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Unfortunately, we had to head home today from VT, but the silver lining is that Killington happens to be on the way and is still the only mountain open in New England. The storm had dropped 6” at Sugarbush, but the conditions report seemed to indicate that the storm underperformed the further south you got, but since options were limited, we went for it anyway. We got a later start than we had hoped, but considering we had to clean up the townhouse and pack the car, it was to be expected. Route 100 was dicey and completely snow covered from Sugarbush to the intersection of Rt. 100 and 107 just outside of Pittsfield. It cleared up there until you got to the access road. Overall, it was a slow drive, but there were no close calls, so I’ll take that. All the parking lots at the K-1 are only accessible via Vale Rd, but luckily there were far fewer people today, and we could park in the main lot just below the ticket booth. The only downside to having the parking so far from the front of the lodge, and having to walk around the gondola garage, is that parking lot booting is a must. There is no drop off at the lodge. I always PLB, but for the snobs out there who like the finer things in life, I’m sure it’s a hassle. The snow guns were going t2b including the lower fan guns on Superstar, and the mercury showed a balmy 23 degrees at the base. We had reloaded our One Pass cards the night before, so straight to the lift we went. In stark contrast to Sugarbush, there were only about 2” of new snow on the ground. We were told that there was a decent amount of freezing rain, which was obvious from some of the cars in the parking lot, but luckily it never got warm enough for it to “straight rain” and effect the base. Also much different from yesterday, was the lift line situation. Every single lift all day was ski on, no gondolas were completely full, and my wife and I never shared a quad chair with another guest. We noticed on the first gondola ride up that there was definitely some wind today. It wasn’t an uncomfortable amount of wind, but considering the temp at the top was only 12, it made it chillier, but still quite manageable with proper layering. We started the day out with a pleasant t2b run off the gondola. Conditions were firmer than yesterday due to the precip, but Killington did a great job grooming and nothing was unedgable. Our second run was down Downdraft, which I had skipped yesterday. It was man made bumps, but there was enough traffic that there was enough snow to push around and it was surprisingly enjoyable. After that, we basically alternated between Rime, Reason, Double Dipper, Upper East Fall, and t2b runs. Double Dipper was the other trail I didn’t do yesterday. It was definitely thin. They clearly only made enough snow to give it bare bones cover and then let the natural snow fill it in. However, it had the most edgable snow, so every downside did have a silver lining. I know that Killington is in expansion mode, but it shouldn’t be that obvious. All of the original trails except Downdraft, Great Northern from the gondola to Rime, Upper East Fall, and Reason, need to be resurfaced. Rime is the primary early season trail and it is really thin and down to the ice/hard pack base. Great Northern to Bunny Buster is just getting thin. It was obvious that they wanted to get t2b, and it’s not bad for November 12, but it is also obvious that it doesn’t quite have the depth they prefer to have on it, especially in 2-3 specific spots. They were running the Snowdon Triple and Snowdon 6 Pack today, while also blowing snow on both, so I expect they will open this weekend with the temps they have until then. Overall, today was a B-. If it had been all snow, it would have been a top 5 early season day. We took 7 runs off the quad today and 3 t2b. The thermometer in the car registered 19 nearly 2.5 hours later. I would have liked another run or two, but we have a 7.5 hour drive ahead of us, so we made the smart call and headed out. Not to mention, it was only my second day and my wife’s first, so it was also smart not to push too hard too early. It was significantly colder, so I didn’t take as many pics, but as usual, they are below.

Lol. I got a new whip last month to hopefully avoid anything like that this winter. Swapped the Jeep for a Jeep! ‘16 Grand Cherokee 75th Anniversary Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When Blue features PASR on the home page of their website...

This may come in handy. You could cross out boarding and write in skiing.

Shadows I assure you *I* am not just another girl.

Saturday and maybe later Sunday. I already had a date with my daughter to hang Elsa and Anna at the trampoline park in the morning. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This morning in the MRV. About 6” and still snowing when we left about 8 AM...

Yes..so many factors will make it a shitshow this year. They announced opening 5 days out, its not on a holiday(some don’t go Black Friday..due to work and family stuff), they’ll be one of the first open, lots of social and print media attention and the number one reason is they aren’t opening until 9am. Doesnt really matter it’s bonus skiing..ski a couple runs have a couple beers enjoy the high elevation sunshine.

The Elk-cam shows real snow is besting the snow guns once again. That's twice in a week.

