Rut's Skis - Hell freezes over!

Rut's Skis - Hell freezes over!

Lots to talk about in no particular order. The short version...Today was chilly at Killington. Conditions were firm, flat and fast. And Ruts was on skis so we know hell has frozen over.....

Today was atypical for this ski season, but fairly normal for a late January day in Killington. Temperatures are in the single digits. The mountain is being bathed in bright sunshine. Moderate winds are creating wind chills well below zero. But, carefully timed runs on the Skye Ship and the K1 Gondola, combined with a hot chocolate stop, made for an enjoyable morning on the mountain.

Since I last skied on Wednesday, the resort has continued their grooming and snow making operations. Every surface we skied on this morning was groomed flat, with the exception of where snow making was taking place.

At Bear Mountain, Skye Burst, Bear Claw, and Wild Fire all skied very nice, with the exception of lower Skye Burst. The resort was making snow on Lower Skye Burst. Combined with yesterdays snow squalls, and a strange wind, the surface on Lower Skye Burst was very mottled and sticky. A run through with a grooming machine will make it all nice for the weekend.

Snow making looked like it was going strong in the Stash, so we decided to take a pass. Outer Limits has a bumps course set up on the bottom 2/3rds of the trail. The course created a pretty tight pinch point. While the trail was groomed, and looked nice, we also bypassed it in deference to others.

On Skye Peak, upper Dream Maker was beautiful. The icy bumps of the last couple of days have been groomed. Snow making was taking place on Middle and Lower Dream Maker. Cruise Control and Needles Eye were set up perfectly for edge to edge high speed cruising, as was Bitter Sweet and Skye Lark.

Our run of the day once again was Superstar. From the upper headwall to the run out to the quad, Superstar was covered with corduroy complimented with some loose granular and fine snow. Even though the Superstar Quad was a little cold in the wind, trail conditions demanded a do over in the mid morning sunshine.

Todays picture shows an unusual sight. Many regular readers and friends will recognize "The Bagel" and Ruts in the picture. But if you ignore the Bagels circa 1980 one piece disco suit (it was cold today after all and one piece suits tend to be warm) you will notice that Ruts is not on his trademark snow board. All season, Ruts has been threatening to get on a pair of skis, and today was the day. It has been almost 20 years since Ruts went to the dark side. Since he had fun today, it will be interesting to see which way he goes the next time he is on the hill.

.....let it snow!