The Super Pipe at Bear Mountain is all dressed up for this weekends Dew Tour.

The Super Pipe at Bear Mountain is all dressed up for this weekends Dew Tour.

Between yesterday and today, I have spent about 3 hours at the resort skiing. Mary is down south visiting her elderly parents. Life goes on up here in Killington, and that includes skiing. Roughly an hour and a half each day. Kind of like going for a jog in the city, only with a couple of thousand dollars worth of equipment attached.

The two days could not have been any more different. Mondays excursion was in a driving snow storm. Tuesdays was in the snow storms aftermath. Both days had some really nice skiing.

Monday I met up with some Killington friends. With visibility being poor, and wind conditions uncertain, we stayed on the Killington Peak side of the resort. My time on the mountain before heading back to man the inn was pretty simple: a couple of runs through the North Ridge Area followed by some laps on Snowdon. Snow on Monday was soft, the result of continuous precipitation the whole morning. About 11, the group I was skiing with bolted off Snowdon for other parts of the resort. I called it quits while I was ahead and went back to work (somebody has to do it!) at the inn.

Today was totally different. After cooking breakfast for inn guests, I was on the mountain at the crack of 11:00 AM. I parked in the Vale parking lot for a few hard runs to get some excercise. I started out with a simple traverse to the quad on Snowshed. From there, I went to the Superstar Quad to access the rest of the mountain.

My first real run was through the Stash. Yesterdays snow got progressively denser as it fell over the course of the evening. It never really turned to sleet, but it had a high moisture content. Where skiers and riders had been, dense snow piles were building. Not light the fluff bumps of last week. Todays snow piles were firm. They let you know when you hit them. Areas that still had the corduroy from last nights grooming were silky smooth. The surface was not quite wet. But it was definitely pliable (hence the firm snow piles).

I exited the Stash to Bear Mountain via Lower Wildfire. The Dew Tour Village is dramatically taking shape at Bear Mountain. Tents are being erected all over the place (some in ski lanes, although there is fencing around them). The Super Pipe is carved. The light poles and TV towers on the Super Pipe are impressive. Lower Skye Burst is being sculpted for the Snow Cross events. Huge features are visible from the Skye Peak quad.

But I was here to ski, not gawk, so from the Skye Peak Quad I took Skye Burst to middle Dream Maker to Cruise Control. All were nice surfaces; fairly fast, with small bumps at regular intervals. As I exited Cruise Control, I was faked out by the resort. The Needles Eye Quad was running. When I got to it, there was a rope across the entrance with the dreaded "Lift Closed" sign. So I headed over to the Skyship Stage 2 for a boost to the top of Skye Peak.

From here I took a top to bottom run down Skylark. Skiers right from the top to the middle was relatively untracked. Lower Skylark was bumped in several places, with a couple of slick spots thrown in to keep things honest.

I lapped the Superstar chair (because it was there). Superstar was basically flat and fast. Some skier made bumps, but nothing of consequence. I finished, so I would be both warm and not bored, with a run down Old Superstar. Bumps, soft snow, untracked sections, and lots of bushes to turn around was the order of the day. There is so much character in Old Superstar, it was a fun run for my last of the day.

From there, it was a quick ride down the lower headwall of Superstar and a traverse across the resort to the car. I was warmed up, my body got some exercise, and I was reminded once again about how nice it is to live in Killington and be on the mountain.

.....Let it snow!