That Jeep Grand Cherokee is the same one (and same color) my husband has. I don’t think our is 75th anniversary edition but they are so nice. Whenever I take a road trip with my friends I always use his car. Those heated seats in the back are great. I got a Jeep too recently, but more for summer Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This start is so early I haven't cleared my calendar yet for skiing.

The big question is, will Bear Creek open before Camelsack? I for one, sure hope so. Along those lines, i havent seen any activity in the Montage area either.

As always, I started off the morning with grand expectations of getting to the mountain at opening, which is currently 9 AM. Unfortunately, I slept like garbage, so I slept in until about 8 AM. I wasn’t too concerned, because I knew that it would be busy due to the holiday, that lines would decrease throughout the day, and that the storm would begin around noon, so conditions would ultimately be refreshed. I may be in the minority with this statement, but I would rather have slightly worse conditions than wait in a lift line to get fresh cord first thing in the morning. After snagging a coffee at our local market, I drove down to Killington and arrived in the parking lot at 10:30. Flurries were in the air and the temperature hovered around 28 degrees. All early season base operations are still out of the K-1 base lodge, but due to the construction of the new base lodge in front of the old one, a good chunk of the parking lot there is inaccessible and you can’t drive up the main road. I parked just off the access road on Vale road where there were shuttles waiting to shuttle us up to the base. Since the ticket booth is in the front of the old lodge, which is currently blocked by new construction, Killington setup a temporary ticket booth and stairs just below the new gondola cabin storage garage with a very nicely paved walkway all the way around it to the now heated K-1 Gondola lift corral. They really went above and beyond to make the temporary experience enjoyable. Since I already had a One Pass (Killington’s RFID card), I reloaded it online the night before and went straight to the lift. The K-1 lift corral was about halfway full, but I hopped in the singles line, and there were only about 15 people in front of me. Unfortunately, this happened to coincide with the same time they decided to remove a cabin from the haul cable, so the gondola was stopped, and the entire corral filled up behind me. After a ten minute wait, the gondola started back up and I was finally able to get through the gate. I was a little wary since it was the first time I had ever reloaded a lift ticket online, but I went right through without any issues. After unloading the gondola, I checked the thermometer at the peak, and it also registered 28 degrees. There was snowmaking ongoing at elevation, but it must have been about as marginal as it gets. There were intermittent snow showers and some freezing fog, so humidity had to be close to 100%. Killington was advertising 10 open trails today, but it is really only 5 distinctive trails at the top along with the Great Northern/Bunny Buster runout to the bottom. Downdraft was open, but since I didn’t walk around the unload at the top of the gondola, I missed it. Double Dipper was also open, but coverage was very shoddy and I didn’t want to beat my gear up unnecessarily. I mostly stuck to a combination of Rime, Reason, Upper East Fall, and Great Northern. I was pleasantly surprised that coverage was decent enough that they didn’t need guns on open terrain, which really helped visibility, since I’m sure the guns were running quite wet. Rime and Upper East fall had very similar conditions. Slick down the middle, but tons of packed powder on the side with some small bumps. Reason is the new Woodward park and looked to have a great setup. There were tons of jibhonks. I usually don’t mind, but the bottom feature is basically at the intersection of Great Northern/Upper East Fall/Reason, so there were tons of jibhonks blocking the trail off the gondola so they could watch their buddies hit the last feature. Great Northern/Bunny Buster was probably the best run of the day. It’s the widest trail, is slightly flatter, and it has the freshest snow, so it had the best conditions by far. I was pleasantly surprised that Killington made the unprecedented decision (since the World Cup started) to suspend snowmaking on Superstar to get t2b. They knew they could finish the course with the cold weather coming this week, and they have an extra week for course prep, so they went for it. Kudos to them. Overall, I mostly stayed at the top of the mountain off the brand spanking new North Ridge Quad. The singles line was basically ski on all day. I think I had to wait twice. Once was a line of 7 and once was a line of 3. I made the mistake around 1 PM of switching it up and going t2b, and despite the NRQ being ski on, the gondola was mayhem. The entire corral was full and the singles line was about 15 minutes long. After 6 more runs at the top, I asked a skier how the line was down at the bottom. He told me that it was only 5 minutes long, so I decided to go down again. I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was no lift line and I was able to walk right on. I took two more runs up top and finished my day with another run to the bottom. Overall, I finished my day with 14 runs. 10 off the NRQ and 4 t2b. It was a great first day and my entire body is exhausted. My legs were really starting to feel it at the end. I really wanted run #15, but my turns weren’t crisp and I knew I was on the verge of pushing it too far. It started snowing in earnest around 1, but it only amounted to about an inch by the time I left. I would grade today as an overall B+. I have yet to have a bad early season day at Killington, and I’m glad that continued. I still think the North Ridge pod of trails is one of the best early season offerings in New England, especially if it’s not t2b. There is solid tree skiing, some good bump runs, and a good cruiser. I’m looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow. As usual, pictures are below (I’m sure GSS skipped right to them):

7th is debatable.

