Day 98 - Killington

Another spectacular day; on the hill from 8:00 until 12:30 with a quick coffee break in KBL; mid-thirties with a building light haze starting to dim this morning's bright sunshine; 23 runs; they did a really nice job grooming DD for my birthday - I did 10 in a row before coffee; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; after coffee I went to change skis to one of my mid-fats only to find I only had my race skis in the car - I guess I need to do skis this afternoon; easily one of the best ski days on my birthday ever!

Day 97 - Killington

Another beautiful ski day; 35° and sunny; 23 runs; on the hill from 8:00 until 1:00 with quick KBL coffee break; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters and the K2 Apache Xplorers; another new high speed recorded today - I wanted to make sure I carried from Lower Bunny across KBL to Superstar, not a problem at 75+ mph; nice freeze overnight, so conditions started out firm - perfect conditions for the GS Cheaters; after coffee I switched to the Xplorers hoping that things would soften up; anything with an eastern exposure or lower elevation did soften (East Fall, Highline, Snowdon), but Cascade, Downdraft, and DD stayed much firmer than yesterday.

Day 96 - Killington

A really Good Friday; 35° with broken clouds; on the hill for a couple of hours stating at 10:30; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's; parked in the Vale; hit Snowdon, Skye Peak and the Canyon; marvelously soft spring snow - not yet corn and not yet wet, just perfect; fairly large Friday crowd today.

Day 95 - Pico

Pico closes Sunday, so I did a few runs over there this afternoon before the mountain closes; 9 runs from 2:30 until 4:00; 35° and heavy overcast; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cups.

Day 94 - Killington

Scratch yesterday's skiing well quote; got disgusted and left after DSQ'ing both runs in today's Ski Bum Finals; one bright note - fastest speed of the year recorded in today's Ski Tracks.

Day 93 - Killington

19 runs - on the hill from 9:00 until 1:15; 30° with flurries clearing to broken sunshine; 1" new snow on last night's groomers - nice! first run on Cascade was fantastic; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's and switched to the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's after coffee; made a few more runs with Amy and Mark - she is the coolest person I know; I'm not sure, but I think my skiing is actually coming around.

Day 92 - Killington

Did a few runs (14) first thing this morning before taking my boots to Peak for a little work; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #2's; Canyon chair running, but DD not groomed... ... ... come on!; skiing ok, but still feel blah.

Day 91 - Killington

On the hill at 8:00, left at 11:30; 25° and overcast; skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters; good conditions today, but I just felt blah…; made 12 runs by 10:00; DD was groomed poorly.

Day 90 - Killington

Welcome home! 4" blower pow overnight - 2" or 3" more this morning; 20° with 20 mph breeze; parked in the Vale and started right at 8:00; made 11 runs; skied the Volkl Katana's; all the trees were pretty sweet - The Cathedral, Patsy's, Low Rider; Super Star Woods - Upper and Lower, Julio (run of the day), and Chop Chop (a little less than stellar).

Day 89 - Schweitzer

A beautiful day in the Great Northwest; on the from 8:50 until 2:15 with a quick lunch break at 12:00; 30° and sunny, with a couple new inches since yesterday's close; started on a few groomers using the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters, then changed to Rossignol Experience 98's; did tons more trees and steeps to complete most of the trail map; after 7 straight 'big mountain' days, I'm spent; I'd like to come back here again.

Day 88 - Schweitzer

On the hill all day, 8:50 until 4:00; 30 runs; 43,750+ vert; mid-twenties with intermittent heavy snow - 3"-4" new during the day; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters for two hours first thing, then switched to the Rossignol Experience 98's; just a spectacular day - lots of baby soft
groomers and tons of deep, soft trees; while making laps on The Great Escape Express this morning, I skied up to the lift and who do I see? Amy and Mark from Killington; they shut the lift down 10 minutes early when there was thunder embedded in a particularly heavy snow squall;

Near white out at 4:00PM

Day 87 - Schweitzer

Enough said!

Day 86 - Whitefish

On the hill from 9:00 until just 11:45 - leaving for Schweitzer; 1" new snow overnight; 32° and overcast with heavy fog/cloud layer right to the bottom of the hill; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; Some of the stuff they tried to groom last night chunked up immediately when somebody skied it - a few other groomers seemed to freeze up underneath and stayed much nicer, at least by east coast standards.

Technically, you could still see the chair in front of you.

Day 85 - Whitefish

On the hill from 9:00 until 3:00; mid-thirties and mostly sunny; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters in the morning on the groomers and changed to the Rossignol Experience 98's after lunch; 27 runs - 38,700 vertical feet today; really good day;

Day 84 - Whitefish

On the hill at 9:00 and skied until 3:00; 32° with a very high, bright overcast at 9:00; same cloud conditions with a 45° temp at 3:00; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters on the groomers until lunch, then switched to the Rossignol Experience 98's; with the high cloud layer today, I could really see the top of the mountain - impressive; other than some of the larger cliff areas everything here is skiable; skied lots of steep tree stuff on the front and east rims today - a little heavy, but hey that's what I'm here for!

