# Killington - 12/4/2007 (Powder Day)



## Greg (Dec 4, 2007)

*Date(s) Skied: *Tuesday, 12/4/2007, 10:50 am - 4:15 pm

*Resort or Ski Area: *Killington, Vermont

*Conditions: *Powder (14-16"+), Some hardpack between powder bumps. Cold in the teens, breezy.

*Trip Report: *Prior to about 4 pm yesterday, I wouldn't have considered this a possibility, but a number of things lined up favorably! Had to do some parenting duties in the morning, so I didn't leave the Waterbury, CT area until around 7:20 am. In my effort to make good time, I ended up having to have a little chat with one of the state of Vermont's finest (77 MPH, just a warning)...

Made it to the mountain around 10:40 and met up with JimG. in KBL. We were soon off. Made a number of runs off the gondola (Cascade and Downdraft). Found ourselves on Rime. Hit Powerline, East Fall. Eventually at the summit Jim spoke with an ambassador and learned Northstar had opened, so we made our way to the Snowden Quad.

The quad ride was pretty brutal with a moderate breeze, but Northstar was more than worth it. Powder, powder bumps on a natural (not much of a) base. We hit Northstar a few more times and then rode the K1 back up and hit Royal Flush which was pretty thin, but nice.

Took lunch at 1:30 and headed out a bit before 2 pm. Rode the Superstar quad up and hit Bittersweet and Superstar a few times. We both agreed it wasn't as nice as Northstar so we made our way back over to Snowden. The snow had picked up during lunch and we found Northstar to be fully refreshed. We spend the remainder of the day lapping Northstar enjoying constantly refreshing lines and powder bumps. Lots of hooting and hollering. We went right to closing.

Awesome, awesome day. It snowed all day. We were greeted to about 14" and left with about 16-18" on the ground. If you can get up there this week, it is highly recommended.

So, ~6.5 hours of driving and 365 miles for a bit over 5 hours of powder skiing. Worth it? Without question. Thanks for the great company, Jim! It was great to keep a fast two man pace going all day.

Working on a vid...


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## bvibert (Dec 4, 2007)

Damn, wish I had caught the PM earlier! :angry:  I would have had to leave early though, which would have been hard it sounds like...


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## powhunter (Dec 4, 2007)

Nice Brah!!!   Was up sun-mon with jonnpoach.....Think we were the first ones to hit northstar this season...pow was FANTASTIC monday!!!  Glad ya got up there!!!  Cant wait to see the vid!!!  

steve


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## ALLSKIING (Dec 4, 2007)

Nice Greg!!! Happy you got a piece of that storm. That Snowdon chair can be brutal in a cold wind. I will have to wait till Fri to hit it...Hope some is left.


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## Greg (Dec 4, 2007)

*Video*

*High Res: Killington: 12/4* (21.9 MB)

*YouTube:*


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## ALLSKIING (Dec 4, 2007)

Nice vid!!...Hey how did you like those new boards in the pow?


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## Greg (Dec 4, 2007)

ALLSKIING said:


> Hey how did you like those new boards in the pow?



Absolutely loved them. At a modest 79mm waist, they are the "fattest" skis I've ever ridden. Still a pretty agile ski and they gripped well to the random patches of manmade hardpack we encountered. I might have skied the best I ever have today. 2:30 - 4 pm on Northstar was simply incredible.


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## Mikey1 (Dec 4, 2007)

Great early season vid! You lucky dogs! I hope you left some for the rest of us.


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## GrilledSteezeSandwich (Dec 4, 2007)

Nice video and report...those Vermont troopers always remind me of the Super Troopers with their green cars.  77 in a 65???  Harsh...To date I got my heftiest ticket ever for going 58 in a 35 on the backway to Stowe.  Are the woods ready??


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## bvibert (Dec 4, 2007)

Greg said:


> *High Res: Killington: 12/4* (21.9 MB)
> 
> *YouTube:*



Sweet!  Looks freakin awesome.  I can't believe you got Jim to take some video of you.  I'm surprised he didn't throw the camera into the woods!  :lol:


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## 2knees (Dec 4, 2007)

bvibert said:


> Sweet!  Looks freakin awesome.  I can't believe you got Jim to take some video of you.  I'm surprised he didn't throw the camera into the woods!  :lol:



LOL

Jim loves it.  Its all an act.  :smile:

Nice video Greg.  You guys look damn good in it.


