Killington 11/02/02

[Lftgly]

They had opened the Canyon Quad, but it really only serviced one extra trail, East Fall. They never turned the guns off on East Fall. It was nice bumps, I did it twice, but each time got covered head to toe with snow that froze on contact, and had to stop repeatedly to wipe the ice off my sunglasses. They were making snow on Cascade, which looked ready to open. The top of Double Dipper looked good, which led dozens to go under the rope late in the day, but judging from their tracks further down, it still has a way to go. The Canyon quad had no wait, probably due to the gauntlet of snow guns you had to run through to reach it. <BR> <BR>We did go under the rope on a couple "natural snow" trails, including the short piece of West Glade off North Eastern, which takes you back to the Glades chair. It was thin, but OK where untracked; 6"-8" of cover on hay is OK, but not enough over a gravel or rock base. Anyone's first tracks basically pushed aside what little snow there was, and exposed whatever was underneath. <BR> <BR>Same story on Royal Flush, which ends down at the Canyon Quad. That was much longer & steeper, and more untracked spots. Probably most fun I had all day, and luckily no major damage to my ski bases, though we certainly hit some rocks and gravel. <BR> <BR>The snow wasn't as good on Rime & East Glade as opening day. Still good cover, but no bumps, and skied off towards end of day. Still, I had fun skiing them repeatedly. There was virtually no wait in the Glades chair singles line. Even saw the sun shine for 3 or 4 runs. <BR> <BR>We also took one ride up the old Snowden chair, but headed right back to the Canyon quad and up to Glades again. There were more trails open on Snowden, but they were more crowded, and snow making was in progress. <BR> <BR>The parking lot was unexpectedly jammed for early-season skiing. Usually this could be explained by the "snow in my backyard" phenomenon, which motivates many people to drive north and ski. But I didn't think you had got much if any in Mass., Conn., and NY. I had a 10 minute line at the K1 gondola in the morning, but it looked like the line was gone mid-afternoon. I don't know where all the people went after they left the parking lot. The slopes really weren't too crowded for a Saturday at K.