Snow guns making snow on Skyeburst at Killington, February 4, 2013

Snow guns making snow on Skyeburst at Killington, February 4, 2013

I will admit...I had trouble picking a picture for today. I had many shots of well snow covered, crowd free trails. I had a few pictures of high mountain peaks gleaming in a bright blue sky surrounded by puffy white clouds. I even had a picture of my partner Mary lining up to take one of the ramps in the Stash. But in every picture I looked at, there was one constant. Every picture had a snow gun somewhere pouring out snow. The resort is just cranking it out.

Yesterday was a casual ski day. We started from the Vail parking lot and skied right to the Rams Head lift. Header, the trail the Rams Head lift goes over, was well covered with no apparent thin spots. It was groomed flat, as one would expect for a beginner trail. The few people we saw coming down it were, for the most part, enjoying themselves...except for the lone newby who was straight lining it. From the look on their face, they probably did not know how to turn, and had barely mastered the pizza wedge concept. But this was a Monday morning, with no one on the trails, so there was little risk for a damaging collision. So it goes in the mountains sometime...

Caper over to Snowshed was firm underfoot with an inch or two of fresh powder on top. We barely turned to check our speed as we headed to Snowdon. Other than a few S turns to slow down before passing the couple of other skiers that were on Caper, the ride over to Snowdon from Rams Head was simple and quick. Normally we would follow Caper all the way to the Snowdon Quad. Lower Caper, however, was roped off. Snow guns were lined up and pumping snow down the trail from the Great Northern intersection to the lift. So we followed Great Northern briefly before making the left turn down Chute to the Snowdon Quad.

By this time we had met up with a friend and got engaged in a catch up conversation. Chute seemed well covered. The Fan Gun was going at Mousetrap as usual, building a huge pile of snow. At the top of the lift, we turned left and headed to Bunny Buster. Usually this trail is closed for race training, but as it was not roped off so we decided to take it back to the K1 Gondola. Bunny Buster was in perfect shape for edge to edge sweeping turns. I carved down Upper Bunny Buster this way until the last 100 yards or so, when I caught up with other skier traffic and resumed skiing in a lane. Mousetrap, due to the fan gun, was very well covered, with soft piles of fresh snow midway down the slope. Lower Bunny Buster running out to the K1 Gondola was flat and fast; very much like Caper, with a hard surface covered with a couple inches of fluff.

Off the K1 Gondola we traversed across Launch Pad to Skyelark to High Road to the Skyship mid station at Needles Eye. The traverse was well covered, as was Skyelark. High Road from the Snowshed crossover to Needles Eye was thin in places, especially on skiers right. But as the slope was basically empty of people, avoiding obstacles was not an issue anywhere along the traverse across the top of the mountain.

Coming back up the Skyship, we decided to try our luck on Cruise Control. I took the scenic route around the Vista Deck. This area was well covered until the final turn leading to Cruise Control which was fairly bullet proof. My skis are well tuned, so I did not skip a beat, but beginners in this trail section would need to hold it together for 50 yards or so to avoid any carnage. Cruise Control itself was in good shape. Flat and Fast as usual. Sweeping turns from skiers left to the middle of the trail, as the right side is still a little thin.

After another trip up the Skyeship, we decided to try our hand at Dreammaker. A traverse across the top of Skye Peak was required, with a couple of turns in places to avoid snow guns and roped off sections. I was in front of everyone a little too far. I passed a thin cover sign on one of the turns, knowing from Friday that this particular trail section was well covered and it was referring to another trail section further down the mountain. But this stopped the group behind me in their tracks. They proceeded down Great Eastern while I skied under the guns on Skye Peak into Dreammaker. Middle Dreammaker is thinly covered from the trail middle to skiers Left. The terrain park on Lower Dreammaker was beautiful, with nice rolling groomers covered with multiple inches of fluff. I would guess that since the freeze cycle last week that the resort has not groomed Dreammaker, knowing that the rock solid base would not bump up, while the soft fluff would accumulate and soften up the overall trail.

From the Skye Peak Express Quad, we headed out towards the Stash. Similar to Dreammaker, it featured firm underfoot with multiple inches of fluff. Minimal effort was required until the intersection with Skyeburst, where speed checks were required to be polite to other skiers on the mountain. Lower Skyeburst was a little scratchy. Snow Groomers were working to move the pile of snow from under the Fan Gun to build the Superpipe on Lower Dreammaker. Over the last couple of days they moved virtually the whole pile into the pipe to begin the process of carving it out. I would guess it would be open this weekend, but I have not heard anything official yet from the resort on when it will be available for people to ride.

We did a few more laps off the Skye Peak Quad before calling it a day. I decided to take Superstar as my last run before heading to the car. The traverse across an unnamed trail section at the bottom of Skye Hawk was interesting, as the resort has had a couple of snow guns mounding snow. I skied on top of one of the mounds and found myself about 20 feet in the air. I though the mound would be rounded, but the wind had made the back side rather abrupt, so I did the right thing and reversed my path to ski around it. It would have been fun to get some big air... but with my exoskeleton on my left knee reminding me to be good, I though better of it.

Superstar has an amazing amount of snow on it. Middle Superstar is set up with huge snow whales. I rode down skiers left. The sensation is very much like a quarter pipe, with constant up and down swells with turns at the top and bottom. Lower Superstar was machine groomed loose granular. I did run into a couple of small bumps which had small ice patches on their downhill sides. But after all...it is Lower Superstar and you should expect this stuff.

Temperatures overnight fell below zero once again, allowing the resort to continue to make snow efficiently across the mountains. And with light snow in the forecast for Wednesday and more expected on Friday, conditions at Killington should only get better.

Let it snow!