View today from the top of Rime. Can you see me now??

View today from the top of Rime. Can you see me now??

As I sit here in my office writing todays post, my legs are just shot....I have taken 2 Excedrin. Call me in the morning!

Monday afternoon, temperatures at Killington soared into the mid 30's causing some surface melting of the snow pack for the first time in weeks. The good news is that overnight, the Killington area received another 3 inches of so of medium wet snow, more than making up for what was lost to warm temperatures.

In an attempt to fight off meeting boredom, I scheduled a meeting this morning to take place on the slopes at Killington. I am a firm believer in the 5 minute rule....if you can't get your point across on a chairlift ride in 5 minutes....what's the point. And today was a pretty nice day to ski.

Before my meeting started, I took a ride up the Snowdon Quad. The K1 gondola was delayed for some reason, so the quad seemed like a good idea. At the top, I took a run down Mouse Run to Mouse Trap on my way to Lower Bunny Buster and the meeting spot at the K1 Gondola. Mouse Run, Mouse Trap and Lower Bunny Buster were all groomed flat and covered with 3 inches of light, untracked, snow. Just a beautiful warm up run to get the legs going for a morning of skiing.

From the K1 Gondola, we headed over to Bear Mountain. On the K1 we noticed that the cloud deck was lowering. It was difficult to really tell, as the boxes were totally snow covered by snow guns making snow on Cascade. While traversing across South Ridge, it became apparent that the cloud deck was not lowering, it was on the deck. Bear Mountain, which has yielded the best visibility at the resort of late, was totally encased in clouds right down to lower Skye Burst and Wild Fire. It did not stop the skiing, of course, but it did make it "interesting".

Skye Burst, Wild Fire and Bear Claw were well covered with fresh snow. For the first few runs, the skiing was predominately on untracked surfaces with visibility of 5 feet or less. The great news is that the surface was so consistent that the low visibility on these runs was not an issue. While not rip it and go conditions, until the trails got chopped up, there was really no need to hold back.

By the time we got to Cruise Control, surfaces were getting cut up. But, being at a slightly lower elevation, lower Cruise Control was below the cloud deck. The light surface chop was easy given you could see it and make your turns appropriately.

Skye Peak was a different story. By mid morning, upper Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark and Super Star were totally socked in. At normal ski speeds you could barely see a couple of feet in front of yourself. Again, the snow surfaces were in great shape. As long as you followed the golden rule.."Point em down hill you chicken$#!t" there were no problems negotiating any of the terrain.

In an attempt to find better visibility, we headed back to Killington Peak. Rime, Reason, and Upper East Fall were all above the clouds. With the new snow, a few of cruising runs were a good pick me up for the legs. East Fall proper and Double Dipper were totally cloud covered, which made for interesting runs. But with the Canyon Quad running, and nice snow surfaces, several loops were required. To head back to the K1 Gondola for a final boost top Killington Peak, we took a run down Highline. The traverse down the tree lined Great Northern was nice. Highline was socked in as expected.

The final run of the day had us boosting across the top on Launch Pad for one more shot at Superstar. Superstar was now totally cloud covered from top to almost the bottom. But hugging the tree line on skiers right yielded enough visibility to make it a fun last run.

Oh... and it was a productive meeting as well. Who needs a conference room when you can ride a chair lift..........let it snow!