Killington, VT: 05/29/05

[riverc0il]

number 35, woot. could kmart have stayed open until memorial day this year? with the amount of snow they blew on superstar, absolutely not. a huge nearly trail wide patch of snow remained fully connected for about 50% of the trail. above that, it was all patches. a pinch to skier's left was had near the bottom of the trail around tower 3. other than that, you could pick your line. skier's right at the top of the patch was primo, and in hind sight, i should have just yoyo'd that section of the trail instead of going top to bottom. i took three runs, i'd estimate my total vertial was ~600 per run as it was approximately half of superstar. really sweet turns were made up top, absolutley 100% worth every step up probably would have been worth it even for crappy turns though

rain threatened all morning, but the worst was a light sprinkle which cooled me off during the hike. it down poured on my way through woodstock which had me nurvous, but the big rain held off ovah supahstah. one fellow skier joined me for some turns.

snow conditions were frozen granular-ish. that early morning edgable corn before the sun comes out and makes it epic corn. it wasn't harsh to ski on, but it certainly wasn't full on corn snow. this bodes well for preservation i guess. the bumps were small and delihtful, though i really wanted to just open it up and let um' run. the melting made the sizing just about right though, probably some of the best bump skiing i have done all year.

i had a funny conversation with a guy from CT after finishing up. i was just about at my car parked directly behind the K1 loading area (not running for the tourists yet), when some dude with a family in the car pulls up in his audi from CT and asks me where the gondola is. i turn around, look at it, and say "that's it right there." okay, i figure maybe he missed the gondi cars parked at the bottom of the terminal, but he's seem them now that i have pointed it out for him i thought. his follow up question was, "do you know if it's running?" i turn around and look at it and reply "doesn't look like it!" my goodness, i was really amused. you probably needed to be there though.

hey, it's worth the hike. your season doesn't have to be over if you don't want it to. but mine will probably end next weekend, i just want to make it until june hopefully the weather will cooperate and i can finish this year out on washington. if not, there's so much snow on the lower half of super, it'll stay good for another few weeks. pics to follow...

[cd]

Thanks, good to know! I wanted to get up there this past week but weather was pretty bad throughout. I called the Basin Ski Shop on Fri to get a visual report and they said that the top and bottom looked good but the middle was broken, which you've confirmed. Sounds like turns will still be available for awhile so that's encouraging. Yeah, doubtful they could've stayed open this week...tho nobody knew what the weather held way back when they decided on a closing date! They still absolutely could've/should've gone the one extra week however.

[riverc0il]

Panoramic Shot from the top of the major patch.

[riverc0il]

Yeah, doubtful they could've stayed open this week...tho nobody knew what the weather held way back when they decided on a closing date! They still absolutely could've/should've gone the one extra week however.

hard for me to judge as i didn't see superstar last week, but based on skiing it today, i would be willing to bet they could have swung one more weekend. it would have been an awesome gesture of good will to the pass holders if they did that.

regardless, they certainly could have blown more snow if they had wanted to set a later closing date. seems like they set their closing date based partially on how much snow they wanted to blow as a few extra days on the upper parts of super and a little more down low near the lift could have had them through this weekend easily.

[Lftgly]

Nice pictures! Great to see there's that much snow left. I paid 30 bucks once to ski Superstar on Memorial Day with no more snow than that. Had to walk in five places...

[nymous]

Yeah, doubtful they could've stayed open this week...tho nobody knew what the weather held way back when they decided on a closing date! They still absolutely could've/should've gone the one extra week however.

hard for me to judge as i didn't see superstar last week, but based on skiing it today, i would be willing to bet they could have swung one more weekend. it would have been an awesome gesture of good will to the pass holders if they did that.

regardless, they certainly could have blown more snow if they had wanted to set a later closing date. seems like they set their closing date based partially on how much snow they wanted to blow as a few extra days on the upper parts of super and a little more down low near the lift could have had them through this weekend easily.

It is an awesome gesture of good will to passholders that they stayed open until may 15!

[Frankontour]

My god ! I can't believe the amount of snow left ! wow !

It's not quite very less snowy than the 2003's closure on may 26, actually !

pic of may 25, 2003

[Patrick]

Nice pictures! Great to see there's that much snow left. I paid 30 bucks once to ski Superstar on Memorial Day with no more snow than that. Had to walk in five places...

Same experience here!!!

I remember paying $25 for that somewhere in the 1990s. I might be wrong, but judging on the pictures if this would be the 90s Kmart would still be open and close this coming Wednesday, June 1st.

Either they were stupid then in not closing earlier or I was more stupid in paying $25 for it.

[Jonny D]

Either they were stupid then in not closing earlier

I don't know.... I'd pay $30 for that right now. I'm DESPERATE

[Patrick]

i just want to make it until june hopefully the weather will cooperate and i can finish this year out on washington.

Who can do better (in the East)? Do I hear someone skiing in July

Nice job Steve

[riverc0il]

i think salida was interested in going into july. i couldn't justify lugging the gear up TRT much later than these next two weeks though, while left gully still retains some snow.

[awf170]

i think salida was interested in going into july. i couldn't justify lugging the gear up TRT much later than these next two weeks though, while left gully still retains some snow.

and you call yourself a real skier... what a joke... you suppsed to go until there is no snow left in new england

[Patrick]

i think salida was interested in going into july. i couldn't justify lugging the gear up TRT much later than these next two weeks though, while left gully still retains some snow.

and you call yourself a real skier... what a joke... you suppsed to go until there is no snow left in new england

What about August

If you haven't seen this old FTO report before from Lfgly, take a look here:

http://216.250.243.13/discus2/messages/2508/1169.html

Personally, I would maybe be interested making it to July this year.

[awf170]

that is awsome!
The best thing that i have heard is "is there snow up there?" No I'm just carrying my skis for fun"

[Patrick]

I just looked around in the same area of the archives, I forgot that Chromer also had a report on August 4th of that year!!! If you browse around, there are also a good report for early July.