note of interest regarding the might K

[joegm]

hmmmmm!!! a scan of k's new web page finds the monthly events listings to have a may 14th weekend scheduled for the traditional triathalon/rage weekend.... if memory serves me correct , wasn't that usually attempted on memorial day weekend?.... a sign of the future? can we pretty much kiss lift access skiing goodbye after the 2nd week of may from here on in...sure looks like it boys!!!!!!! :evil:
last minute shift swaps allowed K's push back of monday till tuesday to not be a problem.. buddy gil and i will be there on tuesday morning for 2 days of mogul turns on ice chips... full report wed night!!!!!

 

[Anonymous]

Now that they have blown away the K-Chat room with the new web site, your reports will be most helpful.

 

[Geoff]

What you're seeing is a quiet drift towards a Nov 10th opening and May 1 closing. The old Killington marketed their snowmaking system with their early opening and late closing dates. The new Killington is all about cost control so that marketing initiative is history. Based on the amount of snow they made last year, midwinter snowmaking is also likely a thing of the past. It's sad to see a resort that was built on a philosophy of blowing snow on anything the hoses could reach until the snowmaking ponds were sucked dry is now trying to squeeze the last nickle of operating profit out of the place to pay huge interest payments. The old company borrowed the money from their skiers and used season passes in lieu of interest to keep borrowing costs to a minimum.

 

[joegm]

if your analysis is correct, and i have no reason to think it is incorrect at this point, then they damn well better take down the crock of crap signs at the top of the supa star that advertise a 25 foot " glacier base " and the signs that spout on about " sometimes till june!!! " and stop feeding the commercial ski mags the b. s. propaganda about being the king of late season skiing. and everyone who is even a semi regular at k ought to vocalize this to them. kim jackson should get pounded with emails by the faithful on this site if you have that point of view.
on a slightly different note:
the most recent " freeskier magazine " has k listed in it's top 10 of the east... the coments include talk about all of k's super steep mogul runs... i don't know if the mag is just out of touch or just blindily printing any crap sent to them by the k spinmeisters dept but the fact is this past year, superstar and O.L were groomed out way more than 50% of the skiable days including in the spring.
i am dying to know what bear is going to look like this year with the apparent shift towards the new school elements... and i wonder if they will continue to sell the poster which shows the O.L with a top to bottom freshly man made set of bumps....like one can ever get anything like that anymore on anything but bear mountian mogul challenge weekend :evil:

 

[Admin]

kim jackson should get pounded with emails by the faithful on this site if you have that point of view.

Kim Jackson is gone from the business. Steve Wright is now at Jay Peak. Starting next Thursday, Alex Kaufmann moves on to Attitash. Beginning next Thursday, the Killington News Bureau is rather devoid of anyone until those slots get filled.

 

[Anonymous]

Kim Jackson is gone from the business. Steve Wright is now at Jay Peak. Starting next Thursday, Alex Kaufmann moves on to Attitash. Beginning next Thursday, the Killington News Bureau is rather devoid of anyone until those slots get filled.

Oh man, what a Train Wreck that place has become. I think the beginning of the end was when Kilington screwed up that free 52 page annual brochure which was around 1987. That used to be pretty good and was all about skiing and had great pics and factoids, etc. It was more like a magazine. Then they started to fill it with condo/real estate horsesh*t. It's not that I have anything against real estate, but after a hard day of getting my 'nads squashed in a vise at my job at Mega-Corp Inc., gmbh, Ltd where I look at numbers and data all day long (if I'm not getting bored to tears in some meeting conducted by a bunch of corporate dorks) when I get stuff from a ski area or open up a ski brochure, I wanna' look at SKIING, not condo prices.

In fact, 1987 was when they screwed up Big Dipper and Superstar by launching a Big Mac Attack which left 2 Gold Medal Award winning MCTRAILS. Then they screwed up East Fall which was a blast and then was destroyed by another Big Mac Attack in 1992.

 

[Mark Renson]

Oops, sorry, I forgot to log in. This was by me.

Kim Jackson is gone from the business. Steve Wright is now at Jay Peak. Starting next Thursday, Alex Kaufmann moves on to Attitash. Beginning next Thursday, the Killington News Bureau is rather devoid of anyone until those slots get filled.

Oh man, what a Train Wreck that place has become. I think the beginning of the end was when Kilington screwed up that free 52 page annual brochure which was around 1987. That used to be pretty good and was all about skiing and had great pics and factoids, etc. It was more like a magazine. Then they started to fill it with condo/real estate horsesh*t. It's not that I have anything against real estate, but after a hard day of getting my 'nads squashed in a vise at my job at Mega-Corp Inc., gmbh, Ltd where I look at numbers and data all day long (if I'm not getting bored to tears in some meeting conducted by a bunch of corporate dorks) when I get stuff from a ski area or open up a ski brochure, I wanna' look at SKIING, not condo prices.

In fact, 1987 was when they screwed up Big Dipper and Superstar by launching a Big Mac Attack which left 2 Gold Medal Award winning MCTRAILS. Then they screwed up East Fall which was a blast and then was destroyed by another Big Mac Attack in 1992.

 

[Admin]

I think the beginning of the end was when Kilington screwed up that free 52 page annual brochure which was around 1987.

Isn't that right around when they got rid of the topographic trail map?

 

[Anonymous]

I got a good chuckle out of this thread's title. It was either the perfect joke or perfect freudian slip replacing "the mighty K" with "The might K". These days it does seem to be more often a case of "...they *might* make snow/ open/ stay open/ close/ etc etc" (instead of the years of knowing by simple weather observation).

