Killington Closing Day 05/06/07

andyzee

New member
Date:May 6, 2007

Resort: Killington

Conditions: Corn and bumps.

Weather: Sunny day, freezing temps first thing in the morning, 50s later in the day.

Trip Report: Didn?t initially plan on making it to Killington this week, had things to take care of at home on Saturday. Then I figured, last day of the season, we have to go. Glad we did because it turned out to be a great day of skiing, hiking, and partying.

Saturday I decided to wax my skis for the trip. By the time I got them waxed and loaded them into our cargo box, with the sun beating down, it was hot as can be. Me and my wife just laughed that it?s so hot and we?re going skiing. We took vests and shells to play I safe, didn?t think we?d have a need for the shells, we were wrong. We got to Killington a bit before 8 AM on Sunday and it was freezing, you could see frost on the trees.

First run of the day was Superstar which was groomed flat as can be down the center:

normal_P5060005.JPG


The first run was fast and nice, but was a bit scary due to the fact the snow was frozen granular. Although it was soft, I constantly had a fear of catching my ski in a groove or frozen snow, couldn?t wait for this stuff to soften up, it didn?t take much time at all. Our third run down, me and V were going to head over to the car when I heard someone call me, turned out to be Roark. We took a couple of runs and my phone rings, Trailboss calling to inform us that he should be at the Superstar lift by 11. Couple more runs and we meet up with Trailboss, good stuff. Overall in the morning, we hit Superstar a number of times, the bumps were growing at an unbelievable rate, Lower Bittersweet, nice soft snow and bumps, same for Upper Bittersweet, except there was some walking involved.

Some walked, some, like Rustyk, thought they were doing a ?What?s in you wallet commercial?, that boy is crazy. Top of Skyhawk had no snow for the first 20-30 feet and then some nice bumps. Lack of snow means nothing to Rustyk, he looked he took off. Later on we came to the top of Skyhawk again, this time we stood more to the right of the snow so it was a bit further before you hit the snow. There were big rocks strewn all over the place, Rustyk looks at the rocks, states that he wishes he saw this before and takes off over the rocks, boy is not all there! Few more runs, Trailboss calls Snowmonster to see what?s up and finds out that he won?t be arriving until about 1. So we go down to the Kzone BBQ for some lunch, there was a good sized group of Zoners gathered. Eventually we see lil Monster, she was waiting for Snowmonster to come down Superstar. He comes down, we chat, have a few beers at the BBQ, some food and then decide to hike to Killington peak.

Me, Trailboss, Roark, Snowmonster and G-Smash, Cuervo 1.8k, and Mr Moose from Kzone took the Superstar Quad up and then hiked across Launch Pad to KillingtonPeak. Once at Killington Peak Cuervo had the task of scattering his recently deceased friends ashes off the top. So, we walked up the Catwalk stairs and to the very peak. There Cuervo 1.8 K told us about his friend, this was Don Gray from the popular local band Bobby Darling. Told us how they met and what a great guy he was. We all open up a beer and had a toast to Don. Then Cuervo scattered his ashes and we climbed down. From there is was an easy run down Great Northern and down a really nicely bumped Double Dipper. We took our time stopping here and there to enjoy the peace and quiet of this closed off area. Hard to believe that there was still so much good snow and they were closing. We skied to the Canyon Quad chair, where the snow ran out and we had to walk down to the Killington Base Lodge. Then across to the KZone BBQ, few more beers, some food. Then Trailboss, Roark, and Snowmonster took off. Me and V hung out until about 6 and that was the end of the 2006/2007 season.

It was good end to a great season with good friends. Normally I would be saddened by the end, not this year. This turned into our best season ever in terms of ski days, powder skiing, new mountains, new friends. It was a good ending to a really good season. Plus, Roark and Snowmonster talked me into doing Tucks this Saturday, so it?s not yet over. You can find pics from yesterday here: http://killingtonaccessrd.com/cpg/thumb ... p?album=79 .
 
