Killington 11/23/11

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Killington 11/23/11

tBatt
This post was updated on .
Monday night the Chinese food store presented me an omen that snow was in the forecast. NOAA and the FIS weather forecast agreed, so it was time to start scheming. Killington had a nice base down already and still has the Buy-one-get-one offer running through 12/16. FIS was calling for 6-12 in the area. Target Acquired.



Snow was coming down at home but I knew sleet was starting to mix in. A bit worried, I checked the radar and saw the change over to snow was about half way in between Rutland and Killington.

We set the alarms for 6:15 and planned on being on the road by 6:45. A little late, but we still made it by 7:15. I woke up expecting to find some more snow on the car from the night before, but some had actually melted. Hmm. Still hoping it was going to be a good day.



We got to Rutland around 8:45, and it was still raining. Bummer. Still hoping that it would be snowing once we headed up in elevation..

Right around Pico we got our wish. It was like someone flipped a switch. It was dumping snow, the roads were terrible, and the stoke levels were rapidly rising.

We pulled in the lot around 9:15, Got our gear on, got our tickets and headed to the Gondola. We rode up with a snowboarder who gave us the details on what was good, and what was open. Really, it wasn't much. Most of the good snow had been skied off, although, there was still some fresh to be found on the sides of the trails. Bumps were starting to form, and we were getting back into the groove of things.

After 3 extremely low-angle runs on greens and blues, we figured it was time to check out some steeper stuff. Royal flush (which had been skied earlier in the year) dropped in off of Great Northern. It was closed, but it looked beautiful and there were a few tracks.

Who put that rope there?




It was AWESOME. About a foot of fresh. A few tracks already to be crossed, but there were plenty of freshies to go around.



Decision was made. Poaching > WROD. All the cool kids were doing it anyways . Ski patrol didn't seem to be to active about tracking people down. All the steeper stuff dumped out under the Canyon quad and skied right back to the gondola.

So much chowdah.








Hey look... a rock.
Lets jump off it!





There were some HUGE waterbars over on down draft. They made for some awesome launches.



And Tom had one of the most entertaining falls I've seen in my life.

(I'm working on an animated GIF, but the series will have to do for now.)








It wasn't a bluebird day like Day #1 at Killington or Day #2 at Plattekill, but it was definitely the deepest and skied the best.

Now it's time for some Turkey, stuffing, and eggnog and Rum. Happy Thanksgiving all!
See everyone at Gore this weekend.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

Chris
Sweet report, looks like a lot of fun- you skiiers take some funky falls.  Did they have a base from prior snowfall on trails that haven't seen snowmaking yet?
The day begins...  Your mountain awaits.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

tBatt
not, not really any base on the closed stuff. There wasn't much bottoming out though. Tom got a small coreshot on his new skis, I got a small scratch, but that's all.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

Harvey
Administrator
This post was updated on .
In reply to this post by tBatt
fujative wrote
Right around Pico we got our wish. It was like someone flipped a switch. It was dumping snow, the roads were terrible, and the stoke levels were rapidly rising.
THAT is a great feeling.  Plus the way Kmart manufactures it's own snow, you KNOW that if your are seeing snow while driving, there is going to be something real up high.

fujative wrote
Poaching > WROD.


fujative wrote
YES!

fujative wrote
And Tom had one of the most entertaining falls I've seen in my life.
(I'm working on an animated GIF, but the series will have to do for now.)
That fall looks like one of mine. PLEASE post the gif.

ACTUALLY looks like one hell of a recovery before the final digger.

Nice report Fuje!
"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ausable skier
sorry to be a prude here but its totally not cool to ski closed trails and if you do its even more uncool to shoot photos of it and make a big deal out of it

just saying
A true measure of a person's intelligence is how much they agree with you.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

tBatt
I think there's a time and a place when it's Ok to poach trails. This being one of them. Obviously I'm not about to go try and ski Rumor opening day or the slides after a huge storm but before ski patrol test the stability of the snowpack. First run down each was pretty tentative, looking out for hazards. If it were a different, more laid back mountain, I'm sure the trails would have been open. We barely bottomed out on anything. I'm assuming they're closed because they're worried about some jackass trying to sue them for getting a scratch on their skis.

Boasting about it on the internet... yeah, probably dumb.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

jimvdak
I laughed so hard at those pictures of the fall..priceless!
*~It is better to go skiing and think of God, than go to church and think of sport.~*  -Fridtjof Nansen
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

tBatt
This post was updated on .
So the GIF won't play on the forum, so here's a link to it.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/Tomcrash-1.gif
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

Harvey
Administrator
That is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

I will check out the gif thing.

What I did was use Quicktime to create a movie and that worked:




There is something very cool about the gif though. Want to figure that out.
"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ausable skier
In reply to this post by tBatt
fujative wrote
I think there's a time and a place when it's Ok to poach trails. This being one of them. Obviously I'm not about to go try and ski Rumor opening day or the slides after a huge storm but before ski patrol test the stability of the snowpack. First run down each was pretty tentative, looking out for hazards. If it were a different, more laid back mountain, I'm sure the trails would have been open. We barely bottomed out on anything. I'm assuming they're closed because they're worried about some jackass trying to sue them for getting a scratch on their skis.

Boasting about it on the internet... yeah, probably dumb.
you guys probably have the skills to handle it but how would you know what its like until its too late.  Patrols also keep things closed because they don't have enough staff to keep an eye on it all or sweep it.  What if some yahoo decided to follow your tracks and got hurt worst case last in the day and the trail didn't get sweeped.  You guys are young - use your heads - this is the same category as the "pro" skier that got himself killed in an avy at snowbird as few weeks ago.
A true measure of a person's intelligence is how much they agree with you.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

tBatt
ausable skier wrote
fujative wrote
I think there's a time and a place when it's Ok to poach trails. This being one of them. Obviously I'm not about to go try and ski Rumor opening day or the slides after a huge storm but before ski patrol test the stability of the snowpack. First run down each was pretty tentative, looking out for hazards. If it were a different, more laid back mountain, I'm sure the trails would have been open. We barely bottomed out on anything. I'm assuming they're closed because they're worried about some jackass trying to sue them for getting a scratch on their skis.

