Killington World Cup in Nov 2016?

Peter Minde wrote

I was waiting for someone to come out with this.  +1 Scotty Jack.

ScottyJack wrote

 the other place worthy of a WC race on the east coast is the mighty Whiteface!

Highway Star wrote

Well, put this to the BS test....

Superstar is 3400ft long, and roughly 200ft wide, 300ft wide at the bottom. Lets call it 15 acres. They need to put down roughly 5 feet of snow to get the base depths required to groom the hill nice and flat.....trust me, race teams will not be happy if they keep shanking rocks. So that's 75 acre feet of snow. About what it would take to get the northridge triple open and a snowdon route open, with decent but marginal coverage, to the bottom of the K-1. They have to make all this snow by around Nov 20th, the weekend prior, so they can get the hill prepped and allow some training on it.

Now, without getting into the details of the low-e snowguns, which are FAR less effective than old style snowguns at marginal temps..........what has Killington's past performance been like? Well, some years they do great, and have the snowdon route plus many other trails open by thanksgiving, say 150 acre feet of snow (after melting) by Nov. 20th - this is the max. The average is probably somewhere around 100 acre-ft after melting by Nov 20th, enough to get open top to bottom on the K-1, plus a few more trails. In a poor year, they have just a few trails open off the northridge triple, or are closed entirely, with only 10-20 acre feet of snow on the ground.

Now what about this race? They are contractually commited to host it and if they can't pull it off, they stand to loose a pile of money. Hopefully they have insurance for this sort of thing. Lets compare senarios based on past winters - each of these happen about a third of the time:

Cold November: No problem, race happens, skiing for public likely on other trails off superstar chairs, plus K-1, NRT and Snowdon.

Average November: Race draws most snowmaking resouces for first half of November. Superstar might be open to public for first half of November. Snowmaking on K-1 / NRT starts once Superstar looks to be in good shape, public skiing only on NRT for Thanksgiving weekend (45 minute lift lines).

Warm, rainy November: Snowmaking focused entirely on Superstar, during small overnight windows of snowmaking, with several rain events melting snow. No public skiing on Thanksgiving weekend.

So, by my estimates they have a 2/3rd's chance of having either NO public skiing, or skiing on the NRT only for Thanksgiving - both of those are pretty bad senarios.

This is not even taking into account the chances of an ice storm, major rain storm, or 70F thaw the week of the event.

EPIC FAIL!

Highway Star wrote

without getting into the details of the low-e snowguns, which are FAR less effective than old style snowguns at marginal temps...

Benny Profane wrote

Cage match between Snoloco and Highway Star? Let's do it.

snoloco wrote

Killington needs to have terrain open EARLY.  Like October or early November.  Their passholders demand it.  When they have no skiing at all on Thanksgiving weekend and none of the weeks leading up to it, there's going to be plenty of passholders that walk out.  That's going to lose them more money than the race will ever make.

Coach Z wrote

Sno

I'm a realist about the WC

This is a huge deal for this to be in the East.  They are going to make it happen but public skiing is NEVER the emphasis for the host resort for the weeks leading up to the event.  They really don't care about a teen that doesn't even ski there much opinion.

I taught at Killington for 7 years.  How many days total have you skied there.  Guessing around 10 or less.  I have hundreds of days on that mt.  You act as if you are an expert on Killington.

snoloco wrote

Coach Z wrote

Sno I'm a realist about the WCThis is a huge deal for this to be in the East.  They are going to make it happen but public skiing is NEVER the emphasis for the host resort for the weeks leading up to the event.  They really don't care about a teen that doesn't even ski there much opinion.I taught at Killington for 7 years.  How many days total have you skied there.  Guessing around 10 or less.  I have hundreds of days on that mt.  You act as if you are an expert on Killington.

I've skied Killington 13 times and Pico twice.  I've studied the trail map for many hours and the Google earth pictures.  I'm also on their fanpage (Killingtonzone) and their website almost daily.  I'd ski there many more days of I could, but I live very far away.

Rj1972 wrote

PUBLISH DATE
10/09/2015


Killington, Vt., Oct. 9, 2015—It’s official, Killington Resort will host Audi FIS Ski World Cup races Nov. 26-27, 2016, on its Superstar trail. The first World Cup in eastern U.S. in 25 years will include women’s giant slalom and slalom races.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association submitted a bid to host the races. “FIS had their meeting, and we are on the calendar now,” said Killington spokesman Michael Joseph. “It went from being proposed and heavily lobbied for, to now, where we are on the FIS calendar. We couldn’t be more excited about it.”

With the worlds best female ski racers heading to Vermont next fall, it’s likely New England ski resorts will see an increase in revenue from pre-race training. “It’ll be a big economic boost for Killington and central Vermont and probably the whole state as well,” said Joseph.

FIS World Cup’s are broadcasted internationally in over 60 nations including the United States. Previous states that have hosted an FIS World Cup saw economic impacts ranging from $15 million to $20 million.

Rj1972 wrote

PUBLISH DATE
10/09/2015


Killington, Vt., Oct. 9, 2015—It’s official, Killington Resort will host Audi FIS Ski World Cup races Nov. 26-27, 2016, on its Superstar trail. The first World Cup in eastern U.S. in 25 years will include women’s giant slalom and slalom races.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association submitted a bid to host the races. “FIS had their meeting, and we are on the calendar now,” said Killington spokesman Michael Joseph. “It went from being proposed and heavily lobbied for, to now, where we are on the FIS calendar. We couldn’t be more excited about it.”

With the worlds best female ski racers heading to Vermont next fall, it’s likely New England ski resorts will see an increase in revenue from pre-race training. “It’ll be a big economic boost for Killington and central Vermont and probably the whole state as well,” said Joseph.

FIS World Cup’s are broadcasted internationally in over 60 nations including the United States. Previous states that have hosted an FIS World Cup saw economic impacts ranging from $15 million to $20 million.

Coach Z wrote

$20 million economic impact for Vt but one very ticked off teen in NJ.  Better ditch the whole idea.