Killington Vt 2/28/01

[cd]

Killington was reporting 4-6" new powder today and that was true. However, they were calling the surface "packed powder" which it generally was not! <BR> <BR> Problem was, the nice dry pow fell on boilerplate and was quickly scraped off. Even getting first tracks in a given spot was no guarantee of an escape from the chattering edges! The woods were particularly cruel, as time and again I was instinctively drawn toward the untracked powder, only to find it covering a thick breakable crust- not a styrofoam-like 'thaw and freeze' crust mind you but out n' out ICE that gave a loud deep thump as your poles/skis punched through and resisted your pulling them out. You could turn if you really hopped but it was hardly worth it. Occasionally the crust was hard enough to not break through, in which case you were back to scraping (and no way to predict which turns would go that way!). <BR> <BR> Having said all that, I had a good time seeing the old friend (& kid) that I'd hooked up with for the day and there were the occasional nicer sections, mostly in piles of scraped pow at the edges of trails and places where snowmaking had been happening just before the new snow (they were blowing today on Superstar). Also, some of the flatter stuff seemed to have hung onto the new snow a little better but high traffic areas were invariably down to the bone. <BR> <BR> March isn't too late for another good dump or three...fingers x'ed.