KillingtonZone.com

So we went up and stayed with friends at Sunday river this past weekend.

While there are certainly things that Killington does better than Sunday River, one thing that stood out to me is remembering how much better the trail layout is for two mountains that have somewhat similar profiles (both being spread out over multiple peaks). I would say Sunday River has far fewer trail intersections and merges which gives the feeling of the runs being longer and less interrupted.

Taking a look at the Killington trail map, what trails / intersections could be eliminated to achieve more of the same feel? What if they were to close Great Northern between the top of east fall and where it merges with Killink? How about closing Great northern from Bunny Buster (where the Poma is) to where it merges in with Caper? Over on Bear, what about closing off the Wildfire / Bear Claw / Skyburst intersection so that you had to stay on the trail you started on? (I realize this would make Skyburst a black diamond as the route would take you across the old "viper pit" area).

Any other ideas?

I agree with your thoughts about Great Northern. I would leave Bear Mountain alone. A tunnel is going in across the Stash & Skyeburst to prevent the crossover . The Wildfire/ Bear Claw merge gives the area character and was built for skilled skiers and riders.

The trails at both mountains were designed by different people who had different ideas for how to design a ski area. Preston Smith designed all the Killington trails, and he seemed to like overlapping pods like the three faces of Skye Peak, and how all of the Bear Mountain trails merge together at the bottom. I guess this makes the mountain a bit easier to get around, but you get all these bottlenecks where multiple pods meet and overlap.

Sunday River's trails were all designed by Otten, and he liked to have all the different trail pods mostly or completely separated. While this makes it more difficult to get around the mountain, it doesn't result in as many bottlenecks, although he liked this kind of layout so he could fit in more slopeside real estate.

I hear the sledding there is pretty extreme.

Why don't you wax one up and give us a first hand account...

snoloco wrote:The trails at both mountains were designed by different people who had different ideas for how to design a ski area. Preston Smith designed all the Killington trails, and he seemed to like overlapping pods like the three faces of Skye Peak, and how all of the Bear Mountain trails merge together at the bottom. I guess this makes the mountain a bit easier to get around, but you get all these bottlenecks where multiple pods meet and overlap.

Sunday River's trails were all designed by Otten, and he liked to have all the different trail pods mostly or completely separated. While this makes it more difficult to get around the mountain, it doesn't result in as many bottlenecks, although he liked this kind of layout so he could fit in more slopeside real estate.

Agree with your assessment.

For me, I prefer the fewer intersections, merges and crossovers idea for a better skiing experience.

Having lived up that way for 10 or so years, you couldn't pay me to ride at SR. The vibe, the people, the mountain is blah. We would hit the LOAF 4-50 days/season and do 1 at SR. Ktown over SR anyday of the week.

Seacoaster wrote:Having lived up that way for 10 or so years, you couldn't pay me to ride at SR. The vibe, the people, the mountain is blah. We would hit the LOAF 4-50 days/season and do 1 at SR. Ktown over SR anyday of the week.

Agree that overall I prefer Killington for a number of reasons.

Killington's endless list of trail intersections / merges / crossings etc is not one of the reasons. (And is one thing that is better at SR).

At White Heat. "Let's go to Jordan". Good luck with that...

Highway Star wrote:I hear the sledding there is pretty extreme.

Just when I thought you couldn't be more of an a-hole...

rogman wrote:At White Heat. "Let's go to Jordan". Good luck with that...

Correct me if I am wrong Machski, but 2 lift rides from the top of White Heat, 3 from the bottom.

throbster wrote:

Highway Star wrote:I hear the sledding there is pretty extreme.

Just when I thought you couldn't be more of an a-hole...

Practice makes perfect.

Big Bob wrote:

rogman wrote:At White Heat. "Let's go to Jordan". Good luck with that...

Correct me if I am wrong Machski, but 2 lift rides from the top of White Heat, 3 from the bottom.

Yep

Top would be ski down to Barker, up, ski down to Spruce and ski over.

It's a long slog, but the nice thing is from Jordan you can ski all the way to the base of White Cap pretty easily. It's certainly easier than going from Bear to Ramshead base in one shot via the Snowshed crossover

Traveling east to west or vice versa stinks at both mountains. Best just to enjoy the peaks along the way.

I agree with the OP in that I like that SR has fewer intersections, but there's no question K is the better mountain overall for expert skiers who like ungroomed terrain and trees, which would be my preference. Likewise, Sunday River is a far better mountain for those who prefer skiing groomed terrain. Cruising terrain just isn't in Killingtons wheelhouse due to it's topography.

What about putting in more tunnels bridges on trails like great northern? I love that I can get most anywhere on K because of the trail layout but if you kept the majority of the traffic under the steeper drops it would allow navigation while keeping the gappers on launch pad from skiing in front of someone shooting down superstar for example.

I'm in the Pres Smith trail layout camp and loved the way the mountain used to ski and how easy it was to get around.