Killington Resort at noon on March 15th, 2012

Killington Resort at noon on March 15th, 2012

My morning jog this morning took me out for a few runs at the resort. I had about an hour and a half open this morning, so off the the mountain I went.

As usual when I have a short time on the hill, I parked this morning at the Vale parking lot and skied out of the car. Lower Great Northern to Rams Head was well covered with soft, consistent, snow. It was a good start for a few quick laps around the mountain.

From the Rams Head quad, I took Caper down to the Snowdon Quad. Upper Caper was bumpy near the lift, the product of beginner skiers and riders churning up the surface at random. Middle Caper was loose and wet where the southern exposure was capturing the available dim sun light. The lower end of Caper near Snowdon was firmer, the by product of being somewhat shaded by the thick forest around the trail.

From the Snowdon Quad I observed Chute, Great Bear, Mouse Trap and Lower Bunny Buster. Although I skied none of these runs, I can report that snow coverage was holding up well on all of the trails with the exception of Great Bear, which had significant patches of exposed mud. All of the other trails looked in great shape, although some of the beginners I was observing on the trail were having some trouble pushing the wet snow around as they proceeded downhill.

I traversed down Killink to East Fall; making my way to the Canyon Quad. East Fall had large, somewhat regular, soft bumps down it's entire face. The bumps in the middle and skiers right were somewhat larger than on skiers left. The hard pack in the troughs was quite soft and cuttable, but there was a lot of sliding going on as well. I noticed some tele skiers were having a good time maintaining good pace down East Fall. Most of the regular skiers were picking off 4 or 5 moguls at a time then stopping to reacquire a new line.

From the Canyon Quad I traversed across the top of the resort on Launch Pad. Along the way I noticed several trails that were roped off that the resort must be reserving for the weekend. Upper Ovation was one of them. I skied down Cruise Control which had small soft bumps. Needles Eye was well covered. Bittersweet had a few skid spots in places. Sky Lark was bumping up, the product of all of the snow on the trail that the resort had made earlier in the season.

I finished up on Superstar. It was surprisingly flat, the result of the resort continuously grooming the trail compressing the snow into hard pack. Middle Superstar was the softest part of the trail, with medium sized bumps developing. The lower headwall was interesting. It was basically a loose wet surface over a hard base. It seemed like my skis were acting like giant squeegees. It was quite possible to set an edge, but there was also a lot of slipping going on. I would have preferred that there were some bumps on the lower headwall, but with the mountain mostly dominated by advanced beginner skiers this week, the resort was clearly giving people some bragging rights to take home from their ski vacations.

Overall, the mountain is well covered. If you plan on traveling to Killington this weekend plan on spring skiing and riding conditions. Clothing could be interesting. You will need to bring both winter kit and spring shells if you plan on being out on the mountain early. But then again, if you are here this weekend, you probably already know about the joys of skiing in the spring.

Let it snow!!!