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## riverc0il (Dec 5, 2007)

Greg said:


> Absolutely loved them. At a modest 79mm waist, they are the "fattest" skis I've ever ridden. Still a pretty agile ski and they gripped well to the random patches of manmade hardpack we encountered. I might have skied the best I ever have today. 2:30 - 4 pm on Northstar was simply incredible.


Nice! You've definitely stepped it up a notch in your skiing, well done and looking good. You guys get any untracked? I imagine by 11am it was already pretty chewed up but still looks quite delicious. Glad to hear you are enjoying the new boards. They are going to blow your mind once you get them into some untracked lines.


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## SkiDork (Dec 5, 2007)

Greg - what are you using these days to create your vids?  Are you still using MS Moviemaker (or whatever its called?)

Also, did you guys hit up Patsys or Low Rider?  They're on either side of North Star. I heard Patsys was pretty good


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## reefer (Dec 5, 2007)

*Sweet!*

Nice call Greg! Don't get that on December 4 often. Have to take advantage it. I cried leaving Mt. Snow Monday afternoon! Knew all this week will be great conditions anywhere in VT! I wish I could pull the trigger on MRG tomorrow........................


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## wa-loaf (Dec 5, 2007)

I want to be JimG! I think he's showed up in every ski report so far this season.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> Greg - what are you using these days to create your vids?  Are you still using MS Moviemaker (or whatever its called?)



Yep. Still using Windows Movie Maker. More than adequate for my needs, and I have it sort of templated so I can bang out a vid in a few hours.



SkiDork said:


> Also, did you guys hit up Patsys or Low Rider?  They're on either side of North Star. I heard Patsys was pretty good



Nope. Once we found Northstar, we decided to stay there and enjoy the refreshing lines in the afternoon. No base, but the grass and moss underneath all that powder was nice and forgiving.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

riverc0il said:


> Nice! You've definitely stepped it up a notch in your skiing, well done and looking good. You guys get any untracked? I imagine by 11am it was already pretty chewed up but still looks quite delicious. Glad to hear you are enjoying the new boards. They are going to blow your mind once you get them into some untracked lines.



Thanks for the kind words. Pretty easy skiing yesterday, especially on the Legends; very predictable ski. Nothing untracked. We peeked into the woods, but honestly the main trails were skiing so good we just cruised around. Northstar was refreshing itself in the afternoon so we indulged in plenty of powder there.


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## SkiDork (Dec 5, 2007)

Greg said:


> Thanks for the kind words. Pretty easy skiing yesterday, especially on the Legends; very predictable ski. Nothing untracked. We peeked into the woods, but honestly the main trails were skiing so good we just cruised around. Northstar was refreshing itself in the afternoon so we indulged in plenty of powder there.



Even though Northstar was good, you would have been amazed at how much better Patsys would have been.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> Even though Northstar was good, you would have been amazed at how much better Patsys would have been.



I'm sure you're right. I just don't know the mountain well enough. Still satisfied.


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## SkiDork (Dec 5, 2007)

Greg said:


> I'm sure you're right. I just don't know the mountain well enough. Still satisfied.



Next time theres a pow day, I'll show you around the Snowdon bowl.  Its actually a no brainer, you can't get lost in there as long as you just keep heading downhill.  You'll eventually come out on Caper.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> Next time theres a pow day, I'll show you around the Snowdon bowl.  Its actually a no brainer, you can't get lost in there as long as you just keep heading downhill.  You'll eventually come out on Caper.



Not to mean I couldn't figure it out, but once we found Northstar we didn't want to venture out any further. Frolic had a bunch of snowmaking going on so we didn't even head over that way. The natural trails were skiing so much better. If we had known about Patsys we would have surly tried it.


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## MRGisevil (Dec 5, 2007)

Very cool! Looks awesome. Thanks for the vid


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

That was a fun as hell ski day.

