Saturday after the freeze . . .

[Gangsta Rider]

I should have driven up to the lot and laughed for a little while..

[ski]

i cant believe anyone is actually complaining. you got what you bargained for. you all knew what was in store for the weekend by yesterdays reports...

I'm sorry but with the amount of grooming equipment Killington has and the amount of time they had to prepare for yesterday, what they produced was pitiful. Did you even go on Caper? The top of the Ramshead quad was abysmal.

I can't believe they ran all 18 groomers for yesterday -- and if they aren't going to take big steps for their 50th anniversary, what does this have to say for the rest of the coming season?

[SkiDork]

glades trip was theplace to be on saturday. absolutely no line.

[rogman]

i cant believe anyone is actually complaining. you got what you bargained for. you all knew what was in store for the weekend by yesterdays reports...

An appalling attitude for someone in the guest services industry. Seems most other mountains didn't have Killington's issues. Over on AZ: http://forums.alpinezone.com/44372-groo ... -10-a.html. Glad I didn't invite friends up, it would have been embarrassing.

i heard complaints all night lastnight, i could care less if you consider my attitude "appalling". you knew what happened up here, you still made the drive, and you had shitty conditions. you rolled the dice, they didnt roll in your or anyone elses favor. i would have been pissed if i was planning on coming up here this weekend, but there is enough information on this site and many others on the net, to let people know what is goin on. it could have been quite a bit worse as well...

Actually, I find this hilarious. I make a snide remark about the groomers being more concerned about hitting last call, and who defends them? Their bartender. LOL. Whatever, they got it fixed today. But a day late is too late in my book. Regardless, the blame should fall on Nyberg's shoulders, not the guys in the trenches, they are just following orders.

[Bizarro Jerry]

first weekend I was able to make it up to K this year, had Friday and Saturday off. Spent the first few hours of Fri in the K1 base lodge before the ambassadors announced right before 10 that they were closing down Killington for the day. Considering it would have taken 3 hours to even get power back and another hour to get the lifts running and the fact that I think somebody from the ski patrol took a wipeout on the ice crust (on Highline) I guess I can understand it. At least they didn't wait until 1 PM to announce they were shutting down... heh
Yesterday had the Snowdon Quad at the start, and the Glades triple soon thereafter. A double at Snowshed and the Ramshead quad (with horrificly long lines) was all they had in the AM before finally opening the K! around noon. We skied across Superstar and saw one guy up at the top of a tower chipping ice off the tower wheel. At that rate, the quad will be back up and running in February. Not sure if they actually had people trying to get rid of ice on Friday night and it froze up or not... but it would have been nice to have more than one person trying to get the Superstar quad running. Pretty bad start to the weekend... I had to work today and am not sure if it got much better. Conditions were as you'd expect from the icestorm.. mediocre. C'est la vie.
Also the Killington report had 12 lifts running yesterday morning... would have been nice to have it updated so people would be aware that the gondola wouldn't be open (and when it was the lines were straight out of the 80s). Considering it was the 50th anniversary of Killington, having 4 lifts open kept things close to what it was back then. Glad it happened to Nyberg after the crap he's pulled since Powdr took over.

[skiadikt]

glades triple was the place to be on saturday. absolutely no line.

sad commentary. after opening weekend, other than an occasional jaunt down west glade, i never wanna see that lift again.

[IronMan WannaB]

Bright idea to have a 50th party and not show your "A" game. Whole mountain should of been open. Should have show cased what K Hypes. Dumb asses don't know how to throw a party. Did not ski K on Saturday. Skied Jay. 16 inches of powder. Steel work going up for the new hotel.
K's management has no clue. Kind of like the gapers that sit in the "s" turn below the glades triple.

[skiingsnow]

Whole mountain should of been open. Should have show cased what K Hypes. Dumb asses don't know how to throw a party. Did not ski K on Saturday. Skied Jay. 16 inches of powder. Steel work going up for the new hotel.
K's management has no clue. Kind of like the gapers that sit in the "s" turn below the glades triple.

Major ice storm on Friday, not much else they could have done to open more terrain with the weather of the past few weeks...

Snowmaking has been underway on Bear Mountain top to bottom. They have opened all terrain possible, asap.

