Killington World Cup in Nov 2016?

http://alpine.usskiteam.com/news/ussa-proposes-world-cup-killington

Killington may get to host a women's World Cup gs and SL

Aspen is hosting the finals that year so it opens up a spot in the calendar in North America

The problem is its Thanksgiving weekend.  It would have to be cold and would be a huge commitment to blow snow likely at the risk of not blowing anything else. Nov and early December is the only time the WC is in the US and Canada unless there is an Olympics in North America.

Anyone have an idea what trail this would be on?  I don't think Highline ace trail has enough vert for a World Cup.  Outer limits is too low.  That would leave Superstar or Double Dipper I would think. DD is higher but doesn't go to the bottom so SS might be it.

Yup, Superstar:
<a href="http://">WORLD CUP SKI RACE PROPOSED FOR KILLINGTON

Wait, what?

That's it. Powdr is definitely run by morons. Enough already. Please, please, please, if only Vail would buy Killington and ship these idiot Mormons back to Utah.

I thought this was a joke, Onion style.


Btw, ADK, link no work.

Superstar trail.

USSA puts bid to host Woman's GS and SL race at Killington

I think it is a great idea. They will be blowing every second they can after 10/1. They can, most likely, get Supe covered well enough.  If it is so warm that even K-Mart cant open on Turkey day, than they cancel. It won't be the first or last time that happens either.

They said they're bringing extra snowmaking firepower to get Superstar covered as well as their normal early season terrain.  They will need one more run open off of the Superstar lift.  Imagine the backlash if that lift was completely closed to the public for the race.  It would also make it impossible to view the race which could be pretty cool.  Skyelark/High Road/Bittersweet is usually open by then to my knowledge.

Sno

It's entirely possible and I would even say probable that there will be no skiing period besides the race.  It's part of the deal when you signup for a WC.  Every hotel is going to be filled with race related teams coaches equipment guys media fans etc anyway so unless you own a house there you are not going to be staying there.

I used to work at Killington and it's not the norm to have Superstar open on Thanksgiving.  It takes a lot of snow to cover the bottom section where the double fall line is.  I was there for a Psia event a few years back and Superstar was not yet open the second weekend in Dec.

I think it's going to be a cool event and I'm glad to see a WC on the East Coast.  It opens the potential for WF to get one again some day but that WC calendar needs to change to make that possible.

  Killington is going all in on this even if it means no public skiing.

Coach Z wrote

Sno

It's entirely possible and I would even say probable that there will be no skiing period besides the race.  It's part of the deal when you signup for a WC.  Every hotel is going to be filled with race related teams coaches equipment guys media fans etc anyway so unless you own a house there you are not going to be staying there.

I used to work at Killington and it's not the norm to have Superstar open on Thanksgiving.  It takes a lot of snow to cover the bottom section where the double fall line is.  I was there for a Psia event a few years back and Superstar was not yet open the second weekend in Dec.

I think it's going to be a cool event and I'm glad to see a WC on the East Coast.  It opens the potential for WF to get one again some day but that WC calendar needs to change to make that possible.

  Killington is going all in on this even if it means no public skiing.

I actually agree with the Coach on this one!  But I think they'll at least also have the NRT open that weekend baring any real weather concerns.

They did say that they are bringing on lots of extra snowmaking firepower to do this.  They said that all the usual early season terrain will be open.  Last year and the year before, the Superstar lift was open for Thanksgiving.  Not sure about the trail itself.

So, somebody please explain how this will be beneficial in any way to the local area or, more importantly, the Killington skier. All I hear is the same old same old BS that you hear when the Olympics are being pitched to a populous by the powers that be. You know, a lot of money flowing in and, I guess, jobs. This will be a very short term event, in and out fast. Who will win? I guess it's exciting for some, but, just imagine how basically ugly this will look on TV if there is no natural snow on the ground, which I would give 20-1 odds that there won't be. Is that the way Vermont wants itself seen to "60 million TV viewers world wide"? Even most New Yorkers who spend their prescious approximately 12 days a year skiing a year elsewhere in the west won't be sitting there on the couch saying, " Wow, we must go to lovely Vermont this year. Cancel that Vail trip immediately!" There won't be a ton of cash made by local business people, at least enough to do the major improvements to infrastructure that is needed. (Have you slept in a Killington motel room lately?)

This just smacks of cronyism on a high level in the US ski whatever association, which is just an adjunct to one of the most corrupt international organizations, the IOC. It just says to me that the Cummings (who own POWDR) have a nice little relationship with the ski race people from their years at PC, and they're throwing a bone back at them with this race as a favor because they really stupidly screwed up by losing their flagship mountain, and their powerful friends feel sorry for them. Explain to me why Lake Placid, home to two Olympics, shouldn't be a WC race site. My guess is because the NY state government, as corrupt as it is, isn't even that corrupt. They don't even want to get near anyone with connections to the IOC, fearful of future scandals coming down.

Meanwhile, the season pass holders who want to get some early days in at Killington are screwed. Like anything besides Superstar will be open. Happy Thanksgiving!

Bennie

This has nothing to do with the IOC.  Skiing is run by the FIS with the US organization is USSA the parent of the US ski team. The US is allocated 2 WC stops so USSA gets to propose to fis where those will be and The FIS then approves them.  

Which is not in any way as bad as the IOC though I was not thrilled by the decision to roll back the clock on the ski design by basically legislating straight skis for GS.  I think the Austrians pushed for that to stop Liegty but he has made the adjustment well.