Nice coverage but excessively groomed. 60/40 bumps/groomed seems like a much better option during this time of year. This picture looks more like 30/70 in favor of the groomer.
 
riverc0il":18zsjctk said:
Nice coverage but excessively groomed. 60/40 bumps/groomed seems like a much better option during this time of year. This picture looks more like 30/70 in favor of the groomer.

Unfortunetly I didn't take pics of some of the trails later in the day. The groomed areas didn't last long at all, and with freezing temps overnight, I believe the grooming was needed. Within 2 hours bumps started forming on all trails. By the end of the day there were huge bumps all down Superstar. I didn't do them cause I had hiked up to Killington Peak, but my wife informed me that the bumps were at least 3-4 feet high, others confirmed this.
 
the picture in terms of the ratio is even worse than 30/70... it was not even close to that... it was more like 85/15 at best... the only section that had bumps was that last skiers left part off the bottom drop off... and those bumps sucked.. they are on a slant and were not even bumps ... at the minimum, the fools at K should groom out that side and let the skiers right ( on more evenly pitched terrain ) bump up...the garbage on skiers left in that photo is nothing but huge piles of rutted out snow... very deceptive photo
and as far as bumps forming up during the day....i would disagree with calling what formed up from the groomed out " bumps "... as steve points out the excessive grooming they do makes it impossible for real moguls to form.. what forms during the course of the day is piles of snow... piles of snow are not moguls... moguls are firm mounds of snow that have been packed in and hold their form somewhat... the crapola that forms from K's daily grooming does not have a chance to set up and set in and become real bumps... the lines that form can literaly change in one run... it just becomes piles of mush that you sink into when you try and strike the front side correctly...this is why most people end up skiing those " moguls " by just skipping and trough hopping over them...which isn't real mogul skiing.... K just doesn't get this or they jusat don't give a rat's ass... if they left it alone and didn't groom ( at least not a good 50% of the trail like steve says ) the ungroomed part would in all probability , not be skiable until anywhere from 11am till 1230pm, depending upon the previous night's weather.. but who cares because that being said it would be kick ass from then on... the bumps would have a nightly pack down period with a freeze up that would set them up .... that'[s why they ought to spin from 10 or 11to 5 or 6 instead of 9 to 4...but they couldn't do that... god forbid... that would be thinking outside the ski industry box :roll: :twisted: :evil:
 
You guys could argue technicallities and bump lines all you want, bottom line, I along with 100s of others had a great time that day! :lol: And silly me, I thought that's what skiing is all about :wink:
 
andy.. it is about having fun.. and if u had fun that's great
but u r missing the point...K has enough snow to Keep spinning... and they certainly can make enough snow during the season to GENERALLY keep spinning until memorial day... a big part of the reason they don't is becasue nobody goes anymore... u may think a couple of hundred people is a good number ... u may not... all that matters is K does not....K used to get more people than that back in the late 80's and early 90's... enough people to make it hard for them to close....who were those people? ... whether you want to admit it or not, a large group of them were hard core high level bumpers....spring skiing is / was about bump skiing....and when K decided to start trying to attract more flat skiers by smashing lines nightly, my opinion is that it was ONE of the reasons why ( some, mainly hard core bumpers ) people started going less...i just wouldn't be so quick to dismiss " technicalities and bump lines " if i were you... it's a major contributing factor to why they can't get people to go....or should i say , enough people to go... i'm glad you had a good time on the first weekend in may skiing... you should be able to have a good time skiing the 2nd and 3rd and memorial day weekend also....that's why the technicalities matter.
is K's decision to groom the only reason for the early closing's in my logic.. no of course not... new school jibbing is just as big as large pools of kids now don't ski bumps at high technical levels ... the pipeline now is for jibbing.. so that's also a factor
my point is K's decision to groom it out and not let real ( what you call technical ) moguls form has greatly reduced the old school bumpers who used to ski that hill religiously in may....not the only reason for the demise, but certainly one of them.. that's why the technicalities matter man.
 
joegm":354qdzug said:
K has enough snow to Keep spinning... and they certainly can make enough snow during the season to GENERALLY keep spinning until memorial day... a big part of the reason they don't is becasue nobody goes anymore...

