vinnyv11 Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Sorry this took so long to get out but here’s my trip report for part one of my VT trip. Day 1 Conditions: Snowing with 5-7 Inches down, overcast and WIND!!!! So we arrived at Killington Friday night and were staying at the Grand Resort so morning boot up couldn’t have been better with direct slope access just had to walk across the bridge. We headed out and right then you knew how the day was going to be with winds gusting consistently in the 20-30 mph range. Got on the lift at 8:15 and headed up to the top of Snowshed to head down to the main area. The wife was with us so we headed over to Ramshead because she wanted to start on some of the easier runs. We headed up the quad and ran down Easy Street and Header which were awesome. Amazing the difference fresh snow and length to a run make. Definitely got me amped for the weekend seeing just how much longer/bigger the mountain/trails were then my normal experiences. We then headed down Caper over to the Snowdon lift to head up to the top of Snowdon. Crowds were pretty good and lift lines were great at this point so we headed up quickly and the wife wasn’t feeling very comfortable so another easy run down Frolic and Great Northern over to the K-1 to warm up and meet with our other friends. After a quick restroom break we headed up the K-1 Gondola (awesome first time experience) and I got to see the peak for the first time. I’d say the view was amazing but at this point the snow/wind was really kicking up and you could barely see 10 feet in front of you. We took Great Northern all the way down and took Bunny Buster over to the lodge to drop off the wife who at this point was wiped for now so she headed over to the Snowshed lift to work on the beginner slope. This is when the real day began for me. After splitting up this is when the day started getting a little hectic at this point about half the mountains lifts were on wind holds/closed so the Gondola and other lifts were mob scenes. We got on the Snowdon triple and headed up to really start exploring the mountain. My friend decided we should do a nice warm up run for me since I’d been limited with my wife earlier so we headed down Killink to East Falls which was a nice black pitch with bumps. So much for a warm up as I have never skied outside of PA I have little to no experience with bumps so this was a great learning experience. Made it down the run and we took the Spillway over to find out that the Canyon quad wasn’t running so we continued down Spillway and over to the Snowdon Quad (one of the seven lifts we really had access to given the wind holds) as the Gondola was still a mob scene (about a 25-45 minute wait). As we headed up we noticed that the natural snow was starting to bump up nicely so we decided to shoot down the Chute which was a great run as you could really rip through some turns and hop over and between some natural bumps. We lapped this area several times hitting Chute, Bunny Buster, Great Bear, North Star and Mouse Trap for a while. Mouse trap was a nice run with a quick pitch but natural bumps forming so a lot of people were getting eaten alive. This part of the mountain was really starting to get crowded given the wind holds as the day progressed so the areas that had thin cover were starting to get a little icy but icy to me and icy to people in Vermont are completely different stories I imagine. After a bunch of runs we noticed that with about an hour left the Supestar lift started to spin so we shot over there to head up to the top. Once we got up there we took two runs down Superstar which was awesome with nice snow on skier’s right where you could really go down. However, with the winds really gusting on my second run I pretty much got stood up and stopped on the headwall with tips down I wasn’t moving at all, pretty priceless. After these two runs we got the last lift up and we took a flying run down Skylark to High Road and down the Snowshed slope to the hotel. All in all given the wind and wind holds I had a great day. We got a lot of runs in and I got a lot of first experiences in fresh powder, bumps, long trails, steeps, etc. Apres Ski/Night After a nice open to close day on the slopes we headed upstairs where our keys of course didn’t work and eventually got changed and headed down to the pool/hot tub. We chilled in the pool/hot tub for about an hour and a half then headed up to get ready to go out. The hot tub was awesome but could have been a little warmer plus with the wind really whipping your head got chilly fairly quick. After getting ready we decided on Irishsnow’s recommendation and headed over to the Wobbly for a great dinner since the cover was included if you ate. We got there an had to wait about 35 minutes which wasn’t bad because we just continued the drinks from around the hot tub and hotel bar. Eventually we got seated and ordered our food. I got a awesome porterhouse and the rest of my group also had a really nice meal. After eating we headed upstairs to see the band and start the drinking. Was a lot of fun with a good atmosphere the band (Garden State Radio) was pretty good and worked with the crowd. Drinks were pretty expensive but expected and we had a great time. Headed out around 1:30 and hit the sack at least until the fire alarm went off at 3:00 lol hour later finally asleep. Day 2 Conditions: Perfect bluebird sky light wind early and none late a little chilly After our night ordeals only my friend and I were able to get out of bed early. We had breakfast at the hotel, grabbed our ski’s from check and hit our first lift at about 8:10 up the Snowshed lift. On the