Any cheap cool improvements/changes they could do?

[Geoff]

Snowmaking on DF is a dead issue. They obviously have abandoned that area.

like rogman says, outside of the interconnect and skiing til memorial day, this is the one thing they could do that would bring some buzz back to killington and show they're moving in the 'right' direction. relatively cheap. cut some brush, turn on the guns (they still worked 3 yrs ago) and people will be talking. there's nothing like spring skiing on the fiddle. yep a no-brainer.

They have to have Bear open for good spring skiing on the Fiddle, and that ain't gonna happen.

Fiddle starts softening on any sunny day in early March since it faces southeast. Even closing Bear after the 2nd weekend in April, there's plenty of spring skiing to be had on Devils Fiddle if they blew snow on it.

[skiadikt]

Snowmaking on DF is a dead issue. They obviously have abandoned that area.

like rogman says, outside of the interconnect and skiing til memorial day, this is the one thing they could do that would bring some buzz back to killington and show they're moving in the 'right' direction. relatively cheap. cut some brush, turn on the guns (they still worked 3 yrs ago) and people will be talking. there's nothing like spring skiing on the fiddle. yep a no-brainer.

They have to have Bear open for good spring skiing on the Fiddle, and that ain't gonna happen.

this season the fiddle would have been to quote skippy, "awesome" during march and right through the closing bmcc weekend. sure i think they could have kept bear open another week and like yourself, miss the days when bear stayed open through the 3rd weekend of april. but in any case with the fiddle's SE orientation, it would be the first to soften on any of the warm, sunny spring days providing a "skippy awesome" bumpfest.

oops geoff beat me to it ...

[Geoff]

this season the fiddle would have been to quote skippy, "awesome" during march and right through the closing bmcc weekend. sure i think they could have kept bear open another week and like yourself, miss the days when bear stayed open through the 3rd weekend of april. but in any case with the fiddle's SE orientation, it would be the first to soften on any of the warm, sunny spring days providing a "skippy awesome" bumpfest.

oops geoff beat me to it ...

Bear really wouldn't have survived another week. The flat stuff that gets all the traffic melted out. Don't forget that they mined snow off lower Bear Claw ^h^h^h^h^h^h Skyeburst, Grizzly, and the last chunk of Dream Maker to construct the half pipe. OL was just fine but everything else required some walking at the bottom.

[rogman]

Couldn't they have mined snow from the half-pipe to keep everything else open? Or would the absurdity of that made everyone's brain explode?

[skiadikt]

Couldn't they have mined snow from the half-pipe to keep everything else open? Or would the absurdity of that made everyone's brain explode?

sure they could of ...

from the runs we did on ol the 1st closed weekend over there, i kinda remember looking up at bear claw and thinking it was still skiable. in fact we were surprised to see people skiing it. wildfire though was toast. in any case, all three of us have made the same point about the fiddle needing snow blown on it as it's a great spring skiing trail no matter how long bear is open.

[Highway Star]

From K's Facebook Page:


"Winter improvements are well underway as we continue to improve the on-mountain experience and overall resort efficiency as it relates to snowmaking and grooming. Here is a quick list of some of the improvements for both Killington and Pico:

Pico Mountain:
•Replacement of 122 snowmaking hydrants
•Upgrade to snowmaking pipe on Upper Pike
•Complete painting project on Knomes Knoll Triple
•New warming hut at summit

Killington:
•Replacing up to 2,000 feet of snowmaking pipe, including sections on Cascade and Great Eastern
•Lift painting: Ramshead Express towers; Superstar Express towers; Skyeship Gondola top terminal; Sunrise Triple towers; South Ridge Triple bottom terminal; Bear Mountain Quad chairs
•Re-grading of unload area of Skye Peak Express
•Re-grading of new Bittersweet trail section
•New warming hut at Killington Peak

In addition, we have a number of projects throughout our base areas that will take place this summer, more on that in future Killington Insider updates.

The --zz is back!!!!

[jhatski]

Some customer relations improvements. I know that I have been to places in the past where ski instructors would be at the top of the beginner and/or lower intermediate lifts and offer to ski a run down with a skier and offer a pointer or two to improve their skiing. Felt it was great for custormer relations and would result in additional ski lessons being purchased as I think at that level, skiers are often hesitent to go for lessons for a variety of reasons.

To jump on Geoffs suggestion to improve skiing experience for never/nevers and family types very few resorts do a good job of coordinating the effort between people renting, childrens lessons etc. I also havent used this aspect of killingtons service in the last couple of years so I probably shouldnt mention it but my experience is that almost all ski resorts do a uniformly bad job of this and Killington used to be very difficult to negotiate these services in my past experience. I believe that a resort that made this process easier (read better coordinated, less of a hassle, made you feel less like cattle and more like someone shelling out a small fortune) would quickly gain a very good reputation of being customer and family friendly.

The problem is that these improvements would probably not have an immediate payoff but would encourage young skiers/snowboarders to come back again and/or more often and build some customer loyalty with a different market. Try to think back to when you began skiing and rented equipment--- bloody awful experience. Or try to remember checking in for a five day vacation at a condo on the mountain and one kid is going to child care, one kid is going into an all day skiing/baby sitting program and you need to purchase your tickets for the week or pick up your prepaid package of tickets. I remember being in a full sweat before ever buckling my boots in those days.