Easter Sunday 3/31

[bostonrock]

I'm thinking of joining a group bus trip to Killington Easter Sunday. I generally avoid skiing on weekends but it's a decent price and I'd like to squeeze in a few more ski days before the season ends. Will Killington be a madhouse on Easter Sunday?

I'm a novice and have only been to Loon this season. I'm tempted by seeing lots more green trails on Killington's trail map. Do they groom most of their trails overnight? Are they still making snow if it's cold enough? Will the r*in kill off all that recent big snow? When conditions are good/great, I've skied a lot of the blues at Loon but it's pushing the limits of my abilities. When we had all that fresh snow from this past weekend and the trails got bumpy, I had a lot less fun. I don't mind falling but I clearly still need to learn how to ski moguls. Thanks for any advice!

[Southside_Bobby]

It will not be a madhouse.
The ncp will not kill off the recent snow.
There a a lot of greens and blues open - the greens, and most of the blues, are groomed every night.

The earlier you get on the snow, the more you will appreciate the grooming. If your bus leaves you at Snowshed, start by doing a couple of runs there (Snowshed slope and Yodeler are both in great shape). Then branch out from there.

Enjoy!

[RustyK]

Wow. Sunrise service sold out? People like to get up early I guess,,,

https://www.killington.com/things-to-do ... se-service

SOLD OUT - EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE
MARCH 31ST 2024
Tickets for this event are SOLD OUT and our waitlist is full. This event offered pre-registration this year to avoid having to turn away guests on the morning of the event, with proceeds from ticket sales going to benefit Boarding for Breast Cancer (B4BC)—see below for more information.

[bostonrock]

Thanks so much, Southside_Bobby! What does "ncp" mean?

Also, I was told that at Loon, many of the blues would be considered greens elsewhere. Is there a guide somewhere pointing out the easier blues at Killington?

[bostonrock]

Wow. Sunrise service sold out? People like to get up early I guess,,,

https://www.killington.com/things-to-do ... se-service

Do they then get to start skiing earlier in the day? Maybe that would be incentive to get up early and have fairly uncrowded conditions.

[Skivt2]

No. They are not allowed to ski until 8am when the lifts open. Some people download on the Gondi.

[Mister Moose]

Thanks so much, Southside_Bobby! What does "ncp" mean?

Also, I was told that at Loon, many of the blues would be considered greens elsewhere. Is there a guide somewhere pointing out the easier blues at Killington?

NCP = Non Crystalized Precip, ie liquid water.

I'm not aware of such a guide, it's a good idea though.

Hardest green is probably Great Eastern, there's a few steeper pitches than most other greens, and it's a long thigh burner. The high traffic areas can bump up more than average. 2nd place would be Bear Cub, the S turns are challenging and frequently full of deep sugar snow & hardpack.

Easy Blues are the old greens that got changed to blue, Like upper Great Northern, Launch Pad, Blue Heaven, Killink, Full House, Upper RF. Next are legitimate easy blues like Header, then Cruise Control. Hardest blues would be Skyeburst, Pipe Dream and Vagabond. Low Road when bumped up.

Welcome to the mayhem.

[daytripper]

Thanks so much, Southside_Bobby! What does "ncp" mean?

Also, I was told that at Loon, many of the blues would be considered greens elsewhere. Is there a guide somewhere pointing out the easier blues at Killington?

NCP = Non Crystalized Precip, ie liquid water.

I'm not aware of such a guide, it's a good idea though.

Hardest green is probably Great Eastern, there's a few steeper pitches than most other greens, and it's a long thigh burner. The high traffic areas can bump up more than average. 2nd place would be Bear Cub, the S turns are challenging and frequently full of deep sugar snow & hardpack.

Easy Blues are the old greens that got changed to blue, Like upper Great Northern, Launch Pad, Blue Heaven, Killink, Full House, Upper RF. Next are legitimate easy blues like Header, then Cruise Control. Hardest blues would be Skyeburst, Pipe Dream and Vagabond. Low Road when bumped up.

Welcome to the mayhem.

I thought Skyeburst is black? At least the top by the SPQ is.

[bostonrock]

Hardest green is probably Great Eastern, there's a few steeper pitches than most other greens, and it's a long thigh burner. The high traffic areas can bump up more than average. 2nd place would be Bear Cub, the S turns are challenging and frequently full of deep sugar snow & hardpack.

Easy Blues are the old greens that got changed to blue, Like upper Great Northern, Launch Pad, Blue Heaven, Killink, Full House, Upper RF. Next are legitimate easy blues like Header, then Cruise Control. Hardest blues would be Skyeburst, Pipe Dream and Vagabond. Low Road when bumped up.

