Message From Mike re: Snowmaking Plan

[winter]

http://www.killington.com/site/culture/ ... son-update

With only 160 days between our closing on June 1, 2017 and DAY ONE of the 2017/18 season on November 8, 2017 we had a short summer season here at The Beast. Thank you to our season pass and express card holders who joined us for a great first day of skiing and riding Wednesday. Our mountain operations team did an amazing job maximizing the snowmaking system to once again make us the first East coast resort to open, while also making significant progress on Superstar for the World Cup – a truly impressive feat.

I wanted to take a few moments to explain our current snowmaking plan over the next week or so. With only 16 days until the first racer leaves the start gate for the second Audi FIS Ski World Cup to be hosted at Killington, we remain focused on building the race venue on Superstar. We will be allocating additional snowmaking resources to Superstar over the next couple of days to build out the race venue.

We remain committed to offering daily skiing and riding in the North Ridge area and expanding terrain on the upper mountain. Upper Great Northern and Upper East Fall are currently getting attention from the snowmakers. For this coming weekend, we expect to be skiing and riding down into the North Ridge area via Great Northern but continuing to use the walkway to return to Killington Peak for downloading. We also expect Upper East Fall to open. At this time we plan to make the march down the lower mountain towards the end of the weekend or early next week should the current forecast hold or improve.

Not only does this strategy help ensure we can host the biggest event in East Coast skiing but also helps to ensure daily operations by focusing on upper mountain depths vs. thin top-to-bottom skiing. This will put us in a good position to withstand any warm-ups or r*** in the next few weeks. Hosting the World Cup is important to our brand here at Killington and even more important to the Vermont ski industry as a whole. We’re playing the long game and are committed to showing the world that some of the best skiing and riding in the world is right here in Vermont.

Once the race venue is complete, we look forward to taking advantage of the extra air capacity we’ve invested in for the World Cup venue build and using it to expand open terrain ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We have the best snowmakers in the business operating the most expansive snowmaking system in the East, further boosted by extra air capacity for World Cup; we’ll be skiing and riding to the bottom of K-1 and beyond soon.

Stay tuned to the conditions report at Killington.com/conditions as we progress through November, our plan is constantly changing and being updated as the weather and forecasts dictate. As always, I appreciate your feedback and invite you to email me at msolimano@killington.com should you have any questions.

Happy skiing,

Mike

[brownman]

Awesome report.

Mike & Jeff

[biged]

My questioned asked previously is why not open up superstar this weekend? All of the comments above make sense. Superstar is top to bottom under the guns. Yes you need to move a few guns but that isn't that bad and you allow people to say they skied on the course before the race. If the guns are wet then you will have a lot of one and done. You still need to groom the course so it isn't as bad as others say. Snow making on the beginning of the week will fill in any ruts. This needs to be considered this weekend.

[Highway Star]

Mike and POWDR can suck it. Yet another cop-out from Killington the King of cop-outs.

World Cup can't be out of Killington soon enough. I said many times that at the first hint of trouble opening K-1 top to bottom would be sacrificed to build the WC venue. The reality of it is actually worse than I expected, they're literally putting 75%+ of their snowmaking capacity on Superstar during optimal conditions. Killington is FIS's bitch, and neither care about Killington's customers.



I TOLD YOU SO.

[bruceol]

Open up SUPERSTAR for skiing this weekend !!!!!

[snoloco]

I would agree with HS, but without personally attacking Mike and saying told you so in all caps.

I've said this before. When you sign up to host a World Cup race, you are basically handing your ski area over to the FIS and they don't care one bit about public skiing.

They have to put as much capacity as they can on Superstar to get it ready. Guessing the FIS pretty much demands it until it's finished. Since Killington's entire pumping and air capacity can't be 100% focused on Superstar, they send whatever is left over to North Ridge so that they can still say they have public skiing.

Killington knew this when they signed up to host a World Cup, and they decided that hosting the only worldwide ski event in the east was more important than having the most terrain open in the east for this time of year. They could still open as early as ever and they decided that's what mattered most. They sacrificed having the ability to wipe the floor with all their competitors when it comes to terrain availability to hold the World Cup. Luckily the Max Pass exists and you can go to Okemo while Killington is all caught up in the WC and come back when it's over and they are focused on public skiing.

And the World Cup will eventually leave town. One bad year where it's 45 and r*ining during the whole event and it's done, toast, finished for good.

[Highway Star]

I would agree with HS, but without personally attacking Mike and saying told you so in all caps.

I've said this before. When you sign up to host a World Cup race, you are basically handing your ski area over to the FIS and they don't care one bit about public skiing.

They have to put as much capacity as they can on Superstar to get it ready. Guessing the FIS pretty much demands it until it's finished. Since Killington's entire pumping and air capacity can't be 100% focused on Superstar, they send whatever is left over to North Ridge so that they can still say they have public skiing.

