The snow report is useless

[Southside_Bobby]

While the quality of K's report has certainly deteriorated, at least the twice-a-day format remains. Usually, you can look at the evening report, and get a lift report for the following day that is "generally" accurate.

At many mountains, I can't see a lift/trail report for the day until after I am on my way to the hill in the morning.

[newpylong1]

Good point, it's been a real early morning and 4pm lift/trail update.

[ski]

Yeah Pretty lame . . . We hashed through this last season with my thread...
viewtopic.php?t=46896&start=120

[Captain Hafski]

“Happy Martin Luther King weekend Beast Fans! Our team here at Killington has been working hard to prepare the best skiing and riding conditions possible and we have some fun events as well. For more information on the events and activities we have planned click here. Remember that this Monday is a Peak Day, and we will be operating as if it was a weekend, everything will be open other than The Yurt and Wobbly Barn. It is looking to be a great long weekend here at The Beast and you are not going to want to miss out!”

I know nothing now!!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

To be fair, you only quoted part of the report [the first paragraph]. Further down they had some additional info re: what the conditions were.

[Captain Hafski]

How do we know that an "unskilled intern" is writing the conditions reports?

Does anyone KNOW who is writing these?

Re: grooming status. The app is pretty accurate on showing this info. Takes a bit to figure out which trails are in which "pod", but the info is there.

However, one of my beefs with the app is the temperature it shows at K1 lodge. Seems like this is usually way low.

[Captain Hafski]

Anyone know why K has been reporting Grizzly as open [and groomed] for several days now?

Maybe that 'jump' into Lower Skyeburst is Grizzly ?

[throbster]

Yep, they could at least tell us where snowmaking is happening, but who here doesn't know what the conditions are going to be based on the weather report and experience?

[skiadikt]

Anyone know why K has been reporting Grizzly as open [and groomed] for several days now?

Maybe that 'jump' into Lower Skyeburst is Grizzly ?

am i missing it? don't see grizzly listed on the report. however escapade is supposedly open. hope they don't pull my pass when i wind up on closed cascade or flume also on rams they have both swirl and the alpine training venue listed. aren't they the same trail. perhaps a sneaky way to "pad" the trail count.

fwiw in the conditions report, they do mention the primary snowmaking trails at least yesterday & today. that info is also available in the lift and trail report. though that info isn't always up-to-date.

regarding currrent snowmaking. panic/needles done. still hitting upper skyeburst (where the production has been underwhelming) and anti-venom. lower cascade and lower timberline. suspect they'll go ttb on cascade tonight as they shut highline (which has a ton of snow) down. hoping we see them hit upper wildfire next though OL is lying in wait.

[rogman]

Skiadkt, I don't care if other mountains conditions reports are just as bad or worse. It's a variation on "whataboutism". Nor am I asking for a more objectively truthful report, it's all subjective anyway. However, it is unfair to disparage the report without offering specific criticisms as to its faults.

Primarily, I don't think Killington understands who reads the conditions report. They seem to operate under the notion it is for people who have never been to Killington before, and are not familiar with its day to day operations. Certainly there are newbies that stumble into it, but the vast majority are regulars, or at least people familiar with the mountain. They are looking for specific information, without having to hunt all over the website.

The tone is troublesome; it has the fake folksy familiarity expected of a used car salesman from the wrong side of Rutland, not that of a professional "snow reporter". Sorry, but the author is not my new best friend ("Howdy Beast Fans"??) and a certain professional distance and decorum would enhance credibility. I don't care what he/she writes, but when I'm looking for information, having to hunt through a wall of text to find it is annoying. What I want to know is:

• What trails are newly opened (closures would be helpful, but I'm not holding my breath) It's about the deltas; what changed.
• What trails have snow making on them (some may want to ski them, others avoid)
• What's the weather expected at the peak? Don't want to be under or over dressed.
• What lifts are running? Canyon/South Ridge/Needles?
• Is there live entertainment anywhere today?
• Are there any events I should be aware of
• Are there ski races/training going on (And I'd be curious when its an outsider comp)
• Any large groups visiting? Be nice to know. Chat 'em up in the gondi.

