Here's a copy of a report I posted on AlpineZone (http://forums.alpinezone.com/viewtopic. ... 2852#72852)
Date(s) Skied: Say. 1/21 & Sun. 1/22
Resort or Ski Area: Killington, VT
Conditions: Sat: frozen granular, wet snow, slush (softer/wetter as day went on), spring conditions; Sun: ICE, ICE (with limited exception)
Trip Report:
Saturday
In the morning skied Superstar and then spent a good amount of time in the Canyon skiing East Fall, Double Dipper, Cascade, and Downdraft. All were pretty firm. Headed over to Bear Mountain. The trails on the way there (Great Northern, etc.) were somewhat softwer than the stuff the Canyon. Outer Limits was firm, other trails in that area softer. Skied some in the Needles Eye area (Cruise Control I think) which was starting to get pretty slushy, as was Sky Lark. Superstar had some (slushy) nice moguls building up on the lower headwall to skier's left, quite like it does ... in MAY (and it's January!).
The weather had been ominus, threatening r**n all day. At 2:30 it finally let out in a big way for a few minutes. It stopped, but it was enough to scare us into calling it quits on the early side. Took a run down Upper Vertigo down to the Snoshed base to catch the shuttle. Vertigo was, suprisingly, the best run of the day I think. They had a thin cover sign (or it appeared to) at the top, but at least from what I saw, it was covered as well as anything else.
Sunday
The weather forecast told us what we were going to get- turning cold Sat. night and Sun. With all the wet snow and enough areas that looked like they'd be puddles in another day of warmth, it was obvious that Sunday would be icy..and it was.
Skied a runs on Superstar, Highline (twice), East Fall, and Downdraft. All were firm, Highline and Eastfall were better than the others, probably because they face the sun a bit more. Highline may have been the best wall-to-wall, Eastfall on skier's left for perhaps 10 feet had a little bit of softer snow (comparitively speaker). Everything was VERY hard..tough to get an edge, a lot of sliding going on between turns (at least for me).
Then we decided to head for the sun and over to Bear. Top of Wildfire was pretty tough with some uneven grooming/maybe some death cookies. Bottom of Wilfire, remarkably, was pretty slushy, and actually a nice change from everything else.
Then we discovered it - Outer Limits had tons of snow guns going on it and was still moguled up. It was by far the best run of the day; nothing else came close. While there was ice between a lot of the moguls, the moguls themselves had perhaps the best man-made snow I recall skiing on. Normally I try to avoid trails with guns going like crazy, but Sunday it was great. We did three runs on that before deciding a rest on our backs might be a good idea.
Did Wildfire again, and then headed back toward the K1 base. Skied a run on Snowdon..I think Mouse Trap and Chute. Actually more edgeable than the steeper terrain. Then did East Fall again - a disaster. The 10 feet on the side with edgeable snow was more like 3-5. Did a run on Cascase--better than Eastfall, but still ice. Moved over to Superstar for a couple runs where they also had the guns going by now. Snow wasn't as nice as Outer Limits (and there was a lot less of it since the guns hadn't been on as long), but for the first 2/3 of the trail is was probably better than anything else but Outer Limits, though skiing with the guns was very annoying. For some reason they were using the normal guns on the ground and not the mounted tower guns like they were using on Outer Limits. The bottom headwall was essentially a sheet of ice -- pretty scary. On the way up the lift we saw a young girl attempting to snowplow down it straight lining the entire lower headwall and plowing through/over the rope they set up at the bottom to slow skiers down (thankfully either part of it had fell down or she somehow squeeked through a hole). She then fell on the flat area by the base of the quad in what looked like the absolute best scenario for the way she was going down the ice on Superstar.
Summary
Hopefully the snow today and Wednesday will fix things up.
Date(s) Skied: Say. 1/21 & Sun. 1/22
Resort or Ski Area: Killington, VT
Conditions: Sat: frozen granular, wet snow, slush (softer/wetter as day went on), spring conditions; Sun: ICE, ICE (with limited exception)
Trip Report:
Saturday
In the morning skied Superstar and then spent a good amount of time in the Canyon skiing East Fall, Double Dipper, Cascade, and Downdraft. All were pretty firm. Headed over to Bear Mountain. The trails on the way there (Great Northern, etc.) were somewhat softwer than the stuff the Canyon. Outer Limits was firm, other trails in that area softer. Skied some in the Needles Eye area (Cruise Control I think) which was starting to get pretty slushy, as was Sky Lark. Superstar had some (slushy) nice moguls building up on the lower headwall to skier's left, quite like it does ... in MAY (and it's January!).
The weather had been ominus, threatening r**n all day. At 2:30 it finally let out in a big way for a few minutes. It stopped, but it was enough to scare us into calling it quits on the early side. Took a run down Upper Vertigo down to the Snoshed base to catch the shuttle. Vertigo was, suprisingly, the best run of the day I think. They had a thin cover sign (or it appeared to) at the top, but at least from what I saw, it was covered as well as anything else.
Sunday
The weather forecast told us what we were going to get- turning cold Sat. night and Sun. With all the wet snow and enough areas that looked like they'd be puddles in another day of warmth, it was obvious that Sunday would be icy..and it was.
Skied a runs on Superstar, Highline (twice), East Fall, and Downdraft. All were firm, Highline and Eastfall were better than the others, probably because they face the sun a bit more. Highline may have been the best wall-to-wall, Eastfall on skier's left for perhaps 10 feet had a little bit of softer snow (comparitively speaker). Everything was VERY hard..tough to get an edge, a lot of sliding going on between turns (at least for me).
Then we decided to head for the sun and over to Bear. Top of Wildfire was pretty tough with some uneven grooming/maybe some death cookies. Bottom of Wilfire, remarkably, was pretty slushy, and actually a nice change from everything else.
Then we discovered it - Outer Limits had tons of snow guns going on it and was still moguled up. It was by far the best run of the day; nothing else came close. While there was ice between a lot of the moguls, the moguls themselves had perhaps the best man-made snow I recall skiing on. Normally I try to avoid trails with guns going like crazy, but Sunday it was great. We did three runs on that before deciding a rest on our backs might be a good idea.
Did Wildfire again, and then headed back toward the K1 base. Skied a run on Snowdon..I think Mouse Trap and Chute. Actually more edgeable than the steeper terrain. Then did East Fall again - a disaster. The 10 feet on the side with edgeable snow was more like 3-5. Did a run on Cascase--better than Eastfall, but still ice. Moved over to Superstar for a couple runs where they also had the guns going by now. Snow wasn't as nice as Outer Limits (and there was a lot less of it since the guns hadn't been on as long), but for the first 2/3 of the trail is was probably better than anything else but Outer Limits, though skiing with the guns was very annoying. For some reason they were using the normal guns on the ground and not the mounted tower guns like they were using on Outer Limits. The bottom headwall was essentially a sheet of ice -- pretty scary. On the way up the lift we saw a young girl attempting to snowplow down it straight lining the entire lower headwall and plowing through/over the rope they set up at the bottom to slow skiers down (thankfully either part of it had fell down or she somehow squeeked through a hole). She then fell on the flat area by the base of the quad in what looked like the absolute best scenario for the way she was going down the ice on Superstar.
Summary
Hopefully the snow today and Wednesday will fix things up.