Boasting about it on the internet... yeah, probably dumb.
you guys probably have the skills to handle it but how would you know what its like until its too late.  Patrols also keep things closed because they don't have enough staff to keep an eye on it all or sweep it.  What if some yahoo decided to follow your tracks and got hurt worst case last in the day and the trail didn't get sweeped.  You guys are young - use your heads - this is the same category as the "pro" skier that got himself killed in an avy at snowbird as few weeks ago.
I already knew what it was like because I skied royal flush a few weeks ago, with much less coverage.
If someone wasn't following us in, they were following someone else. There were probably 40+ people I saw in there, coming down all different trails.
Same category as Jamie's death? Absolutely not...
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

Harvey
Administrator
This post was updated on .
I've rarely bypassed ropes in my 10 years of lift-served skiing.  One time, I was at Plattekill skiing with Patrol, so maybe that doesn't count.

Most of my time has been spent at Gore, and it seems like when cover is very thin, but considered "do-able" by an "expert," patrol will run a rope ALMOST all the way across, leaving a small opening with an "Extremely Difficult" sign next to it.  If you've skied at Gore enough, you come to understand what that means:

"Hey we'd ski it, but you need to understand that it's not what we'd call full coverage. Proceed at your own risk."

That kind of thinking (open everything you can) comes from the top, and IMO it's one of the great things about Gore.  Really makes you respect a full closure.  Two years ago we skied the trees at Christmas break on almost no snow, (40 inches total for the season?) and while it was tough on gear, it make the vacation a hell of a lot more fun.

I've also had experience where I've asked Patrol if I could go into Tahawas glades when they were closed, and they agreed to let me do so if I reported back after one run.
"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ml242
you guys probably have the skills to handle it but how would you know what its like until its too late.  Patrols also keep things closed because they don't have enough staff to keep an eye on it all or sweep it.  What if some yahoo decided to follow your tracks and got hurt worst case last in the day and the trail didn't get sweeped.  You guys are young - use your heads - this is the same category as the "pro" skier that got himself killed in an avy at snowbird as few weeks ago.

Saying Jamie Pierre was a "pro" is pretty disrespectful to the deceased, regardless of the circumstances.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

Harvey
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In reply to this post by tBatt
fujative wrote
So the GIF won't play on the forum, so here's a link to it.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f26/tbattesh/Tomcrash-1.gif
As I said, priceless:

"You just need to go at that shit wide open, hang on, and own it." —Camp
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ausable skier
This post was updated on .
In reply to this post by ml242
ml242 wrote
you guys probably have the skills to handle it but how would you know what its like until its too late.  Patrols also keep things closed because they don't have enough staff to keep an eye on it all or sweep it.  What if some yahoo decided to follow your tracks and got hurt worst case last in the day and the trail didn't get sweeped.  You guys are young - use your heads - this is the same category as the "pro" skier that got himself killed in an avy at snowbird as few weeks ago.

Saying Jamie Pierre was a "pro" is pretty disrespectful to the deceased, regardless of the circumstances.
pierre the "pro" did not ever bother to take an avy class, ski with the proper avy gear, bother to check the avy report, decide that setting off a big avy on the way to getting killed was cause for concern (or a sign from god) and maybe turn back.  Hucking off huge cliffs does not make one a pro - the guy had a death wish. He said he trusted god to protect him - I think that god gave us avy beacons to protect ourselves.  He set a really crappy example for other young rippers like fujuitve here to follow - that the rules don't apply to them because they are good - it takes more to be a pro than just being good and getting paid - you need to work at your craft (what ever it is) and get the proper training and more training and then more after that - plus show respect to traditions and mores of your sport thats being a true professional.
A true measure of a person's intelligence is how much they agree with you.
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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ml242
Being good about talking about avy safety online doesn't make you a pro, being paid to ski does. He accomplished that because he was a talented skier, not by writing the ethicist for the Times or by being a professional role model or project managing or by doing the risk analysis for the films he was in. He did make a bad decision and paid for it with his life. I still don't see why this an opportunity to kick dirt on his "name". I don't know, I just never really speak ill of the dead*.

*Exceptions being Hitler, Jake Burton, whoever invented low-E guns, The Beatles, and whoever else I forgot on this list.

But do you know for a fact that Pierre never took avalanche awareness class? And is this to say he never picked up anything in 15 years of working with trained pros? How many times did he make the right call and turn back? To me the take home is vigilance as much as education. Obviously with one blue bird day you can neglect to be careful and pay the ultimate price; but it will always be sad to me for someone to perish doing the exact same thing that I like to do. I just hope to be safer to avoid the same fate.

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Re: Killington 11/23/11

ausable skier
ml242 wrote
But do you know for a fact that Pierre never took avalanche awareness class? And is this to say he never picked up anything in 15 years of working with trained pros? How many times did he make the right call and turn back? To me the take home is vigilance as much as education. Obviously with one blue bird day you can neglect to be careful and pay the ultimate price; but it will always be sad to me for someone to perish doing the exact same thing that I like to do. I just hope to be safer to avoid the same fate.
It was in the Utah avy report of the incident that he did not have formal avy training and exhibited exceptionally bad judgement for such a experienced skier
A true measure of a person's intelligence is how much they agree with you.