TR - Attention KMart Shopper

Ripcord · 01-07-2007, 09:09 PM

About time.

Here is the inaugral trip report of the season. The weekend plan did not go as scripted since the night skiing originally scheduled for Jiminy was scrubbed due to rain, warm weather, and lack of cooperation on the part of Jiminy (cancelled night skiing indefinitely).

The alarm went off at 4:50 am and by 5:03, I was on the road. I was meeting my brother at Killington who was advertising ~70 of 150 trails open (dirty little secret revealed later).

After an easy drive up I-87 (not much traffic at 6 am on a Sunday), I pulled up the mountain road and into the parking lot around 8:30. And what did my eyes see?!?! Snow!!!

Yes, those are real pictures. It was a sad sight indeed.

I harbored small hope that due to lack of cover, we'd still be in early season rates and cut us a break. Nope, $72 each. Ouch.

Ripcord · 01-07-2007, 09:10 PM

We were on the lift by 9am and the conditions were absolutely bulletproof. I haven't had my skis tuned since last season and my edges were not nearly sharp enough (I'm not sure a ginsu knife would have been sharp enough). We took a few runs to "loosen up" and then made our way to the sunny side of the mountain. No snow being made here. We snapped a couple of pics of yours truly, my brother, and some of the "freshies" on one of the lift rides.

Me:

My bro:

Killington in January:

Ripcord · 01-07-2007, 09:11 PM

And for those of you familiar with the legendary bumps of Killington, here is a pic of the signature run Outer Limits. Does it surprise you this place produced great bump skiers like Donna Weinbrect?

So they advertise as having 70 trails open. Here's the dirty secret. Not "All" of the trail would be open. Maybe 20% of the trail would be open but it would be listed as open in the propoganda. There was maybe 15 - 20 ways down the mountain.

After dodging rocks, we made our way to the section where they were making snow where the coverage was a bit better. The problem with the good coverage was twofold. 1. EVERYBODY else was there. 2. Snow from snow guns instantly freezes to your goggles and makes visibility awful real quick.

After doing a couple laps here, I was making some good turns when I spied a nice section of untouched snow just below one of the guns as the trail merged to the catwalk. I decided to rip a big GS turn through it.

Wrong.

You see, the gun that produced this section of 3 inch deep man made snow was slightly out of whack and the snow it kicked off was wet. As I entered this patch, it literally felt like somebody reached up and grabbed my skis under me. My skis stopped dead but I didn't. I landed face first, sprained my thumb and smashed my knee on the boilerplate really freaking hard. As I write this TR, I am icing down.

Later as we were riding the lift up on this same trail, we watched a snowboarder have the same thought I did. As he entered the patch. His board stopped and he somersaulted forward and landed head first. He got up ok but there was a bomb-hole where his head landed.

After my wreck, I completely lost all my rhythm and couldn't make a nice turn for the rest of the day. Not to mention it was getting pretty skied off which made bad conditions worse.

Ripcord · 01-07-2007, 09:11 PM

We did a couple more laps where we snapped a couple action shots before calling it a day.

Older bro:

Older bro again, me a little late with the shudder:

Me:

Me landing right after popping a little lip off a catwalk. Older bro a bit late with the shudder:

I'm not sure I really got my ski legs under me like I'd hoped. In fact I may have done more harm than good. But I will be icing my thumb and knee quite a bit and hopefully can take advantage of the upcoming clinic.

Until next time...

gnurider1080 · 01-07-2007, 09:33 PM

you paid $72 to ski that???

riverside73 · 01-07-2007, 11:24 PM

After spending $72 to have the kind of day you had....I now know what the R-I-P part of your name stands for! Rest In Peace Brutha!

UnCorked · 01-08-2007, 12:26 AM

The snow gun you skied under was not out of wack. That is how all the guns work. Skiing in MI you learn to never ski under a gun and always tilt your head down as you go through the spray to keep your goggles from getting covered.

I have had some great days skiing when the guns are on. The jumps you can build with fresh man made snow can be real nice. It is even better when two of the piles are nicely spaced

Public_Enemy · 01-08-2007, 01:33 AM

Holy sh!t if I had showed up there and they tried to charge me 72 dollars to ski that I probably would have gone home and done 1 of 2 things. Shot myself because of skiing withdrawals or packed all my sh!t and left that place on the spot.

Holy crap man how can you deal with that. Seeing those pictures makes me want to cry. MOVE NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ripcord · 01-08-2007, 06:42 AM

God's honest truth what I said to my brother. "If I weren't going to Utah on Thursday, I would bag this." But I really did not want to go to Utah not having skied at all. I wanted at least one day to get my legs under me. I had cancelled so many days for piss poor coverage that I just needed to get out.

Yes, we are have a crappy season.

RenegadeRick · 01-08-2007, 06:56 AM

Here is the thing. You got to ski.

Sometimes, those of us who live in snow challenged areas pay incredible amounts of money to ride in the crappiest conditions, but nevertheless, we got to ski. We can't all be primadonnas like SS and pooh pooh what would be considered fantastic conditions in our part of the world.

You can say move, but it just isn't that easy. For me a move would require a divorce. Even then, the judge probably still wouldn't allow it, because of visitation. Say what you will, but some of us are trapped in our own little personal hells, and we must simply make the best of it.

Here is the bottom line, the worst day of skiing is better than the best day of work. And you can take that to the bank.

Oh, and yes, snow from the guns is always sticky, and they all lie about the conditions. The place I went yesterday claimed 1 to 2 inches of fresh. WHAT?!?!? I doubt they even made that much snow. There certainly wasn't any snow anywhere but on the runs... fresh or otherwise. Some of the runs has such thin cover I doubt they even had a 1 inch base. A few weeks ago in December, it started raining right before I headed out for my usual Wednesday night place. I was OK with the rain. On top of an "up to 20 inch base" it would be fine, so I drove 50 miles to get there anyhow. When I got there though, I was shocked at what I saw. Below is a photo of a "supposedly" open run. I decided I couldn't bear to give those liars any money, so I called my buddy and spent the cash on dinner and beer instead. I think I made the right choice.