Bumps on Outer Limits

Bumps on Outer Limits

Really...really nice day on the mountain.

Todays adventure on skis started like many January days with a trip up the Superstar Quad and a traverse over to Bear Mountain. Being closer to the equator, Bear is usually a little warmer than the Basin side of the resort. The real reason for the apparent temperature difference is that Bear Mountains slopes have a southern exposure aiming them at what little sunshine we get in this part of Vermont at this time of year. Slopes on the Basin side of the resort (the original part of the resort) predominately have a north facing exposure, or are in the shadow of Killington Peak. With the sun not getting very high on the horizon in early January, slopes on the Basin side of the resort tend to be colder this time of year. Hence the early morning trip to Bear Mountain where it's "warmer".

Of course, you need to understand that warmer in this context is 18 degrees versus 14 degrees. But for the first runs of the day when the blood has not started pumping hard through the body, a few degrees can make the difference between skiing all morning, or going in early from the cold.

Ski conditions today were quite good. The resort is still making snow in some places. In others, they have begun to groom out the snow whales they made the last couple of weeks; blending the snow into the trails surface. The result on most trails is a very soft packed powder surface which is really nice to ski on.

There are a few exceptions. Lower Wildfire today was a slippery mess. Snow making operations have stopped on lower Wildfire, at least for now. The snow whales created by the snow guns have not been groomed out, resulting in very firm surfaces and some large bumps. While very skiable, there were other trails which were much more enjoyable. Outer Limits was another trail that will see better days. It is filled with large bumps left over from snowmaking last week and skier traffic last weekend. I am sure that once it sees some work it will be delightful, because there is a lot of snow on it. But we will have to hold judgement on OL until later in the week.

Coming across the mountain, the Stash, Bear Claw, Skye Burst, and Dream Maker were all very nice. Snow making was taking place on lower Dream Maker from the junction with the Cruise Control cutoff. Cruise Control and Needles Eye were very nice. There was race training set up on Needles Eye earlier in the morning. Once that was done, we did several laps on Needles...it was well worth the do overs...

Prior to doing Needles Eye, we took the cruise down Great Eastern to the Skyeship Base on Route 4. A cup of hot chocolate later, we were all warmed up for the rest of the morning. Snow coverage on Great Eastern was very good. The surface was generally very soft the whole length of the trail with no scratchy spots evident anywhere. Your trip may of course vary as conditions change on the mountain, but the Skyeship base does make a good place to take a mid morning break.

Back on the mountain, Bitter Sweet, Skyelark, and Superstar were also very good. The snow made last week on Skyelark has been groomed. The surface was very soft and consistent. Superstar had a few strange bumps at the top of the lower headwall. I almost launched off of one in the dim light, but I figured it out before taking flight. The snow on the lower headwall was very soft. Waves of snow were avalanching down with each carving turn. Superstar would have been a do over late in the morning, but there was some work being done on the lift, so I headed to Killington Peak to end todays ski outing.

For my final run of the day, I decided on Cascade. It was about 12:30. There was about as much light as was possible today on the trail. From top to bottom, the trail was excellent with nice soft rolling terrain down the whole pitch. It was a great way to end a ski morning at Killington.

.....let it snow!