way up the lift we were getting hit with real bad winds similar to the day before and we thought we were in for another day of wind holds but luckily the wind dissipated. Since it was early we decided to head down to the K-1 Gondola so we could head up to the peak and over to Bear Mountain. The ride up and peak were incredible with perfect bluebird skies you could see off into the distance forever. The views all day were amazing. To get our legs going we decided we’d take an easy run over to Bear Mountain so we took Blue Heaven to the Jug. The groomer’s did a great job with what they were working with considering the wind because Blue Heaven was covered beautifully however, the Jug was a different story. This trail was pretty narrow with an old lift in the middle which was fine but the entire trail was a sheet of ice with the exception of a small grove in skier’s right of boot deep fresh untracked powder. We headed down keeping right with some hairy moments hitting the ice and sliding toward the center a good bit but we survived, so much for a warm up run. We took the Jug Handle down from here which was an awesome drop off into completely fresh untracked powder. Another first experience for me which I can now see why everyone gets so excited about it. Even thought it was a short run I can see the appeal. We then took Jug Handle over to Bear Cub which was a nice long green to get us down to the base of Bear Mountain. We headed over to the Skype Peak Quad to take a look around what there was to offer. Then we took a run down Skyburst and down wildfire which was perfectly covered with some nice snow on the trail really let you feel the carving and get some speed. Now that the legs were under us we headed up the Bear Mountain Quad to take a run down Outer Limits. At this point there were minimal people on it with mostly racers training for a race later blazing down the steep pitch trail. We took our first run and it was awesome with great coverage a wide base and a steep pitch. We lapped Outer Limits a few times really picking up some speed on the long trail and headed back up the quad to head down Wildfire to Skyburst and over to the Superpipe so we could check it out. The pipe was awesome about 25 foot walls still and I never quite realized how big they were till you got into it. We headed back up Skype Peak Quad and made our way over to the Stash (Terrain Park) to check it out as some people had told us how unique it was and we weren’t disappointed what a neat experience heading through there with great jumps, all kinds of rails, tree skiing a little bit of everything. After running down the Stash we made our way down to the lift and back up to move on. At this point my friend was ready for the restroom so we decided to head the long way down to the Skyeship lodge. We headed over to Needles Eye which had thin cover signs up which had massive amounts of bumped up snow and some areas with rocks protruding (didn’t notice till on the way down) we started our way down and naturally not being experienced I had some difficulty and hit a bump dug in and finally took my first bite of the trip. Not to bad since I wasn’t really moving to quick but a fall all the same. Making our way down we noticed the rocks and real thin cover until we got dumped off onto Great Eastern. A tough trail that wasn’t too long but with a good pitch, large bumps and thin cover in between was enough for us for a bit so we headed the long trek down Great Eastern. Wow that trail was long. Felt like it went on forever. We hit the lodge relaxed for a bit and headed back up the two stages of the Gondola back up to Skye Peak. We then took a run down Skylark which was nice snow where you could get a lot of speed and figured we would just head down to the Superstar lift by heading down Skylark the whole way. Well Skylark lower didn’t disappoint with the largest bumps I’ve ever seen and a fairly good pitch. This was by far the most technical portion of my day and took me a little bit to get any rhythm going including a couple stops and repositions. I made it down with a little sense of accomplishment but the legs were really burning. We headed up the Superstar lift and did a couple runs down Superstar which was in great condition with nice grooming in the center and bumps to the outside. After a few runs we decided to head over to the Killington Peak to check out some of the other areas so we shot down Skylark and Bittersweet to pick up some speed to get to the Gondola which had little to no line. The theme through out the day seemed to be that the place had a lot of people but they were all spread out and therefore, no lift lines were more then a five minute wait all day which was awesome. We took Cascade down to Spillway which was an awesome run with natural snow starting to form little mounds that were easily manageable with a sustained pitch and nice headwall. After heading down to Spillway we headed up the Canyon quad so we could do some more runs up here. At the top of the quad we lapped Rime which had nice natural bumps into East Fall which was a bumped up black. I really felt like I picked up some good experience on these runs and started to get a little more technique even though on my third lap I had my second fall of the trip when I hopped a bump and tried to turn on top of the next bump spinning me around. At this point we got the call from the wife and our other friend for lunch around 1ish so we did one more lap and headed down Spillway to the Cascade Runway and over to the K-1 Lodge for lunch. Food was good but expensive as expected. After meeting up with our other friend and a nice lunch we headed out and up the