# K's Last Day 5/22/14



## Cornhead (May 18, 2014)

*K's Last Day 5/18/14*

*Date(s) Skied: *5/18/14

*Resort or Ski Area: *Killington, VTr

*Conditions: *Awesome corn bumps, mud, grass, rocks

*Trip Report: *
  I didn't think I'd be up to a 500 mile day trip so soon after my trip out West, but since I don't have a passport, or an enhanced NYS driver's licence, it was this weekend or November. I remembered mister moose had some K vouchers that were going to go unused, so I dropped him a PM on the way. Thank you very much mister moose, the gas was enough, tank and a half, 24 gallons, premium, $4.19 per. 

I pulled into the K1 lot at about 9:30, mister moose kindly delivered a ticket to me. This is the first time in the last three years I've had to down hike the headwall of Superstar. Did they blow less snow on it than previous years?

Where there was snow, it was perfect. There were two bare spots in the middle that were easily skied across if you were on rock skis. 


As I got ready for my second run, I noticed people ducking the rope on Skyelark, I decided to follow. Skyelark skied great, it took much less effort than the deep, steep bumps on Superstar. There were even more bare spots to negotiate than on SS. I made three runs down it, alternating runs on SS. Finally SP was posted at the rope to keep people off. The only reason I can see why they didn't have it open, there were some crevasses near the bottom that could have been bad news for someone if they didn't avoid them, or hop over them.


I had hoped to meet up with mister moose at the summit at 5, but I was spent by 3. If I'd been able to continue to alternate between SS and Skyelarke, I may have made it to close. SS bumps kicked my ass!

The infamous "S"

So, my 2013-2014 season started at K in early November, I think, and ended at K today, the circle is complete on a stellar season. Now, on to Summer things.

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## SKI-3PO (May 18, 2014)

Nice work!  Looks like a great final day.

BTW - Not too bad a May of skiing you're having.


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## MadPatSki (May 18, 2014)

Cornhead said:


> *Date(s) Skied: *5/22/14
> 
> *Resort or Ski Area: *Killington, VTr



Are you a time traveler? May 22 is this coming Thursday.


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## Cornhead (May 18, 2014)

P.S. mister moose informed me that it was snowing at the top Superstar at close!
Thanks, ski3po, no complaints, manged to thoroughly enjoy this season despite physical set backs. Hopefully this old body will be more up to the challenge next year.

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## Abubob (May 18, 2014)

Looks like definitely worth hiking for. I doubt I would have paid for lift tickets either. Good thing you had vouchers. So you meant the 18th right?


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## Cornhead (May 18, 2014)

Abubob said:


> Looks like definitely worth hiking for. I doubt I would have paid for lift tickets either. Good thing you had vouchers. So you meant the 18th right?



Doh! I'm cornfused, back to reality tomorrow, then I'll know what day it is. My Brother just retired, I told him he should start going to church, he thought I thought he needed redemption, I said, no, so you'll know what day of the week it is.

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## steamboat1 (May 18, 2014)

Even the tree's were still in skiers right on lower Supe. Perfect weather day. You did better than me Cornhead, 6 runs & done for me. I wanted to do Skyelark/Bitter my last run but as you said ski patrol stopped me. I may have lasted a few more runs if I had been able to take it a little easier. A lot of good skiers out there today. Stopped for awhile &  said goodbye to the K-Zone crew as I was leaving. Mister Moose wasn't present at the time.


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## ScottySkis (May 19, 2014)

Nice way to end the season Cornhead. hopefully well start off at K in Oct and make it their a few times next winter. No oictures of women in Bikinkis?


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## xwhaler (May 19, 2014)

I think its safe to say that Cornhead is the recipient of the 2013-14 AlpineZone Trip Report "Most Hardcore/Dedicated" Poster of the Year award.
The dedication/passion this man has for skiing is impressive. Ever tracked how many miles you put on your car from Oct-May?


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## Cornhead (May 19, 2014)

xwhaler said:


> I think its safe to say that Cornhead is the recipient of the 2013-14 AlpineZone Trip Report "Most Hardcore/Dedicated" Poster of the Year award.
> The dedication/passion this man has for skiing is impressive. Ever tracked how many miles you put on your car from Oct-May?



Thanks x, nope on the mileage, but I bought my Impreza new in Nov 2011, I have 60,000 miles on it, over 75% in the Winter. I mostly just drive it to work and back in the off season, 10 miles round trip. I'm considering leaving my snows on for the Summer, they've seen their last Winter. The only concern I have doing this is my Summer tires may dry rot if I don't use up their tread.

This has been my best season by far despite putting on 30lbs prior, and injuring my knee, I wouldn't be surprised if the two are related. It would've been even better if I were healthier. I missed out on a guided side country tour by Huck_It_Baby at Stowe, and I would've skied the East Wall at A Basin. That's OK, it'll be great motivation to get my knee taken care of, and get back on track to get my weight back down. I'd be tickled pink to get down to 200lbs, currently 255lbs. The lowest I got recently was 215lbs, that was with 40 miles of road bike riding per day prior to buying the Impreza. I've been anywhere between 165lbs and 315lbs in my adult life, yeah real healthy, I know. The heaviest I've skied at was probably about 280, watch out kiddies, graphic physics lesson coming down the hill!

