What Can the New Owners do to Fix K This Season

[rogman]

There’s an initial at the end of the report now. I’ve seen a -N and a -S. Multiple reporters in a death dual for the job?

[newpylong1]

It's definitely a lot better, and the snowmaking "symbol" is back as well.

[rogman]

It's definitely a lot better, and the snowmaking "symbol" is back as well.

I wonder if the absence was a POWDR thing? Snow making isn’t near as critical for western resorts.

[asher2789]

If you look at some of the bigger terrain parks out there, you see that common trend of:
- close to or at a base
- wide, space, and kind of stand alone
- a almost dedicated lift

Mammoth has thier park at the base and broadway chair
Copper is mid mountain, pipe at base, dedicated lift
Park City has dedicated lift/trails at base and park all alone
Mount Snow, even now scaled back has own base/lift for park

Killington just doesn’t have this option. I did hear back in day the possibility of all Ramshead park/Woodward. Don’t need to worry about that anymore. I’d be all for it since terrain is great but you just cut off all the good beginner/intermediate stuff.

that happened, except for swirl and caper. that was the year they had the family friendly boardercross course on header that went top to bottom which id love to see return as it was a lot of fun and also at the level of the clientele for that pod. but it was timby, header, easy street, little stash, and the yard at the bottom of caper all had park features.

also doesnt mammoth have parks kinda like k does? spread out? i thought they had a bunch of parks of different levels. always wanted to go there, have yet to do so. i would really need to up my park game to truly enjoy it and im not getting any younger...

[asher2789]

Build it right down the old access road when traffic routes up Vale Rd.

now theres an idea. but not enough pitch? lots of visibility though.

[rogman]

There’s an initial at the end of the report now. I’ve seen a -N and a -S. Multiple reporters in a death dual for the job?

Just saw a -B. Gotta catch ‘em all.

[mdskiguy]

I love Killington. I come up twice a year, last week in January and the last week in February. My wife has given up skiing, I either come by myself, or with my adult daughter.

I come to ski. I ski from opening to closing, unless my body needs a break. I mostly bring my own food. I don't want to pay high food prices, but mostly I don't want to wait.

I'm mostly a green/blue skier. I've got a fair amount of experience, but learned as an adult, and youth is far in the rearview mirror. I'll ski some of the easier blacks, and I can at least navigate pretty much anything (maybe extremely slowly), but the hard blacks aren't much fun to me. I love the long cruisers like Great Northern and Great Eastern when the snow is good. Solitude is wonderful -- not as exciting as faster runs, but a unique experience, and challenging in a low-key technical way. Treezy is the only green glade I've ever seen and a lot of fun.

I don't do parks, but the kids do, and the kids are the future. I seriously doubt I'll be skiing (or boarding) in 20 or 30 years, but they might.

I miss the old K1 in some ways, it had some real charm. One thing I like about the new K1 (and the other lodges), is the bag racks. Don't ever change that.

THIS SEASON

* Accuracy in reporting trail and lift status

This should be a no-brainer. I should be able to trust you, and your reporting.

* Run South Ridge as often as possible

It changes the mountain. Sure, it sucks as a lift, but it opens up that south side, and via Homerun, let's you go map right on the mountain without returning to the base.

* Keep High Traverse and Home Run open

So important. These let you go map-left and map-right without returning to base. Of course, if South Ridge isn't running Homerun doesn't really matter.

* Close Solitude if you have to

I love it, but when it's not skiable it needs to close. I've skied it years past where it had deteriorated with waterbars until it really felt unsafe. Close it.

* Do what you can to Bittersweet

It's mostly just bitter. But it's the only blue route from Skye to map-right. When it's bad it is so very bad.

* Keep an eye on Highlander and Low Road

You got a lot of beginner and low intermediate skiers that need these trails, and some years they are in bad bad shape.

* Keep an eye on lower Bunny Buster

Lower Bunny is important to get back to the lodge from map-east. Some years it really sucks.