Welcome to the mayhem.

Thanks very much Mister Moose and everyone who's been answering my newbie questions. I'll be skiing solo so I really appreciate all the help! Conditions look quite promising for Sunday. Forecast high of 42F, partly cloudy, and only 12mph winds. No r*in in forecast Fri+Sat so I"m hoping it won't be too icy Sunday.

[asher2789]

id totally avoid great eastern, the lower part after the split to bear is being left ungroomed to preserve snow so its much more technical. maybe theyll groom it for the weekend but given the temps its gonna be a slush fest down there. plus every yahoo loves to do their peak to creek run regardless of skill level - i completely avoid that trail on the rare weekend day that i ride.

youll likely start at snowshed, do that, yodeler, then go over to ramshead for easy street and caper, and then you can try the blues header and swirl (alpine training? it got renamed and is sometimes closed for racing). if you like those, bunny buster, upper royal flush, mouse run and the one between those whose name escapes me are great easier blues on snowdon. from there you can take killink to the north ridge quad, upper dipper, upper east fall, reason and rime are all easier blues (rime being the easiest of that bunch). over towards needles eye cruise control is a nice blue thats a little more difficult than the rest of the blues i mentioned, but most of the blues on that side of the mountain (superstar/skyeship/needles/bear) are more difficult in my opinion with double fall lines. if you go there, treat yourself to the jerk shack for lunch! avoid bittersweet, its a blue that skis like a black with multiple fall lines and quickly get skied off. if you go to cruise control you can always take the northbrook quad back to snowshed to avoid bittersweet. i also mostly avoid great northern, too many yahoos.

if youre feeling spicy and want to try a black, mouse trap is the easiest black but be careful towards the end multiple trails merge and its usually a sh*t show. great entertainment from the bubble though! if that goes well, try lower east fall from the entrance past the north ridge lift so you skip the headwall. both of these blacks are short (mouse trap is like 10 turns) and single fall lines.

[Mister Moose]

Hardest blues would be Skyeburst,

I thought Skyeburst is black? At least the top by the SPQ is.

Skis like a black for 5 turns, but mapped as a blue. Then they put the roped and gated caution signs at the top to make you pay attention.

[rogman]

Okay, an actual report…

Good groom with a half inch squall chaser made for sweet conditions at the bell. The younglings hot footed it to the easter egg hunt outside KBL, complete with an appearance by the bunster himself. Crafty nine scored himself a kids day ticket for next year.

Skiing was good early on the sun facing slopes. ROTD was Skyelark at the ope, bunny, LEF and Needles were noteworthy. Four want some park runs so we did a couple of runs on Timberline. Early exit for dinner, with a late day round at KBL bar.

[RustyK]

Out at 11. Skiergirl liked Great Bear. Peak lodge with some peeps then peak to creek for the lat day of the bar on rt. 4. Pretty thin at the bottom. All dirt at the last turn.
Novices stroon all over the place. Good time to close it I guess.

Skylark laps were fun. Also Highline and a few more great bears. Saw tricks at the end. Good days on the slopes and the bars. Nice to see the Easter costumes all over. People were all smiles in he sun.

[bostonrock]

Thank you all for a wonderful first trip to Killington! Skied from 9:45am to 3:45pm. I was so happy that I didn't even take a lunch break and just munched on some snacks in the gondola. Mostly sunny for most of the day with a few passing clouds. Warm in the high 30s, maybe even to low 40s. Shockingly, it felt almost deserted. I never had to wait for any of the lifts (including K1 gondola). Saw some group lessons on Snowshed Slope and some clusters of friends but there were times when it felt like I had the entire trail to myself and I couldn't even hear anyone else's skis/snowboards. I'd been told I'd be trying to dodge a zillion people on weekends but if this is indicative of Easter Sundays, I'm going skiing every Easter!

Snow felt great for the most part, granular looking snow in morning (sugar snow?) to softer corn-y snow as things warmed up. Where there was lots of snow, it seemed slushy-soft and a little heavy. Some parts seemed fairly bare of soft snow and was just really hard-packed snow. I got lucky and encountered almost no icy patches. Skied a few runs with a dad (excellent skier) and his 7 or 8-year old daughter. At one point, he was in front of us, skiing backwards and then he fired off one of those little confetti canisters and we skied through a colorful cloud of confetti. Felt very celebratory for such a fun day.

