killington, vt 1/15-17/05

S

skiadikt

New member
very surprised at how great a weekend it was despite the recent disasterous weather. no crowds whatsoever. today (monday) the mountain was empty. maybe because it was cold and folks thought the skiing would suck. glad they were wrong. the weekend was saved by the 5 inches they received on friday (another 2" sunday overnight) and t-to-b snowmaking on supe, double & ol (which looks like the ski trail from another planet). all 3 were as good as they get with soft snow and great bumps. monday panic/needles & lower bear claw were excellent as well in the guns. saturday's other highlights included freshies on 'reserved' trails: upper needles, escapade & northstar and tracks on royal flush. west glade was pretty good as well with a sweet bump line. the woods imho are still not ready. bcw was ok but nearly got killed in the light. plenty of fluff in there but scratchy underneath and too much junk sticking up grabbing at your skis. we also heard that patsies was pretty rough as well. ski patrol was out in full force on saturday and we nearly got busted on escapade and our better halves got busted on north star by a patroller who had just skied vagabond. he met them at the intersection of north star & vagabond and said "pretty sweet eh? don't worry i'm not gonna bust you". we did not venture over to vagabond but heard from others that it too was pretty sweet along with breakaway on the south ridge which was another one we missed.

all-in-all thought the mtn did an excellent job resulting in a great weekend. but we do desperately need some serious dumpage to open up some other terrain.
 
sure there was some ice but it was avoidable for the most part. on saturday did a run on panic/needles & cruise and they both were icey. and lower downdraft was a skating rink but other than that we were either skiing powder or the snowmaking trails. like i said, double dipper, superstar & outer limits were great on saturday & sunday and we ran laps on them.
 
I also hit Killington over the weekend, with my wife and two kids, aged 13 and 11, and it was our first visit. Our hats went off to the snowmaking crew, which did an incredible job making the best out of a bad situation. Outer Limits was a splendid bump run and was in excellent shape. Surprisingly, very little ice and some good-sized bumps for man-made. Same goes for Superstar and Double-Dipper. I was a little disappointed with the terrain in general though. Given the overall vert, it skis like a much smaller mountain. The biggest sustained pitch was under the K-1 gondola at 1600' and it was hard to find the sustained vert to open the throttle for very long. Whiteface, Smuggs, Stowe and Jay are better from that perspective. The resort was quite liberal with the trail classifications. Some of the double-diamonds, like Cascade, and most of the blacks, are really blues (I'm not complaining because it kept the crowds down). Outer Limits is a legit black, and an awesome run, but calling it the steepest bump run in the East, or even a double diamond, is pushing it. The resort could use some additional slope-side lodging if it wants to attract more families. Jay and Smuggs have done a much better job in that respect. Killington has great night life and a good selection of restaurants with fine food, but it comes at a price. We had a great time, but will probably stick to Jay, Smuggs and Stowe for the sustained steeps, better slopeside lodging and more reasonable prices. If I were single, however, I'd be back for the night life and the bumps.
 
skicolby":3ph8xzg7 said:
I was a little disappointed with the terrain in general though. Given the overall vert, it skis like a much smaller mountain. The biggest sustained pitch was under the K-1 gondola at 1600' and it was hard to find the sustained vert to open the throttle for very long. Whiteface, Smuggs, Stowe and Jay are better from that perspective. The resort was quite liberal with the trail classifications. Some of the double-diamonds, like Cascade, and most of the blacks, are really blues (I'm not complaining because it kept the crowds down). Outer Limits is a legit black, and an awesome run, but calling it the steepest bump run in the East, or even a double diamond, is pushing it. The resort could use some additional slope-side lodging if it wants to attract more families. Jay and Smuggs have done a much better job in that respect. Killington has great night life and a good selection of restaurants with fine food, but it comes at a price. We had a great time, but will probably stick to Jay, Smuggs and Stowe for the sustained steeps, better slopeside lodging and more reasonable prices. If I were single, however, I'd be back for the night life and the bumps.
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definitely agree about the terrain thing. the mountain is more of a horizontal than vertical mtn and you ski it in 1100' chunks with many trail intersections along the way. very few sustain steeps. it's a very choppy feel.

don't know about the trail ratings though. think they're pretty comparable in most cases to other eastern resorts. calling some double blacks may be a bit over the the top. the trail classification suffers when more when comparing these trails to western trails where outer limits might only be a double blue. cascade from the turn mid station down imho is a legit eastern black.

they've been planning a slopeside village for years but don't have the bux. to be honest i'm hoping it never happens.
 
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