Mary underneath the Sky Burst Quad on her way to Dream Maker

Mary underneath the Sky Burst Quad on her way to Dream Maker

Killington was blessed with slightly warmer than normal temperatures over the last few days. Temperatures on Sunday and Monday just kissed the freezing point. With a storm moving out to see south of us, cold air was drawn back into the region, returning Killington to the low 20's for most of today.

I did not have the opportunity to ski on Monday, as several business meetings took precedence. Mary reported that the mountain was covered with beautifully soft snow; the result of last weeks storm combined with warm temperatures.

I did have a chance to take a few runs today. Colder temperatures saw surfaces firm up considerably. Yesterdays thaw, combined with last nights freeze, took most of the softness out of the snow. It was quite enjoyable and edge-able, but last weeks fresh soft snow morphed into something with a styrofoam like quality. (as long as you did not tumble...then you might think it was more brick like)

We started our abbreviated day around 10:30 on the K1 Gondola. No line...just walked on. As we were in the box, we noticed Cascade looked nicely groomed. So we decided that would be a good "warm up" run. I enjoyed it, finding plenty of soft fluff down skiers right. Mary stayed more to the center of the trail where she ran into firm conditions. I would have done it over, Mary wanted to move on, so off we headed towards Bear Mountain.

Bear Claw to lower Sky Burst were groomed flat and fast. The surface on Bear Claw was relatively pliable. Lower Sky Burst had a ball bearing quality to it, but as long as you paid attention the surface was very consistent.

Upper Stash was firmer than I expected. The thaw/freeze cycle must have been more pronounced there, as it is south facing. The rest of the Stash was similar to Bear Claw. I did some of the smaller features on skiers right, and found them quite enjoyable. Mary went down skiers left and ran into a few slick spots, probably created by skiers/riders going through the Stash avoiding the features.

Snow making took place last night on Upper Sky Burst. Soft snow piles on the trail was a definite change of pace from the firm surfaces we had previously skied. I found the little bumps fun. From there we took our final runs of the day down Cruise Control and Bitter Sweet. Both were in nice shape, although the flat light and small surface irregularities did result in several periods of unintended air.

We did not spend a lot of time on the slopes today, but what time we did was a great outdoor work out on a cool winters day.......Let it snow!