Killington: 10/20/11

Here is my long overdue trip report from my excursion to Killington this past October!

After spending a lot of time on here rambling and bragging about how I was going to go to Killington opening weekend I finally set out for the mountain Sunday morning October 30th.  I was giddy with anticipation over the thought of hitting the slopes again especially because I was going to be doing it in October (my previous record of earliest day on the slopes was the day after Thanksgiving about 13 yrs ago).

I left later than I wanted to but rather than try to race to the mountain I just enjoyed the ride, taking in the views, thinking about what the day would be like and trying to remember Killington (my last trip there was around 23 yrs ago and the memories are vague at best).  As the mountain came into view I was overcome with excitement.  From a distance the mountain looked to be in mid-season form (thanks to a great late October snowstorm).  It was going to be a great day!

 

As I pulled into the parking lot my heart sank.  The place was packed!!!!  (At least it was for the time of year and amount of terrain open).  I stopped, took a deep breath and said to myself "Don't worry about it.  You're going skiing!!!"  I parked and hiked to the lodge, bought my ticket and geared up.  No line at the gondola and the lodge was pretty empty....everyone must be up on the mountain....  I had a car to myself and spent the ride snapping pictures, taking in the view and looking for skiers.  Near the top I could see people skiing below the gondola and off into the distance





Seeing these skiers was a welcome site as the reports said that I'd have to hike to and from the skiing terrain.  Getting off the gondola I quickly hopped onto my skis ready to take on the mountain!  NOTE:  No matter how many years I've been skiing my first day or two at least is always ugly.  Every year it feels like I'm starting over and I've struggled with the basics.  This while some of my friends from the city would hit the slopes after years of not skiing and head straight to the blacks without a second thought and just bomb down the hill.  I'm guessing the fact that they were all of Austrian decent and had been skiing since they could walk has something to do with that.....  So anyway I'm thinking that since I skied more days (at least 3x as many) last season than I ever had in my life and since it had only been 5 mths. since my last outing that I was just going to hit the slopes like my buddies and tear them up!  WRONG!!!  I pushed off and immediately lost my balance and almost fell.  A couple of dozen yards and into my first turn and UGH!  It felt just like all of my other first days.  I was very discouraged.  I worked my way down Great Northern hoping to get my legs back quickly.  Once I got over to Rime I rested a moment, relished the fact that I was on the slopes and took off down the slope.  I made it down to the lift but it was an awkward run and my legs were feeling it already.  And on top of it what is waiting for me?  A lift line.  A VERY long lift line!!!  I've gotten very spoiled the last couple of years skiing Gore, Hickory, Whiteface and West almost exclusively on weekdays.  These days a five minute wait is long.  My first wait was almost 40 minutes!!!





The above pic was actually taken later when the wait was down to about 15 minutes.  The good thing about the wait was it allowed my legs to rest, me to regroup and I met a couple of diehards (although I'm sure it's safe to say that anyone there that day was a diehard!).  At the top I took their pics for them and they took mine for me and we went our separate ways.  I made another half dozen runs, sampling all there was except for the terrain park that was set up on Reason.  Rime was crowded when I got there and icy in the middle although the sides weren't bad.  Upper dipper had a bunch of bare patches and was pretty empty.  They dropped the rope on East Fall just as I got there and I gave it a shot a little later.  It was marked that day as expert terrain because it wasn't groomed, there were gullies from water runoff and they still had the snow guns firing.  It sucked for me as the conditions were tough at best and I got drenched from the snow guns.  It was actually pretty cold up on the mountain....didn't make me think of October at all.



As the day wore on the crowds thinned out and my skiing got a bit stronger.  I felt satisfied with my day and was getting hungry so I decided that it was time to head down to the base.  I figured I would grab a bite and see if maybe I wanted to squeeze in a few more runs.  That's when I got my next surprise:  The hike back to the gondola!  OUCH!  That was a lot longer than I thought and a real workout and a half.  I was impressed with the stairs and boardwalks that they had built though and people I spoke with said that it was great that they had done this because it allowed them to open earlier and stay open later in the season.  At the time though all I could think of is "When does this thing end???"





Once I made it to the gondola I knew that I wasn't coming back up so I took some pictures and jumped in one of the cars and savored my 1st day of skiing of the year.  It felt good.