I was totally wiped out when I got home at about 8:30. Ate dinner and fell asleep.

Couple of things:

Killington has a ton of terrain open, alot of snowmaking going on all around the resort, and got alot of snow from this storm which seemed to be localized mostly at higher elevation. It was still puking snow when we left the lot at about 4:40pm.

The customer service function seems to have been fixed at K...very responsive and friendly. I was quite shocked when I asked a mountain ambassador, someone I usually consider fairly useless at a ski area, where the best place to get some snow was and he told me that Northstar had just opened and was good. I almost cursed him because the lift ride on the Snowdon quad was so brutally cold, snowy, and windy, But the skiing made multiple trips there totally worth it.

I thought the foodservice was improved too...the food was pretty good at typically high ski area prices.

I was impressed.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

bvibert said:


> Sweet!  Looks freakin awesome.  I can't believe you got Jim to take some video of you.  I'm surprised he didn't throw the camera into the woods!  :lol:



Heh...I take good video and pics.

Look at all the nice comments Greg has gotten on his skiing.

I make sure the camera is kind.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> Even though Northstar was good, you would have been amazed at how much better Patsys would have been.



Northstar was great.

Maybe Patsy's was better; in fact, the only woods areas that looked really skiable were all over on the Snowdon side of the resort. The best snow was there by far.

It was almost impossible to leave Northstar though, especially in the afternoon when the snow intensified and the run had fresh snow every run down.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> I thought the foodservice was improved too...the food was pretty good at typically high ski area prices.



Agreed. I paid $10 for a black angus bacon cheeseburger platter. It included fries and lettuce, tomatoes, and red onions with a pickle. It was *very *good and while not cheap, I thought it was a fair value considering the quality of the food.

Still grinning.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

2knees said:


> LOL
> 
> Jim loves it.  Its all an act.  :smile:
> 
> Nice video Greg.  You guys look damn good in it.



Stop blowing my cover Pat.

With 2 people it's nice to occasionally take a break and shoot some vid.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

I also wanted to say that as much as I depend on and enjoy manmade snow, there is simply no comparison between manmade and natural snow.

NO COMPARISON.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> Heh...I take good video and pics.



You do. Thanks for doing that.



JimG. said:


> Stop blowing my cover Pat.
> 
> With 2 people it's nice to occasionally take a break and shoot some vid.



We didn't take a ton of footage, but the conditions were so good we didn't need to. I think we covered the main areas well; K Peak, Royal Flush, Superstar and of course Northstar. It was a nice steady pace despite a few stops for vid. I could have kept going; was feeling strong those last 2 hours. The good burger I mentioned earlier didn't weigh me down at all.

Thanks again for the great company, Jim. Always a pleasure.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

wa-loaf said:


> I want to be JimG! I think he's showed up in every ski report so far this season.



As Greg said yesterday, I seem to be the star of the show come video time.

I need a good yardsale to even things out a bit.


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> I also wanted to say that as much as I depend on and enjoy manmade snow, there is simply no comparison between manmade and natural snow.
> 
> NO COMPARISON.



None at all. I appreciate manmade for giving me the ability to ski further south and early and late, or when the weather doesn't come through with nice light powder, but yesterday was not a day to ski the snowmaking trails which is why we stuck mostly to Northstar. I'll be getting in plenty of turns on manmade hard pack and LSGR this season... :lol:


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## SkiDork (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> Northstar was great.
> 
> Maybe Patsy's was better; *in fact, the only woods areas that looked really skiable were all over on the Snowdon side of the resort. The best snow was there by far.*
> 
> It was almost impossible to leave Northstar though, especially in the afternoon when the snow intensified and the run had fresh snow every run down.



Thats what I like to call the Snowdon Bowl.


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## JimG. (Dec 5, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> Thats what I like to call the Snowdon Bowl.



The intermediate stuff over there had some nice character...not what I expect from K in terms of trail design. The woods around Northstar looked fairly clean and now I'm thinking I wish we had hooked up w/ danny p because it sounds like he was over there.

