Killington June 4th - Yikes!
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
Even Patrick says they should have done June 1 instead of June 4. Day by day loss of snowpack accelerates the closer you get to the end.
Coverage May 22 looked excellent.
By the end of Memorial Day the top of Headwall had lost its snow.
Lower down doesn't look that bad but obviously collapsed over the next couple of days.
Coverage May 22 looked excellent.
By the end of Memorial Day the top of Headwall had lost its snow.
Lower down doesn't look that bad but obviously collapsed over the next couple of days.
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Patrick
Active member
Not sure if this is going to work...
First 18 pictures I posted via 2 IG posts.
BTW, there was less snow on June 1st, 1993.
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First 18 pictures I posted via 2 IG posts.
BTW, there was less snow on June 1st, 1993.
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jimk
Active member
I think I could make a ski-drinking game out of these conditions. Every time you take off your skis going down the run, you have to drink a beer or take a shot!
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jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I'm trying to understand the thought process of paying $5+ for a gallon of gas to ski that mess. At least Killington donated revenues to charity.
Patrick
Active member
I think I could making a ski-drinking game out of these conditions. Every time you take off your skis going down the run, you have to drink a beer or take a shot!
I guess I would have lost... I only removed my skis at the bottom to get on the lift and put them back at the snow on the lower half of the headwall.
Leaving home at 3:30am and driving 5 hours without stopping except at the border. Made it on one full tank of gas (40L) from Ottawa. After skiing I needed some gas, only paid $4.98/gal, not 5+.
$5/run + free t-shirt + June skiing shenanigan = Priceless
ChrisC
Well-known member
Poor skis.
Well, those are definitely your rock skis. I have done the Killington June celebration 2x: once pre-1990 when Downdraft was the glacier and another on Superstar in the 1990s. Both times things were a little better.
More power to you Patrick, more hardcore than me anymore!
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Chairlift video at the end of Patrick's second Instagram is informative. The bottom is ugly but it looks like about 2/3 of the vertical was continuously skiable. The liftline at the bottom was quite something for that type of skiing.
I had occasion recently to review my list of ski area opening(3) and closing(7) days skied. I'm fairly picky about what conditions I'm willing to do that. The only comparable conditions I've skied to this TR were not lift served. There are 8 other seasons where I've skied the closing weekend but not the closing day at Mammoth in order to avoid excessive crowds and/or day-to-day degradation of conditions. The opening days were all after very early season freak storms as I avoid the manmade WROD scenario. Several of the closing days were quite high quality, but surely this was the best.
I had occasion recently to review my list of ski area opening(3) and closing(7) days skied. I'm fairly picky about what conditions I'm willing to do that. The only comparable conditions I've skied to this TR were not lift served. There are 8 other seasons where I've skied the closing weekend but not the closing day at Mammoth in order to avoid excessive crowds and/or day-to-day degradation of conditions. The opening days were all after very early season freak storms as I avoid the manmade WROD scenario. Several of the closing days were quite high quality, but surely this was the best.
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EMSC
Well-known member
Frequent walking at the bottom (but nearly flat-ish) is what I seem to recall from those days when the dino's roamed.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I think they re-opened the Cascade lift mid-station the year I was there? And you only hiked out at end of day on the runout....not sure.
jamesdeluxe
Administrator
I must be the only present or former ECer on most ski forums who isn't well acquainted with Killington. I've never skied there and don't see it happening in the future. The closest I've come is Pico.
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
skied kton on Halloween day 1981
ChrisC
Well-known member
I always viewed Killington as a bit of a necessary evil. If you want to ski anything steep within 4 hours of the NYC metro before mid-January, often Killington is the only game in town. Also, Killington had a huge technological (lifts, snowmaking) and footprint advantage throughout the 1980s and most of the 90s. Maybe Mt Snow (also Ski Ltd owned) or Sunday River was a runner-up.
A lot of areas have improved significantly in 2000s: Gore, Belleayre, Stratton, Magic, Jay, Loon, Cannon, Bretton Woods, Sunapee, etc
I just feel the window for good skiing in the Northeast is so short. Maybe 2 weeks without a thaw. And otherwise a few one-off storms. But most of the time it's mediocre. Therefore, it's good to have an area like Killington that tries to keep steeper terrain open.
I have skied Killington 4x! All have been early or late season with no more than 30% open.Liz says 5 hours, but of course that depends upon where in metro NYC. It was her most skied area for the reasons ChrisC mentions: better terrain and snow than anything closer, and the weekend commute becomes progressively more painful farther north.
That's sort of a misstatement. Good skiing for more than two consecutive weeks is probably what ChrisC meant. My chart suggests average 12 weekends per season of quality skiing. The problem is that you don't know more than a few days in advance which weekends will be the good ones. And that chart has some caveats:
1) It's based upon northern Vermont. Other regions in the Northeast are not as good.
2) The minimum definition for a B grade is 90% open, or 50% open with true winter conditions. I'll stand by that 90% in terms of screening out the bad scenarios, because most eastern areas will close steep and/or ungroomed terrain after a rain/hard freeze. President's Weekend 2022 was an example. FYI 2021-22 tied for lowest number of B or better weekends with 7.
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Patrick
Active member
Pictures of the liftline was prior to first chair. They were also giving t-shirt at the top.
There was virtually no line for the rest of the day (1 minutes at the most). Many did one run and called it a day. I stayed all 3 hours with 1-2 short water breaks.
Walking to back to the chair, but you could also lap the top by loading at the midstation.
??? I don't see a midstation in the Instagram video. And Superstar is an Express lift. If it had midstation loading, the lift would have to slow down there, like Collins at Alta.
Patrick
Active member
I was responding to EMSC and Chris’s comments from the « before time » (ie. early and late season prior to Superstar years).
ChrisC
Well-known member
Sugarbush and Mad River to Stowe, Smugglers Notch, and Jay Peak (300-325 inches) ..... at almost 90% for 8-12 weekends? This seems high to me. (My brother went to school at the University of Vermont, so it was easy to score a last-minute room
)There is terrain that you are lucky to get a shot at once per season, maybe twice.
Stowe - 'Front Four' (Starr/Goat), Chin Clip and Spruce are often not available.
Smugglers - Madonna is very exposed and you would be lucky to have Doc Dempsy's, FIS, Black Hole, Freefall, and Liftline available....along with some of the steeper shots on Sterling
Sugarbush - Castlerock. Lucky if one out of four paths is open. And some of its other steeper glades/runs.....
Jay - Tram shots are always closed. All the glades?
Maybe a lot of the above fills the 10% bucket, but I remember many snowmaking-centric seasons - even in northern Vermont.
ChrisC
Well-known member
There was a mid-station (arrow) on the old Killington Peak double chair that would only get utilized early or late season. I believe it was upload only. It provided access to upper Cascade trail in October, and the Downdraft trail in May/June.
Thought it was a slightly more efficient area for early/late ski vs. the current Glades/North Ridge lift (early) and Superstar (late). However, the K1 removed this option.
I think it is similar to how the Palmer Snowfields lift at Timberline operates.
Borrowed photo from web.