Killington: Squeeze the Juice

I love Killington and whenever I can get a day there I feel privileged. Last Saturday was one of those days and it was as good as any spring skiing I’ve experienced in years.

Superstar

There are still two Indy Pass hills open in the east; Jay Peak in Vermont and Black Mountain of New Hampshire. And Camelback, in Pennsylvania, is very near to me, and making a heroic effort to stay open until May in spite of its southerly location. So I did have options.

I just had Saturday to ski and I just couldn’t justify a six hour back-and-forth to Jay or Black Mountain. I drove to Killington, which is still four hours, in each direction, for me.

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West Mountain: Last Indy Standing

It’s almost time to throw in the towel. Open ski resorts in the east have been dropping like flies. On the second weekend in April, in New York, my options were down to the ORDA hills and West Mountain in Queensbury. West is on the Indy Pass, it was an easy call to go check it out.

Getting to West is easy, it’s right off of the Thruway. Their spring hours were 10 AM to 4 PM so we weren’t required to get up early.

We took our time, stopped at a Stewart’s for breakfast on the way, and arrived at their Northwest Lodge around 9:50 AM. There were just a handful of cars ahead of us.

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Hudson Highlands: Breakneck Ridge and Bull Hill

Twenty-four hours before this ski tour began on February 26, I had no plans to ski in New York. I’d never skied in the Hudson Highlands, and I had never met my ski touring partner for the day, Ripitz a well-known character from the NYSkiBlog Forums.

ski bike
Rip’s Rig

In the fall, Rip and I spoke about meeting up for a hike, but winter came before we could make it work. On a whim, I reached out to see if he was open to skin up somewhere in Vermont.

He countered with skiing in the Hudson Highlands State Park instead and asked if I had my nordic skis with me (I did).

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