New England 2022-2023 Killington Ski Resort/Conditions/Meetups

[Phelmut]

Thanks for the the heads up. Not a fan of skiing on weekends but with kids there aren’t many options. I guess we will need to get up real early if we want a front row spot in K1 or the Vale lot. The other family that we are going with rented skis for their kids at Snowshed. We just may need to meet up with them after they get situated.

Ugh, brings back memories of renting gear at Vernon Valley on a crowded weekend. Not fun.

 

[Chip]

Ugh, brings back memories of renting gear at Vernon Valley on a crowded weekend. Not fun.

OMG- gave me the shakes- bus nothing like HS bus trips up there on Tuesday nights....

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Tuesday night bus trips are why I don't go to ski rundown i mean sundown on a weeknight.

Heading to Killington on Friday March 3rd. I always ski Killington late season so I know snowdon, Northridge and superstar area so well. I'm excited to see other parts of Killington.

Also planning on Killington ski days on 3/10 amd 3/17. Might mix Pico in here but not sure but late they'll run this year.

 

[mikes781]

Got there early today (715ish) and didn’t have any trouble finding parking. Ended of right on the access road at the superstar lift/highlander. Also managed to avoid the crowds/lines for the most part. Only bad move was going back to the K1 gondola for a second time around 1030 but still only had about a 20 minute wait. My daughter loved the mountain and said she’s done skiing the Poconos lol. We ended up going opening to close. Back at it in the morning.

 

[mulva28]

Got there early today (715ish) and didn’t have any trouble finding parking. Ended of right on the access road at the superstar lift/highlander. Also managed to avoid the crowds/lines for the most part. Only bad move was going back to the K1 gondola for a second time around 1030 but still only had about a 20 minute wait. My daughter loved the mountain and said she’s done skiing the Poconos lol. We ended up going opening to close. Back at it in the morning.

Nice job getting there early. I got there at a little before 8 and started at Rams Head. Front row Subaru parking Favorite runs today were Thimble>Chunnel>Needles under the gondola and power lines and then at the end of the day I lapped Upper Mouse Run > Triple Mid Station > Highline. Last 3 runs were on Snowshed Slope until 4PM; I was beat and wanted to work on CA/CB which has been really helpful on ice. Really fun day and it didn't feel very crowded.

@mikes781 My wife has the same sentiments as your daughter. We live in PA and she's from New England. She did 3 days in the Poconos before we "needed" a condo in Killington.

 

[mikes781]

We did that run down Thimble and Needles twice and my daughter loved it. We ended up taking a cut through over to upper needles. Our favorite run of the day ended up just being Upper Pipe Dream to Bear Trax to the South Ridge Quad late in the afternoon. The snow was like butter. The last time we took it down to the Crossover and then Cruise Control. Would have loved to do that one more time but it was almost 4. When we got off Northbrook just before 4 I tried to convince her to do one more run down Snowshed but she wasn’t having it… legs were cooked. Great day overall!

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Our usual arrival time at Killington is around 10am. We usually score with parking because we'll get the spot of an early bird local who did their 2 hours and is off to start their day. We have friends in town right now from PA. They ski in the Poconos and just love Vermont. They come usually 1 or 2x a season. They hope to live here full time one day. We'll do magic tomorrow but they love Killington so hopefully next time they are up.

 

[Marker]

We also skied the Poconos (Blue, Jack Frost mostly driving from the DE border) until we started mixing trips to Vermont and Maine. We looked at condos in PA including Elk but at the time 7 years ago Killington was only a little more expensive. Surprisingly affordable compared to other VT resorts. Those days are gone and we were lucky we bought when we did for our retirement dream.

Since we're midweek skiers, we drove to Rutland for shopping yesterday. The access road was not backed up so I guess the cold scared off the crowds. Today's conditions look good for you so shred them for us! As for the gondola, we hit the singles lines and split up as needed.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Our friends are from the Jim Thorpe area and I think their closest mountain is Blue. Same for us, we bought years ago and were grateful. Bought our townhouse in NWCT bordering Mass and got out of Fairfield county 3 years ago. What we have there is a palace compared to our tiny Fairfield digs. Covid has made the values go up 50%. Plus it's only 2 and a half hours to VT and very Vermont like so we call it Vermont south. We bought our condo trailside at Magic 5 years ago and the value has tripled post covid. We're only an hour to Killington so this makes many more trips possible. Headed there March 3rd to ski pre spring time for the first time ever. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the mountain.

 

[Marker]

Our friends are from the Jim Thorpe area and I think their closest mountain is Blue. Same for os, we bought years ago and were grateful. Bought our townhouse in NWCT bordering Mass and got out of Fairfield county 3 years ago. What we have there is a palace compared to our tiny Fairfield digs. Covid has made the values go up 50%. Plus it's only 2 and a half hours to VT and very Vermont like so we call it Vermont south. We bought our condo trailside at Magic 5 years ago and the value has tripled post covid. We're only an hour to Killington so this makes many more trips possible. Headed there March 3rd to ski pre spring time for the first time ever. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the mountain.

