Day 107 - Killington

On the hill right at 8:00; parked on the Access Road; skied the K2 Apache Xplorers; 25° and overcast – light snow overnight; the first couple of runs on Superstar were very good – light snow on top of groomed, however it quickly scraped down and chunked up; High Road to Bittersweet transition is starting to get very sketchy – I doubt I’ll try it again this year; plenty of people there for opening bell, but the crowd didn’t seem to increase much over time; made a couple of runs with David and Mel.

Day 106 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00; parked on the Access Road; 25° and sunny; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti’s; all things considered conditions were very good - firm, granular, minimal chunks…; should have brought a little ‘stouter’ ski; had coffee and made 6-8 runs with Doug and Nadine; I knew Nadine had gone out to Park City to the Master’s Nationals, but I didn’t know that she cleaned up.  3 golds and 2 silvers – congratulations Nadine!

 

Day 105 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00; parked on the Access Road; a dusting of snow overnight; 30° and overcast; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters; the snow chunked up quickly; Skylark/Bittersweet starting to get very thin – tons of stones, gravel, etc.

Day 104 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00, skied till 10:45; parked on the Access Road; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters – side filed the edges last night, good grip today; 20° and windy – very cold; they tilled up yesterday’s pond ice into some serious chunks; made a couple of runs with Doug,  Nadine, and Bob S.

Day 103 - Killington

Winter returns! On the hill at 10:15 left at 11:30; parked on the Access Road; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters; 25° and very windy; Superstar and Skylark/Bittersweet only; after all the warm weather they groomed last night - Superstar Headwall groomed four wide, Middle Superstar trail-wide, Lower Superstar six wide; no chucks, just flat, albeit uneven, brutal ice; Skylark/Bittersweet had several long trails of frozen chuncks; after about an hour Superstar was Zamboni smooth and very hard to ski safely; nobody, I mean nobody there today.

Day 102 - Killington

Better living through modern chemistry! (see yesterday’s blog) On the glacier at 1:45; skied till 4:00; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti’s again; 62° and sunny; just did Superstar today; a lot more people on the hill today than I was expecting; conditions remain quite good, but losing snow fast.

Day 101 - Killington

On the hill at 12:45 and skied right till 4:00; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's - they took a little getting used to after skiing the Xplorer's so much lately, but they ended up working just fine; 75° and sunny - I'm starting to get a pretty good tan, ok sunburn; started with a Skylark, but Superstar was far superior that I stayed on it the remainder of the day; despite the warm temperatures and direct sunlight the snow on Superstar is staying relatively dry - it's almost perfect corn; took a bad fall today on my next to last run - I jammed my left shoulder pretty good and scraped both forearms and my forehead; not sure if I'll be able to go tomorrow - we'll see if a Celebrex and a Percocet help.

Day 100 - Killington

On the hill at 9:45; parked on the Access Road; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer’s; 70° and sunny. Snowdon, K-1, and Snowshed done. Bear and Needle’s won’t last the day.  Rode the chair a couple of times with Doug Tucker before moving on to Bear and doing Outer Limits for the last time. After you picked your way down off the top it was big, soft bumps - so I did three. Superstar after coffee was pretty good too – not as soft, but still very fun.  Skied the last couple with Bob and Judy. All sorts of people BBQ'ing on the Access Road - who needs Bay 1?

Day 99 - Killington

On the hill at 9:45; skied till 1:00; parked on the Access Road below the Superstar Quad again; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's again; 69° and sunny; started with 9 or 10 Skylark/Bittersweet's, then had coffee at the RUB, and finished with 4 Superstar's; each day the piles of corn seem to coalease into a semi-frozen moon scape overnight, making things relatively skiable each morning. The big bumps on Superstar are starting to get cut down to size. My left knee is hurting again - icing it right now.

Day 98 - Killington

Forgot my pass today, so on the hill at 10:30; skied till 1:30; parked on the Access Road right below the Superstar Quad; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's again. 65° and partly cloudy; felt very warm today - high humidity? Rams and Snowdon - done. Bear and Needles not far behind. Skied Skye Peak, Needles, and Bear today. Outer Limits had awesome bumps, but access via OL Express won't last long. Needle's was a disaster. Superstar and Skylark were pretty good. Patronized the RUB for the first time today.

