Snow making in full swing on Superstar

Snow making in full swing on Superstar

It's not mariachi bands and umbrella drinks. Nor is it a fur clad buxom bartender at an ice bar with a bottle of vodka. This is Killington after all. And that means hot chocolate with extra marshmallows if you were on the hill this morning.

After a little light snow overnight, a dome of high pressure settled over Killington this morning providing the area with bright blue skies and chilly temperatures. The sunshine was a welcomed companion to skiers and riders at the resort today. The chilly temperatures...not so much. But even then, an extra layer this morning was all it took to ward of the chill.

Because of the sunshine, we started our day skiing at Killington Peak. Highline was resplendent in the early morning sun, and as there was no race training taking place, we hopped on that first thing. The traverse down Great Northern was unusually choppy, as it appeared that a bunch of snow mobiles had been on the trail prior to the resort opening for skiing. But once through that, Highline was groomed in great shape.

Cascade was next up. Upper Cascade was medium firm corduroy. With the morning sun it was set up nicely for a little cruising. Lower Cascade was firm but soft enough to set an edge. Skiers right was tighter than the middle and skiers left. (Gravity was clearly causing the chopped up snow to flow down the compound fall line.) Overall it was in good shape, but not good enough to elicit a do over.

Traversing across to Bear Mountain, we hit Bear Claw and Lower Wild Fire. Upper Bear Claw was relatively soft. Lower Wildfire was firm with a granular coating.

Outer Limits was groomed flat, with the manufactured bumps course starting about a third of the way down the trail. Some in our group did it a couple of times, although there were a few comments about the pinch point at the top of the bumps course.

Todays motley crew at the top of Highline. Click to enlarge.

Upper Wildfire is best left with the term "interesting" It was groomed flat with a lot of firm spots covered with a fine snow dust. The lower third at the Bear Claw junction could only be described as ice. The only choice on that section of the trail was to point the skis downhill and hope that a) you did not meet anyone coming down Bear Claw and b) that you could find enough snow on Bear Claw to check your speed and stop. In all fairness to the resort, this was the only spot on the mountain where we encountered any ice. While there were a few places where we discovered wind blown hard pack, we did not encounter any other icy bits on our morning excursion around the resort.

Skye Burst top to bottom was nicely groomed. Upper Skye Burst was a mixed granular surface over a firm base. Lower Skye Burst was much softer, the result of snow making last week which was blanketing the trail.

Dream Maker, Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, and High Road were all in excellent shape. We did several passes off the Skye Ship in the Needles area, taking advantage of the Skye Ships enclosed cabins to warm up a little.

Once again I finished my morning on Superstar. Snow guns have been making snow on Superstar for the last 3 days. The surface was a combination of deep man made powder on top of large snow whales with a fair amount of skier created bumps thrown in for good measure. With the snow guns kicking out a huge amount of snow, and the bright sunshine over head, Superstar took on a yellowish hue as one picked your way through the bumps. With the exception of one snow gun, every gun on Superstar was cranking out beautifully light powder. The rogue in the mix was putting out ice pellets, the temperature was in the single digits after all, which left you skiing with a candy coating. All in all, Superstar under the guns turned the morning into an aerobic work out. And that was a nice way to end the morning at the resort.

......let it snow!