Pico, VT, Ski Weekend; 3/14 - 3/15 2015

After decades of driving by Pico to ski Killington, we decided to try Pico. The weather reports were predicting rain, sleet and even snow. Thankfully, we lucked out with only a little sleet and mist and some crazy low clouds on Saturday. We woke up on Sunday with about 3-5 inches of snow with excellent conditions. It snowed all day Sunday.

We were staying at the Pico Resort with my sister's family and we only had a short walk to the Little Pico Triple. The Triple serves some of the steeper terrain at Pico, but the famed A Slope was closed Saturday. It was loaded with icy moguls. I did get to ski it on Sunday.


'A Slope' to the left of the lift line


Looking across at the Golden Express HSQ and the Outpost Double. There was racing all weekend on the B Slope.


The only time we could see the summit all weekend was early Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, Upper Giant Killer  was closed all weekend. There are a number of long, wide cruisers from the top of Pico. The Summit HSQ loads about a 1/3 of the way up the mountain.


Top of Pico (3967') with Killington in the background


Forty-Niner leads you to the Summit Glades

Pico has classified most of the mountain "Natural Woods" meaning you can jump into the woods pretty much everywhere. There are about 9 named glades on the map and you can see a lot more cleared areas. My daughter loves the woods, but the snow was sticky and directional almost all day Saturday so we stayed on the trails. We jumped in later in the day and found some nice soft moguls.

The Outpost Double serves some fun, short but steep trails. There were a couple of glades and a fun mogul run under the double.

The classic Carlevaro and Savio Outpost Double


You could actually feel the clouds


We skied the Summit Glades trail multiple times. It is a nice mix of a narrow trail and an open glade. There were little openings in all the treed areas.


It is always great fun skiing with some cousins

There was some icing on Saturday night that turned into snow. Our first runs Sunday morning were on the Golden Express and the snow was excellent.  The Summit HSQ did not open until about 11:30am. Once it opened we were able to enjoy some nice, creamy snow until it was skied into clumps. What was soft snow on Saturday turned very firm on Sunday as temps were in the low 20s.


The Pico base area @2000ft elevation is surrounded by the Green Mountains

Pico was an uncrowded treat. We will be returning.

x10003q wrote

After decades of driving by Pico to ski Killington, we decided to try Pico.

I'm exactly the opposite -- I always stop at Pico and have yet to ski Killington.

It's been many years since I've skied Pico (20?), but I remember liking the terrain.  We've had it on our family's must-ski list for a few years, but our season passes have kept us handcuffed to Gore/WF for most of our skiing.  Next year...

I was there around 4 years ago with my daughter. We had a hoot. It sure beats the chaos up the road..

How did we miss you guys? Oh man, We were there on Sunday for my 25th anniversary (well my wife and I's anniversary). I mean, I flew all the way from India to not miss another ski day.. Oh well, another time. Sunday was pretty good and we stayed and skied the 16th and it was stellar!

Our latest edit but this was from 3/1/2015 - just got done with the edit a few minutes ago. Some friends we have made via the forums - finally met with some and recorded them.

This is a sweet TR.