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Killington
Killington
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Submitted on December 13, 2018 by rocket21 (1380 Rating1380)
Session SessionFull Day
Lift Ticket Ticket TypeIkon Pass
Lift Lines Lift Lines0 minutes
Snow Trail Conditions75% open; Loose Granular, Packed Powder
Glades GladesDid not venture in, but woods were open with a few inches of powder on top of a firm crust.
Moguls MogulsMostly on natural trails within the current open footprint of the mountain. The few that I ventured onto had a frozen granular base with some powder to push around on top.
Terrain Park Terrain Park(s)Mouse Run and Lil Stash are open; large whales on Timberline waiting to be pushed out.
Run of the Day Run of the DayHigh Road
Food and Beverage Food and BeverageChicken tenders were $9 at Snowshed.
Comments CommentsVery good conditions and coverage for mid December.

Canyon - started the day here; Cascade and East Fall were groomed. Nice at first run, but some boilerplate lurking underneath. Did not venture onto the other expert trails, as they were bumps and it was cold with flat light. Canyon Quad was not running. New K1 gondola cabins are a comfortable, quieter improvement.

North Ridge - took a few runs here later in the afternoon; good conditions on the groomed trails.

South Ridge/Bear Mountain/Sunrise/Skyeship Base are all closed. South Ridge Quad towers and comm line are up. On Bear Mountain, Wildfire looks like its ready to be pushed out/groomed, while snowmaking is in progress on Bear Cub.

Skye Peak Quad was open with a few options (Bear Claw/Snowshed Crossover (new tunnel makes this flow nicely)/Shorty (ungroomed)/Skyburst all skied decently). All funnel into lower Skyeburst, which therefore wasn't great. Having Lower Wildfire soon should help. Snowmaking also in progress on Bearly.

Needle's Eye Quad was running, serving Cruise Control (snowmaking in progress), Needle's Eye, Panic Button (pretty scratchy), High Road (lower part was nice, as not many people make it that far), and Northbrook (also nice, fresh cord even later in the morning). One downside is the only way out of this complex was via Bittersweet, which was variable due to that traffic (and wet snowmaking in progress near a thin spot).

Superstar was nice early in the morning, but quickly getting scraped down to that icy race surface. Will probably be the case until we get natural snow or else when they return to build the spring base. Lower Skyelark was very icy.

Snowshed slope had a good surface. Side trails also looked decent.

Ram's Head had thin cover in places...I suspect little snow has been made on Header, but the thin spots could be avoided. Easy Street was decent. Looks like they were getting ready to put up the haul rope on the racing Poma lift this morning...they're already using the old Swirl trail for race training, but the trail was open to the public.

Snowdon has been transformed through the major construction. The new bubble lift is a nice break from the elements with comfortable seats. The faster ride time changes skiing Snowdon (as well as provides a faster way to get to some of the North Ridge/Canyon area). Chair barn still under construction and the lift had lots of slows/stops, suggesting they're still getting it dialed in. Skier tunnels should help the flow of traversing skiers. Decent coverage on the trails, but some scratchy areas (such as Bunny Buster and Chute). Great Bear is castrated at the moment, with the actual steep part closed (perhaps until the tunnel is connected next year?). Highline briefly opened between race practices but was a little scratchy...and much more scenic without the utility poles in the middle of the trail.

Weather started off as very cold and partly sunny, but the temperatures did not seem to rise as much as forecasted. Instead, it snowed for parts of the afternoon.

Lifts were all ski on. The new RFID gates seem to be working well already. Having the Ikon Pass as direct to lift is also pleasant...this also means that one can in theory avoid the lodges.
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