Killington Conditions

Bird of Prey cancelled.  Go East!

I have never skied WF what can I expect?

I ski Gore a lot.

I will not post about WF in the Killington thread.

Please see the Whiteface conditions thread for your response.

I posted this over at SJ, but I think it is worthy of a cross-post:



Superstar looked awesome yesterday. I spoke with lots of people working the course and the venue. It is going to be a crazy madhouse but one hell of a good time.

I also had a really cool conversation with former US Olympic skier, Leslie Leete Smith who also happens to be the daughter of K founder, Pres Smith. She was super nice and showed me a bunch of pictures, including one of her from Stratton in 1978, the last WC race in VT. as well as a few of her as a toddler with her dad.

Well I can say, that there is a good amount of snow for this time of year up here and it's snowing now.

Very excited. Ski season is starting for us this weekend.

R

Had a good time at the races today... Got there around 7:15 am and parked on the road just a 5 minute walk from K-1. Skied Snowdon all morning. Good soft snow temps in the 30's. Had a good view of the 1st round of GS runs from the Snowdon quad. Started getting crowded around noon, wnt in for lunch and afterwards watched the 2nd round of WC runs and called it a day around 2. All in all, everything seemed to go smoothly even with the crowds.

That's is awesome sauce. Good for kton they kicked ass!!

Watched it on NBC today, pretty cool.  Look like they had halfway decent conditions for it.  Kind of blew my mind how early in the season they wanted to do this.  Props to Killington for making it happen.  

It was PACKED. 16,000 people.  

I checked Killingtonzone today, and apparently the WC was a huge success with one of the highest attendance levels for an event of it's kind.  The locals even said that it was good for the general skiing public, rather than a huge inconvenience.  They're already hoping that the FIS makes this a yearly event.

I think it actually works better to do this early season than in the middle of the season.  They basically delay the opening of the Superstar area until the week after Thanksgiving, and that's the only impact.  It used to be that Superstar always opened before Ramshead and Snowshed did, but now it would open same time or after.  This early in the season, nothing is open to the south of that section, so losing that lift doesn't hurt connectivity.  It's pretty clear that doing a race of that size on that trail blocks off the entire section, even if it was happening later in the season.  That lift serves as the primary route between KBL and anything on Bear or Needle's Eye, so losing it in the middle of the season would require everyone to take the K1 and ski Bear Trax to reach Bear, and go down and around through Snowshed to reach Needle's.  Never mind the fact that there are actually crowds during that time, while that usually isn't the case on Thanksgiving Weekend.  Parking would also be a disaster, since they actually need all the parking lots in the height of the season, while that's not the case for Thanksgiving Weekend.

Killington nailed the WC weekend.  Skied on T Day w/ half price vouchers and had 5 hours of a great time.  Took Friday off due to R&*^ and anticipated crowds which apparently never happened (the first happened, not the latter).

With the exception of some minor shuttle bus confusion, changes in loading locations from Sat to Sunday, and tech difficultly on the big screen, it was a 10!  Formally going with a 9.  These guys rocked it, from operations to snowmaking team to the volunteers.  Awesome awesome event.    The Beast rocks.  Listen up FIS, you never do, record crowds deserve future scheduling here.

US team has some work to do minus the Hero - great job again Mikaela,  you continue to make us proud - Ski the East!

Initially I thought Superstar was not the ideal venue for a race like this, but it looks like you can actually see further than I initially thought.  Clearly the record crowds didn't see it as an issue.

For the shuttle bus issue, I'm guessing they could have alleviated that by making an opening of the Ramshead lift more of a priority.  They initially planned to have it open, but they only had a few days of snowmaking, and couldn't get it done.  Had the lift been open, they could have reserved that parking lot for anyone who was skiing that day, and none of them would've needed to take the shuttle bus.

I definitely think Killington could do this again, and deserves to get another event.

After considering wearing hiking/snow boots and just watching the racing, we decided to ski as well and I think it was a good decision.  We parked at Ram's head at 7, and on the shuttle to the base, there were at most 10% skiers aboard.   We were dropped off right at the gondola base and were in line before the lift opened.  We managed to have 2 top to bottom corduroy runs and then walked over to get a look at the race, snagging a waffle on the way.  The lines were long in the lodge and so we decided to have lunch on the summit, which was a good idea as we skied two more runs between sessions.  We found a better place to stand for the finals, where we could see more of the race course and the jumbotron.  After the awards, we skied 2 more runs, and then packed it in. Even managed to get a Shiffrin autograph at the ski shop at the bottom of the access road on our way home.  A memorable day, and very well executed by Killington and many, many volunteers.  Walked onto the gondola all day!

Spending a couple of days with my best friend who has a house in Rutland skiing the Big K.  Really cold but this t delivered today.  They reported 2" overnight but it was nuking this morning and probably 4" more between 9 and noon.  Cascade was primo and the natural only snow trails like NorthStar, Escapade, and Old SuperStar were stellar.  SS itself is hung over from the WC races and it has perma ice that may not melt until July on it.  The newly opened Needles Eye section was meh due to it being lower and some of the higher temps early this week when they blow the snow made the snow really icy.  K also doesn't wait for new snow to drain like WF does before grooming.

No photos as there is no way I'm taking my gloves off in these temps.

Coach Z wrote

K also doesn't wait for new snow to drain like WF does before grooming.

This.  I noticed it too, when I was there this past weekend. They blew Cascade all day Saturday.

Cold as hell today at Killington.  I think it was the most layers I've ever worn.  Key was hand and toe warmers on top of toes which I never do.  Also went with a piece of cloth stuck under goggles to cover my nose.  Gondi had a line so if you could stand riding chairs you had those sections of the mt to yourself.  Pretty fun to cruise Skylark with zero other people on it.  Highline was best run and hit some unmarked local woods my buddy took me in that were really good but I can't disclose the location.

MLK weekend parking to avoid the crowds - would you go to Bear or Skyeship base?

Danzilla wrote

MLK weekend parking to avoid the crowds - would you go to Bear or Skyeship base?

Pico.

At Bear, you're gonna have a bunch of Park Kids overtaking the lodge. Not sure if that's a plus or minus for you.

If you're just parking and jumping on the lift? Skyeship.

Thanks guys. Planning on Pico for tomorrow as long as they can roll out some more trails. They were still on hold this morning at 10:30 due to the rapid cool down. The plan was pico tomorrow and possibly sunday then K on Monday. Subject to change based on conditions. Forgot about the park over on bear. I figured skyeship was the better option. Its same distance from where we are staying and we'll be sticking to greens and blues mostly so great eastern isn't a problem. Lots of groomer zooming this weekend. I wonder how much the warm up will thin the crowds. GMs across the east gotta be bummed.