A
Anonymous
Guest
I visited Killington for the first time today. They claimed there were 16 trails open, and the price of lift tickets jumped from $25 yesterday (Saturday) to $35 today. We arrived at 8:00 AM right when they opened, and took the K1 quad up top. I must say I was astonished with the snow. I only saw a handful of rocks, and there was a few bare ice spots here and there, but aside from that the coverage was very good on all the runs. The snow was nice and edgeable, and there was some "powder" in spots under the snowguns that made it really quite an enjoyable experience. The snow wasn't totally bumped up by the time we left either. It was a really pleasant pre-season experirence for me, perhaps worth the $35. <BR> <BR>Parking was a mess as we descended onto the town to find a good place to eat. We ended up eating at Charity's, in which we had possibly the most attentive and precise server I've seen in months. I was aghast. Highly recommended, though perhaps we were getting the preseason politeness that hadn't worn away yet. <BR> <BR>We decided to call it a day after lunch. Killington was simply too crowded at 11:30AM to justify going back, though I did notice they had opened the Snowden chair as we were leaving (doh!). On my last few runs down the crowded slopes: I witnessed at least four people smack into each other; I had to pull over and wait for waves of people to go by so I could rip down a section without risking smacking into anyone; I had a close call with a skier as both of our arcs apexed; I saw someone who was just standing there get totally taken out by a snowboarder at the very base of the gondola. Yes, it was time to go skitting back to Burlington with my tail between my legs and resume my cloistered weekday morning Stowe experience with two dozen other people on the entire mountain until lunch. I hope they really open tomorrow.