Lodging will be 100% sold out for 5 days compared to maybe 50% full for that weekend.  Powdr Corp does get some money from the tv rights and thier is a crew that oversees the prep but the local Killington staff also will pick up a lot of hours getting this set up and torn down.  Local business benefits the most.  Season pass holders get hurt for a couple of weekends of more limited to no skiing depending on the temps.  

The other legacy of this is a Rock hard  water injected ski surface that is going to need more snow on it to make it skiable for the GP.  That glacier may last until June it's going to be so solid.  

Killington does quite a lot of Brit group biz and this will give them exposure in Europe.  

KBL is at around 2500 feet elevation and SS has a true north aspect.  At WF the bottom of Drapers is around 1200 feet elevation and faces east.  I don't think anyone else could pull this off that early in the season.  

I really don't think this is going to impact public terrain much.  They do get runs off Superstar open for Thanksgiving, so they just add the capacity so that Superstar has enough for the race.  Superstar remains closed for racing, but Skyelark/High Road/Bittersweet is open and allows the lift to be a viewing area if you happen to be skiing there.  They'll also have Snowdon, Snowshed, and Ramshead open in some way like they did last year and the year before.  It's not going to make the huge impact you think it is.

The Superstar lift will not be open to the public.  There is very little flat space at the top of that lift and the teams coaches and techs will use all of it and they don't let the public anywhere near that.  You can emphatically rule that out.  

Killington normally opens trails early season on 6 inches or less of snow.  They will need 3 to 4 feet on SS and then have to groom it and inject it with water to firm it up.  Once that all that is done then they will start blowing up high and down to Snowdon.  Ideally the US team will get to train on the hill the week before the event.  It takes a lot of staff to prep and maintain the surface and maintain the b net and if it snows even more work.  That same staff are the snow makers and groomers.

It will be very limited public skiing if the weather cooperates.  If it's warm leading up to that weekend there will be no public skiing.

One could go around Gateway under the Skye Peak HSQ and Skyeship gondola to get to the other trails.  That would leave plenty of space for all of the racers.  Normally it isn't open that early, but it isn't very long and could be easily opened for this event.

Last year and the year before they had Snowshed and Ramshead open on Thanksgiving weekend and they do not open terrain with 6 inches of snow.  You need to have your head examined I'd you think there will be no public skiing at all during the race.

My guess is that they're going to light up every gun in a way that we have not seen in ages. I wouldn't be surprised if a week out they have diesel compressors all over the hill like in the ASC days. There will be at least some public skiing and there will be a race.

Sno

Gateway faces south.  I'll bet you a lunch at WF that SS lift is not open to the public.  There will be some public skiing but no where near as much as norm that time of year.

When you sign up for a WC you are essentially handing over your ski area to the FIS and they don't give a poop if there is public skiing or not.  

You don't see crowds watching races from the sides of trails becuase with the 3 layers of netting you can't see anything.   They will have to set up grandstands at the bottom.

The KBL parking lots will be closed to the public.  Teams and media will be using them.  Same goes for the KBL lodge between team usage and VIP areas.  Spectators will be bused up from Snowshed and Rams Head.  Now that I think about it they may just have Rams area open for skiing as having skiers around KBL won't be easy. You never see people in ski boots watching a WC.   Not sure if they will charge for grandstand seats like they do in Europe.  Sno you have no idea how big of an operation a WC is.  

Can you imagine the backlash if all of K1 was closed for a race?  If parking is limited to Snowshed/Ramshead they can still have skiing really everywhere they have snow, even if the K1 lot is closed.  One can access the Superstar lift off Snowshed from Highlander.  If they had one non race run open from that lift, think about how awesome the viewing opportunities would be.  Even though Gateway faces south, the open portion wouldn't be very long and I don't think it requires much snow to cover.  It would only need to open to get you around the flat spot that would be occupied by the race related stuff.  Even if there were no runs off the Superstar lift, they might still be able to open the lift for viewing only.

What backlash.  My best friend is a K pass holder and Powdr has already shown they really don't care that much about thier pass holders.

I asked some else that used to work at Killington if they thought SS lift would be open to the public.  Thier response was no way in hell would that happen.

 They are most likely are going to charge an admission fee to view the race.

Sno I get your outrage but you have to understand that a WC alpine race on the East coast has not happened since your parents were in high school.  Giving up two days of public skiing would not be a deal killer for Powdr.  Most people skiing on Thanksgiving weekend are season pass holders anyway and they are going to make more on the race than the profit from the limited walk up ticket sales that weekend.  Remember every hotel will already be full with race folks so the walk up will be really small.

Found out some stuff on the Killington Facebook page supporting what I have said earlier about this.

Killington posted that they will add lots of firepower to the snowmaking system to do this so they would not tie up early season snowmaking resources and have the same or more stuff open then as they would normally do.  They also mentioned that Ovation might wind up being a training run, so I guess that means that they could have Skyelark/High Road/Bittersweet open to the public.  They responded to someone saying that they hoped that they could ski while this was happening and they answered "you won't likely be able to ski on the race trail during the competition, but there will be plenty of other trails open to keep you occupied."

Another user posted that when Vail hosted a similar event, that anyone skiing that day was allowed to get right up close to the side of the race trail.  Provided that there was enough snow for a non race run to be open, there's no reason that they wouldn't keep that trail open and the Superstar lift open to the public which would provide for an amazing viewing opportunity.

I'm looking forward to the lunch Snodad is going to buy me.  No way the public is getting on that lift.  I'll let you use my employee discount.  The lift corral will have a grandstand on top of it.  

That they are also blowing ovation for training means even less open terrain.

vail had the world championships in February.  Their is very limited sight lines from skylark to SS.  Only one small spot towards the top.  After that skylark goes away from SS to the skiers right on a different aspect.  

seems like a great plan