Adam Kaufman
New member
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2020
I was planning to head out west with a friend of mine who works in the airline industry, but he got spooked by rain in the forecast and cancelled last minute. If it were entirely up to me I would have skied Jackson Hole this weekend in a raincoat, but I put on my big-boy pants, sucked it up and put plan b into action—a 2-day trip to Killington.
I woke up at an ungodly hour on Friday, leaving my house at 4am so I could pick up Brendan on the way up to Vermont. We arrived at the mountain and met up with John at 8:45. I am in the final stretch of a campaign to ski 1,000,000 vertical feet this season, so I decided to spend the entire day on the lifts with no breaks from open til close. Fueled by an everything bagel doused in frozen butter, a large bottle of water and a bomber of Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine, I skied nonstop for 7 hours straight and racked up over 40,000 feet (in pretty challenging conditions to boot). The day started with groomed ice under sunny skies, which quickly became scraped off and covered with light, powdery snow. The flat light combined with “dust on crust” conditions made for a ski day that only a hardened east-coaster could love.
Saturday was a completely different story. I should preface that I’ve long been a critic of Killington, not fully understanding the cult-like adoration that the resort receives from many northeast skiers. Yes the mountain has a massive amount of trails, good variety of terrain and a top-of-the-line lift infrastructure, but with a lift capacity rivaled only by Park City and Whistler, there simply isn’t enough snow for everyone to ski. The trails are often skied off by 11am on the weekends, and the intersections around every corner make it difficult to get in a rhythm or feel comfortable really charging down a trail.
On this day though, my mind was changed because I got to experience Killington at its best. The snow from the day before continued through the night, so we began the day skiing on 4-6” of fresh, light, floaty, dreamy powder under bluebird skies with views for miles. Ropes were dropping left and right, and we seemed to always be in the right place at the right time to ski fresh lines. A friend and client of mine who grew up skiing at Killington have me a locals tour of the mountain, so I learned about some great stashes and even paid a visit to a certain fabled cabin that may or may not exist.
The second half of the day was fantastic. After refueling with some leftover Ramunto’s garlic knot pizza and some cold beer, we headed over to Bear Mountain to watch the moguls competition and ski some of our own bumps. Most of the trails had now morphed into a combination of ice and jumbo-sized loose-granular moguls, but about halfway down everything suddenly shifted to mashed potatoes. As a professed lover of spring bumps, I was in heaven. We stopped on Outer Limits to grab some front-row seats for the mogul competition. I find it simultaneously humbling and motivating when I see people who are significantly better skiers than me. I hope to someday be good enough to compete in the competition myself, but in the meantime I’m proud that I am among those who can confidently ski Outer Limits in challenging conditions to earn front-row seats to watch the experts do their thing.
The energy at Bear Mountain was electric; the base was absolutely packed with tailgaters and people were adorned in everything from 80s throwback outfits to dinosaur costumes. This energy is what makes Killington special and unique. If you are a Killington skeptic as I once was, go ski the bumps on Outer Limits on a sunny spring weekend and experience the contagious good vibes of Bear Mountain.
I’m really looking forward to my end-of-season trip out there the last weekend of April. I’ll be in the K1 parking lot in gym shorts working the grill. If any of you are there, come swing by for a beer!
I woke up at an ungodly hour on Friday, leaving my house at 4am so I could pick up Brendan on the way up to Vermont. We arrived at the mountain and met up with John at 8:45. I am in the final stretch of a campaign to ski 1,000,000 vertical feet this season, so I decided to spend the entire day on the lifts with no breaks from open til close. Fueled by an everything bagel doused in frozen butter, a large bottle of water and a bomber of Lawson’s Sip of Sunshine, I skied nonstop for 7 hours straight and racked up over 40,000 feet (in pretty challenging conditions to boot). The day started with groomed ice under sunny skies, which quickly became scraped off and covered with light, powdery snow. The flat light combined with “dust on crust” conditions made for a ski day that only a hardened east-coaster could love.
Saturday was a completely different story. I should preface that I’ve long been a critic of Killington, not fully understanding the cult-like adoration that the resort receives from many northeast skiers. Yes the mountain has a massive amount of trails, good variety of terrain and a top-of-the-line lift infrastructure, but with a lift capacity rivaled only by Park City and Whistler, there simply isn’t enough snow for everyone to ski. The trails are often skied off by 11am on the weekends, and the intersections around every corner make it difficult to get in a rhythm or feel comfortable really charging down a trail.
On this day though, my mind was changed because I got to experience Killington at its best. The snow from the day before continued through the night, so we began the day skiing on 4-6” of fresh, light, floaty, dreamy powder under bluebird skies with views for miles. Ropes were dropping left and right, and we seemed to always be in the right place at the right time to ski fresh lines. A friend and client of mine who grew up skiing at Killington have me a locals tour of the mountain, so I learned about some great stashes and even paid a visit to a certain fabled cabin that may or may not exist.
The second half of the day was fantastic. After refueling with some leftover Ramunto’s garlic knot pizza and some cold beer, we headed over to Bear Mountain to watch the moguls competition and ski some of our own bumps. Most of the trails had now morphed into a combination of ice and jumbo-sized loose-granular moguls, but about halfway down everything suddenly shifted to mashed potatoes. As a professed lover of spring bumps, I was in heaven. We stopped on Outer Limits to grab some front-row seats for the mogul competition. I find it simultaneously humbling and motivating when I see people who are significantly better skiers than me. I hope to someday be good enough to compete in the competition myself, but in the meantime I’m proud that I am among those who can confidently ski Outer Limits in challenging conditions to earn front-row seats to watch the experts do their thing.
The energy at Bear Mountain was electric; the base was absolutely packed with tailgaters and people were adorned in everything from 80s throwback outfits to dinosaur costumes. This energy is what makes Killington special and unique. If you are a Killington skeptic as I once was, go ski the bumps on Outer Limits on a sunny spring weekend and experience the contagious good vibes of Bear Mountain.
I’m really looking forward to my end-of-season trip out there the last weekend of April. I’ll be in the K1 parking lot in gym shorts working the grill. If any of you are there, come swing by for a beer!
