Haven't posted in a long time. Fantastic day at Kmart, too bad it doubled as a wake for the former eastern giant's season. Another record early closing and this time amidst some of the most letter perfect cover in recent memory. Granted most eastern areas closed with thick wall to wall cover but Killington used to be different. Sadly they're just another ski area now (notice how few Kmart reviews are on this forum?).
That said it really was great today in the moment w/ bluebird skies & Superstar lift serving multiple trails with the crown jewel being its namesake (see photo hopefully attached!) with thick side to side bumps from top to bottom. Hundreds and hundreds of people proved that spring skiing IS viable (note cars in pic- yes many were there only because it was last day, but there would have (and has been) a huge crowd on any spring weekend day this nice). People were hanging everywhere making it look like a rock concert parking lot. Even the outlying slopes had beautiful cover and many could be seen hiking over to the K basin to ski slopes like Cascade & East Fall, and even making the trek over to Bear Mt to ski the still well-covered Outer Limits (as long as they'd arranged or could snag a kind-hearted ride back to the main area!!)
It's criminal that Kmart isn't staying open another couple of weeks (even longer would easily be possible) but their corporate homogenization is a pretty open book at this point -they surrendered their late season reputation years ago and will never get it back. I was recently rereading some of the threads here from ca 2005 when the Kmart late season worm turned and was having a good chuckle as some semi-anonymous company hack tried to post random justifications only to be blowtorched at every turn!
Hike em if ya got em- will be great for a good while!
[attachment=0]Superstar5-1-11.jpg[/attachment]
That said it really was great today in the moment w/ bluebird skies & Superstar lift serving multiple trails with the crown jewel being its namesake (see photo hopefully attached!) with thick side to side bumps from top to bottom. Hundreds and hundreds of people proved that spring skiing IS viable (note cars in pic- yes many were there only because it was last day, but there would have (and has been) a huge crowd on any spring weekend day this nice). People were hanging everywhere making it look like a rock concert parking lot. Even the outlying slopes had beautiful cover and many could be seen hiking over to the K basin to ski slopes like Cascade & East Fall, and even making the trek over to Bear Mt to ski the still well-covered Outer Limits (as long as they'd arranged or could snag a kind-hearted ride back to the main area!!)
It's criminal that Kmart isn't staying open another couple of weeks (even longer would easily be possible) but their corporate homogenization is a pretty open book at this point -they surrendered their late season reputation years ago and will never get it back. I was recently rereading some of the threads here from ca 2005 when the Kmart late season worm turned and was having a good chuckle as some semi-anonymous company hack tried to post random justifications only to be blowtorched at every turn!
Hike em if ya got em- will be great for a good while!
[attachment=0]Superstar5-1-11.jpg[/attachment]