[IronMan WannaB]

SS, obviously the management didn't want to pay the overtime for double shift groming and snow making.That young man is how you supply a quality product. Simple.

[skiingsnow]

SS, obviously the management didn't want to pay the overtime for double shift groming and snow making.That young man is how you supply a quality product. Simple.

Some people are unwilling/unable to work 48+ hours straight... They were grooming all day long Friday and all night Friday Night.... Snowmaking was running full force on Bear Mountain and Skye Peak when the weather allowed... Numerous pipe blow outs through the Killington basin the past 2 weeks . . . .

[MrsG]

All right, I said I was done, but this is really getting to me . . . First of all, this is freakin' New England . . . we've had ice storms before, and I'm sure, we'll have many more . . . how Killington handled the aftermath of the storm is the issue here, not that we had an ice storm . . . bottom line is, Killington is not bringing the mountain back as they have in the past . . . conditions today are how they used to be the day after an ice storm . . . and, they were done overnight . . . K had a full closed day, and, an overnight and did not get the job done - this is not the groomers fault, it's management . . . now, I'm done

[spanky]

Here's 2 pics of the Snowdon Quad yesterday. For all you bastids that stayed home yesterday morning...lucky you.

Started the ski day at 8:30 ended at noon. Had 4 runs all morning b/c of the massive lines.

I spy a chair with less than four occupants.

I spy more than one chair with less than four occupants. Or, are they still limiting the number of people because the lift can't run at full load?

[skiadikt]

All right, I said I was done, but this is really getting to me . . . First of all, this is freakin' New England . . . we've had ice storms before, and I'm sure, we'll have many more . . . how Killington handled the aftermath of the storm is the issue here, not that we had an ice storm . . . bottom line is, Killington is not bringing the mountain back as they have in the past . . . conditions today are how they used to be the day after an ice storm . . . and, they were done overnight . . . K had a full closed day, and, an overnight and did not get the job done - this is not the groomers fault, it's management . . . now, I'm done

skippy stop upsetting mrs g ...

what don't you understand about these guys NOT getting the job done. they spit the bit on what could & should have been a weekend for k to shine and powdr to redeem themselves. they had scores of new customers who they could have won over and they blew it. they should have pulled all the stops. most of the folks who have complained about the conditions have been skiing here 20-30 yrs ... they know what they're talking about. it can and used to be done. stop making excuses ...

[skiingsnow]

... should have been a weekend for k to shine ...

It was f*ckin shining all right with the thick ice casing everything. The trees everywhere are covered. Here in Vermont emergency shelters are open and over six thousand people are still without power....

"Trees, laden with ice an inch .thick or more, broke over 50 poles, and took down .hundreds of lines, demolishing cross arms and equipment in south-central, eastern .and southern Vermont."


You cant ecpect much less than 24 hours after a major weather event like this.

[ski]

... should have been a weekend for k to shine ...

It was f*ckin shining all right with the thick ice casing everything. The trees everywhere are covered. Here in Vermont emergency shelters are open and over six thousand people are still without power....

"Trees, laden with ice an inch .thick or more, broke over 50 poles, and took down .hundreds of lines, demolishing cross arms and equipment in south-central, eastern .and southern Vermont."


You cant ecpect much less than 24 hours after a major weather event like this.

This is so true.... Naysayers, disbelievers, rabble-rousers, whiners, ect . . . It is what it is . . .ski it if you like . . . Let's examine the situation further, from the Associated Press . . .

Northeast ice storm leaves 1.25M without power

By DAVID TIRRELL-WYSOCKI, Associated Press Writer – Fri Dec 12, 6:53 pm ET

CONCORD, N.H. – An ice storm to compare with some of the Northeast's worst made a mess of the region Friday, leaving 1.25 million homes and businesses in seven states without power as it forced schools to close and toppled ice-laden trees and power lines onto slippery roads.

Most of the outages were in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and New York, and it was expected to take several days to completely restore electricity. The storm wreaked havoc from Maine to Pennsylvania, leaving a sparkling, ice-covered landscape that was too destructive for many to find beautiful.

"This is pathetic," said Bob Cott of Portland, Maine, who lost power. "I'm already sick of winter and we have nine days to go before it officially begins."