I could have spent the day over there as brutal as the lift ride was. I'd like to ski the other trails once each and hit those woods. I hope it's as brutal next time.

I guess I'll have to go back when the next snowfall comes. Next week?


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## TheBEast (Dec 5, 2007)

Nice shots.  What's the song and artist from the video?  Totally diggin it!!


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## Greg (Dec 5, 2007)

The Bravery - Believe


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## millerm277 (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> The intermediate stuff over there had some nice character...not what I expect from K in terms of trail design.



Pretty much all the natural snow trails have some great character. If/when the South Ridge opens up, check it out as well.



> The woods around Northstar looked fairly clean.



Skier's right of Northstar is a marked glade, "Low Rider."


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## 2knees (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> Stop blowing my cover Pat.
> 
> With 2 people it's nice to occasionally take a break and shoot some vid.



just got home myself but i was telling greg earlier, your skiing is fantastic.  great work and as painful as that video was to watch, it was very impressive.


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## SkiDork (Dec 5, 2007)

JimG. said:


> The intermediate stuff over there had some nice character...not what I expect from K in terms of trail design. The woods around Northstar looked fairly clean and now I'm thinking I wish we had hooked up w/ danny p because it sounds like he was over there.
> 
> I could have spent the day over there as brutal as the lift ride was. I'd like to ski the other trails once each and hit those woods. I hope it's as brutal next time.
> 
> I guess I'll have to go back when the next snowfall comes. Next week?



Jim - the woods both skiers left AND right of North Star is superb.  Some of the best tree skiing at K.  You were right there, oh well.  Next time (I wasn't there at all... so I'm the doofus ;-) )


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## koreshot (Dec 5, 2007)

Great skiing, great video, great everything.  I am so jealous looking through the trip reports right now.  Missing out so big...  sorry, but Hunter on the 14 won't make up for this.


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## Greg (Dec 6, 2007)

JimG. said:


> The intermediate stuff over there had some nice character...not what I expect from K in terms of trail design. The woods around Northstar looked fairly clean and now I'm thinking I wish we had hooked up w/ danny p because it sounds like he was over there.
> 
> I could have spent the day over there as brutal as the lift ride was. I'd like to ski the other trails once each and hit those woods. I hope it's as brutal next time.
> 
> I guess I'll have to go back when the next snowfall comes. Next week?





SkiDork said:


> Jim - the woods both skiers left AND right of North Star is superb.  Some of the best tree skiing at K.  You were right there, oh well.  Next time (I wasn't there at all... so I'm the doofus ;-) )



I, for some reason, don't feel like I missed out on anything... You, Jim? 



koreshot said:


> Great skiing, great video, great everything.  I am so jealous looking through the trip reports right now.  Missing out so big...  sorry, but Hunter on the 14 won't make up for this.



You're forgetting about the forecasted huge dump next Wednesday/Thursday. Keep the faith, KS!


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## SkiDork (Dec 6, 2007)

Greg said:


> I, for some reason, don't feel like I missed out on anything... You, Jim?



ignorance is bliss...


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## danny p (Dec 6, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> ignorance is bliss...



this week's pow was bliss....


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## SkiDork (Dec 6, 2007)

danny p said:


> this week's pow was bliss....



I hear ya.  And I missed the bliss...


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## danny p (Dec 6, 2007)

SkiDork said:


> I hear ya.  And I missed the bliss...



its still early!!  hopefully many more powder days to come!!


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## JimG. (Dec 6, 2007)

Greg said:


> I, for some reason, don't feel like I missed out on anything... You, Jim?



Nah...ignorance is bliss.

So I go back next week.

Bummer, huh?


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## Greg (Dec 6, 2007)

JimG. said:


> So I go back next week.



What day?


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## JimG. (Dec 6, 2007)

Greg said:


> What day?



Dunno.


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## SkiDork (Dec 7, 2007)

Next time I'm up is 12/15.  All the good stuff will prolly be melted out by then.  And I'll be going home on 12/16, just in time for the next storm!

If it wasn't for bad luck, yadda yadda...

I'll be up from 12/22 -> 1/1 so expect no storms over Xmas week ;-)


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