Killington, VT 10/30/99

Jay Silveira

New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 10/31/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>When my friend E heard that I had been down to Killington on Monday, she <BR>was surprised to find herself feeling a bit jealous that I had already <BR>been able to make some turns. I said that I'd be happy to head down <BR>again this weekend if the skiing was still available, so the plan was <BR>set. With Killington being the only ski are open in the region, they <BR>were predicting big crowds for the weekend, and were talking about <BR>limiting ticket sales. They were worried about the large crowds <BR>degrading the surface too quickly, and ending up with worn out snow <BR>(this is what I could figure out from reading the Killington chat page <BR>at least). With that in mind, we decided an early start would be best, <BR>and arrived at the mountain at around 8:00 A.M. There were probably <BR>about 100-150 cars in the parking lot already, and I noticed that they <BR>had switched to uploading on the K1 gondola instead of trucking people <BR>up to the Canyon Quad. Temperatures seemed to be in the 40s at the <BR>base, but when we got to the top, it felt even warmer, maybe the low 50s <BR>with brilliant blue skies and a south wind. Ticket prices were still <BR>$25, and the flow of people coming out of the gondola, was just about <BR>right to keep the transport trucks filled with skiers. We had an <BR>adventurous ride over to Rime in a 4 x 4, and then it was time to ski. <BR>Some snow had melted since my visit on Monday. The first <BR>patches of snow had moved up to around 2800' (vs 2450' on Monday), and <BR>continuous natural snow cover now started somewhere around 3500'. Rime <BR>was still open from top to bottom, and had excellent cover. Upper <BR>Double Dipper was still open, and parts were getting a bit thin there, <BR>but it was all skiable. Upper East Glade was roped off, and while it <BR>was probably skiable, the coverage was a notch below that of Double <BR>Dipper so I don't blame them for keeping it roped. They had apparently <BR>blow a bunch of snow on the lower section of East Glade, and it was now <BR>open with good cover. It was left ungroomed, and folks had built a <BR>couple of jumps on there and everyone was lining up to get air. As much <BR>as I liked the soft snow from Monday, this snow was even softer because <BR>of the spring temperatures. I would have to call the snow consistency <BR>"on its way to corn". It wasn't mushy or grabby, but it also hadn't <BR>granulated into big kernels yet. It skied really smoothly though, and <BR>let you sink in for nice carves. When we first started skiing, the lift <BR>line was about 3-5 min., and we got a few runs in before it began to <BR>increase. I don't think they needed to worry about overloading the <BR>trails with too many skiers, it soon became evident that the limiting <BR>reagent here was the lift. Just like Mad River Glen or Castlerock, we <BR>had reached saturation, and the trails weren't going to get much <BR>busier. Around 11:00 A.M., we had decided to try for one more run, but <BR>the lift line was approaching 15 min., so we decided to hit the truck <BR>and head down. <BR>It was a beautiful morning to be out, and we found that we were <BR>way overdressed for sunny weather in the 50s. The lift operators and <BR>mountain hosts were very helpful, and we were constantly asked how the <BR>conditions were as they were obviously concerned about how the snow was <BR>holding up. Rime was very well covered, I doubt that the traffic from <BR>Saturday would have hurt it much. We finished off with lunch at the <BR>Grist Mill, as high clouds were starting to obscure the sun. For those <BR>of you that haven't been there, the views of the mountain are great. It <BR>looks like the next cold spell will start on Wednesday of this week. As <BR>of Sunday, they were still open, but call ahead if you plan to ski, <BR>especially with the warm temperatures predicted early this coming week. <BR> <BR>J.Spin
 
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