Killington, VT 1/22-23/00

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/24/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>After last weekend, when two of the four planned ski days (Friday and Monday), were too cold to ski, I couldn't wait to hit the slopes this past weekend. When I got up it was minus 10 or something, therefore enacting the zero degree rule. If it is below zero I stay in. I watched the temp slowly rise and at 1100 it was close enough to zero to head out. I got dropped off at the K-1 gondola sometime before 12. <BR> <BR>The line was about 15 minutes at the K-1. I was told there was a power failure on the other side of the mountain and that is why the line was so long. Superstar chair was not running. I took FIS to Cascade and the snow was very cold and I didn't seem to slide very well despite having a freshly tuned board. I again rode the K-1 up but again there was a 15 minute line. I decided I would cruise around to see what was open. <BR> <BR>I headed down Great Eastern. This trail was (at some points) very scary. I consider myself somewhat of an experienced rider but I took two hard falls on this green dot. The trail was missing anything that resembled snow. The Pure Boiler plate base was showing in many spots reaching twenty feet in diameter. I really felt this trail should have been closed. I decided I would take Roundabout off Great Eastern. Big improvement. This is a narrow trail which had plenty of soft snow. The only down side is the South Ridge Triple was not running which meant I had to cruise on Falls Brook. Another green dot but this had some snow due to it being protected from the wind. <BR> <BR>When I got to Bear mountain lodge, I had to go in because I was cold. <BR> <BR>I then rode up Bear Mountain Quad and over to Needles Eye. There was a short line on this gondola so that is where I stayed for a while. Upper Needles and Thimble had nice wind blown drifts and lower needles had machine made bumps and wind blown pow which made this loop alot of fun. <BR> <BR>When it was time to head back I came down Superstar to KBL. This trail definitely should have been closed. Total ice on the trail and a stiff wind. I was actually scared as I came down. When I got to the lower section the only snow was in the woods, so that is where I went. <BR> <BR>Sunday was totally different. The traverses received some snowmaking and the wind died. Cruise Control had great edgeable snow and so did Skylark, Bittersweet, and High road. But those are blues or not very challenging blacks. <BR> <BR>Vertigo had TONS of snow on it. They were blowing alot of guns on the upper Vertigo which made this trail sweet. I then saw Mr. Mogul and he was covered in snowmaking. We both agreed that Vertigo was awesome today. <BR> <BR>We then dropped off a couple from our party and my brother and I headed off to Rams Head. We wanted to check out the terrain park. We first wanted to ski the woods. This was my first official tree run of the year. Squeeze Play Fusion Zone was officially open and there was some fresh tracks but mostly a nice fluffy packed powder. That is a fine surface for Squeeze Play because it is not very steep. We cut out of the woods about have way so we could do some jumps. <BR> <BR>The jumps were in fine shape with smooth transitions. One problem is that the trail is hard to get speed on if you stop after each jump. And there were alot of people going off the jumps slowly which sometimes you could ski up on if you weren't careful. <BR> <BR>Our next run we decided to hike up to the top of Rams Head above the lift. We hiked for about 10-15 minutes in pretty deep snow. The way down was great. Boot deep dry and light powder for about 30-40 untracked turns. Then back into the woods and onto the terrain park. We hiked again on our next run and looked (admired) at our previous turns. Again the only tracks we crossed were ours from the last run. <BR> <BR>The opening of the tree trails at K has only wetted my appetite for the next weekend. Any natural snow and almost all the woods will open.