Killington,Vt, 11-13/14

joegm

joegm

New member
my computer finally pooped the bed monday night... so i've been out of the loop... good news is a brand new pentium 4 is online and first lift access turns have been made at the mighty k... thurs: 5am and 80mph headin north on 93 and jonesin like a u know what...gil and i pulled in to snowden at 815 and grabbed the season passes... they were not supposed to open till 9 but nice worker took mercy on us and fired up the photo machine!!!... we were loading by 9:15...midway through stretches, at about 9, saw about 30 people in line for the first gondy up...915 we are on and off we go for 2003/04. 2 days 2 very different mountian conditions. thurs... not a natural flake on the mountain, bottom to top... they called it 8 trails but it was really 3...great northern t to b, rime and the trail to skier's right of rime ( ????? ) i've never skied a day litke thursday in my life... it was bumps top to bottom on pretty much a\every trail except for stretches of a couple of hundred yards or so...pretty much all medium sized and down...rime had some bigger ones on it's lower half.. upper half had more whaley type piles... the trail to skiers right of upper rime (????) was the only non bumped part ... they had a little jib park set up up there w couple of rails... didn't even bother....g and i certaily didn't experct to be bumpin t to b on day 1 let me tell u... we promised our mogul coaches from blackcomb we wouln't ski a bump till jan 15th ( 40,000 turns on the flats for u wanna be's was the parting advice )... problem was there was no flats... MERCY.... it was all man made snow... i am not kidding.. there was not one flake of natural on that mountain t to b on thursday, so considering that, the conditions were outstanding.. the bumps were hard and hardpacked but not ice... it was super packed out fake.. so it was hard and fast... not ideal for most ( yours included ) on day one, but edgeable with proper technique, for sure. it was cold about 30 with wind about 25 gusting to 40. crowd was decent and not to jammed up... k1 and the rime triple were spinning... it was funny seeing all the racers trying to ski fast.. they literaly could not cause of the 100% no cost to them naturally formed top to bottom terrain park ( otherwise known as moguls ) that existed from top to bottom...it didn't stop em from trying though:-) a fat ceasar and a pepperoni pie from the outback had me out by 9. woke up feeling better than i though i would... the 8 inches of fluff helped out to...i don't know what they called it but i'd say it was 8... they had no choice but to smash it, which they did , along with all of the bumps on great nothern... they left rime and the other trail alone though, which i give a ton of credit for, considering... they were blowing fast and furious all over and on g/n , so we pretty much rode the rime triple all day and bumped...some 16 yr old freestyle frenchies from frank's area were lappin on rime with their coach.. k teenage bump team was also out on friday too...also caught a rippin tele guy shreddin the bumps on rime. this guy was not telemark skiing the bumps... he was bump skiing with tele skis, props to u man, for sure... lot more fast skiers in tight suits on friday ,along with a lot more regular shmo's who think they are fast skiers as well :-). it's just so funny how the t to b bumps slowed everybody down to a sane pace on thursday.. but no more on that.. i don't want to piss off river and the boys :-). fri was , like i said , much more crowded and much more windy and about 22f for a high... it was bluebird by 1030am. i was stunned that they were able to power the gondy through what seemed like 60 to 70 mph gusts... i've never been on a gondy that was bouncin so much as it was on fri... in the end, my biased opinion, IT WAS GLORIOUS... even though i feel like i got hit by a truck right now, it's good to be back , for sure... next thurs and fri from k, once again. just as an aside, before my comp blew up, i know the money issue was reignited a bit... k was chargin 39 for a daily... i posted this before and i'll put it up again...it's not the most popular view for sure, but i think i remember one other poster agreeing... considering all that it goin on in the industry now, i don't believe in the concept of early late season discounts... i am not saying you cannot make a valid argument for it.. you probably can... i just don't agree with it... my selfish point of view is that i want lift access asap... plain and simple... i think a large percentage of those who ski in nov and may are pass holders, not all, but a lot...i'm trying to look at it with an open mind ... they are not there to lose money... are they looking to increase the amount of money they make via margins? seems pretty clear they are. do i agree with that, no... but i am not gonna condemn them for chargin 39 bucks for a daily ticket, when i saw first hand on thursday, not one iota of a natural flake of snow on that hill, and i was skiing good snow t to b... i think a valid argument could be made that HIGHER prices should be charged for early and late... i'm not advocating that... i'm just saying i think it could be reasonably argued... at the least, i have no problem with what they are charging now and if they charged a reg season price now... i couldn't fault em... i'm not holdin water for em at all, believe me.. i have nothing but anger for em for the end of the season butchery that they appear to be on course for... but they have to pay the bills... and they are certainly not gonna be paying them by charging me 299 for a season ticket... anyways, i hear bretton and the river are spinning... get out there and turn boys.. winter is back and all is well
 
