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Anonymous
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The power has gone out in Starksboro -- both in my house and in my legs, after two days of frantic spring powder skiing in the mountains of Vermont. But there is still power in my PowerBook, so as long as the TV is out I might as well write about our adventures in Killingtonland. <BR> <BR>Somewhow I managed to convince Jumpin' Jimmy that the best way to spend the biggest powder day since last week or so was to spend it at Killington. The Big K. he Beast of the East. The K-Mart. Killingaroonie. <BR> <BR>Sure, great idea. After minimally digging myself out of the driveway, rounding up JJ, and packing up to go it was probably 8:30 before we left. The drive down my road and along Rt. 116 to Bristol mad me wonder why I hadn't turned up 17 to The Glen, especially when I knew the single hadn't run all day Thursday. We switched to route 7 to Rutland, and the drive was now seeming interminable. Finally, after an eternity of wet snow and wetter roads and some necessary business here and there we found ourselves at last boarding a SkyeShip around 11 AM. <BR> <BR>Not an auspicious beginning to a powder day. <BR> <BR>But after just one final delay -- the SkyeShip hit a chronic hysteresis loop just before landing maneuvers -- our skis touched snow and the magic began to happen. <BR> <BR>In quick succession, we skied down Bittersweet to Low Road to Highlander to the Gondola. Up the K1 to the summit, hiked up to Catwalk, and straight down Catwalk to Great Northern and Big Dipper Glade to East Fall and out to the Snowdon Quad. Up and down North Star [a Wild Thing!] and some random tree shots of untracked to Caper and Great Northern (again?). Up Snowdon again, this time down Low Rider [a Fusion Zone!] and again to Caper and Great Northern all the way to the K1 which we rode up to the summit to ski Blue Heaven to Echo Woods to Escape. Escape looked boring downhill so we walked up it to the Jug and Jug Handle so we could get onto Falls Brook to Bear Peak. Up the Bear Peak Quad and down Devil's Fiddle to Bear Peak Quad up and down Wildfire until we found more interesting woods which dumped us down a closed section of the Skye Peak Quad liftline back to Lower Wildfire (this 300 yards was the only sucky skiing of the day). Up Skye Peak Quad and down Thimble to Needle's Eye to Needle's Eye quad to Vertigo to Needle's Eye Quad and then two times down Panic Button to the WIld Thing! under the Needle's Eye quad. Up one last time and then down Bittersweet to Low Road again back to K1 for one final trip to the summit and down Blue Heaven to Great Eastern to Dreammaker to Home Stretch to Great Eastern to Valley Plunge to Touchdown. <BR> <BR>Whew. <BR> <BR>Killington rocks when it's covered in powder.