 

[joegm]

cd, i'm glad someone got the joke... :lol:

 

[riverc0il]

In fact, 1987 was when they screwed up Big Dipper and Superstar by launching a Big Mac Attack which left 2 Gold Medal Award winning MCTRAILS. Then they screwed up East Fall which was a blast and then was destroyed by another Big Mac Attack in 1992.

:lol: :lol: :lol: classic rant mark! while the sad state of affairs itself isn't very funny, your characterization of the Big Mac Attack is about the funniest thing i've read all week!

CD makes a GREAT point about K's marketing of opening day. while i never really paid much attention, i can still remember K making weather forecasts and hyping their earliest possible opening day on their web page. there was no guessing game, they said we're blowing when it reachs XX temp for amount of days or something like that.

BW was originally scheduled to open this weekend i believe. they pushed their opening day forward to tuesday to tie with K for first to open. i'm shocked they don't complete the upset and plan to open tomorrow just for bragging rights. oh how the mighty have fallen! i picked BW to open first in the poll on this forum not so long ago. i can't believe my guess might just be right (tied but still...)! :shock:

i am gonna go way out on the limb here and predict that K will not have the long season in the east this year. :!:

 

[Castlerock]

To paraphrase Rainman:

K-Mart Sucks.

It has no soul. At least not anymore.

 

[Talisman]

I like Killington. The marketing hype, the vibe, the access roads parties have a tremendous pull and keep a lot of people away from mountains I ski on a more regular basis.

I freely admit to skiing Killington four or five times a year and usually enjoy it. Good terrain, a few secrets and a place to eat sushi is fun.

I don't think I match the demographic that Killington is marketing to; only ski on discounted tickets, doesn't eat or drink in the lodges, hogs a spot in bay 2 lot and wouldn't dream of buying propert. I am curious about the whole Killington is 'soulless' comment though.

 

[Chromer]

kim jackson should get pounded with emails by the faithful on this site if you have that point of view.

Kim Jackson is gone from the business. Steve Wright is now at Jay Peak. Starting next Thursday, Alex Kaufmann moves on to Attitash. Beginning next Thursday, the Killington News Bureau is rather devoid of anyone until those slots get filled.

Last one out turn off the lights? Yeesh... What's going on with the staff retention issues over there, anyway?

 

[Geoff]

Last one out turn off the lights? Yeesh... What's going on with the staff retention issues over there, anyway?

There aren't many of the pre-ASC people left. It hasn't been a very happy place to work. They've been on an austerity budget for years. They don't pay well. They've trimmed the benefits package. Full-timers have been forced to take substantial unpaid *cough* vacation *cough*. You'll recall that the ski patrol went union a couple of years ago. That sort of thing doesn't happen unless you're treating people horribly. I'm not sure if much blame can be attributed to Killington management. They're being asked by the corporate bean counters to squeeze every last nickel out of resort operations.

Combine this with the $349 season pass deal that caused much of their part-time weekend staff to bail out on them. It's unclear how they'll be able to operate the resort this season. I'm trying to sort out where to relocate. From Portsmouth, NH, Kmart is like 2h45m drive. Sugarloaf is looking like an attractive alternative. It's still part of the ASC disaster but it at least is far from Boston and NYC.

 

[Chromer]

I'll be glad to give you the SkiVT-L-approved off-map tour of Sugarloaf and area. Just let me know when you'll be up.

We generally only get the "nice" Bostonites at the 'Loaf. The impatient ones can't take the drive and end up in New Hampshire or at Sunday River.

 

[Geoff]

We generally only get the "nice" Bostonites at the 'Loaf. The impatient ones can't take the drive and end up in New Hampshire or at Sunday River.

...or at Kmart. 8)

I may have to pop a couple o' vallium before the drive.

 

[Patrick]

In fact, 1987 was when they screwed up Big Dipper and Superstar by launching a Big Mac Attack which left 2 Gold Medal Award winning MCTRAILS. Then they screwed up East Fall which was a blast and then was destroyed by another Big Mac Attack in 1992.

:lol: :lol: :lol: classic rant mark! while the sad state of affairs itself isn't very funny, your characterization of the Big Mac Attack is about the funniest thing i've read all week!

CD makes a GREAT point about K's marketing of opening day. while i never really paid much attention, i can still remember K making weather forecasts and hyping their earliest possible opening day on their web page. there was no guessing game, they said we're blowing when it reachs XX temp for amount of days or something like that.

WHO DOUBTED THAT WE ONLY DIDN'T HAVE A EARLY SEASON KILLINGTON RANT.

I am not doing to repeat what I have said so many times in previous Killington discussion,s the following statement reflect what I have felt about K for many year, starting slowly in 1987.

Moving last season to the new Superstar.
Getting ride of the Peak Double (with mid-station).
I never complained here about Double Dipper, but boy, Mark sure hit it on the nail about that scar.

Killington among my favorite place around when I skied for the first time in 1984, the melting away of the margin of the season has washed out my possible visits, because simply no longer, it isn't the best game in town and it isn't the only game in town in early/late season.

Mind you, the exchange rate didn't help me either, but why extended my season by one week and paying so much more than elsewhere. Best example: May 2003 - Ste.Anne closing weekend 22 trails, $36can vs following week at Kmart with Superstar for $39???(not sure)US - which was 60% more than the Canadian dollar at that time.

 

[Anonymous]

I have been skiing at Killington since 1965 - I have pictures of the old Southworth ski shop, and I remember when the Needles Eye chair was the main lift at the base lodge. Oh, and I worked there for ten years... and had fun. But, those days are sooo over. The skiing used to be great there -
now I can't get past the total lack of personality. Now a days, I ski with my daughter at a much smaller area that's a lot more fun.

 

[Admin]

Now a days, I ski with my daughter at a much smaller area that's a lot more fun.

You've piqued my curiosity, Freda -- where might that be?