# Killington, 10/19/15



## Cornhead (Oct 19, 2015)

Thank God I didn't have to drive. I watched the Mets defeat the Cubs in game 2 of NLCS. I stopped at the grocery and picked up a few supplies. Got home, made a couple pbj"s, tuned my skis, and tried to sleep. I set both my alarm, and my phone for 3 AM. Recently I acquired an ear infection in my right ear. One morning I was sleeping on my left ear. When my alarm went off I didn't hear it good enough to wake me up. I only heard it good enough to dream of an alarm clock I couldn't stop ringing. I smashed it open and discovered 2 batteries. Ah, battery back up, that must be why it won't stop, I remove the batteries, nope, still ringing. Finally I awoke to a ringing alarm clock.

I debated no sleep at all, I didn't have to drive, I could get 4 sleep on the way to K. I fell asleep at 2, after a whopping hour sleep, I awoke to my alarm clock, and phone. I got my shit together and headed to our rondeveaus site. I was first there, next my buddy and his friend arrived. Now all that was missing was the driver and his vehicle. After unsuccessful attempts to reach him, my buddy left to hunt him down. They both showed a half hour later. We hit the road at 4:30.

We pulled into the K1 lot right at 9 O'clock. I thought about leaving my hiking boots on and booting up after down hiking the stairs. It was cold and windy, I decided to boot up at the lodge and stuff my hiking boots into my day pack. I told the rest of the group to head up without me.  

My first run of the year revealed some rather chunky man made. It skied OK, but improved throughout the day as the heavy traffic churned it up quickly, producing a finer granular product. As the day wore on even a few bumps appeared. Some slick spots were also exposed, but hey, I was sliding on "snow" in October! 

So we skied from 9:30 till 2, quite a few runs. The sun was out, It felt like Winter, it was good. Traffic was pretty dense, and there were a lot of exuberant uttes catching air here and there. Patrol was stationed at the slow sign where Rime and Reason merge. I saw the scold someone for leaving the snow out of the park. It wasn't too bad. The people seemed to come in waves. It was pretty easy to chose a lull to head downhill. As long as no young hot shot creams you from behind, you're good to go. It was a great kickoff to the season, thanks K. I can check October turns off my list.


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## Glade Runner (Oct 19, 2015)

Nice report.  We had a good time for sure.  Earliest skiing to date for me.


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## chuckstah (Oct 19, 2015)

Way to get it done Cornhead!


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## ScottySkis (Oct 19, 2015)

Awesome job everyone!!! You all get a mileage of most crazy amount of driving to start and end the season!!!


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## ALLSKIING (Oct 19, 2015)

Nice job.....work definitely sucked today.


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## joshua segal (Oct 19, 2015)

*Oct. 19, 2015*
Today was day 1 of the 2015-6 season for me.  With opening day being earlier than usual and peak-leaf-color a couple of weeks late, there was an absolutely spectacular show on the east face of the mountains on Rte. 100, with the bright sun and the ridge line just a deep blue.

It was about 20F when I arrived at the mountain about 8:30AM.  Some of my friends suggested that with no short term prospects of additional cold weather, perhaps Killington was just saving a few bucks rather than creating more meltage.  Mike Solimano happened to be hanging around the line speaking to guests, so I asked him.  He replied, that they shut down at 7AM when the electric rates triple.  He further inferred that they went way over budget to open on Sunday. He also said, they will continue to stay open as long as possible.  I suspect they'll make snow tonight.  Actually from a customer perspective, it was great to ski without the noise and spray of the snow guns.

Some of my friends were there yesterday (Oct. 18 - opening day) and said that the snow was getting rather thin by late afternoon.  It was clear that a lot of snow was made overnight.  I suspect an average depth of 18" to 24" of a hard base would not be an exaggeration. No thin spots today - and the traffic was heavier.

The morning snow was death cookies, typical of what happens when snow is groomed before it has time to drain and dry, but there was enough traffic that it got worked in quickly.  By 10:30, it was nice loose granular.  By noon there were moguls left and right with a pretty icy and scraped center.

I don't know what they advertised but Upper Rime and Reason were the choices for the top; and Lower Rime was the common run for the bottom.

Crowd was moderate with a steady 2 to 4 minute lift line.  Unfortunately, the trails were a bit overloaded and some of the idiots were skiing way too fast for the size of the crowd, which made it scarier than it had to be.

For those who like terrain parks, there were 4 or 5 feature set up on Reason.  As an early start to the season, I had a great day.  According to SnowTracks, I took 24 runs on the North Ridge Triple.  I am rather pleased that the Stairway is there.  The crowd is bad enough and with the stairway as a hurdle, it tends to keep away the riff-raff.


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## powhunter (Oct 20, 2015)

Bluebird day!  Once the chunks got broken up and the sun baked it for a while it was pretty good for October.  So Cornhead tells me hes at the lift with 2 other guys and hes dressed in black.  I ski down and see this guy in black with 2 other guys and I say Hey Ill meet you at the top. I do a run with these 3 guys.  Then at the bottom I find out its not cornhead, but just 3 random guys   Ha Ha   Did Some runs with Johnniepoach, Shredderofgnar and MrMagic   Nice bump line formed on SR!!!

Fine October day!!


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## Rushski (Oct 20, 2015)

Looks pretty damn good and makes me even more anxious...


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## powhunter (Oct 20, 2015)




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## Puck it (Oct 20, 2015)

powhunter said:


>


Wish I went now!!!!!


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## Cornhead (Oct 20, 2015)

Powhunter, sorry we didn't hook up. I run into Shredderofgnar all over New England, and NY, early/late season. He gets around, and smashes bumps pretty good for an old fart! JK Gary.


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## skiNEwhere (Oct 20, 2015)

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing man


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## dlague (Oct 20, 2015)

Puck it said:


> Wish I went now!!!!!



Me too but the drive from New Orleans seemed a bit excessive.  I am jealous to say the least.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone


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## Rambo (Oct 21, 2015)

Great Trip Report Corn. I am changing Internet providers and am at the library.


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## Glade Runner (Oct 21, 2015)

Shoveling Dan!


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