Lucky for me I had plans to ski Killington with my friend Mark on Sunday March 24. Due to personal commitments, I couldn’t make the trip until Saturday, and knew driving conditions might get tricky going into the storm on Saturday. Just after getting on the Northway at Albany, Waze started giving reports that traffic was building ahead, which was the first sign of travel issues.
A few miles north, the pouring rain started to freeze, which is where things got interesting. After crossing the twin bridges into Saratoga County, there were cars all over the place — off the road, in ditches, in the woods and pointed in all directions.
Police and assistance vehicles were present in the area, which was good. Continuing north, there were accidents everywhere until the freezing rain turned to snow north of Saratoga. In the snow, roads were a mess, but less dangerous than in the freezing rain. I decided to call it a day and got a room in Glens Falls to wait out the storm.
Rising early on Sunday, I continued towards Killington. The roads were OK and by the Vermont border, the sun was starting to rise. It was looking like a nice day. Checking in with Mark, he was a few minutes behind me and I continued to Killington with the K1 Lodge as our destination.
Upon arrival at 8:15 AM, the K1 lots were full, so I called an audible, turning around and parking at Ram’s Head. Giving Mark a call, he went straight to Ram’s Head and we met up right in the lot. It was a long journey getting to the mountain — hopefully conditions would reward the effort.
Mark is a new Ambassador at Killington this season, and we met up with a couple of his friends from the mountain to start the day. The first run off Ram’s Head confirmed our hopes – this fresh snow was special. It was deep and soft, already starting to build up into soft, forgiving bumps.
Adding to the fun was the cool air, cloudless blue sky, March sun and no wind. Heading up the K1 gondola Mark’s friend suggested we hike up to the Catwalk trail for the views. You don’t have to ask me twice to take in summit views and conditions were perfect for the short hike up to Killington’s true summit. At the top we took in the 360 degree views where we could see all the southern Vermont ski areas, plus West, Gore (barely) and Whiteface mountains in NY.
Next we hiked down to the top of the Catwalk ski trail. It was steep and narrow – looking a bit intimidating. After some thought, I went for it. My first turns felt a bit off, but I settled in and found my rhythm down the steep, narrow trail. Mark followed me down, meeting up to take a breather and connect on this amazing start to the day. It was close to a bucket-list experience, taking the hike, enjoying the views and skiing down the trail — all with perfect weather and conditions to make the experience fun.
The hike consumed a lot of time, but it was worth it. Our morning continued on Killington Peak. We took a relaxing run on Rime — a nice intermediate trail just to ease back a bit before tackling the steeps on Killington Peak. We spent the rest of the morning riding the Canyon and North Ridge lifts skiing mostly the steeper runs serviced by those lifts.
On every run the snow was deep, the bumps were everywhere and they were soft. Ice was minimal, to be found only in the mogul troughs on the steepest sections. After the morning runs we skied down to the base for the gondola ride to the summit lodge for lunch.
After lunch, we headed over towards Bear Mountain to ski that side of the mountain. We took a nice detour to the South Ridge area, skiing more bumps and enjoying the warm temps. From South Ridge we went to Bear for some laps off the Sky Peak Express. The summit of Bear Mtn is 1000 feet lower than the summit of Killington Peak, and the area gets the morning sun. This made the snow less fluffy and more dense, and the skiing became more difficult and tiring.
With mid-afternoon approaching, we decided to move over to Superstar and the other trails in that area. The snow was colder and lighter than Bear, which was a nice break. We skied a few runs on those Skye Peak trails next to Superstar and then made our way to a favorite of both Mark and myself – Old Superstar.
I like to joke and take pictures of my friends standing next to the Old Superstar sign — no one was game for my antics in the late afternoon. Old Superstar was lovely — it’s a perfect pitch and always bumped up. Sunday was special because the coverage was plentiful, the bumps were soft and there was no ice and few rocks. From here we continued back to K1 for our final ride to the top.
It was getting late, and skiing bumps all day was taking its toll. We decided to wrap things up with a few cruisers off the Snowden bubble chair before heading back to Ram’s Head. After all the effort involved in getting there, Sunday turned out to be a very special ski day. It was one of those ski days you never forget with perfect conditions, and weather, with great company. As Mark said after lunch, “it was like skiing in Colorado“, with the fresh powder and bluebird skies. It was one for the books, or maybe the blog.
We skied Killington in February. Can’t wait to return. I didn’t realize that Whiteface was visable from the summit.
That looks like a great trip. It’s about time I get back to Killington I think. Thanks for the reminder.