Hell no, Element needs alot of work to be drivable and alot more to be safe LOL she's getting a clutch/flywheel now and then I'll do the rest of the stuff at my house. She'll be back sometime this season. I did drive it 56miles with no clutch which was pretty exciting. Starting the car and pulling out in gear was fun.

i'm hungry

Nom nom nom!

6-8 feet deep for opening unless they expand to lazy mile. Believe that...they haven’t had this long of a cold stretch this early in a long time. Teens tonight

Cover your ass. If they don’t open for whatever reason, the “if all goes well we anticipate” will be the fall back

They don’t give you a hotel shuttle yet?

Snowing on the Blue summit lodge cam!!!!

This is so fucking dank ! Can't believe turns and beers pre Thanksgiving I'm coming home Saturday so I can't be there but Sunday for sure. Can't wait to see you guys

Put the board away!

Yup...Barney’s Bumps probably as well.

Circus tent in background.

1. Blue 2. Elk 3. Camelback 4. Montage 5. Jf

Shawnee is better because stone cold said so Salty...And that's the bottom line.

Maybe 7th is about right. Could be lower though. Here's what I got above CB... Mt Mik Elk Blue Jackson Frost Montage Shawnee Never been to the below but putting them above CB simply because...so realistically we're looking at 12 or 13 maybe? Blue Knob Whitetail Denton Seven springs Roundtop

Be sure to send the PA department of revenue $10.20 you don’t want to be a tax cheat.

Wilmington is a pure, 100% shithole. They are building up the waterfront somewhat, like a smaller northern liberties. It's nice, but still kinda sucks (we call it "Wilmington Good"). But the biggest problem, IMO, is that nobody really lives here, they all commute in from Philly or surrounding suburbs, and it will probably always be that way. I can't think of a single reason to live here aside from a convenient commute if you work at any of the major financial companies. Decent real estate is super expensive, rent is up there with real cities, and everything else is in the super duper hood. Nothing cool as far as attraction, culture, etc. either. There is nothing to do on weekends or nights, because everyone goes home. There's actually a good amount of restaurants here that are only open for lunch during weekdays.

I would think it would have to be. Love to see them going after it hard. Shit will probably be chips ahoy but it's irrelevant for pre thanksgiving turns

GUNS ON MAIN STREET BACK IN ACTION!

Fuck no. Did it suck to ski behind you ? For sure but that was like your james bond oil slick. On a day with some more granular granular you couldn't be within 20 ft of you which is a definite safety feature at blue. i got new pants, new gloves and a sort of new car for ski season. I still have to get a new pair of daily drivers for blue but I'm not feeling anything right now.

Burma isn’t going to be open. I’d be pumped with just vista.

GUNS ARE BACK ON!!!!

That base is going to be deeeeeeeeeeeep

Malvern talk @saltyant and crazy that here in the A it’s 35.

its 34 degrees, a little breezy with light flurries every once and a while here in Malvern.

It's even snowing in beautiful wilmington

snowing in Norristown. sweet.

It will still be a shitshow regardless, but at least Bear Creek and Boulder will be open too (BC being the wild card here to attract the southern peeps). Probably wishful thinking, but that might divert the crowds just a hair. Shawnee cams looked like crap, but maybe if they pull together an opening too that will be even better.

Getting Stoked. Stocking up on beer this week

Saturday for opening. Sunday I'll be up after my race for a couple of runs. You'll probably still be in the lot when I finally get there 😂

Just saw this. I’ll be there.

some pow porn.

Me after logging into PASR after a long day at work and and seeing that blue is opening this weekend

Fuck yeah ski you there!

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WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 1 PM MONDAY TO 1 PM EST TUESDAY... * WHAT...Heavy snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 6 to 10 inches. * WHERE...Portions of central, northeast and northwest Vermont and northern New York. * WHEN...From 1 PM Monday to 1 PM EST Tuesday.