At least one death was related to the storm: New Hampshire officials said a 49-year-old Danville man who lived in a camper died of carbon monoxide poisoning after turning on his generator when his power went out Thursday night.

For New Hampshire, the power outages dwarfed those during the infamous Ice Storm of '98, when some residents spent more than a week in the dark.

In Hampstead, N.H., Mark Cegelis, 36, said things were hectic at his neighborhood gas station, which was jammed with people trying to get gas for home generators.

"It's kind of lawless out there right now," he said. "There's a lot of people very frustrated stacking up at the gas stations. It's pretty ugly."

He bought 21 gallons for himself and tried to deliver some to friends in Derry but couldn't get there because downed trees blocked roads. So the two friends came to him instead, and were expected to hunker down with Cegelis' family, his parents and another friend until power was restored.

"I'm sure they'd do the same thing for us," he said. "It's treacherous out there."

Nearly two dozen shelters were set up across the southern part of the state, and authorities were working to get generators to several nursing homes. About 35 people, mostly elderly, had settled in at a shelter at Portsmouth High School by early afternoon.

"All the motels have no electricity, and that's why I'm here," said Duke Straychan of Hampton, who can't do without power because he uses an oxygen tank at night. People at the shelter dined on American chop suey and shepherd's pie and watched "The Polar Express" in the cafeteria.

Gov. John Lynch urged residents to "please go out of your way" to check on their neighbors, especially those who are elderly and live alone.

Both Lynch and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declared states of emergency Friday morning and called up members of the National Guard. Five hundred Massachusetts Guard members were cleaning up debris and clearing access to downed power lines. Lynch put 150 on alert and deployed 20.

"All of the resources at our disposal have been made available to try to get the roads clear and power restored," said Patrick, adding that it would be "ambitious" to think power would be restored by Monday to the 350,000 homes and businesses in his state left in the dark.

"This is not going to be a couple of hours," Patrick said. "It's likely to be several days."

The Red Cross, in conjunction with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, has opened 23 temporary shelters across the state. In Holden, which had no power, some senior citizens on oxygen were taken to the hospital or a shelter opened at the town's senior center.

Utilities reported more than 400,000 homes and businesses without power in New Hampshire, including 320,000 served by the state's largest utility, Public Service Company of New Hampshire. By contrast, the 1998 storm left 55,000 Public Service customers without power.

"This is the absolute, most significant power restoration effort we've ever had. There has not been a storm before that has affected more customers," Public Service spokesman Martin Murray said.

Public Service officials suggested repairs for at least some homes and businesses will go into next week. They lined up 300 crews from as far away as Maryland and Ohio to be in the state by Sunday and were looking for more.

Crews from Canada and South Carolina were headed to Maine, where Gov. John Baldacci declared a limited emergency allowing utility crews to work longer hours. Utilities there reported more than 227,000 customers in the dark, mostly in southern and coastal areas.

In eastern New York, particularly around Albany, the state capital, outages at National Grid and other utilities brought the statewide total to more than 255,000.

"Trees were down on all the roads," said Miguel Figueroa, 28, as he waited for coffee at a Starbucks in Colonie, N.Y. "... I couldn't even get on the Thruway today."

In Vermont, at least three shelters were being set up in southern Vermont for the more than 30,000 customers who were without power Friday afternoon. It could be days before some homes and businesses get their lights back on, officials said.

The ice storm extended to Pennsylvania, where about 4,700 customers, most of them in the Poconos, lost power, and Connecticut, where some 17,000 customers were without electricity at the height of the storm. Those states mostly got heavy r*in or r*in changing to snow.

Though blue skies appeared in some areas by Friday afternoon, temperatures were expected to fall below freezing again, with single digits forecast for Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire Saturday night.

___

Associated Press writers Holly Ramer and Kathy McCormack in Concord, N.H.; Beth LaMontagne Hall in Portsmouth, N.H.; Russell Contreras and Mark Pratt in Boston; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; John Curran and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.; and Mike Hill and Jessica M. Pasko in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

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We dodged a bullet up here . . Could have been a lot worse. We're lucky that there was not more damage done in the Killington area . . . . Honestly, I'm more worried about what's to become of Double Dipper post-avalanche, and how the new traffic patterns on Skye Peak are going to work out . .