Rogue's Gallery on Killington Peak 

Spring skiing and riding has finally arrived at Killington. The last few days have been great with firm surfaces early softening up as the day goes on.

I missed Monday (meetings...bloody meetings...) but Mary represented the inn on the mountain. Today both of us had a chance to take some turns under beautiful blue skies and warming temperatures.

The mountain has become somewhat smaller this week with the closure of Bear Mountain and Rams Head. Showshed was open to support a group of British school kids. It will be shutting down on Thursday leaving Skye Peak via Superstar and Killington Peak via the K1 Gondola being the last mountains at Killington standing for the season.

Today on the mountain we started with laps on Superstar. It was firm, flat, and fast at 9:00 AM. By 9:30 the lower section was starting to soften. By 11:00 it was corning up nicely. Bittersweet and Skyelark were similar to Superstar. We also took an excursion over to Panic Button and Upper Needles Eye which were in great shape with minimal skier traffic.

On Killington Peak, Cascade by 10:00 AM was wonderfully soft. East Falls, which is more south facing, was the same, as was Highline. We did not get a chance to get over to the terrain covered by the Snowdon Quad, but several friends were raving about it when I spoke with them this afternoon.

Let it snow.

Killington Peak covered by storm clouds 

Snow....drizzle....Snow....ice....Snow....sleet....heavy fog....Snow.... Pick your poison; it was all on display on the mountain this morning.

When I left the inn this morning around 8:45, a moderate wet snow was falling. A little more than an inch of new snow was covering all cold surfaces. At the K1 base lodge, the same held true, although there was marginally more new snow on the ground.

With the cloud on Killington Peak, we traversed off the back of Superstar over to Bear Mountain. Bear Trap, Bear Claw and Wildfire were all in good shape. Surfaces were soft. I skied down the tree line to stay in fresh snow. Most of the time I was the only line down the edge of the trails. Several others went down the middle of the trails. Lower Bear Claw and Lower Wildfire were softer than the upper trails. But not quite into spring corn snow, as freshly falling heavy wet snow was mixing into the surface.

To get out of Bear, we took the Bear Quad and traversed over to Cruise Control. It will be nice when the Skye Peak Quad is replaced with a high speed lift, but where conditions were rather damp this morning we opted for shorter time on a chair and more time on trails. Cruise Control was a little chunky down the middle, similar to what people in the group experienced yesterday. I continued my routine of holding a line next to the trees on skiers right, were I found some more nice untracked freshly fallen snow.

From the Skyeship we ran down Superstar. This was the first of 2 runs we would take on Superstar this morning. The first run was fairly nice. The surface was soft but not cut up. When we got back to Superstar about 45 minutes later, we found the soft surface had been cut up substantially, particularly on the lower face. The surface had not started to form bumps as there were not enough skiers on the trail to develop a rhythm, but the soft surface was certainly a harbinger of several weeks of spring skiing to come.

To get out of the weather, we took the K1 to the peak. Although the peak was still cloud covered, we though maybe it would be colder there resulting in a drier snow. Nice idea...but not in April. We did a few passes through the Glades, and down East Fall before giving up the "dry" idea. From East Fall we took the run out over to Superstar then called it a morning.

It was not the longest day on the hill, nor the best conditions, but it was a morning skiing...and thats not all that bad.

Let it snow.

Outer Limits in all it's glory 

The business gods played a cruel joke on me today. While I was sitting in a conference room at a meeting on lodging in Killington at the Killington Grand Hotel, Mary was out skiing on the mountain under beautiful blue skies and warming temperatures.

Once again this season the resort has made a recovery from some unpleasant weather. The primary trails through out the resort have been groomed several times since Tuesdays weather event yielding loose granular spring conditions on trails facing the sun, and firm machine groomed granular on trails still shade covered.

For the first time this year, Mary reported that she actually skied down Outer Limits, gracefully linking turns versus just sliding. Outer Limits was softening up quite nicely in the morning sun. Mary reported that the boyz did several loops on it, while I was stuck in said conference room. So it goes...

The weather forecast for the next couple of days at Killington calls from some altitude dependent precipitation. It looks like light snow is in the cards for the Killington region with temperatures in the mid twenties to low thirties. We can hope.

Let it snow.

Mary with snow swirling at the junction of Great Eastern and Cruise Control taken March 31, 2008 

Being April Fools day, I toyed briefly with the idea of writing some pithy fabrication for todays post. But the feeling passed quickly as soon as I had a chance to look outside and understand that Mother Nature is playing her own joke on the region.

In the last 24 hours we have seen a blinding snowstorm (we were out yesterday skiing in it, conditions were great!), bright sunshine, fog, sleet, heavy r@*n, melting snow, exposed ice, mud...Ah spring time in the Green Mountains... it's all good.

Yesterday morning saw heavy snow blanket the area. It was fairly wet and dense, as temperatures were just below freezing, but it carpeted all of the trails at Killington in a beautiful white velvet. Anyone who stayed in the area to ski on Monday got a bonus day. They even saw a little sunshine in the afternoon.

If course, what Mother Nature giveth, Mother Nature taketh away. During the overnight hours there was some substantial r@*nfall across the area. The depth of snow at the snow stake dropped 5 1/2 inches overnight. I can hear the Roaring Brook from my office window, and it is flowing pretty good.

With any luck, the bulk of the inclement weather has now passed. Our Chef, Steve, did venture out on the mountain this morning. High traffic areas featured exposed ice, the result of last night r@*n. But the sides of most of the trails had softened up fairly well. Steve said you had to pick your spots during his 2 hour journey around the mountain. A little grooming, and perhaps some help from Mother Nature should take care of it over the next couple of days.