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## MadMadWorld (May 19, 2014)

It was interesting to say the least but fun and a great way to end the season


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## dlague (May 19, 2014)

I was hoping to get there before they closed.   I am not a fan of have to take skis off during a run and I would not wanted have wanted to pay what they were asking to ski.  So My season ended with Jay Peak last weekend with much better coverage!

Cool that you got out there though and willing to drive so far for it!


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## St. Bear (May 19, 2014)

My my Cornhead, you sure do get around.


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## mishka (May 19, 2014)

wow K lost all snow so quickly. Last weekend was wall-to-wall coverage. And still decent size pile  on the top of a superstar. I thought they would load list two more weeks


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## steamboat1 (May 20, 2014)

Cornhead said:


> This is the first time in the last three years I've had to down hike the headwall of Superstar. *Did they blow less snow on it than previous years?*


Actually it seemed to me they blew more snow on the top of the headwall this year than in previous years. The mountain of snow up there was pretty high just a couple of weeks ago. The top of the headwall is notorious for usually being one of the first things to melt out. As for the rest of the trail I think it was pretty obvious they didn't blow as much snow as they had in previous years. K management even admitted to this by saying they blew their snowmaking budget early because they had to resurface the entire mountain several times because of weather events. There was no big snowmaking push in March on Superstar, upper/lower Skyelark & lower Bitter like they had done in previous years. This was obvious since they lost lower Skyelark pretty  early which is normally not the case.

edit: Great season though!!!!


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## Mariovntr (May 20, 2014)

Sounds like a fun conclusion to the season. Wish I had the chance to make it to the Beast for one last weekend in May. All in all though, it was an outstanding season. Most days I had on the hill in ten years (62). Looking forward to some October turns!


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## Trekchick (May 22, 2014)

Nice way to end the season.  With all the snow the East Coast got this year I anticipated better coverage for a closing weekend, even though its a fairly late closing weekend. 

We just took a trip to Colorado from Tahoe and were surprised at how much snow loss Vail has with a ton of coverage at Copper just over the ridge.  Crazy where it stays and where it doesn't, eh?


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## deadheadskier (May 22, 2014)

Trekchick said:


> With all the snow the East Coast got this year I anticipated better coverage for a closing weekend, even though its a fairly late closing weekend.



It was a below average snowfall year this season for much of New England.  Killington averages 250 per season.  They got 196 this year.  All areas were also starting from a zero inch natural snow base in late January.  Everything got wiped out in the January warm up.


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## St. Bear (May 22, 2014)

Trekchick said:


> Nice way to end the season.  With all the snow the East Coast got this year I anticipated better coverage for a closing weekend, even though its a fairly late closing weekend.
> 
> We just took a trip to Colorado from Tahoe and were surprised at how much snow loss Vail has with a ton of coverage at Copper just over the ridge.  Crazy where it stays and where it doesn't, eh?



Isn't the base of Copper right around the mid-mountain of Vail?


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## ScottySkis (May 22, 2014)

deadheadskier said:


> It was a below average snowfall year this season for much of New England.  Killington averages 250 per season.  They got 196 this year.  All areas were also starting from a zero inch natural snow base in late January.  Everything got wiped out in the January warm up.



where i live it was the oppsiste we had the warm ups but we had some great snow storms. had more powdr fday rhis year then past 3 years combined. And i lost 3 weeks from mid early March to begining of April.


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## deadheadskier (May 22, 2014)

That's why I said, "much of New England."   The Poconos and Catskills had an above average year no doubt.  Vermont and New Hampshire were below average.  I'd venture that most of Maine was as well except for the northern part of the state where there are only a handful of mom and pop ski areas.


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## xwhaler (May 22, 2014)

deadheadskier said:


> I'd venture that most of Maine was as well except for the northern part of the state where there are only a handful of mom and pop ski areas.



I was curious on this point so I checked Saddleback's website. They reported 192" this yr which is down from the 225" they say is their seasonal average. The benefit of Saddleback (and Sugarloaf) is they are so far north and the mtn orientation (SB facing NW) means that the snow retention is quite good.


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## Abubob (May 22, 2014)

deadheadskier said:


> It was a below average snowfall year this season for much of New England.  Killington averages 250 per season.  They got 196 this year.  All areas were also starting from a zero inch natural snow base in late January.  Everything got wiped out in the January warm up.


That means an early start for next season.


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## Newpylong (May 23, 2014)

deadheadskier said:


> That's why I said, "much of New England."   The Poconos and Catskills had an above average year no doubt.  Vermont and New Hampshire were below average.  I'd venture that most of Maine was as well except for the northern part of the state where there are only a handful of mom and pop ski areas.



Here in Central NH (Upper Valley), we received well more than the average for a snow year. We usually get lower than surrounding areas due to the low elevation and Conn River Valley. Was opposite this past winter.


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