* There should never be a line anywhere during the week

If I have to stand in a line more than a minute, inside or outside, I'm sorry, you've failed me. Anywhere, any time. I'm just not here to wait. Mostly the fix is to pay attention and to manage resources you already have, IMHO. And, yes, I realize some times there is going to be a temporary bottleneck at a lift, but mostly there shouldn't be. I can't count the number of times I've stood in line at the Snowdon 6 or esp. the K1 gondola and seen staff standing around doing nothing when they could have been crowd managing.

NEXT SEASON

Some of these things probably need to start now. Maybe planning is in the works. I hope so.

* Better trail signage

More signs, bigger.

* More webcams

They're fun. Good advertising, imho.

* Improve the interactive trail map

Try zooming and turning on trail names. It could be better.

* Improve the trail map

At a minimum, more directional arrows would be helpful, especially mid-map. If you don't already know the terrain, you really can't figure out which way some of those trails run, just from the map.

* Fix in front of K1

Traversing map-left or map-right in front of the lodge sucks. I know, blah, blah, blah, reasons. I don't care. It's a bottleneck. Really hard to move right or left without passing in front of the lodge. Make it easier.

* Fix Bittersweet

There should really be some alternatives.

* Add some connecting trails

I'd love to see more connectors to move left and right. For instance, it would be cool to be able to move from Northbrook to Bear on a connecting trail. Carpenter's Run doesn't quite connect. Maybe the topology isn't there. There might be other possibilities, there or other places on the mountain.


THE FUTURE

* Improve the map

I know the current map is only maybe 10 years old, but really, it looks like last century's map. It just doesn't really represent that mountain that well. Does Vagabond really look like that? Or the route down Lower Bunny Buster?

* Improve the app

It's okay. I know you don't make it. But it could be . . . better. Easier to read. It's easy to read inside, hard to read outside. For me anyway.

* Better lodging choices

Now I'm really dreaming.

I'm afraid the new village won't do it for me. It may drive me away. Everything they're advertising is actively what I personally don't want in a ski resort.

I don't want fancy. I want clean, functional, secure, easy access to the car. I've stayed in Rutland -- okay, but substandard, felt vaguely unsafe while I was away. I've stayed in Mendon -- actually great, rarely available. Whiffletree -- great, rarely available, expensive. Trail Creek, great, expensive. Green Mountain -- quality ranges, inconvenient, expensive.

If I'm by myself, a studio is great -- kitchen, living room, bed, bathroon. If I'm with my daughter, we need kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, two baths.

Can the new owners really do anything about lodging? Maybe not, it's probably what it is. But it would be great.

[Stormchaser]

One thing I like about the new K1 (and the other lodges), is the bag racks. Don't ever change that.

Who doesn't like big racks!

[mdskiguy]

Fix the K1 escalator.

[Dude GFY]

Fix the K1 escalator.

Good luck with that...

[rogman]

Fix the K1 escalator.

They did. Again, and again, and again, ...

Everyone knew this was a terrible idea except the owner and the architect, and I'm not so sure about the latter. Since an architect's main goal is to make things bigger and more expensive, consider this a win for them. My recollection is the repair service comes out of Burlington, Vermont. Figure four hours round trip travel charge before the repair even starts. To become a elevator and/or escalator person requires a 4 year apprenticeship, so the whole thing is pretty locked down. In short, massive failure to investigate the real cost of ownership.

[jimmywilson69]

Seems right up john Cumming/Powders mentality

[Bayfive]

Seems right up john Cumming/Powders mentality

Please ,ski the place once before you post

[rogman]

Actually, I kind of like the escalator. It’s really handy when I’m bringing in a bunch of stuff first thing to set up my slow cooker.

[wtf021]

The only people that use the escalator are the tourons that boot up in the KBL. I bet you'll be looking for it to be listed on the ski report.