Day 83 - Whitefish

Late start this morning since I didn't get in until almost 5:00AM; On the hill from 10:30 until 2:30; 2" of cement last night; Overcast and 35° with little to no wind; Heavy cloud layer on the top third of the hill; visability on top at times was total white-on-white - in fact it was so bad they marked the center of the main trails with orange lollipops every 50 yards or so; today was get acquainted with the mountain day - I skied at least two runs in all open areas; this is a Big Mountain - pun intended; tons of snow here; tons of steeps here; tons of tree skiing here - a little different than VT, much more open in the trees and different wildlife too!

 

Day 82 - Killington

On the hill from 8:00 until 11:30 with a quick coffee break in KBL; 25° and perfectly sunny at the start with increasing light clouds and 40° when I left; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's; the Canyon was marvelous again today; Ski Tracks recorded 72+ mph today - on my putt putt skis none the less.

Day 81 - Killington

On the hill from 8:00 until 1:30 with a long coffee break in KBL; beautiful day - perfectly sunny with 25° temps to start getting up to 45° by the time I left; skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #2's and the Rossignol Experience 98's; after coffee I skied with Radvanyi and his son Trevor - we did few easy blacks then headed for the trees.

Day 80 - Killington

On the hill from 9:00 until 1:30 with a quick coffee break in KBL; 4" of new snow overnight; 24° and still snowing at 8:30 when I pulled in at Snowdon; 34° with the sun starting to peak out when I left; skied the Volkl Katana's; did a few things I hadn't done yet this year - Pipedream, Roundabout, Devil's Fiddle, and Sunrise liftline; So I had to duck the rope to get the top of Sunrise Liftline, but I even went back and jumped off the chair to get the bottom pitch as well. I'll bet I'm the only person who has skied that lower pitch in years; Patsy's and Low Rider were excellent - Low Rider was so good I did it 3 times.

Day 79 - Killington

On the hill from 9:00 until 12:30 with a quick KBL coffee break; Skied the Atomic D2 Race GS #1's; 28° overcast and very windy with a few short periods of freezing rain; Ski Bum double header today - second run scored seperately as make-up from last week's cancellation; Despite periodic white-on-white conditions in the Canyon Double Dipper was in excellent shape - I've seen it softer, but rarely smoother.

Ski Bum #1 - 1st in class Men's B, 13th Men's Overall, and 15th Overall including the Women

RANK	BIB	NAME	CLASS	RESULT
15	98	MARTIN BURNS	MB	26.01 (15)

Ski Bum #2 - 1st in class Men's B, 12th Men's Overall, and 12th Overall including the Women.

RANK	BIB	NAME	CLASS	RESULT
12	98	MARTIN BURNS	MB	26.19 (12)

Day 78 - Smuggler's Notch

On the hill at 8:45 and only skied untill 11:00; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters and the K2 Apache Xplorers; 2" new snow; 25° and overcast with the cloud layer at about mid-mountain; they still need additional lift capacity BAD; unless Smugg's ends up on another ski card I purchase or something like that, I probably won't go back.

Day 77 - Gore Mountain

On the hill from 9:00 until 2:00; Skied the Volkl RaceTiger SL Cheaters; 25° overcast with intermittant light snow; skied The Rumor, Hawkeye and Lies before moving on to Stielhang and the Darkside Glade before an early lunch, then 5 laps on the front-side via the gondi; hit a couple of jumps in their park; I drove a majority of the Adirondack Trail Senic Byway on the drive down from Malone. I'd never driven through the western Adirondack lakes region before - it's very pretty.

Day 76 - Titus Mountain

What's Titus Mountain like? Think ¼ of Sunday River sans any high speed lifts or people; on the hill from 9:00 until 1:30; skied the Rossignol Avenger 76 Ti's; 2" new snow overnight; 22° with a bright overcast and intermittant light snow; a few good trails on the 'upper mountain' and all the way over to the right on the 'lower mountain'; poached the top third of a slalom course three times; driving home I saw a kid 12 or 13 years of age skijoring really fast behind a four wheeler - looked pretty fun, but it's all fun and games till somebody gets hurt and that time was approaching quickly!

Day 75 - Killington

On the hill from 8:00 till just 10:00 - big crowd gathering quickly; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; 25° with intermittant light snow; groomer's paradise this morning; the Canyon was excellent once again.

Day 74 - Killington

On the hill from 09:00 to 11:15; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheaters; 28° and overcast; gorgeous snow conditions this morning - ¾" new snow over soft-pack groomer heaven - velvety smooth; the Canyon was marv! Weekend type crowd this morning.