Under the guns..

Under the guns..

Polar vortex be damned. In my 60 years of existence, the first time I heard about a "Polar Vortex" on a public weather forecast was this year as part of the hysteria the weather people are trying to push on the American public in an attempt to gather ratings and please advertisers. It's January. It's winter. Temperatures are supposed to be below freezing!

That's enough rant.

Ski conditions today were excellent. Because of inn related activities, we got out on the mountain about 10 AM and skied for 3 hours, taking well over a dozen runs in the process. Following the Weather Channels hype, we expected very cold temperatures. Our expectations were dashed. What greeted us as we got off the gondola on the top of Killington Peak was bright sunshine and temperatures in the upper single digits to low teens; exactly the kind of temperatures one would expect at Killington in late January.

Snow making operations, as they should this time of year, were taking place all over the mountain. Snow guns were making beautiful, dry, fluffy snow on Wildfire, Skye Burst, Skye Lark, Bitter Sweet, just to make a few trails. Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet featured huge 10 to 15 foot whales of snow, an indication that the snow guns have been running for more than just a day in the same location. Between the whales of snow, and the light fluffy snow emanating from the guns, Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet were a lot of fun, and good exercise too!

On Bear Mountain, Bear Trax and the Stash were flat and fast. Surfaces were machine groomed packed powder over a firm base. There was little to no exposed ice. Overall the surface was very forgiving, allowing edge to edge carving turns with very little side slip.

Skye Burst had snow making taking place at the top, just below the lift station. New snow had been made from the top all the way to the old Snow Shed cross over, resulting in a nice soft surface. Lower Skye Burst also had seen some snow making love from the Fan Gun positioned on the lower third of the trail. The earlier granular surface has been replaced with a mix of man and mother nature made. Skier traffic over the weekend will probably generate some minor bumps, based on the deep snow depths. The only scratch evident on Skye Burst was at the Viper Pit. But "point em down hill" and it is over, so most people would not even notice. But for purposes of accurately reporting conditions, it is worth noting.

Wild Fire was seeing lots of guns on the upper section. The middle section had seen some love earlier in the week. There were still guns going on the lower section. They were covering a "rusty" area of snow; probably the product of a snow gun gone bad. But the resurfacing on Lower Wildfire was successfully covering up what ever the oops was; leaving a nice surface in it's wake.

Upper Dream Maker has seen tons of new snow made on it. Which is too bad, because Middle Dream Maker should have been closed today. There was a suspicious "Thin Cover" sign posted at the entrance to Middle Dream Maker. Thin cover indeed. How about exposed rocks and sheets of unforgiving ice that was so hard that freshly tuned skis could barely make a difference. I actually skied in the low brush off the side of the trail on skiers left for a couple of hundred feet the trail was so heinous. Hopefully Middle Dream Maker gets some snow made on it before the weekend, because there will be carnage if nothing is done about it. But one bad trail does not ruin a ski day, so off to Cruise Control we went. (Fyi - Lower Dream Maker was still closed, although the cover in it looked good when we skied beside it. Maybe this weekend???)

Cruise Control was as it's name implies. Just a beautiful cruiser today. From there, we went to Needles Eye. Needles had been closed earlier in the day for race training. We got there just as the ropes were dropped. Other than the racing line, the rest of the trail was still freshly groomed corduroy. It was flat and lightning fast, but that's was a racing trail is prepped for.

Enough has been said about Bitter Sweet and Skye Lark already. Go for the guns if you like powder. Go for the whales if you like to ride up and down features. Go for the glory late on the weekend, because with all that soft snow, hero bumps are bound to develop.

The Killington Peak side was also nice. Cascade was an edge to edge double black groomed cruiser today. Very little side slip on the steep pitch. East Falls also had greatness, as did Double Dipper. We look in amazement at several skier lines down Royal Flush. Being all natural, I am sure that the people who did it had fun, as will the ski shop that does the repairs to their equipment.

The weekend should be setting up to be nice at Killington. Temperatures are forecasted to rise to the upper teens and mid 20's during the day, which is very seasonable for this time of year. Bring your winter layers; pack a few hot hands; charge your boot heaters if you have them. You will have a great time on the slopes.

Let it snow!