Killington Conditions

[snoloco]

Your best bet would be Rutland then, but I'm not seeing much in the way of availability. Definitely act quickly, and check any booking sites to see what's out there.

 

[Benny Profane]

And lock your car doors after removing all valuable items from sight.

 

[Kleetus]

Your best bet would be Rutland then, but I'm not seeing much in the way of availability. Definitely act quickly, and check any booking sites to see what's out there.

Last couple years lodging has been crazy expensive everywhere around K January -March. Even the dive hotels in Rutland are getting $200 a night. To the point for me at least I can't even afford to go for a weekend at least not a Saturday. Midweek prices are reasonable.

 

[Benny Profane]

Yeah, weird. I've watched hotels and motels slowly go derelict all over the place over the last thirty years. Rt. 4 on the way up from Rutland had five or six affordable places that are now shells, and the old Cortina Inn, which was pretty nice, and actually went co-op at one point, is now senior housing, of all things. And there's no new motels and hotels being built, to meet this demand, which I suspect just doesn't justify the cost of construction, because 8-10 weekends in the winter and maybe a few foliage weekends just doesn't do it. It's dead as hell up there in the summer, and furgetabout mud and black fly season. I think it's the best indication that a lot of the ski market is flying west, and not driving up for a week.

As per my previous comment, Vermont has quietly been subsidizing a lot of old motels on the brink of bankruptcy to house some homeless. I encountered it first hand down in Manchester recently. Combine that with the drug problem, and it can be sketchy at times. Be careful. ODs are up in Vermont and over in upstate.

Again, I recommend the Mountain Sports Inn for midweek. Just stayed there again for a few nights. Great value. And ask about the apartments in the back if you have a family or small group.

 

[JTG]

Turn of the River. Had both rooms and bunks this weekend. It’s a pretty cool place, if you are down with shared spaces and/or dorm accommodations. Cheap, too.

 

[Benny Profane]

Well, there's always a VAN, DOWN BY THE RIVER!

 

[snoloco]

Yeah, weird. I've watched hotels and motels slowly go derelict all over the place over the last thirty years. Rt. 4 on the way up from Rutland had five or six affordable places that are now shells, and the old Cortina Inn, which was pretty nice, and actually went co-op at one point, is now senior housing, of all things. And there's no new motels and hotels being built, to meet this demand, which I suspect just doesn't justify the cost of construction, because 8-10 weekends in the winter and maybe a few foliage weekends just doesn't do it. It's dead as hell up there in the summer, and furgetabout mud and black fly season. I think it's the best indication that a lot of the ski market is flying west, and not driving up for a week.

Lodging is sold out every weekend weeks in advance from Christmas to the end of March. It's a severe shortage.

They've said that their biggest growth is people taking extended weekends (including Friday and or Monday). So that's more lodging nights, and skier visits spread out over more days. Saturdays are still the bottleneck, but there are plenty of busy Fridays and Sundays.

Killington does a lot more summer business now, since they've tripled the size of the bike park and added other activities. I think this was intended to support the planned village. In any case it can't come soon enough.

 

[snoloco]

Now for a report on the skiing today.

The conditions were actually really good, even on most natural terrain I skied. Snowmaking was on Upper Header, Lower Dipper, Middle Needle's, Lower Pipe Dream, and Outer Limits.

It was really crowded, with some of the major lifts being lined up out of the ropes all day. I mostly lapped the lesser lifts such as Canyon and South Ridge to avoid the worst of it. I also did 3 runs to Route 4, where the Skyeship Gondola had little to no wait and was running at the full 1200 fpm.

Now for the bad part, the lift lines:

K1 and Snowdon Triple

Superstar

Not a lift line, but the red snake down the access road at the end of the day.

 

[snoloco]

Let's start with saying that today looked pretty damn terrible to start.

When I was driving up the access road at 7:30, I noticed the traffic light at West Hill Road was out. Didn't think anything of it. Sometimes traffic lights go out. Then I saw a fire truck pull out and start driving up the access road. I thought "Ok, I hope there's no major accident. If the road is blocked, then I can always turn around and park at Skyeship". Then I saw the fire truck pull over next to a Green Mountain Power truck. I thought "Hmmm, this doesn't seen right". Then I got as far as Snowshed and noticed that no snow guns were on, and none of the lifts were moving. I thought "something seems off here. Usually the lifts are all moving by now". Once I parked, I attempted to check the webcams on my phone and none of them worked. That was the "oh shit" moment for me. There was a power outage wide, caused by a transformer fire.

Once the lifts finally opened, I was able to find good trails and actually have a pretty good day. I found my best luck with the east side of the resort, and trails that had recent snowmaking but where the whales weren't pushed out yet. The highlight was definitely Dreammaker Headwall. It hasn't seen any snowmaking in at least 15 years, but they buried it this year.

All in all a good day. I'm glad I waited out the power outage rather than giving up and leaving.

Pictures below:

Big Dipper was surprisingly good.

Upper Wildfire is now open.

Bear Claw was one of the better groomed trails.

Top of Dreammaker Headwall.

Further down.

Looks like they plan on building the half pipe this year.

Vertigo, another trail that hasn't seen snowmaking in years was all set up for it.

 

[snoloco]

Skied all day today. Not very good except on Superstar and Outer Limits which were under the guns. I would've liked to see more resurfacing. Also, they seemed to have superficially groomed (like Stratton) to hit as many trails as possible, but most trails got skied off to bare ice by lunchtime.

It was less crowded than previous Saturdays, due to Ikon blackouts and presumably the bad weather from the previous week. It's weird how that works now.