A lot of this is there, but its so badly organized it isn't worth the effort to find it. I'm busy.

The website of a ski resort is largely static; sure it evolves, but slowly. The "mountain report" ("conditions" is too confining) is one of the areas it can and should be dynamic. People reading it should feel like they're getting the inside skinny, not being sold a car. Make it a must read. Put Kzone out of business.

I get the problem is the format of the provided template isn't conducive to that, but find someone who can stretch the limits of what is possible within the existing strait jacket.

[skiadikt]

to expect anything "qualitative" in the conditions report or whatever it is blurb is farcical and i know you're not asking for it.

since the beginning of my time skiing, trying to glean any real information from these so called ski reports has been a useless exercise but it's way better than it was. i go back to the daze when in the thursday newspaper, there was a "report" w bunch of "hieroglyphics" made up of numbers and letters like pp, lsgr, frgr. there was a "snow phone", where some cheery voice would tell you how wonderful things were on their mtn. once again a lot of reading between the lines was required. interestingly the hunter mtn snow phone was always "busy" on a rainy day.

disagree with the notion that the report is for the so called regulars. we or anyone considered "regular" don't need no stinking report and would come out no matter what the conditions are. how many days are you out there in the pouring r*in or the day after the pouring r*in when temps dropped to zero overnight.

nope the report is for those folks who come out to "resort name here" for their once or twice a year trip. and the bottom line is these so-called "reports" are nothing more than marketing tools to get folks to come to their resort (yes the used car salesman). and they will say nothing to cast any doubt on their decision to come to said resort and lose a possible lift ticket sale and ancillary spending. caveat emptor.

agree there could be more easily accessible "quantitative" info regarding new trail openings or where they're making snow. they could do a better job with the weather (but how many sites do you use for weather).

but it's all there in either lift & trail report or more specifically in the interactive report which has probably the most up-to-date info. there's a link for events. and maybe they're reading this. this afternoon's report specifically mentions panic/needles and that the guns will be shut down on highline. and in case you missed it, the snowdon six isn't running tomorrow

[Captain Hafski]

SA, et. al.

I use the K app to get my info. On it, for past week or more, it shows Grizzly as being open.

Re: Escapade - The top two litle pitches are open [as well as next door neighbor Helter Skelter]. With that said, there are other 'open trail reportings' like this I've seen. For example:

Showing Upper Downdraft as open. It's that little section off of High Traverse.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned they were showing Killink as open although they weren't running any Snowdon lifts. Yep, that hard right off of Great Northern back to the NR chair.

Etc. etc.

[MrsG]

Pre websites, I used to call one of the ski shops for a real weather report - always helpful and friendly

[rower]

An accurate temperature would be nice. I thought my outdoor temperature sensor on my Pinnacle balcony needed batteries then I went to my car and got the same temperature reading. During one of the warm spells the website temp never moved from 25.

[snoloco]

So now the report says that the bubble will be closed tomorrow, but does not specify why. Is it because they are starting snowmaking on Upper Chute, or due to mechanical issues? They also haven't updated the trail report to accurately specify which trails have active snowmaking.

[skiadikt]

SA, et. al.

I use the K app to get my info. On it, for past week or more, it shows Grizzly as being open.

Re: Escapade - The top two litle pitches are open [as well as next door neighbor Helter Skelter]. With that said, there are other 'open trail reportings' like this I've seen. For example:

Showing Upper Downdraft as open. It's that little section off of High Traverse.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned they were showing Killink as open although they weren't running any Snowdon lifts. Yep, that hard right off of Great Northern back to the NR chair.

Etc. etc.

interesting about grizzly. yes listed as open on the app but not even listed on the killington.com trail report and while most of us call that trail section "grizzly", believe it's now called lower dreammaker. that's what it's called on the interactive map but the on-line pdf calls it "grizzly". definitely a disconnect there and some tightening up is certainly necessary. in any case, whatever the trail name is, it ain't open

and yeah that short "upper" downdraft section has been open. will have to hit that and those 2 sections of escapade. suspect they're gonna be nasty. no way am i hitting helter skelter.