Sky Burst was similar to OL, but the surface depth seemed a little shallower. Grooming on the Viper Pit was poor with lots of chunks and cat track marks on the first several passes through. Lower Sky Burst had freshly made snow that was still mounded in big, firm, snow whales. The first couple of times through, when we were the only people on the trail, they were fun to ride up and kick off of. But, as they were a little slick, when the trail started to get a little more crowded around 10:00 AM, the tops of the whales were a good place to avoid.

Upper Dream Maker was groomed earlier in the week. There were a few icy patches. As long as you stayed in the loose snow there was no problem controlling your speed or direction. The park on Lower Dream Maker was fun as always. It now fully extends to the top of the Super Pipe which opened earlier this week.

We took a run through the Stash. It always seems to have the best grooming on the mountain. We saw a few people taking some of the hits, but not as many as were enjoying the features on Lower Dream Maker.

By 11 or so we started to move back towards the Kpeak side of the resort. Great Eastern to Cruise Control was a mess of ski school groups, beginner skiers, and expert skiers. Lower Cruise Control was beautiful as the ski schools continued down Great Eastern, significantly reducing traffic on the trail.

The Needles Eye Quad was operating today, so we did a half dozen or so loops on it. Panic Button was groomed similar to Outer Limits, with a soft, relatively deep, powder surface. Needles Eye was groomed down the middle and on skiers left. The groomed terrain was firmer with a inch or so of loose granular on top. On skiers right, Needles Eye had nice, soft, little bumps. I did about half the trail down the bumps, then I realized I was catching up and skiing a little too close to some friends who were in front of me, so I courteously bailed out instead of running them over.

We finished our day, once again, on Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark and Super Star. All were nicely groomed with soft surfaces. Now if we only had a little sunshine, it would have been just perfect.......let it snow!