Killington & Sugarbush, VT 1/3-7/00

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/10/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Monday, we went to Killington. Sure it was pretty warm at the cabin, but I was figuring that it was slightly cooler at higher elevations. As we passed Pico, Sara looked at the slopes and commented on how bare they looked. Don't worry, I said, they don't put too much snowmaking dollars in there. As we drive up the access road, all that I could see were lots of trails totally devoid of snow. Some trails had snow, but the vast majority were bare. K-peak looked completely bare - only until you could see East Fall could you see snow on that mountain. The thermometer in the car was registering in the high 50s!!! Mud was all over the parking lot. Never the less, we were determined to ski. <BR> <BR>Michael took a learn to ski (never-ever), so we started out at Snowshed. It was soon discovered that they weren't even bothering to mark bare spots. I guess a blanket "Thin Cover" sign at the bottom of the lifts pretty much covered the entire mountain. Despite their trail count showing 104, the actual number of open trails listed on the very same sign showed about 85. Discounting the <BR>connecting trails (which had VERY thin cover) and the factor of 3 markup, this meant there was about 1 or 2 ways down on each mountain. <BR> <BR>Best run of the day was Rime, which we unfortunately didn't find till late. Great soft mini-bumps and pretty empty. I went down Superstar at the end of the day, but I really suck at bumps when the trail is steep (headwall and bottom part). <BR> <BR>Skipped Tuesday because it looked like it was going to be even worse. We drove in the rain and did some touristy stuff. Passed by Sugarbush in the pouring rain, and was surprised to see that they still had some snow, so we decided that at least a little bit of base would help. I figured that it would take Killington several days to recover fully, as they have to invest so much snowmaking power in their connecting and "family skiing" trails. <BR> <BR>On Wednesday, we arrived at Sugarbush to very cold temperatures. Ice was the word of the day. I had committed to a learn-to-snowboard, and wasn't sure which was the bigger evil - skiing the ice or falling down on the ice. The lesson wasn't too bad, and by the end of the day (once I figured out that I actually rode goofy better) could link turns down the beginner double slope. I decided to call it quits and tried to ride back to the base lodge; the board slipped out underneath me and I fell hard on my head, biting my tongue! What an end. I still hurt. <BR> <BR>Thursday, the skiing was decent. Still pretty icy. Jester was nice with some freshly made snow. We hopped over the Slide Brook and sampled some nice conditions on the mid mountain lift. <BR> <BR>Friday was even better. They had finally been able to put down enough snow in most parts to make for decent skiing on most trails. Organgrinder was fun in the morning, although visibility wasn't great. It started to snow fairly hard by the end of the day. <BR> <BR>All in all, a pretty good week.