Saturday January 13

[rogman]

Sunrise: 7:23
Bear Quad Opens: 7:30
Conditions: Blizzard
This is going to be “interesting”

[SlowChick]

All lifts wind hold. No time estimate.

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[skiadikt]

all lifts on wind hold. no time estimate.

[rogman]

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Bear turning. Looks close.

[Mister Moose]

39 degrees with soggy coupla inches at Moose Manor. Light mist.

[Big Bob]

Skyship Stage 1 and Bear Quad are the only lifts to open as of now. Southeast wind is not a good direction for Killington lifts.

[newpylong1]

Trees are sideways here...

[skiadikt]

mama nature was throwing yet another of her hissy fits. we were all dressed up w nowhere to go. then we heard the bear quad was running and made a break for it. parking lot surprisingly full for just before 8 and the attendants were packing them in. fog and a constant drip or a very wet snow requiring constant swiping. heavy snow for sure but blower compared to wednesday's sludge. by 10 gave up fighting the elements and few running lifts.

when we boarded the chair, some folks had already skied the fiddle and quite a number of folks were coming down OL. when we got to the top, patrol roped off the entrance. wound up skiing all of the open terrain on bear and it skied quite well. caught the rope drop on mid-dream and untracked there. some work required but good. out of boredom, even took an exploratory trip down bear cub. towards the bottom, there's a water bar - some jumping required.

bear had lost power. when we left, they were firing up the SPQ on diesel. heard supe was running for a brief time and then shut down because of icing. gloves were pretty waterlogged so called it day. sun is now out in downtown mendon. winds are diminishing so they should get more lifts open and hopefully it turns out to be a good day after a shitshow start. feel bad the mtn just can't catch a break.

[Pedro]

Got one run on Superstar and one on Conclusion before we called it. Both were really nice

[180]

Hit Pico for an early skin as the winds were going over the top. No Summit Quad so it was all fresh relatively dry snow as the r*in had not yet made it there. When I left at 9:30, a beautiful rainbow over rt 4.
Waited until 1pm to make our way to Bear. Was snowing hard at the top of the lift. Skiing was quite nice on some reserved trails. Wildfire very nice and creamy. Made our way over to the bubble where Flush was the run of the day and may repeats. Flat and creamy. Snowing hard for the last 2 hours. North Star Quite nice and upper woods shots. Lower woods still bony.
Hope fully it snows more and drys everything out.

[Mister Moose]

Wet wet wet. I now have two pairs of 8 lb gloves.

[snoloco]

Started at Bear when it opened. The first few runs on Wildfire and Bear Claw were my best runs, which were really good. It was all downhill from there though. Attempted to get my one obligatory ride a year on the Sunrise triple, and it was down due to a power outage, despite the app saying it was open at the time. Had to shuttle back to Bear. Tried Great Eastern to Route 4 for the first time this season. Also fine, but by the time I got to the Skyeship mid station, Superstar was closed, so I had to hike up to Bearly to get back to Bear. I did one more run on the Skye Peak Express and called it a day at 11. Note that I usually ski the whole day, open to close. I was completely soaked through at that point. The lift problems were all weather related, so it wasn't really their fault, but it didn't make for a good ski day.

[rogman]

It was a day with challenges. A slushy blizzard, wind, and a power outage for several hours on the Bear side, I’ve got to give Killington a pass on those problems, but there were more than a few unforced errors as well. Managing a sh*t show ain’t easy, but MIke was out there doing his best.

Our motivated crew was second in line at the Bear quad (picture somewhere above). Load was a bit late (about 7:44). Given the conditions, no complaints. I was with 9 and 11 (TSFKA10), their father was about 10 chairs behind with a work colleague. At the top of Bear the young’uns immediately noticed the rope drop on OL and the Fiddle. Me, the picture of maturity and moderation, suggested that would be an unwise first run. The father (Apres Ski All Star) arrived shortly, saw the same thing, didn’t even hesitate, and we were off to the races. I followed “reluctantly”, a what the hell moment whatever. NGL, Devils Fiddle was tough, especially the early dawn light with r*in and snow swirling. It needed to be skied in, but it certainly had plenty of cover. Was shocked that it was slammed shut behind us. If an old man like me can ski it… However, OL remained open. For an hour. Then, after it was skied in, and was actually pretty good, they slammed that shut too. Now I get that there was no rope keeping people away from the towers, but people were respectful and avoided them. To be fair, patrol has to deal with unimaginable horrors, but there have been way way too many instances at Bear and South RIdge where trails were closed because they weren’t good, not because they weren’t safe. I get that OL may be a safety issue, but the rest? Absolutely not. Some of the closures are inexplicable.

Enough soap box. Mother Nature did Killington the slight favor of dumping 6” then following with a r*in chaser. Sadistic b*tch of late. The weather couldn’t make its mind up to be windy, snowy, rainy, sleety, or a combination throughout the day. However, if you were willing to ski strong and ignore the weather, the conditions were great. I put on 10 or 15 pounds of water weight. A midday change of clothes was required.

When the bubble finally opened, we started lapping over that. Northstar had good coverage, Great Bear was a challenge; the lower part hadn’t seen much traffic and required determination and strength just to turn. Lower Royal Flush was great, but the long runout (no Canyon Quad) was frustrating. My personal favorite was Highline, it skied like a groomer, and after a long day was an unexpected relief.

Despite the weather, a great day.

[Captain Hafski]

Late Afternoon Report: Wished it woulda lasted another hour or two !

Morning Reconaissance Lap [about 11:30]: Reigning steadily. Huge double liftline at Snowshed Double. Huger liftline at Rams Head. Huge liftline at Snowdon Triple. Superstar Quad was runnng and then we saw it loading. What a relief that must have been.

2:00 or so: Parked at Vale and down to Rams Head. NCP on our way up the lift and down Caper. Large line at bubble so went to Triple. Partway up the NCP changed to sleet and then to snow. Ride up was so slow, with multiple stoppages [even though hardly anyone riding the lift] we got off at midstation and had to avoid two "skiers" that were retreiving someone's ski that must have popped off over 5 minutes ago. The liftie there didn't even realize there was a ski in the middle of the off load "ramp".

Conclusion awesome.
ROTD: Royal Flush [sounds like others here found it as well]!
North Star awesome. Repeat later in the session.
Great Bear awesome though, as others have posted, not as skied in but still great.
Mouse Trap very good.

Great Baja Happy Hour.

Gonna be a different day tomorrow !

[Mister Moose]

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Show of hands. Who else is grilling tonight?

Ms Moose wants grilled chicken, graupel is no excuse.