killington 11/2/08

[skiadikt]

figured someone else would have posted a report from the former beast. anyway ... breaking character from their debut season, powdr dropped a bomb and opened nearly 2 weeks before their announced opening. rumors had been flying that were going to try to open asap this season after last year's fiasco on virtually all fronts.

a picture perfect bluebelle day with temps topping out in mid 30's. scheduled opening time was 10am on sunday but pulled into the lot a bit after 9 and saw them loading. quickly geared up and jumped on the k1. the terrain available was rime and the reason/upper east fall combo with a few hits set up on on reason. great northern through middle chute & lower bunny buster provided a top-to-bottom route. they had guns roaring up top and great northern from the mixing bowl down. mostly ran laps in the former glades area. early on absolutely delightful since no one was there yet. rime was kinda a granular surface while lower east fall had more loose snow where a very irregular bump line developed. broke it up with an occasional foray to the base which also had good snow through the guns. called it a day at 2 after 20 runs. by then the glades area had been picked clean.

all-in-all an excellent job by k. had a real old time school feel. they got the bare minimum they needed for a t-t-b open and went for it despite unfavorable weather for the rest of the week. by announcing late and not opening until sunday, intentional or not, it was not crowded at all. probably just about right. maybe the $65 lift tickets also kept crowds down. a definite great step in the right direction by powdr. now if they extend the season on the back end by a few weeks all (well maybe most) will be forgiven.

for those who want pics here's a report on kzone that's loaded with them:

http://www.killingtonzone.com/forums/vi ... =1&t=24497

 

[joegm]

tough question for you , but based on what you saw for depths, you want to give me a percentage guess as to if they have enough , assuming nothing crazy goes on and the current forcast holds, if they will spin on wed and thurs....?

 

[skiadikt]

joe, they had plenty of cover up top and in the glades area. problem is lower bunny to the base area holding up. right now i'd say with the warm weather setting up this week, i'm very doubtful about next weekend. but i would guess wednesday and probably thursday should still be good. obviously the further out you go the better the odds on them having to close. i'm also thinking midweek they'd be more likely to go with it than on the weekend when there's a crowd tearing it up. i'm suspecting the following from the snow report indicates that they'd like to limit wear & tear on the lower elevations to preserve the surface:

Skiers and riders are encouraged to enjoy the Northridge area and only ski back to the base for lunch and at the end of the day.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Tom Horrocks, who has been quoted here from time to time, was in Killington management pre Powdr Corp. Let's hope he and others been providing some input on the local Northeast ski market to correct some of the controversies of last season.

One would hope for change in the late season, but I'm a bit skeptical. The last 2 late seasons have been far better than average in the East. So in a normal year when most eastern areas close up early in April, I'd be surprised to see Killington push into May. I suspect we'll know by mid-season whether or not they are blowing a snowmaking stockpile on Superstar (or somewhere else).

 

[joegm]

tough question for you , but based on what you saw for depths, you want to give me a percentage guess as to if they have enough , assuming nothing crazy goes on and the current forcast holds, if they will spin on wed and thurs....?

thanks for the quick info... probably be a late / day to day decision for them... if they are spinning we'll be there.. kzone right now has some reports saying the place is empty right now...i don't know if that will influence them or not

 

[joegm]

Tom Horrocks, who has been quoted here from time to time, was in Killington management pre Powdr Corp. Let's hope he and others been providing some input on the local Northeast ski market to correct some of the controversies of last season.

One would hope for change in the late season, but I'm a bit skeptical. The last 2 late seasons have been far better than average in the East. So in a normal year when most eastern areas close up early in April, I'd be surprised to see Killington push into May. I suspect we'll know by mid-season whether or not they are blowing a snowmaking stockpile on Superstar (or somewhere else).

i agree 100% with crocker... i'm not holding my breath for any sort of policy change regardless of this early season hype and speculation... it's gonna take real courage and a big shift in resources, just like tony says to commit to it...

 

[skiadikt]

Tom Horrocks, who has been quoted here from time to time, was in Killington management pre Powdr Corp. Let's hope he and others been providing some input on the local Northeast ski market to correct some of the controversies of last season.

One would hope for change in the late season, but I'm a bit skeptical. The last 2 late seasons have been far better than average in the East. So in a normal year when most eastern areas close up early in April, I'd be surprised to see Killington push into May. I suspect we'll know by mid-season whether or not they are blowing a snowmaking stockpile on Superstar (or somewhere else).

the big problem with last season was to close with a ton of snow on the mtn. a lot more than sugarbush which still managed to stay open for an additional 2 weeks after k closed. their bean counters said close on april 20 and that's what they did regardless of what was on the hill. they were too cheap to run the superstar lift. nothing aggainst mtn biking but the thing that really put it over the top for me was when i was up for 4th of july and observed the "crowd" that was up mtn biking on a holiday weekend. nothing compared to what they would have had for a decent weekend of spring s. the whole thing didn't make any sense.

 

[Patrick]

Kudos to skiadikt and Kmart. =D> =D> =D>

As I mentioned elsewhere on this forum, I will lift my hat to K for making it happen, regardless of the price they are charging. If you want early liftserved turns you have be to willing to pay for it also.

I don't recall top-bottom (Peak to Base Lodge) happening so early in a long long time. I don't recall the last time it happened and I don't remember happening if my earliest days around November 9th at K in the days of Peak Double back in the mid 80s. Simply don't remember if we skied top only or all the way down (don't think it was top-bottom)? I might be losing it? :roll:

 

[Tony Crocker]

On November 7, 1993 I skied Upper Cascade, Bunny Buster and Superstar. The 3 runs were disconnected but in total provided more variety of eastern skiing for that early than I've seen posted on FTO, with the conspicuous exception of the big storm in late October 2005.

 

[Patrick]

On November 7, 1993 I skied Upper Cascade, Bunny Buster and Superstar.

My early experience (first weekend of November due to University midterms) was limited to the mid80s. As I said, for the first weekend of November, I don't remember if you could skied Peak to Base.

with the conspicuous exception of the big storm in late October 2005.

Before someone can go and blast me by recalling K about that October, that event was exceptional due to a freak storm. Prior to the second weekend of November, I don't recall any top-to-bottom.

 

[jasoncapecod]

Halloween 1981 we skied Killington. Only one trail, Upper Cascade and you had to down load at the mid station on the Killington double.

 

[icelanticskier]

the earliest i've ever skied k was october 24th of 1989 or 90 with upper mountain only. earliest at sunday river was columbus day weekend in the mid 90's on a freek cold snap. sunday river was also t2b on sunday.
rog

 

[Geoff]

I've skied Killington on Columbus Day weekend after an early snow storm. They were running the K chair for leaf peepers and it was 95% skiers, 5% leaf peepers that weekend. Back when the resort had a double chair to the top and a midstation, they could get open on upper Cascade.

The cover was still fine on Monday. The groomers had exposed a couple of water bars on Reason / upper East Fall (the trail that used to be East Glade) and there's one thin area at the very bottom of lower Bunny Buster. No telling how long it will last.