Killington 4/30/16
Resort or Ski Area: Killington
Conditions: Corn, and some funky grooming on Superstar
Trip Report:
My buddy bailed on me last night, and my nose was running like a fire hydrant when I awoke at 1:30 AM. I watched TV until 3, wondering if I should just stay home. I decided to grab my skis, head to the garage and give them a coat of hot wax, gathered the rest of my shit, and headed for K at 3:30.
Uneventful trip to K, didn’t run over any deer carcasses as I had on my last trip to K. Probably a good thing I didn’t see it any sooner than I did. There was no chance to try avoiding it and possibly crashing my car. Evasive maneuvers at 80 mph have a high risk of ending badly. I think I crushed it’s skull with my front left tire. Rambo had a rude awakening in the passenger seat, I guess his heart is good, or he would’ve had the big one then.
So I pulled into the K1 lot about 7:45, ate breakfast at my car, booted up, got my ticket, and boarded the SS quad at 8:15. Everything skied well right off the bat. The bumps on edges of SS that weren’t mowed down overnight glissend in the morning sun and would need some more sun and time to become skiable. The center groomed section on the last drop had a couple interesting features built into it overnight. There were two ridges resembling backbones made up of blocks of frozen snow left by the groomer. GWI? My first trip down I almost crashed trying to cut across one of these spines. The frozen crap deflected the shovel, but I was able to recover. Most people just made short turns between the spines. Pretty slick still.
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Spines
I avoided the last drop and took the last connector to Skye after my first run. As I was riding the lift I saw a patroller side stepping down the length of one spine breaking it up. It skied much better after that. The whole trail was transformed into bumps in no time.
After a few runs I saw a familiar face from the chair ripping the bumps closest to the lift. It was Shredderofgnar, he wasn’t wearing his usual Spring uniform, but I knew it was him. He is a Spring bump aficionado, and lives for days like today. I ran into him later and said hi.
I skied until 10:30 and was already feeling tired, I figured I’d break for lunch early and eat half of my sub then, and half when I quit for the day. When I returned, I made the decision to quit at one. I ended up skiing till two, the conditions were so good, I kept doing "one more run" four times. I was pretty whooped when I did leave, four hour drive, six hours on the hill, another four hours to get home. Not bad for a fat old man. I wanted to hike over to Cascade for my last run, but wasn’t sure about how to go about getting there. Can you hike to the right off the lift right in front of the liftie, or do u have to approach it from the trail further down?
All in all it was a great day, Sun was out all day, not uber warm. There’s still lots of snow on SS, and depending on the upcoming weather, I can see them staying open for at least a couple weeks into May. I think I’ll return at least once more before hanging the skis up for the year.
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