Killington: Still Going in 2022

I really did think I was done for the year when I skied Gore on the first day of May. I guess the accounts I was seeing from skiers’ social media inspired me. The pictures of Killington’s Superstar were especially enticing.

view from parking lot

As much as I enjoy watching video of people climbing and skiing Tuckerman Ravine or stitching together sketchy lines on the remaining patches of snow at closed resorts, I don’t really have the time to squeeze that kind of trip into my schedule. I live too far south. With a little driving, Superstar is attainable. The Killington snowmakers really seemed to have outdone themselves this year: Superstar looked THICK.

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Killington World Cup 2021

Some mean-spirited wind cut short the first day of the Killington World Cup 2021. After the first nine racers — including America’s darling Mikaela Shiffrin — took their chances on an icy Superstar run, officials decided to cancel the days event. The snowy gusts kept tripping up the finish line lasers and the day looked potentially dangerous, and that was that.

Killington World Cup crowd

The band O.A.R. saved the day from being a complete blowout as they played a blistering set in the cold, warming up the disappointed crowd. Singer/guitarist Marc Roberge did a great job taking on party central as the crowd sang along to the bands upbeat hits.

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The Beast Returns to Early Season 2021

I did without a lot of things last season. Ski buddies. Random chairlift conversations. Booting up in the lodge. Skiing out West. And, until my last day, Vermont.

Killington Peak Lodge

When the 2020-21 ski season wrapped, with an improbable bomb of an April snowstorm at Mount Snow, I thought that would be the end of Covid-era skiing, of masks and staggered lift-loading and travel restrictions and ski-area reservations. And while I had come to like booting up in my minivan, music blasting and heat cranking, I was done with the rest of it.

But as summer wore on and Covid surged once more, I didn’t know if skiing would or should be done with it. Perhaps this was a thing and we would just have to learn to live with it.

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