Killington knew this when they signed up to host a World Cup, and they decided that hosting the only worldwide ski event in the east was more important than having the most terrain open in the east for this time of year. They could still open as early as ever and they decided that's what mattered most. They sacrificed having the ability to wipe the floor with all their competitors when it comes to terrain availability to hold the World Cup. Luckily the Max Pass exists and you can go to Okemo while Killington is all caught up in the WC and come back when it's over and they are focused on public skiing.

I admire your restraint. I'm livid about this.

[DrJeff]

No SS for a few obvious reasons I'm guessing...

#1 the base of SS is starting to become an active construction site as the grandstand assembly is beginning

#2 I'm guessing the type of snow they're pumping out on SS isn't light and fluffy, but thick and pasty and would eat many in the general public alive

[snoloco]

This is not just let's blow 10 inches of snow and drop the ropes for the public. They need 4 feet of really high water content cement and that's not something any of us would really like to ski on. YOur skis will sink right down into it and you'll crash and possibly be injured.

[skiadikt]

I would agree with HS, but without personally attacking Mike and saying told you so in all caps.

I've said this before. When you sign up to host a World Cup race, you are basically handing your ski area over to the FIS and they don't care one bit about public skiing.

They have to put as much capacity as they can on Superstar to get it ready. Guessing the FIS pretty much demands it until it's finished. Since Killington's entire pumping and air capacity can't be 100% focused on Superstar, they send whatever is left over to North Ridge so that they can still say they have public skiing.

Killington knew this when they signed up to host a World Cup, and they decided that hosting the only worldwide ski event in the east was more important than having the most terrain open in the east for this time of year. They could still open as early as ever and they decided that's what mattered most. They sacrificed having the ability to wipe the floor with all their competitors when it comes to terrain availability to hold the World Cup. Luckily the Max Pass exists and you can go to Okemo while Killington is all caught up in the WC and come back when it's over and they are focused on public skiing.

I admire your restraint. I'm livid about this.

of course you're livid ... because you're full of $hit and still ski here. damn you're dumb. when will you ever learn ...

[Highway Star]

And the World Cup will eventually leave town. One bad year where it's 45 and r*ining during the whole event and it's done, toast, finished for good.

Trust me, I have my fingers crossed for this. They deserve it. A pox on their houses.

[snoloco]

I never wish r*in on any ski area.

[Highway Star]

I never wish r*in on any ski area.

I'm willing to make an exception for this.

[biged]

No SS for a few obvious reasons I'm guessing...

#1 the base of SS is starting to become an active construction site as the grandstand assembly is beginning

#2 I'm guessing the type of snow they're pumping out on SS isn't light and fluffy, but thick and pasty and would eat many in the general public alive

1. Didn't notice the grand stand being constructed on Wednesday.
2. My expertise isn't snow making, from observations I would guess a dense snow is being made. If it was solid ice you would not be able to groom it flat. During the period of dense snow making I don't see an issue with opening up the trail for the weekend. Yes it is more work. Killington will then offer a better product then any of the competitors. Many of the people skiing on Saturday will not enjoy the surface which is why I commented one and done on Superstar earlier. Maybe someone with a little more knowledge of water injection vs salting of a race course is done can explain the process.
There may be a reason not to open the trail, but I haven't seen a logical reason yet. The Killington skier isn't good enough or it is a special snow isn't a good excuse.

[skiadikt]

I would agree with HS, but without personally attacking Mike and saying told you so in all caps.

I've said this before. When you sign up to host a World Cup race, you are basically handing your ski area over to the FIS and they don't care one bit about public skiing.

They have to put as much capacity as they can on Superstar to get it ready. Guessing the FIS pretty much demands it until it's finished. Since Killington's entire pumping and air capacity can't be 100% focused on Superstar, they send whatever is left over to North Ridge so that they can still say they have public skiing.

Killington knew this when they signed up to host a World Cup, and they decided that hosting the only worldwide ski event in the east was more important than having the most terrain open in the east for this time of year. They could still open as early as ever and they decided that's what mattered most. They sacrificed having the ability to wipe the floor with all their competitors when it comes to terrain availability to hold the World Cup. Luckily the Max Pass exists and you can go to Okemo while Killington is all caught up in the WC and come back when it's over and they are focused on public skiing.

And the World Cup will eventually leave town. One bad year where it's 45 and r*ining during the whole event and it's done, toast, finished for good.

i'd consider any day i skied okemo unlucky or unfortunate, but if that gets you off, have at it. we were top-to-bottom by t-giving last year and they will again be this year. all this whining is about about a week or two. a small price to pay when during the rest of the season, k literally buries the competition.