Superstar covered with soft bumps. Billy B. in the foreground. Ray about 20 feet down slope.

Superstar covered with soft bumps. Billy B. in the foreground. Ray about 20 feet down slope.

While the Mid Atlantic states prepare for another large snow storm, snow also keeps falling on Killington Peak. It is not much. But it is keeping everything nice and white.

On the mountain, snow conditions have continued to improve the last few days. The firm surfaces from the deluge 10 days ago are being replaced with soft, granular surfaces mixed with a combination of natural and man made snow. On the trails which have not received continuous snow making, there is a 3-4 inch covering of loose granular over the base. Just right to set an edge and carve some turns. Some trails have seen ongoing snow making for several days. On those you will find a soft powder surface measured in feet to play on (or in, depending upon your perspective).

Killington today was generally cloud covered with light snow falling randomly around the resort. While there were no extremes in light conditions (like from bright sunshine to dark shadows), overall you needed to pay attention as the light was a little dim.

The usual routes down Skye Burst and Bear Claw were nice. I think Upper Skye Burst was deep tilled by grooming machines overnight, as there were more than a few golf ball sized pieces to contend with. Another grooming cycle, combined with natural snow falling from the sky, will probably create a consistent surface for the weekend.

Wild Fire was superb. From top to bottom it was nicely groomed with a fresh snow cover of a couple of inches. The resort had worked the ice flow I found on Monday on the lower third of Upper Wild Fire. Sometimes due to the compound fall line, Upper Wild Fire can be a little "funky"; but today all 6 people in our group really liked it.

Outer Limits had a nice soft cover. The mogul course set up last weekend is still in place to support a NorAM competition this coming weekend. The resort has widened the grooming outside the mogul course to accommodate heavier skier traffic. It was more than wide enough to make some decent carving turns this morning.

I did have a "Sonny Bono" type of moment today. We were skiing down Great Eastern to the Skye Ship base for a morning coffee break. I noticed the sign for "Home Stretch" and got it into my head that we should try that the next time we head down to Route 4. Without thinking, a dangerous thing to do on skis, the next time I saw a sign to "Home Stretch" I took a sharp left turn to head towards it, right in front of one of the guys I was skiing with. He wound up skiing right over the tails of my skis; I did a classic 360; and we kept going. No harm, no fowl...but I should have been paying attention. Proving once again that daydreaming on skis can get you in trouble. We laughed about it over coffee...but it could have been painful.

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.

Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, and Skye Lark were all nicely manicured. Cruise Control varied based upon location. The lower stretch, running to the Skye Ship stage 2 was similar to Wild Fire with a nicely groomed surface covered with a couple inches of fresh snow. I skied the tree line on skiers right, which was sweet. Others in the group found similar conditions down the center and on the left tree line.

The Great Eastern segment of Cruise Control below the Needles Eye Quad was under the snow guns. It seemed like there was 2 to 3 feet of new snow over the base of the trail, but given the bumps developing with skier traffic it is hard to tell. Suffice to say the bumps were nice and soft.

Snow making operations were being closed down on Super Star when we were leaving this afternoon. 4 solid days of snow making have left the trail covered with 15 foot tall (or more) whales. They are not yet over the lift towers in height, but they are definitely over chair height on most of the trail. When we skied it today we found it covered with a combination of small soft bumps climbing up the front of the snow whales, followed by a rather sharp fall off down the back side. (some of them seemed like falling off a cliff they were so big). In a day or two I am sure that the groomers will probably knock them down to spread the snow around, but today, they were a lot of fun.

......let it snow!