At the base of the Superstar headwall

At the base of the Superstar headwall

It's starting. The last 3 outings on the mountain required one less under layer and no neck gaiter.

Now it's quite possible that my body is refusing to acknowledge that the temperatures are still within a range of 5 to 15 degrees. It is also possible that the winter has been cold for so long that my body has now fully acclimated to it. But, in the spirit of Occam's Razor.... I choose to believe that spring is in the air at Killington.

On our Tuesday excusion around the resort, ski surfaces were still very flat and fast. With the exception of some snow sand developing at the bottom of Wildfire and Skyeburst, brought on by the afternoon sun and continious grooming cycles, the primary surface on all of the trails at Killington is packed (tight) powder. While many inexperienced skiers and riders would call the surface ice, upon closer examination it is really not. While surfaces are hard, the graciously accept groomers laying down perfect early morning corduroy. There are also no "blue slip and slide" areas. There is also no fish under the surfaces. (One of Mary's favorite phrases is that "it is not ice if there are no fish under it". While this makes sense for defining ice on a ski slope, ponder for a minute the cube in your evening cocktail....but I digress.)

Temperatures today when we started were sub 10. Bright sunshine and no wind moderated the morning chill quite nicely. All of the trails we hit today were skiing beautifully, if not a bit fast. Crowds were so light however we were able to mitigate the speed by taking edge to edge radius turns on much of the terrain.

It is hard to pick a ROTD. I am partial to Superstar which is skiing beautifully on skiers left from the top of the lift down to the speed fence at the bottom. Cascade was probably marginally nicer as a result of less skier traffic. The feeling of making wide carving turns down Cascades compound fall line is exhilarating. At the same time the false confidence generated by the ability to make sweeping turns combined with the adreniline kick of reaching pseudo terminal velocity on the way down make Cascade a hard trail to beat on a quiet Tuesday. And then there is Highline. Even though it was in full sunshine, the cold temperatures kept Highline firm. Basically it was solid corduroy. But the sunshine is glorious. Goggle tans are important afterall.

The near term weather forecast for Killington is indicating that temperatures will rise into into the 30's over the next few days. Some light showers may soften ski surfaces on Thursday with some light weekend snow re-whitening them to make everything look nice. Spring might finally be making an appearance at Killington.

Let it snow!