Ongoing snow making operations adding to the powder coating on Lower Skye Burst

Ongoing snow making operations adding to the powder coating on Lower Skye Burst

For those of us lucky enough to live in Killington, and those fortunate enough to be visiting the area, the last 2 days on the slopes of Killington have been among the best in years.

Unquestionably, ski conditions at Killington are great. The early week slime storm, the subsequent firming up with cool temperatures, followed ny 6-8 inches of fine powder have made it a wonderful time to be in the area. While not "Epic", as there was not quite enought powder yesterday to develop a full float on the skis, it was very very good.

Beginning our journey around the mountain, yesterdays powder was packed down overnight by Killington's grooming fleet. At Bear Mountain, grooming operations appeared to have taken place on the majority of the terrain. Outer Limits was groomed abour 4 cats wide. Surfaces were firm with no ice. There was no difficulty in planting an edge to execute turns along the entire trail.

Right of OL, Wildfire was skiing excellent from top to bottom. Upper Wildfire was wonderfully soft packed powder. Lower Wildfire was slightly firmer, due to additional skier and rider traffic funnelling from Bear Claw.

Under the Sky Peak Quad on Skyburst saw more of the same. Residual powder was found along lines against the trees on the right and left sides of the trail. Snow making operations using tower mountain guns was taking place on lower Skye Burst. Soft, fine snow was being produced as the temperatures this morning on the mountain were in the single digits.

Cruise Control, Needles Eye, and Dream Maker were all in great shape. We did multiple laps on the Needles Eye quad this morning, interspersed with a warm up ride on the Skyeship. The quad was fairly warm as there was bright sunshine, and relatively little wind.

Ending today we turned our attention to Bittersweet, Skyelark, and Superstar. Superstar was as good as it gets when it's turned into a groomed cruiser. Snow making was taking place on Skyelark as the resort continues to build up terrain for a solid spring skiing season. Bittersweet was ok. Upper Bitter was soft. You could rip carving turns from side to side as there were relatively few people on the mountain this morning. Lower Bitter lived up to the Bitter name. A 10-20 MPH upslope wind was blasting the trail. Combined with temperatures in the low single digits, it basically froze anyone skiing it. We had planned on taking a final run down Superstar.... but the wind on Bitter sealed the deal as we headed to a warm K1 base lodge.

Opportunity did not bring us to the Basin side of the mountain this morning. With the cold temperatures overall, we decided to stay on the Bear Mountain / Skye Peak side of the resort to take advantage of the winter sunshine. Yesterday however was a different story. In the powder we did multiple runs on the underutilized terrain of Snowdon. At 11:30 in the morning on Thursday we were still getting first runs down Vagabond and North Star. We looked lovingly at the un-touched terrain of Great Bear, but we respected the "Trail Closed" rope that was across the trail. I am sure that they were all skiing and riding great today as well.

Killington is all set up for a great weekend of skiing and riding. And with more snow in the forecast, it looks like the season is settling in to be long and strong.

Where ever you may be, get out and enjoy the winter season. And remember...Let It Snow!