Yes, especially if you compare to the years where you had the walk a few times even to get to the bottom. K did everything to make to June first back then.

I heard that they were about 185 participants ONLY at the May 1st slalom. A race that had a limit of 200 participants. The 90s June 1st Fun slalom, the only ones run on Superstar (1992-97), you had to get there early if you wanted to make the race. I arrived too late in 1992 (and it was raining), but made it the next 5 years, we would generally be at K at 7am and would been around 90-100th in line.

I'm not going to the logistics of trying to extended the season longer by making more snow, but it would be nice to keep the lifts running while the conditions were still great.

Many has been said in one of the classical "end of season Killington is closing to soon" discussion a few years ago. Here is the discussion from FTO archives.

http://216.250.243.13/discus2/messages/ ... 1054210713

joegm":354qdzug said:
K used to get more people than that back in the late 80's and early 90's... enough people to make it hard for them to close....who were those people?

I've notice the same thing everywhere. One thing I noticed is that it generally the same people still skiing (ie. those that were skiing late in now where there in the 80s), very few from a new younger age group. Personnally, I don't know the exact reason why?

joegm":354qdzug said:
whether you want to admit it or not, a large group of them were hard core high level bumpers....spring skiing is / was about bump skiing....and when K decided to start trying to attract more flat skiers by smashing lines nightly, my opinion is that it was ONE of the reasons why ( some, mainly hard core bumpers ) people started going less...

Yes, we all loved bumps back then, so of us still do. However I'm not sure if that is the factor why people weren't showing up has much now. People my age have order activities now, I still think that the sport failed to attract new Spring skiing devotees, bumps or no bumps.


joegm":354qdzug said:
is K's decision to groom the only reason for the early closing's in my logic.. no of course not... new school jibbing is just as big as large pools of kids now don't ski bumps at high technical levels ... the pipeline now is for jibbing.. so that's also a factor
my point is K's decision to groom it out and not let real ( what you call technical ) moguls form has greatly reduced the old school bumpers who used to ski that hill religiously in may....not the only reason for the demise, but certainly one of them.. that's why the technicalities matter man.

I guess Joe's comments and mine are somewhat similar to that respect: 1) lack of a new generation of Spring skiers; 2) old guys would loved bumps aren't showing up as much. The reason here might be a combination of joe and my reasoning for us older guys that make it as much as before (families, homes, works and other similar crap that as 20 yr old we didn't have to deal with).
 
is K's decision to groom the only reason for the early closing's in my logic.. no of course not... new school jibbing is just as big as large pools of kids now don't ski bumps at high technical levels ... the pipeline now is for jibbing.. so that's also a factor
my point is K's decision to groom it out and not let real ( what you call technical ) moguls form has greatly reduced the old school bumpers who used to ski that hill religiously in may....not the only reason for the demise, but certainly one of them.. that's why the technicalities matter man.
25 years ago energetic teenagers and 20's were bumpers. In SoCal this demographic is now almost totally park-oriented snowboarders. Both the very early and very late season business at both SoCal and Mammoth is higher than average percent snowboarders. Bear Mt. in normal years keeps spinning to 3rd or 4th week in April if they can keep a few park features going. Mammoth goes to considerable expense to build a new park in Saddle Bowl for the last 3-4 weeks of the season when Unbound Park near the Main Lodge runs out of snow.

I don't know if the jibber market is big enough in the Northeast for someone to put a similar effort into a late season park.

Last year someone speculated that Superstar would retain its snow longer if not groomed as often. And while we've determined that K won't spend snowmaking $ to stockpile snow for Memorial Day, I get the impression from those pics that they could probably get one more weekend this year.
 
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