Snow making operations at Bear Mountain

Snow making operations at Bear Mountain

It's great to be back out on the mountain again!

Between a brief illness and the holidays, it has been 2 long weeks without a chance to ski Killington. That's too long!

Today we started out at the crack of 10 from the car in the Vale parking lot. A quick trip down to the Rams Head lift saw us traversing over Caper to the Snowdon Quad. A run down Bunny Buster, with a trip down Mouse Trap in the middle, brought us down to the K1 Gondola to boost us over the mountain. On the Rams Head, Snowdon side of the mountain, conditions were loose machine groomed granular. Ice Flows from the recent thaw/freeze were visible on skiers right down both Header (on Rams Head) and Chute (on Snowdon). Natural terrain, like Great Bear, was closed with ropes due to thin cover. Any trail with snow making was generally in good shape, although being college week there were more than a few inexperienced skiers and snow boarders careening down Snowdon.

From our boost on the K1 Gondola, we traversed over Blue Heaven to Bear Trax to Bear Claw. Skiers right on Upper Bear Claw was a little thin, but if you paid attention, it was not a problem. Lower down on Bear Mountain, snow guns were pounding Skyeburst. Preparations are clearly underway to make sure that Bear Mountain is weather proof for the Dew Tour, scheduled for the weekend of January 22/23 in Killington.

We took runs down Bear Claw, Wild Fire, Skyeburst, and through the Stash. All of the trails that had snow making were nice soft powder. Trails where snow making was not ongoing were mixed machine groomed granular.

We finished the morning with runs down Great Eastern to Cruise Control, to get a view of the Vista Deck. It was snowing too hard to stop and enjoy a beverage, but it looks like a great spot for future reference.

The great news about todays conditions is that it has been snowing hard at Killington most of the day. By dinner time tonight, it looks like 2 to 3 inches of light snow has fallen around the inn, judging by the amount I shoveled from the front walk. Snow is in the forecast for the rest of the week, so ski condition should dramatically improve heading into the coming weekend.

....Let it snow!