Short answer : East Glade !! (the trail beside the "Rime"... yeah, I know that it's not a glade but I think it used to be, a long time ago...) <BR> <BR>Congrats for your first days of the season ! Good for you that there was a lot of moguls... it looked interesting to ski ! <BR> <BR>May be it was the best opening in the east this year... although IMO the best is the first, except for Tenney... <BR> <BR>If we could have a ski area like Wolf Creek, in the east... it would be so fun. The report of Matt Duffy for yesterday let no doubt. 60" of natural depth, 100% terrain open... while there is just few other ski areas in Colorado that are open and they're almost only open on snowmaking...
 
nice first day! <BR> <BR>i disagree about the lift ticket prices because currently, kmart is not charging $39 for "early season" skiing. they are charging that price for their first week of operation. kmart didn't do early season this year, imo. they could justify $40+ if they had a lift going in october, that much i would agree to. but the number of ski areas in the east open now is in the double digits and will double every weekend that goes by. they are still charging far more per acre of open terrain than any other area.
 
yeah, but river, my point/opinion is the amount of money it costs them to get the operation up and running , i would assume is quite a capital investment...sure they get some preseason revenue from people like me who gave em money back in august, but the daily cash flow ( ticklet sales wise, must be small, relatively. i know they have to , to some degree, look at the big picture and realize they will have large revenue at christmas and beyond, but i really do not have a problem with them charging that money because the amount of skiers going/paying/spending is so small. i think the hard core skier would benefit more in the long term ( ie late season ) if they could meet their ( admittedly high ) margins easier now in the preseason. i think, and i may be naive in this line of thought, that they may be more willing to spin the superstar in may , and blow like hell on superstar up until the temps prevent it, if they had more do re me in their pockets up front...i look at it like this.. chargin 39 now ( or even say a reg season price now ) one can look at as a negative. but the positive of that is we have lift accessed. one good one bad. jump to may one. if they spin the lifts through may because they got the revenue back in november, that's only a positive, no negative....i would guess that almost ( not all, but almost all ) who are really serious about going skiing in november on 1 or 2 or 3 trails of hardpacked fake, is either 1) holding a season ticket or 2) probably determined enough to go regardless of the 39 ticket plus or minus 10 or 15 bucks. maybe there are people out there who would say, 30 bucks i'm going... 40 bucks, u can stick it....anythings possible.. but i just don't see it being a very large number. again my goal is to be skiing THROUGH may. that contibutes to my reasoning. if i was gonna be shutting it down on april 1st like the rest of the silly public, then i could see the outrage over a 39 ticket to slide on 2 trails of frozen ice chips
 
good call. we'll see if the later start results in a longer finish. i agree that if money up front and a shorter early season results in a longer end of season, the wait and the money are justified. however, given the shrinking of the shoulder seasons on both ends in recent years... i'm in serious doubt that a may 1st closing is entirely likely this year. <BR> <BR>guess i have no place to <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> since i'm not paying the prices. only <FONT COLOR="ff0000">•••••</FONT> cause i want to ski and am not willing to pay so much for so little. i am very careful with my skiing dollars as i'm on a budget to ski as much as possible with not much money.
 
r , i hear you on the dough.. i certainly don't mean to come off like the dough is inconsequential to me...believe me , come mid april , i'm pretty much eating out of tuna can for the duration. i haven't been forced to make the famous ski bum ketchup soup yet, though!!!!!. but i'll gladly eat tuna and saltines if it means i'm bashin the superstar on memorial day... but like you said, that is far from a given with the current asc philosophy and the ( infamous ) legacy of leslie b rotten.
 
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