I was originally going to go solo but I talked so much about the trip that he got FOMO and signed up too despite his general rule of not skiing on weekends. Since he's a much better skier (Colorado professional ski bum in a former life), we do a warm-up run together, split up, and then ski together towards the end of the day.

I had intended to spend the day at Snowshed and Ramshead but ended up never making it to Ramshead. I started off at Snowshed, finding beautiful wide-open trails, gentle terrains, and nice long greens to choose from. I liked the gentle rolling hills on Snowshed, and the easy wide turns of Yodeler.

While I had been warned about Great Eastern getting messy at the bottom, I really wanted to ski that one since it was the one that made me want to go to Killington in the first place since I'd never seen such a long green trail. It had been groomed and it was the last day for the Skyeship gondola so I decided to go try it before it got too much more traffic and got bumpy. Wonderful! A little tricky at the top for me with several inches of slushy snow getting bumpy already by late morning. Other parts were fairly skied off and kinda bare, hard-packed snow. I was congratulating myself on how well I was skiing when I got towards the bottom and found bare patches. Skidded across one mud patch ok much to my surprise. So I figured I had enough speed to make it across another bare muddy spot but instead it grabbed my skis to an instant stop and I fell. Easy enough to get back up at least. Finished the rest of the run, now careful to dodge the muddy spots and at the end of it, it was a short trudge through a muddy spot to get to the lift. I really enjoyed going on such a long run even though the bottom wasn't ideal. I think it would be a lot of fun with better snow coverage.

Enjoyed Cruise Control (the blue parts felt pretty challenging for me with the bumps) and Pipe Dream (despite very thin coverage in parts). Didn't enjoy Bittersweet (too bumpy for me).

Found K1 gondola. Took Great Northern one time and very much enjoyed it. I had intended to go to Ramshead but stopped too early and got onto K1 again. Loved Bear Trax. Also liked Bear Cub although it got boring in parts since I felt like I had to just point my skis and try to maintain speed or risk having to push myself with ski poles to get past some of the flatter sections. Also surprised by some of the hairpin turns at the bottom of Bear Cub after such a long gentle path for most of it. Bear Cub was fairly rutted up at the bottom on those hairpin turns in late afternoon, not too bad in morning.

Ended up at Bear Mountain and tried Bear Claw and Skyeburst. Both were fairly bumpy and got through them ok but didn't find it enjoyable.

Made my way back to Snowshed to meet up with my boyfriend. Top of Great Eastern, blue part of Cruise Control getting pretty bumpy by now (~1:30pm?). Snowshed Crossover fine. Snowshed Slope getting bumpier but still fun.

Skied together for about 1.5 hours, revisiting some favorites like Great Northern, Bear Trax, Pipe Dream.

For him, he really liked Cruise Control, Bear Trax, Pipe Dream
Conditions were great. Perfect sized bumps on Cruise Control and no bumps on Bear Trax and Pipe Dream so he could fly.

Top and middle sections of Superstar were great. Bottom part of it was skied off and got icy.

Upper part of Shorty (perfect soft moguls) was great but then the bottom part was rutted and harder to ski well.

East Fall was ok but not great. a lot of ice there.

Back on the bus and out by about 4:30pm. Tired and sore and oh so happy. This was possibly my last ski day for the season and I couldn't have asked for a better day. Definitely coming back next year!

[Captain Hafski]

And, to contnue the trend, here's the Afternoon Report: Fantastic ! If you didn't come up BostonRock, you missed a good one. Nicely softened, and quite a bit of sun on our 1:15 - 4:20 shift. Low crowd density that continued to drop as the day went on. Nice to have the Canyon, South Ridge, and Needle's Eye lifts running for us !

Upper Chute -> Great Bear opener very good. Earned a repeat from my wife later in the day.

Down LEF, very good, to see what the canyon looked like. Decided to wait til later to hit Cascade so over to a surprise opening of the South Ridge trails.

ROTD: The South Ridge Superfecta. Pipe Dream TTB, Breakaway TTB, Jug TTB, and even Roundabout. Of the four, Jug had the best cover and Lower Pipe Dream the worst. But, all were great !

Panic -> Needle's Eye excellent. WROTD, Bittersweet, was actually good including the old HW and Low Road which were great.

Escapade mostly excellent, with some unskied semi-soft lunar in the shadows to watch out for. Upper Cascade also great and Lower Cascade decent though not as soft as I was hoping for. Ridge Run sweet, with great cover and perfect bumps -> Mouse Trap that was also very good.

Closing bell run on North Star another winner with [similar to Escapade] mostly soft sunny bumps, great cover, and a few shadowed areas that had to be respected.

Great Day - Happy Easter !