Friday, Feb 16 - Killington report …

[MrsG]

SKYESHIP STAGE II & NEEDLES EYE EXPRESS ARE ON HOLD DUE TO WIND, NO TIME ESTIMATE,

[Stormchaser]

Almost comical...

[BoozeTan]

maybe it's just me but it seems like there are WAY more wind holds than I can ever remember....seems more like any excuse not to run a lift

[rogman]

As someone who is actually at Killington, I am not the least bit surprised there are wind holds. Snow is going sideways. It is ridiculous to speculate on wind holds remotely.

[Stormchaser]

Easy answer, it's because Powdr BLOWS!

POWDRblowschunks.jpg (37.69 KiB) Viewed 1079 times

[newpylong1]

Easy to make these conspiracy claims sitting down in the flatlands. The wind is absolutely brutal out here and I am only at 1250 elevation. That section of Skye Peak has been, and always will be the worst spot for wind.

[Pedro]

It's global warming bro.

[Stormchaser]

Easy to make these conspiracy claims sitting down in the flatlands. The wind is absolutely brutal out here and I am only at 1250 elevation. That section of Skye Peak has been, and always will be the worst spot for wind.

The wind fence helps, but not enough...

[skiadikt]

mtn reported 6". not sure which rock it was hiding under. not a full-on pow day - a mix of drifting and wind scoured blower. overall good with a couple of caveats. not frigid but windy as eff especially on the bear/needles side. thought the flesh on my face was gonna get ripped off riding the SPQ. bear chair was the better choice. the skyeship was delayed for wind. we did ride it w/o incident a couple times after it opened late morning. there were fannies but not as crowded as we expected. 9-12:45 shift.

floated down upper flush at the bell. shut out on highline so hit upper conclusion>trap>lower bunny. all virgin pow. made a beeline to be one of the first on downdraft. a letdown. merely ok. a flat hard surface. seemed to be a common theme on the recently groomed steep terrain. escapade was quite good skiers left. another common theme. a groomed ovation better than but similar to downdraft.

stash>maker was an early rotd candidate, particularly on dream where you could find lots of pow pockets. claw excellent and lower burst under the guns very good. the captain's fave (grizzly) was good. a groomed OL was wrotd. chunks & ice - not fun. seems like it received a cursory groom just for tonight's snowmaking. wildfire ungroomed (though report said it was). clung to that left edge. lots of pow but stray, and the bumps were ice but manageable. cruise merely ok. needles very good. lower vertigo not. filling loosening bumps. supe under the guns was rotd. old supe left edge good but the rest very hard. finally hit highline just after that rope drop and it was good on either side of the course. and yes needles after a late start finally ran. our nightmare is over ...

[mdskiguy]

...thought the flesh on my face was gonna get ripped off riding the SPQ...

Now THAT sounds like the Killington I know. It's like I always tell my non-skiing friends and family . . . "you know you're having fun when your beard freezes to your facemask!"

[ozzy]

Jeeze. Was thinking if going to K as I know SRT and CQ4 run fridays. Glad I went to Pico. Summit chair ran smooth.
There were some really good turns and some really bad turns. Stay out of the shallow and don't bottom out on the coral reef and the turns were silky.
Upper and middle pike are snowguns are all hosed up. Probably waiting for optimal temps on sat/sun

[KingsFourMan]

Bailed on the Bush last minute, figured the 1.5h drive would be a 2.15 drive on dicey roads only to find wind holds on the best lifts. Opted for K instead and was out from 9-12 parking down at the skyship base. All the talk about how weathered and beaten up that lift is, is warranted.

I'd give the day a C- overall, cold and windy as hell with a lot of wind blown pow on top of a hard pack ice base. Sucked not having the NE quad or Stage 2, the Needles Eye pod was in great shape, vertigo being our ROTD. Pretty light crowd overall but definitely building. Would have earned a C+ or a B- had there been less wind and the needles chair running.

Spent the rest of the day out on the sleds puttsing around the neighborhood. VAST trails have a great base but could use some more fresh to soften them up. About to saddle up again for a sled ride down to the Long Trail for Happy Hour. See you there.

Happy Presidents Day Weekend, based on the traffic coming up last night, should be a good weekend for the mountain.

Edit for snowmaking observation - seemed to be a pretty solid snowmaking effort, looked to be about maxed out with snowmaking going on all over the place. Looked like old times.

[rogman]

For all the drama, it was a pretty good ski day. I held off until a bit after 11, skiing in a blizzard is no longer my “thing”. The reported 6” on top of the reported 4” leaves me skeptical. Untracked powder on Lower Pipe Dream was maybe 2” on top of ice. (So apologies to Patrol for suggesting they could’ve/should’ve opened it yesterday). In general, on calm days, Killington snowfall measurements are accurate. When a gale is blowing, their results seem to be a factor of 1.5 high. I’m not suggesting anything nefarious or underhanded, I just think their methodology needs tweaking. People are talking about it. 10” over the last 72 hours should ski a lot deeper than it does. I’m sure there are drifts that deep; but that’s my limit.

Lower skyeburst under the guns was a vis challenge. Outer Limits, despite the groom close to the towers, was a challenge. Golf balls and marbles, however it was skiable, edgeable, not too icy, and I didn’t feel like I’d wind up at the bottom if I went down; the last few days it had been deserted, so this is a big improvement. The “stop the brutal grooming” peeps hadn’t been skiing it either.

Nice to ski Needles as a pod. If I’d had more time, I’d have skied it more. Leading up to the close, did a couple of runs with late arrivals nine and eleven. Bear beer to finish the day. Thanks Doria!

[biged]

At jay 12" plus of pow. Funny tram shut down due to wind mid day. Other chairs running wind was strong to say the least. Bottom line thought need to win powerball so this place is closer

[Big Bob]

At jay 12" plus of pow. Funny tram shut down due to wind mid day. Other chairs running wind was strong to say the least. Bottom line thought need to win powerball so this place is closer

It's only 3 hours and never any traffic.