Day 97 - Killington

60° and Sunny; on the hill at 10:00; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's; skied straight through till 1:30. Parked at Snowdon and started with 4 Mouse-Mouse-Bunny's via the Triple. Moved on the Canyon and Northridge. Probably the last day for a lot of stuff. The place was deserted after 12:30.

Day 96 - Killington

On the hill at the crack of 11:30; parked in the Vale; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's. A fair number of people on the hill. 55° and Sunny; Tons of wet spots and rocks. Started with a Caper, then did 3 Chutes, before moving on to the Canyon. East Fall was big slush bumps with frozen in between. The bumps were close enough that it was actually pretty nice. They reserved Cascade till about 12:30. The first couple down after it opened were very good!

Day 95 - killington

Got a couple of runs in before today's rain. On the hill at 9:00; parked at Snowdon; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's. Things are looking much worse than yesterday.

Day 94 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00; parked in the Vale; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's. Warm and mostly cloudy. Conditions ran the gambit from soft groomed to frozen groomed to mashed potatoes to beautiful corn bumps. Started off with two Headers - skier right was soft, smooth groomed. Then I did Caper to Snowdon - mashed potatoes. Bunny-Chute-Chute - soft grooming starting to develop into mashed potatoes. East Fall, followed by a Rimefall - East Fall was large mashed potato bumps and Rime went from frozen groomed to soft groomed. Then on to Cacasde - the top was divine, soft groomed, but after the turn it firmed up considerably. By this time my left foot hurt, I had a wrinkle in my sock, so I did a Rime-GN-Chute-Bunny and went in for coffee. After coffee I did a couple of Superstars - groomed flat but starting to corn up nicely. Then did a Supersweet - mashed potatoee; and a couple of Superlarks - Upper Skylark was mashed potatoee and the bottom was very nice corn bumps. Then on to Bear via Gateway. Started with a Bear Trap-Wildfire - mashed potatoes. Then did 3 Outer Limits! It was spectacular, big, corn bumps! Then finished with a Superstar and a Bunny-Chute-Chute. Long day, lots of heavy snow - I'm tired!

Day 93 - Killington

A little late this morning; on the hill at 9:20 with Tom; parked at Snowdon; skied the K2 Apache Xplorer's. After yesterday's warm weather, hard rain ending as snow overnight. Several trails closed today because of the late freeze, but suprisingly good today on what was open. No Ski Tracks today.

Day 92 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00; 55°, sunny and windy; parked at Snowdon; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti’s.  Anything groomed was mush.  Cascade, ungroomed was pretty good.

Day 91 - Killington

Maybe the best, non-powder day of the year.  On the hill at 9:00; parked at Snowdon; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #2’s. 50° and Sunny.  Superstar was fantastic! 

Day 90 - Killington

On the hill at 9:00 with Tom; parked at Snowdon; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #2’s.  Cool, crisp, and sunny morning.  A fairly large crowd for a Monday, but maybe it was just that everyone was skiing the few slopes they’d groomed overnight.  Conditions were very good – it was actually true packed powder.  Basically perfect conditions on Upper and Lower Bunny, Middle and Lower Chute, East Fall, Upper Wildfire, Upper Skylark, and all of Bittersweet.  Missed run 1 on today’s Ski Tracks.

Day 89 - Killington

An unexpected beautiful powder day.  12° and sunny with 6” of blower pow! On the hill at 9:00 with Tom, parked at Snowdown, skied the K2 Apache Xplorer’s.  Nobody else skiing the woods on Snowdon today???  First tracks on Chute-Chute-Chute, Vagabond, The Triangle, and End Zone.  Basically untracked runs in Low Rider and Patsy’s.  Fell in Low Rider.  Ski popped off as I checked hard on top of an old mogul.

Day 88 - Killington

Nice powder morning; on the hill at 9:00 with Tom; parked at Snowdon; skied the Volkl Katana’s.  Crowded as all hell!