Killington = FAIL. Dew Tour edition...

[Highway Star]

Just as I was getting excited earlier this season thinking Killington turned a corner.....

FYI, Dew Tour is having a huge negative impact on the quality of skiing at Killington over the month of January. I'd recommend avoiding Killington entirely until early February.

Most snowmaking resources are focused on the Dew Tour venues, lower skyeburst and dreamaker, which have been closed since last week, while many other main high traffic trails have thin cover, dirt patches and sheer ice. Bear has all traffic funneling into lower Wildfire, which turns it into a bumpy mess with hundreds of people - worse than lower bunny buster early season. It is going to be a disasterous holiday weekend coming up.

I really, seriously hope this is the last year they host it. Good riddance.

 

[oakapple]

I am SO surprised to see the words "Killington" and "FAIL" in the same thread. First time that has ever happened.

 

[Highway Star]

Well, it's been a while at least. They've been doing pretty good lately. But this is a big time top level fiasco in the making. It's just a huge waste of snowmaking and available trail space to host a comp like this in January. Even worse in a bad weather year, when the rest of the mountain is currently in horrific shape on average.

 

[Newpylong]

I don't think many shed too many tears when they left Mount Snow.

 

[oakapple]

Well, it's been a while at least. They've been doing pretty good lately. But this is a big time top level fiasco in the making. It's just a huge waste of snowmaking and available trail space to host a comp like this in January. Even worse in a bad weather year, when the rest of the mountain is currently in horrific shape on average.

Obviously, the commitment to host the Dew Tour was made a long time ago, long before anyone could have anticipated this season's weather debacle. Having made the commitment, they had no realistic choice but to make enough snow to live up to their end of the deal. It seems to me that if this is a FAIL, it's the kind of FAIL that no one reasonably could have foreseen.

 

[Highway Star]

Obviously, the commitment to host the Dew Tour was made a long time ago, long before anyone could have anticipated this season's weather debacle. Having made the commitment, they had no realistic choice but to make enough snow to live up to their end of the deal. It seems to me that if this is a FAIL, it's the kind of FAIL that no one reasonably could have foreseen.

HAHAHA, really? They have a bad year or bad stretches like this at least once every 5 years, if not much more often. It's called playing with fire, agreeing to host a resource intensive comp like this so early in the season, when the really should have that snowmaking throughout the mountain, even on a good year. Now we're going to be stuck with 10-15 feet on one trail, and almost nothing, or NOTHING, on many major snowmaking trails. How many major snowmaking trails are not even going to open this year?

 

[Highway Star]

By the way, Killington has 303 acres open today, Okemo has 384 acres open. A decent number of expert trails at Okemo open too.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Hypothetically, could they be making snow other places or are they using all of their air capacity at Bear? Is it a Manpower thing, or what?

 

[gmcunni]

By the way, Killington has 303 acres open today, Okemo has 384 acres open. A decent number of expert trails at Okemo open too.

i didn't think Okemo had any expert trails?

 

[Tooth]

Go ski somewhere else. No one is making you hit K up. I am so tired of all the whiners who think the mountain is all theirs. Better yet pony up the million or so and go join the Yellowstone Club. Its been a tough year for everyone. We are all hurting.

 

[oakapple]

Hypothetically, could they be making snow other places or are they using all of their air capacity at Bear? Is it a Manpower thing, or what?

Snowmaking is limited (mainly) by air capacity, water capacity, power, and the number of guns you have. Many ski areas, including K, have trails where the capability exists, but they haven't yet made snow, because their priorities are elsewhere. Right now, Killington's priority is at Bear. Of course, that's not the only place they're making snow, but HighwayStar is suggesting that without the Dew Tour, they'd focus their attentions elsewhere.

 

[wa-loaf]

i didn't think Okemo had any expert trails?

beat me to it!

 

[thetrailboss]

Just as I was getting excited earlier this season thinking Killington turned a corner.....

FYI, Dew Tour is having a huge negative impact on the quality of skiing at Killington over the month of January. I'd recommend avoiding Killington entirely until early February.

Most snowmaking resources are focused on the Dew Tour venues, lower skyeburst and dreamaker, which have been closed since last week, while many other main high traffic trails have thin cover, dirt patches and sheer ice. Bear has all traffic funneling into lower Wildfire, which turns it into a bumpy mess with hundreds of people - worse than lower bunny buster early season. It is going to be a disasterous holiday weekend coming up.

I really, seriously hope this is the last year they host it. Good riddance.

....and yet you still buy season passes there. Now what is the real fail here?

 

[Highway Star]

Snowmaking is limited (mainly) by air capacity, water capacity, power, and the number of guns you have. Many ski areas, including K, have trails where the capability exists, but they haven't yet made snow, because their priorities are elsewhere. Right now, Killington's priority is at Bear. Of course, that's not the only place they're making snow, but HighwayStar is suggesting that without the Dew Tour, they'd focus their attentions elsewhere.

Correct, and much of the terrain, especially on that side of the mountain, has suffered as a result.

 

[gmcunni]

....and yet you still buy season passes there. Now what is the real fail here?

:razz::razz:

 

[steamboat1]

It was the same shh...t show over on Bear last year for the Dew tour & it was a good early snow year. The lack of natural snow has nothing to do with it, it's just a poor set-up. They are blowing snow on other parts of the mountain it's just that with all the warm weather, rain & then freeze they've had to concentrate on resurfacing the same open trails over & over & over instead of being able to expand terrain. I think offering good conditions on open terrain is more important than expansion.which is what they've been doing. I think they have a 3 year contract for the Dew tour so expect to see the same shh..t show next year. I skied K a couple of days last week before they closed lower Skyeburst & thought conditions were pretty good considering. However I won't miss it if they decide not to host the Dew tour in the future.

 

[octopus]

i'm not huge fan of killington but, what are they supposed to do? they have to make a world class course for the dew tour with no natural snow.

 

[millerm277]

I think the entire Dew Tour needs a restructuring. Push all the events back another week or two. I think Killington made a poor decision by agreeing to the schedule unless they're planning on making significant investments in snowmaking capacity in the future to not have to worry about these issues.

For what they're dealing with at the moment, with the tour already planned, I think they've been doing a pretty good job. They've managed to slowly expand the non-Bear terrain, and the groomers and snowmakers have been doing a pretty excellent job at keeping the trails open edge to edge even with cover that is clearly only a couple inches deep in spots.

That said, they could have far, far, far more terrain open right now, and I'd be much happier as a skier if they weren't making snow for this tour, and I'm not sure that the benefits outweigh the negatives of it....but I don't know how much they're getting paid for hosting the tour either.

 

[bobbutts]

Just like threecy (who I see also browsing this thread) when highway star posts, people attack him.
Seems like a timely and valid issue at a popular area, yet even the forum moderators prefer to derail it by hassling the op.

 

[mattchuck2]

If this was an average snow year, this complaint wouldn't exist. Therefore, this thread is stupid. They're doing what they have to do to to put on a good comp and they should be commended for it.