# Killington 4/20/2013



## dlague (Apr 22, 2013)

*Conditions:*  Crispy up top, thick mash potatoes at the bottom

*Trip Report:*

From a distance everything looked great while driving up!  We got there around 9:30 and the emps were around 39 at K-1base lodge.  Some people were talking abut icy conditions at the top so we went up the Snowdon side then crossed over to the the North Rdge Triple.  We skied from there back down to the North Ridge Triple then turned down East fall to the Canyon chair.  Even thoguh it was a little crispy close to the top, you did nto have to ski to far before things got soft in the true spirit of Spring Skiing.  East Fall skied pretty good but the natural bumps that were building up seemed to be hard to predict - some bumps stuck while others gave way.

Once back up we opted to go down Great Northern and ski Snowdon.  Our car was parked over there so I had my wife ditch her carving skis for her mid fat skis which have early rise and that made a huge difference for her.  After another run on Snowdon skiing Chute, we headed up the Gondola and skied down Bear Claw and Launch Pad over to Superstar.  Funny thing about Bear Claw and Launch Pad - they actually skied fairly fast for a realtively flat trail.  They were not slushy and felt like normal winter conditions.  However, Superstar was a whole other story.  The snow was wet from the warmer temps and the rain the day/night before!  You could feel it!  I like Super star but I did not enjoy the thickness of the snow!  In fact it seemed like all trails on sky peak had a foot to two feet of mash!  I took my ski off at one point to set foot and it basically sunk to mid boot!  It was a lot of work!

At this point we were hungry and thisrty for a Switchback/Bloody Mary!  We decided to visit the Umbrella Bar and it was crazy!   They were grilling outside so a burger was a must - tasted great BTW!  Getting a drink was almost impossible (15 minutes while my burger cooled).  A nice surprise while eating was a small flurry passed by and it felt like it was getting cooler.  The steel drums music in the Umbrella Bar was a nice touch but the bar was under staffed.

We decided to go back out and repeat our morning chairs.  We even travled some of the same paths but we opted to ski Skylark instead of Superstar.  I have to say - I have never experience a snow mash that deep.  It was fun to ski that day but our legs felt it later.  The best skiing was around K Peak off the Norther Ridge Chair.

We capped off our day by haning out in the K-1 Base Lodge bar and listening to Saylyn - great reggae band!  The bar was really busy at 3 and people were having fun for sure!  Most people we talked to are haning it up for the season and will wait eargerly for October/november to roll around

Things are really getting soupy at the bottom and some trails had thin spots that were still open.  They dropped their trail count really fast with the warm up on Friday and the heavy rains that night as well!  There were 38 trials opened and I would imagine that number will drop dramatically by next weekend.  The long term prospect - well there is a boat load of snow on Superstar - so that will be open for sure!  Which begs the question who really is the King of Spring?  Should it really be the Moutain that keeps that one trail open the longest or the resports that have more trails open!  Look at Sugarloaf - 134 trails today!  

We capped off our day by haning out in the K-1 Base Lodge bar and listening to Saylyn - a great reggae band!  The bar was really busy at 3 pm and people were having fun for sure!  Most people we talked to are haning it up for the season and will wait eargerly for October/November to roll around!  Well we are not - we are opting to ski Jay peak this coming weekend - they are at 59 trails today!

We are looking at a trip or two in May (cross fingers) and a trip up Tucks!  The summer activities are already in full swing (no pun intended)!

Looking up Super Star


 Another shot of Super Star


Looking in the direction of Canyons


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## JimG. (Apr 22, 2013)

I was there too...The Skye Peak side was decent but full of mush piles from the overgrooming they do. Actually, the bumps on Superstar that were left as Freeride zones were excellent. There was a bump course on the top headwall and also at the bottom headwall about halfway down on the left. The lower bump course was sweet!

I thought the best skiing on Saturday was in the Canyon...DD, DD glade, Downdraft, Escapade all were great and even Cascade was good for a groomed run. It was interesting that although it was mostly cloudy all day that the snow got so soft.


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## dlague (Apr 22, 2013)

JimG. said:


> It was interesting that although it was mostly cloudy all day that the snow got so soft.



I think it was all the rain from the night before - snow became a sponge!


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