Killington, Vermont: 2/16/14

My mom cross can XC ski and wanted to do that today.  My dad and I decided to hit Killington.  My favorite mountain was 100% open and this was an opportunity not to pass up.  We started at Skyeship.  I thought that I made that right decision to start there when all the cars that we could see turned onto the access road.  This is what the road looked like after the access road.



We were the 3rd car in the parking lot and parked about 50 feet away from the Skyeship Gondola.  Our car is the green SUV that is on the left.



Looking up Valley Plunge.



As we were in line for first gondola, the gondola broke down and we were stranded.  We saw a base area shuttle pull in and got on it to go to Bear Mountain to start.  We rode up the Skye Peak Express first.  Little did we know, but this lift has the same problem that the ADK Express at Gore has.  Since it was 5 degrees and gusting wind, it was brutally cold at the top, although you can't see this from the picture.



We saw that the Skyeship Gondola was running when we arrived at the top, so we went down Great Eastern to it.  My dad needed the gondola ride, because he made the mistake of riding the Skye Peak Express without a face mask on.  We haven't skied the Skyeship Base run since 2009-2010, and we forgot just how long it really is.  This picture is of lower Great Eastern.



We also forgot how much we love that run, so back the the Skyeship Gondola for seconds.



View of Needle's Eye from the Skyeship Gondola.



Then we went down Needle's Eye



And got on the Needle's Eye Express



This lift was very cold as well.  My dad and I decided that we needed boot warmers and glove warmers, so it was back down Great Eastern to the car to get them.  The Skyeship line was already longer than the longest line I have ever seen at Gore by then.



Top of Skye Peak looking at Killington Peak.



Then we took Skyeburst over to Bear Mountain Lodge for lunch.



The snow was good enough for the lapping treatment, but this was the line to get to it.



The line was long, but for a reason, these runs were some of the best I have skied ever and were in full sunshine.  We decided to tough out the line and waited 15 minutes, then we took Gateway to Bear Claw which was just as good as Skyeburst.  It was worth every second of the wait.



After taking another Skye Peak Express run, the line looked like this.



So we took the Bear Mountain Quad instead.



View from the Bear Mountain Quad.



Killington Peak and Skye Peak from the top of Bear Mountain



We wanted to get to Sunrise Mountain since we have never skied there.  We soon found the run.



Big fancy houses and Bear Mountain from the Sunrise lift.



We then braved the Skye Peak Express line yet again to get to the Superstar Lift.  We were surprised that the Superstar Lift was ski on.  They have started building up the Superstar Glacier for skiing into June.



After a few runs on the Superstar lift, we decide to go to the peak.



Although Superstar was ski on, the K1 Gondola sure wasn't.



View from the 4,241 foot summit.



We then took Great Northern to the Snowdon Poma



My dad wanted to take it easy on cruisers for the rest of the day, so we went over to Ramshead and took Header down to the base.  Header was awesome.  The snow was great and it is wide and straight.  It is almost like a wide Showcase.  We got on the Ramshead Express to do it all again.



View of the Superstar Pod from Ramshead.



The Ramshead line was nuts, although I didn't get a picture, so we took the Snowshed Double back to Needle's Eye.



Skye Peak from Snowshed.



High Road.



We took 3 laps on the Needle's Eye Express and then went down to Skyeship Base.  My dad called it a day and I took one more run on Great Eastern catching one of the last cabins on Skyeship.



It was an awesome day of skiing despite the epic lift lines.  The weather was windy and cold, but the sun was out most of the day as well.  The snow stayed good right up to the bitter end.  It is days like these that remind me of why Killington is in my opinion, the best mountain on the east coast.

Woot, you can have a great time there for sure!

I never ski to the gondola EVER but maybe I should give those runs a try sometime... midweek.

Nice job young fellow.   Any pics of your mom? she sounds like a ripper.

You are very brave to go to the Big K on a holiday weekend. Looks like you made the best of it. There are definitely ways to avoid crowds there, and Skyship base is a good bet. Was the South Ridge triple running? is it still there?

Powderqueen wrote

Was the South Ridge triple running? is it still there?

The South Ridge Triple is gone.  They removed it in summer 2011.  Must have failed inspection or something.  The Snowdon Quad may be upgraded to high speed as soon as next year.  If this happens, then the Snowdon Quad will be moved to South Ridge to become the South Ridge Quad.  It will be on the return line of the South Ridge Triple, so no turn in the middle of the lift.

tjf1967 wrote

Nice job young fellow.   Any pics of your mom? she sounds like a ripper.

OMFG!!! That was sooooo worth scrolling thru all those pics.....