Killington 12/8/13

Killington was just as crazy as always on the WROD.

Weather was wintry, and the warm days prior made the base firm and fast.

We got out there early and skied the non-snowmaking areas first before they got skied off...and that they surely did.

The sound of teenage boys on snowboards scraping sideways at high speeds was unnerving, especially when you could hear them getting louder and louder behind you. The run-outs and traverses were the scariest.

Rime, Reason, East Fall all the way down to the Canyon Quad. Skylark and bittersweet were nice but becoming pretty icy with the Killington Krowd. They turned the guns on Superstar while we were out there.

Guns were blasting Cascade all morning. It didn't open until mid-day and luckily Pam and I were right there when the ropes dropped. We had first tracks on fresh blown talcum powder.The snowguns were blinding, but there was no ice and just piles of man-made silky-sweet fine powder that made for dreamy turns in a man-made snowstorm.

Our friend didn't see us go there as we were heading over to Snowdon to meet up with another friend. We ended up meeting her at the Snowdown Quad. She reported that lower Chute was brutally icy. I suggested we go right back up to Cascade, though we had to ride the Snowdown Quad first.

Mousetrap had been mowed down and skied really well and Lower Bunny Buster was the best I've ever seen it in the early season.

We met Snowmonkey and her dude at the K1 and headed for the peak. They weren't ready for black diamond terrain, so we split off. At this point Cascade had been turned into the Killingfields, with tons of people. Our fine smooth powder had been turned into huge moguls with a person on each one.

The bumpers were bumping and many others were flailing. I felt pretty solid on that trail, though it tired me out pretty well. We managed 3 runs there ending our day at 3pm, which was pretty respectable considering I was the only one of the 3 of us that had skied at all this season and we got on the snow around 9am. I might have gone back to Superstar/Skylark to see if the snowmaking had improved conditions there at the end of the day, but the girls were done and it was beer:30

Here are some pix for your viewing pleaseure

Chix on Stix


Pammy in her new ski duds


Chrysalis


Skylark


East Fall


PDQ


Beer:30 in KBL with Snowmonkey

Doesn't really look that crowded for a weekend, except maybe for the lodge.

Did you have other reasons to be in VT, or just headin to big K?  Looks pretty good to me. More loose snow around that we saw in the Cats on Sunday.

Thank for the report!

the other reason we went to Vermont is because it was Bubba's birthday and The Wild Fern in Stockbridge hosted us.

Bubba Built This guitar for Rick Redington and presented it to him



Bubba and Rick Redington



Bubba is learning to play bass and he and his son were the rhythm section



And we had delicious food



EDEO was there



and there was amazing birthday cake

That is cool.  Nice guitar too!

Looks kinda like an Alembic guitar.