Our condo neighbors bought the year before us and come from the Camelback area (~10 minutes away). They have season passes at both resorts, but have the Beast 365 pass as they mountain bike as much as they ski!

 

[mikes781]

Visibility was tough today with ice on the goggles most of the morning and skiing in the clouds up top. Snow was good though and we really didn’t have to wait in any lines. We skied until about 1:30 and got on the road back to NJ. Think I have more days at Killington this season than on my Blue Mountain pass. Daughter is asking when we can go back but that unfortunately won’t be until next year. Killington has its hooks in both of us.

 

[Marker]

Today was very nice with 5" of fresh snow! Started on Cruise Control for a pow run then worked over to Panic Button/Needles Eye and Chunnel/Needles bumps. Cruised down to the K1 gondola and went up into the Canyons with Cascade, Downdraft with the headwall, and East Fall. After hitting Northridge Quad for some laps including two on Ridge Run bumps, we were headed to Snowdon when we lucked out with a just opened Highline as the racers dropped the ropes. I worked my way to the right to get at the untracked pow to finish our day a little early with two laps. Friends arriving tonight from DE to beat the storm so we will hit it all again tomorrow. He has been skiing Killington and the NE since the 70's.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Best day of the month so far. Tomorrow may be better. Nice winter snow cycle has set in. Groomed Downdraft headwall was a surprise. Cascade headwall was better with a full powder coat. Double dipper was simply dreamy. Decapitator was our favorite from the day.

Quote of the Day- Are we too old to be having this much fun?


Downdraft Headwall

Double Dipper

Decapitator Powder

 

[Marker]

Best day of the month so far. Tomorrow may be better. Nice winter snow cycle has set in. Groomed Downdraft headwall was a surprise. Cascade headwall was better with a full powder coat. Double dipper was simply dreamy. Decapitator was our favorite from the day.

Quote of the Day- Are we too old to be having this much fun?


Downdraft Headwall
View attachment 194075
Double Dipper
View attachment 194076
Decapitator Powder
View attachment 194077

After you coached me down Downdraft last spring, I felt it was time for Jane to take that trip. I was surprised at the grooming!

 

[mikes781]

Curious I haven’t tried Cascade, Downdraft or Superstar yet but am working my way there. Are they that must steeper than say Lower East Fall or is it their length or that they are normally ungroomed that make them more challenging?

 

[Wannabeskibum]

Curious I haven’t tried Cascade, Downdraft or Superstar yet but am working my way there. Are they that must steeper than say Lower East Fall or is it their length or that they are normally ungroomed that make them more challenging?

Lower Cascade has a double fall line and is steeper than lower east fall. Downdraft is usually ungroomed - same pitch as Cascade, except the bottom of Downdraft where it enters lower part of Double Dipper is steaper than lower Cascade bottom section

 

[Marker]

Curious I haven’t tried Cascade, Downdraft or Superstar yet but am working my way there. Are they that must steeper than say Lower East Fall or is it their length or that they are normally ungroomed that make them more challenging?

I'd say East Fall has a fairly sustained steepness while Cascade and Downdraft are only steeper over a shorter length. But their degree of grooming and or bumps is more variable. Superstar is just long being an FIS sanctioned trail for GS and slalom with variable steepness. As for it's grooming, that varies between early season (groomed) and mid/late season.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Curious I haven’t tried Cascade, Downdraft or Superstar yet but am working my way there. Are they that must steeper than say Lower East Fall or is it their length or that they are normally ungroomed that make them more challenging?

Lower East Fall is a single black diamond and the easiest way in the Canyon. Steepness ramps up from there. All of todays photos we taken on Killington's double black terrain. Cascade Headwall starts under the gondola and is never groomed. Middle and Lower Cascade are with winch cat groomed daily. My personal favorite Downdraft is rarely groomed with today being the exception. The large amount of steep gnarly drops is the reason I call Killington home.

 

[Wannabeskibum]

Lower East Fall is a single black diamond and the easiest way in the Canyon. Steepness ramps up from there. All of todays photos we taken on Killington's double black terrain. Cascade Headwall starts under the gondola and is never groomed. Middle and Lower Cascade are with winch cat groomed daily. My personal favorite Downdraft is rarely groomed with today being the exception. The large amount of steep gnarly drops is the reason I call Killington home.

And don’t forget that you like the trees - another reason you call Killington home!

 

[mikes781]

I struggle with ungroomed terrain and bumps and it’s something that I really need to work on next. I feel like it’s holding me back. I know conditions would play heavily into this answer, but what might the next step in terrain that I could push myself on with getting in totally over my head? Cascade below Great Northern or Superstar? I’ve skied it think most of the easier single blacks… Mouse Trap, Lower East Fall, Lower Skylark, Middle Skyeburst, bottom half of Wildfire. Only ungroomed terrain that I’ve been on are the woods off of High Road, small bump run off of Bittersweet and a little bit on Upper Needles.