K-1 Gondola we didn’t really have a game plan from here and ended up heading down Bear Trax to Launch Pad to Nivis Walk and down Superstar. Heading back up the Superstar quad we decided to head over to Bear Mountain to check out the Stash again as my one friend wanted to hit the staircase so we headed down Gateway to the Stash. Again the Stash was fun and I did a couple of the smaller jumps off the side. After this we headed down Spacewalk which had a bunch of jumps on it and down Outer Limits and to the Skye Peak Quad. Outer Limits at this point looked like some large bumps were forming and the racers had skied off a majority of the snow so we decided to avoid it and head back over toward the K-1 Lodge as it was starting to get a little later. We shot down Skylark to Bittersweet again and made our way over to the Superstar quad doing a couple laps on Superstar and then heading over to the Gondola. At the peak we figured this was our last run and we were pretty tired so we figured we’d take a nice long run down Great Northern and cut off at Mousetrap. We of course missed out turn and headed down the Chute which had big bumps on skier’s left and was a little icy on the right. We got to the bottom realized we had two minutes till four and shot back up the Snowdon quad to get a last run in we decided Bunny Buster to Mousetrap which had nice natural bumps after you got past a sheet of ice and down Bunny Buster to the lodge. All in all this day was amazing we covered a lot of ground the conditions were excellent and the views were incredible. I feel like I had a great experience for my first trip to Vermont and the Beast was a lot of fun and the first leg of my tour was fairly successful. The mountain has definitely felt the pain of the winter with a lot of trails still being closed or with thin cover but still so much to do with great cover, interesting trails and a massive mountain to cover. Can’t wait for this weekend where leg 2 will start a possible amendment to the itinerary though as we can’t find a hotel near Plattekill so we might do the whole drive up Friday and hit Smuggs on Saturday instead but haven’t decided. Hope this report wasn’t too long pictures below: Top of Killington Peak Real Windy No Visibility: In Lift Line on Snowdon Quad looking up at Superstar/Ovation: Heading Up Superstar Quad: Wobbly Barn: Killington Peak Day 2 (A little different) Looking Out over Outer Limits Looking Out over Superstar Looking up Needle's Eye after it handed me my ass Superpipe Last Pic on the mountain Sunset on drive home 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burton71 Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Glad you had a good time. Hope you got some tree runs in. My friend was there this weekend and said the trees were the best they have been all year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Law Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 It looks nice up there, super jealous... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbike-ski Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 looks great but i only see dudes at the bar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast21602 Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 looks great but i only see dudes at the bar there is a chick singing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnyv11 Posted February 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 looks great but i only see dudes at the bar Was a bit too much sausage but there was some quality in the crowd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timeless Posted February 29, 2012 Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 Nice trip report, some nice classic VT pictures. Sometimes I miss the VT mountains, had some great times up there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnyv11 Posted March 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 Confirmation this weekend's itinerary has been adjusted from Plattekill to Smuggs. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryHugo Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 there is a chick singing... totally a tranny. great pics, Vinny. looks like you had a blast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar73 Posted March 1, 2012 Report Share Posted March 1, 2012 (edited) Confirmation this weekend's itinerary has been adjusted from Plattekill to Smuggs. a def upgrade. they've got ton's of snow up there now. if you can, see if you can swing by stowe while you're up there. about a 30-45 min drive south. smuggs and stowe are literally next door neighbors (smugg's sterling peak area is only a mile away from stowe's spruce peak area....they're on the same mtn). def worth the side trip. have fun! Edited March 1, 2012 by guitar73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zzslope Posted March 3, 2012 Report Share Posted March 3, 2012 Confirmation this weekend's itinerary has been adjusted from Plattekill to Smuggs. Looking forward to your T.R. from smuggs. Used to go there with a crowd of friends every year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinnyv11 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Part 2 I skiied alot. I had a good time. I'm tired. Done. J/K work's crazy busy so haven't had a chance to write it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timeless Posted March 14, 2012 Report Share Posted March 14, 2012 Part 2 I skiied alot. I had a good time. I'm tired. Done. . not a lot worse than some TR's posted on here, just forgot to mention the food..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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