Let it snow.

Competitors take the first ramp at the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge 

With 100 percent sunshine, new snow last Friday, warm temperatures, and early spring attendance, visitors to Killington this weekend scored big time with a great weekend to ski.

This year, the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge also was held this weekend. Usually held the first weekend in April, this year the resort decided to move the popular event to the last weekend in March to accommodate the planned shorter ski season at Killington. Crowds for the event were smaller than in prior years, probably due to the weekend move, and also the great ski weather out on the hill. I viewed the competition for 45 minutes of so on Sunday, during the men's quarter finals. But quite frankly, it was such a beautiful day to ski I decided to take a few more runs before heading back to the inn.

Conditions I experienced today were a mix of late winter and spring surfaces. Slopes exposed to the sunshine had soften up nicely. Shadow covered trails were still firm. High traffic areas were slick in spots but quite manageable. As it gets warmer this week, it will be interesting to see how the mountain evolves as we head into the spring ski season.

Let it snow!

Snow snake captures Howie at Pico. Notice Walt skiing into frame right with powder almost to his knees. 

While some people did practice runs on the bumps course set up on Outer Limits for this weekends Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, the rest of us were out enjoying the second Friday powder day in a row. Not bad for late March.

Like last week, I headed off to Pico this morning. New snow depths at Pico seemed like 4-6 inches at the base with upwards of a foot at the peak. 49'er, KA, and Upper Pike all had mid shin to knee high powder in the middle of the trails, with marginally more along the sides. Unlike last week's storm, the snow that fell overnight and this morning was heavier as temperatures were flirting with 30 degrees. But my powder ski's loved it anyways.

From the summit, we skied Pike, KA, Sunset 71, Forty Niner and Summit Glade. Like last week, Summit Glade was pretty mean with large icy bumps lurking below the new snow surface. I went about half way down Summit Glades before bailing out through the woods back to 49'er. Upper Pike also had a few interesting features hidden under the newly fallen snow. Skiers right had major ice flows about 200 yards from the peak. The flows were covered in snow which broke away in a mini avalanche when we skied over them. Skiers left on the other hand seemed like all snow. The other trails were just great. Thet were groomed late in the day on Thursday resulting in a flat surface to receive the newly falling snow. My body gave out a long time before I wanted to leave. But that can be the nature of skiing East Coast Powder.

This will be Pico's last weekend for the 07-08 ski season. If you are up at Killington this weekend, and you want some challenging terrain without the crowds at the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, consider Pico. It's a pretty good alternative.

Let it snow!

Lower Superstar Headwall 

When my alarm went off this morning at 8:00, it did not look very promising. A low and very dark cloud hung over the inn. It looked like the perfect recipe for some r@*n, some extra zzz's, and a late morning trip to Johnny Boys for breakfast. But upon closer inspection out the back window of the owners quarters I noticed large white flakes falling from the sky. It was obviously an omen, and be it good or bad, I decided to get up and head off to the mountain.

By 9:00, I am in front of the K1 Base lodge, looking up at where Killington Peak is supposed to be. A very dark cloud was obscuring the peak. It look like it reached down to about 3000 feet. So off to Bear Mountain we headed.

Snow surface conditions had softened up some since yesterday. Temperatures overnight were in the high 20's, so the mountain did not freeze up solid. Bear Claw, Bear Trap, Upper and Lower Wildfire were all loose granular surfaces. Upper Wildfire was not groomed overnight so there were a couple of slick spots left over from yesterday. But they were visible and easy to avoid.

Outer Limits was very good. If only there was a little sunshine like the last couple of days. OL rated 4 do overs as the surface had softened up nicely. Curiously, there was still no sign of a bumps course for this weekends Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge...but quite frankly I did not care, as I was having too much fun doing loops up and down OL.

With the legs telling me it was time to leave, I took the Skye Burst chair out. Next year, when it is replaced with a high speed detachable, we should be riding this chair more often. Today, it was just a leisurely ride up the hill (13 minutes seems like a long time). By now, the cloud had descended to the top of Skye Peak, so we went down Skye Burst to Cruise Control to stay below it. Both were much softer than yesterday, but still not in spring skiing condition.

I did a few loops down Needles Eye, Bittersweet, and Skyelark, alternating between going down High Road to the Skyeship and going over the the Superstar quad. These trails were firmer that the south facing trails at Bear Mountain, but still in nice shape. Needles Eye between Panic Button and the Snowshed Crossover was a little slick, but my skis were tuned last week so it was no big deal.

The surprise of the day for me was Superstar. Upper headwall and middle Superstar were just like yesterday...basically flat and fast with some minor loose granular being created by skier traffic. The big surprise was on the lower headwall. Grooming machines had worked over the ice and bumps that had developed on skiers left, grooming the surface flat. Unlike skiers right, which is rounded out, skiers left is rounded in, so the first drop into the area at speed slightly releases one from the grip of gravity for a millisecond or two. The feeling is very hard to describe, but suffice to say, like OL, Superstar rated 4 do overs as well.

By the way, I never did see any r@*n while up on the mountain. Mary was up skiing with a girl friend. When she left the mountain around 1 PM, she said it seemed like a minor blizzard was taking place, as a heavy snow shower was moving through the K1 base area. But by the time she got back to the inn a few minutes later, the sun was shining and the sky was once again a bright blue. Weather in New England...if you don't like it, wait a minute and it will change.

Let it snow!