Got on the lift at 8:15am, 25 deg, sun out, no lift lines until 10am, and got to completely tear it up on some beautiful groomers. The crowds woke up at around 10am, right when the clouds rolled in, but the worst lift line was about 8 mins.
Due to last week's cold spell, the snow quality is surprising good, considering the shitty start to the season. The packed powder did actually turn to powder once it got some traffic and it some places kept going down and down. Hard to get on and off the gondolas due to the soft snow... just not warm enough for it to pack down. Didn't find hard pack until after lunch and no scratchy stuff til almost 2. The snow was such that you could keep some good high speed mid-radius carves through the irregular late-day moguls, dodging the snowboarders who were eventidently not enjoying themselves as much with the mounds of snow.
It was a bit crowded in some of the higher traffic areas, but that it more the fault of people not knowing where to stop, as it did not seem to be *that* many people there. Lesson, get there early.
My first time out this season and the "first chair" runs were amazing. Granted there have been years where October has given Killington wonderful snow... but I'll take what I can get.
Due to last week's cold spell, the snow quality is surprising good, considering the shitty start to the season. The packed powder did actually turn to powder once it got some traffic and it some places kept going down and down. Hard to get on and off the gondolas due to the soft snow... just not warm enough for it to pack down. Didn't find hard pack until after lunch and no scratchy stuff til almost 2. The snow was such that you could keep some good high speed mid-radius carves through the irregular late-day moguls, dodging the snowboarders who were eventidently not enjoying themselves as much with the mounds of snow.
It was a bit crowded in some of the higher traffic areas, but that it more the fault of people not knowing where to stop, as it did not seem to be *that* many people there. Lesson, get there early.
My first time out this season and the "first chair" runs were amazing. Granted there have been years where October has given Killington wonderful snow... but I'll take what I can get.