Vermont TR Dec 2nd/3rd

[Timeless]

Quick(ish) trip report from VT this weekend.

 

Left from work in NJ late friday PM, still 72 degrees, getting some very stange looks from other people at the office. Hit big T-storms around albany still near 70 degrees, getting very concerned by this point.

 

Once past Albany the temps started to drop and in Killington it was in the low 40's when we arrived at 9.30pm. Went for beer, very worried that nowhere would be open in the morning. Checked out the slopes on the way, they are mostly to completely bare, no way they could open.

 

Saturday morning went straight to Okemo, they are open with the same trail (claiming 4) as they've had all week, but $30 a ticket with a coupon for a $39 day ticket in the sping seems reasonable. They bus us to a lift which takes us to the summit lodge where you can pick up the open trails.

 

The trail is basically one (mild) black diamond trail (Upper World Cup) with lots of slushy bumps and bits marked off with poles, then catch another lift back up and take a connecting green trail back to where you started. It's quite a fun trail and the conditions are suprisingly good, but more importantly IT"S SNOW and I'M RIDING AGAIN thank you Okemo.

 

So we lap this set-up 15 times, the crowds don't get much worse but the snow in places is getting mighty rutted and thin, they are blowing on some other trails, but none on the ones they have open, go figure.

 

We quit a little after lunchtime, saving some legs for Killington on Sunday. Spend the afternoon swimming, hot-tub, Sauna etc at friends condo complex. A great day.

 

Sunday morning, Killington claiming 11 trails but this turns out to be very optimistic on their part. When we arrive for first lifts (we actually had the 4th or 5th gondola) it's basically just Great Northern into lower bunny-buster, with all the snow guns blazing, zero grooming (or close to it) and a fair amount of people. The cover is good but "variable" would be the best you could say about the surface and the guns are blasting straight across the trails making it impossible to see anything at some crucial points, there are lots of people on the floor. Also some very scary holes at the trail edges (drains?) with no poles to mark them off, very dangerous with the limited visibility.

 

So we lap this until they open upper bunny with the triple, tried that once but the snow is too slow and soft for the pitch and it's very iffy when you cant see anything so we left that one alone.

 

Eventually they open the northridge triple and we get a few great runs down reason and east fall which have big mounds of snow but are fast and not too busy. This lasts for 3 lift rides before the liftlines are 20 minutes and we bail from there back onto great northern which is carnage by this point (around 11.30) there are bodies everywhere, the snow is a mess, it's time to leave.

 

We take one more run on the gondola (20 minutes) my friend (condo owner and Kiliington devotee) gets wiped out twice on the way down and pronounces "this is F-in' madness", so we quit a little after 12.

 

It was great fun, a little dangerous but K's always a bit like that early season. I'll work out my vert and stuff later. Now it's back to work...

 

Considering the conditions it was a very good first weekend

Edited December 4, 2006 by Timeless

[AtomicSkier]

Great to hear that you skied this weekend! A buddy of mine who lives down the hall lives in Mass, and went to Mt Snow to pick up his pass and they were closed, so he hiked

[skifreak]

Nice.

[pyro_boarder]

Nice trip report. I was also riding this weekend so I'll tack mine in this thread.

 

We left State College at around 4ish and arrived in Vermont at around 1-2 in the morning. We stayed up until 4ish because we already knew that the mountain was closed. On Saturday we got up around 2 and went and hiked the bunny slope for about an hour. It couldn't have been more that 150' vert. but it was snow. I had a great time; it just felt great to ride. It was quite the sight to see about 50 people hiking the only patch of snow in the area. The best part was that the employees were really cool about it and were actually excited to see that so many people willing to hike for just a small patch of snow.

 

The next morning we got up after a pretty hard night, but managed to get out there by 9 or 10. The terrain was limited and conditions were iffy, but I was riding and that's all that mattered. They had the guns going in a lot of trails and there was a lot of thin cover, but there were some sections that were excellent. I did a lot of bump runs and some cruising, as well as trying not to hit the people down hill. I didn't get in as may runs as I would have liked, but I had a good time. The only good thing about not riding Saturday is that I got a voucher for the lift ticket, so I will be making another trip up this season when they have more terrain open.