Killington's Impending Infrastructure Collapse

[brownman]

That pic amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.

[Highway Star]

Lots of good stuff on the Pico side. The current bus shuttle run program sucks though. I want to skin up to Pico from the top of Ramshead this year to check it out. Looks like lots of good drop ins on the way. If it's great, I may change my tune on the interconnect and get all selfish like you Pico dudes and keep the goods to myself.

I picked up some 80mm kicker skins ($32 on amazon) this year to specifically travel on the Interconnect up to Pico, from the Ramshead lift. Even though I have a dynafit setup, trekkers and snowshoes, I'll just be using the kicker skins with my normal alpine gear and loosened boots. Its possible to skin low angle stuff like this. When I'm done, just throw them in my jacket. We'll see how it actually works, lol.

[brownman]

Short carpet strips, base lashed at mid-sole also works fine.
Hoping we get expedition opportunities sooner than later.

Sounds like Julio is dangerous right now

[Humpty Dumpty]

Short carpet strip

mmmm, reminds me of one of my favorite KZoners.

[Ski-The-West]

If Killington wants a interconnect so bad they could do this:

-Mark the trail as a double black and add plenty of warning signs

- Make an "Avalanche" gate so bad skiers will stay out

- Put ski at your own risk sign

- And add a this trail leads to expert terrain only



Done :)

[Dr. NO]

If Killington wants a interconnect so bad they could do this:

-Mark the trail as a double black and add plenty of warning signs

- Make an "Avalanche" gate so bad skiers will stay out

- Put ski at your own risk sign

- And add a this trail leads to expert terrain only



Done :)

Left out "Some hiking / skinning may be required".

[snoloco]

I made a google earth trail map of Killington which shows the interconnect and Sunrise open to the bottom. I noticed that the layout is almost symmetrical with the K1 being exactly in the center, and the Sunrise and Pico Summit Express lifts at the same angle. Thought this was kind of cool.

Reason I included Sunrise was that I think the parking would be needed if the interconnect brought more skiers in, and if anything is to happen in The Village, it would limit Snowshed, Ramshead, and K1 parking. I'd expect that with the extra skier visits from the interconnect, and the parking removed due to The Village, that the Skyeship parking lot would become crowded and full every weekend.

I'm thinking Pico's lot would be turning people away very early each weekend because it would be the closest access point from the Rutland side. These people would then find the Ramshead/Snowshed/K1 lots to be full, and then turned away to Skyeship which would fill soon after. Sunrise would be the closest access point from the NH side, so it would take some of the load off Skyeship.

One thing that might be a good addition is signs indicating whether a parking lot is full at the intersection with the access road. That way you don't drive all the way up, only to need to turn around and go to Skyeship.

[laxxer27]

No way Killington ever re-opens the "Original" Sunrise Village. Too much wasted equipment, there is a reason why they closed it. Did you ever try and get from Sunrise to the peak? It would take you an hour at least, and that's with a year with good snowfall to get those trails open. To include Sunrise for the simple fact of over flow parking is ridiculous.

[snoloco]

The only reason sunrise was closed in the first place is because ASC bled Killington nearly to death when they overreached and built The Canyons. The last lift that ASC installed was in 1997, K1, which was the same year they sunk 65 million into The Canyons. The next year, the downturn started, the interconnect cancelled, and sunrise nixed. If it weren't for that mess, the interconnect would have been built, and Sunrise still here. It would only reopen in the scenario in my previous post.

[laxxer27]

The only reason sunrise was closed in the first place is because ASC bled Killington nearly to death when they overreached and built The Canyons. The last lift that ASC installed was in 1997, K1, which was the same year they sunk 65 million into The Canyons. The next year, the downturn started, the interconnect cancelled, and sunrise nixed. If it weren't for that mess, the interconnect would have been built, and Sunrise still here. It would only reopen in the scenario in my previous post.

Ill agree to disagree, I would like to see the actual number of riders at the Sunrise lodge in the day. I remember skiing there and not seeing a single person. The whole Parkers Gore thing seemed silly to me anyways, once that failed the demise of Sunrise quickly started.

[brownman]

NEPassage ... they did the right thing bailing.
Serious long lift ride ... no useful terrain.
Mid station was only redeeming feature..
The parking lot on Rt 100 was nearly always empty.
Thunderball was about the only reason to go there.

Long ago and far away.

[snoloco]

I wonder how much cutting the ride from 17 minutes to 9 minutes would help, since that's how long it would take on a HSQ to cover the NE passage distance. Halving the lift ride time would make that section not as disconnected as it once was. It would take 9 minutes to ride out from Route 100, 3 minutes to ski to the SPE, 5 minutes to ride it up, another 5 to ski down to the K1, and 8 minutes to ride it up, factoring in removing equipment and putting it back on. That adds up to 30 minutes to reach the peak. With lines at the K1 and SPE, it could take at least 45, but that is a really long distance to cover. You could actually reach Pico in 4 lift rides from Sunrise. It would take the same number of lifts to reach most places on Killington from Pico.

[laxxer27]

I remember back in the mid 90's I took a wrong turn and ended up on that long @$$ trail that heads to Sunrise with about a 1% grade. I was cursing for the next 2 hrs trying to get back to some decent terrain. I don't even think it was on the map but possibly a XC trail added in. it ran parallel to rte 4.

[snoloco]

Was that Sunrise Trail? It did run parallel to Route 4, but only as it turned back toward the NE Passage base aeea, and wasn't anywhere near the road. That trail currently dead ends in the condo area.

[laxxer27]

Was that Sunrise Trail? It did run parallel to Route 4, but only as it turned back toward the NE Passage base aeea, and wasn't anywhere near the road. That trail currently dead ends in the condo area.

yup, that had to be it.