Killington , Vt, 4-29-03

joegm

joegm

New member
third hand report from the my buddy gil the mad bumper who just called on the land line to say "wish you were here.... chump"... " prime day at k on tuesday "...and " best day of the spring" were the opening quotes... cool wind to keep the body temp down.. clear sky.. about 55f.. everything is off the superstar q k1 gondy is shut down... the superpipe is open , but you have to earn your jibs.. no lift access to it... somewhat groomed bittersweet/skylark and the bumped up superstar are the 2 ways down... the lines on ss are the usual monsters on the headwall... the flattened out middle is in fine shape with not too much zippered out ruts... gil said there was a decent crowd out there with a couple of legit mogul posses' out and about..base looks to be in decent shape, with the head wall still loaded up. gil confirmed frankontour's photo and brown spot as really the only bare spot on superstar , but said it's opened up to about 12 feet wide as of 4pm on tuesday. your picking your way down the bittersweet/skylark route. no real scuttlebutt from the locals as to a closing date. local forecast has rain on thurs and fri.. thursday is a free slalom race for anyone to enter... ski around a few gates in the middle of superstar and get an unrestricted ticket for next year for your efforts. <BR>ps, great stuff on the big cannon conversation.. i love hearing the historical perspectives and facts from those who know... and those photo's of tucks are killer.. my read is that places seem more willing to stay open 10 to 15 years ago.. i'm just trying to figure out what happened. i think everyone makes great points... the song remains the same though, and it's a sad song indeed... i have recently had conversations with dan egan via the e-mail. dan is the new gm at tenney mtn in plymouth nh...( hold your snickers boys!!!! ). my web surfing ran me across the tenney web site where upon loading, had on it's home page , a big banner advertising the " tenney mountain glacier ". what the hell is this, says me... further investigation revealed tenney is planning to attempt to run snow tubing lanes throughout the summer with the new sno majic technology they are using... i quickly fired off the email to dan the gm asking if this could possibly evolve to a more skilled use of the summer snow... my impression was that they are just trying to see if this is going to work at all... he basically told me that , like it has been discussed on the no bulls, demand is king... i get the feeling they would try it if the demand was there.. he said they are planning a couple of booter and jib hits for weekends in june, but legit summer skiing on sticks seems not in the cards at this time.. he did however reveal that they are seriously planning to spin lifts on oct 1st this year, obviously if at all possible... oct 1st, i guess, could be looked at like summer skiing... his response to me was that the mountain planed to have about 3000 linear feet to work with in october...he said they plan to "race train" monday through friday from 6am to 6pm... i assume this means some of the local schools and kid racers. and to my dismay, only open weekends to the public . he said they are offering a fall pass for $55.. a season ticket is $199... i sent him a response asking if the public would have any access to lift service every day instead of just weekends as his response seemed to indicate.. i havn't heard back from him yet.. will update when i do
 
Joe, it's really interesting, the new snowmaking technology of Tenney. I heard a tiny bit about that, last year, but I would like to know more how they can blow snow in high temperatures (economically once again...). I know actually it's "possible" to blow snow up to about 40 degrees, but how they raised that to something like 60 deg ??? <BR> <BR>And the big question is : why the hell K-mart still didn't buy it ? especially if Tenney have the money to buy it.
 
that's a good question about k, frank...one would think they would do it if it was possible... i'm still not 100% as far as what the hell they are doing but my sense is it has something to do with laying pipes into the ground and freezing the ground/soil to maintain it with some sort of nitrogen, but again this is not fact at all.. i am speculating based on what i heard... i'm sure not every area could do this do to environmental restrictions... like you said , there has to be some point/ temp here snow just cannot be made... it will be interesting to see how they make out and what they turn out in october
 
joegm-- <BR> <BR>will big K make it till memorial day do you think? <BR> <BR>looks like my april guess of making it till june 6th is off........ <BR> <BR>brian o
 
brain, i'm on the d.l and out of action.. i just got off the phone with my buddy gil who i usually ski with and who will be hitting k every week till they stop spinning... i think it's like everything with skiing, u r at the mercy of the weather... gil clearly thinks they blew less snow on the superstar this year... he did tell me that on wed when he skied there ( in addition to tuesday i didn't post it cause the info was the same from the day before ) that a cat pushed around some snow and covered up the bare spot that frankontour put up on the site .. however, gil, taking to making new conversations with the k faithfull local mogul posse since he doesn't have me to yell at about getting my poles out in front and on the backsides of the bump, claims that one of the locals was upset that k pushed around some snow onto the bare spot.. the reasoning , according to the local , was that scraping off the 6 or so inches of corn from the tops of the bumps , exposes the still frozen base of the bump and opens it up to air which in turn speeds up the degradation of the overall base... the local claimed that it ( spots of grass ) should just be left alone and dealt with instead of trying to cover it up. he maintained that the only time snow should be moved around en-mass during may is when a contiguous line can no longer be skied... you learn something new every day.. i did. gil speculates, that assuming nothing insane in terms of a temp spike occours in the next 3 weeks, they should make it to mem day... probably not without hiking down the headwall though, which as of todays still remaimed loaded up... june 6th seems quite unlikely unless something insane does in fact occour... in the opposite way.... if they are still spinning on june 6th , i might have to pick up the white towel i threw in on the 2002/2003 winter season !!!! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":)"> for the record last may, gil and skied 4 powder days at k after may 1st with at least 4 inches every time... the natural snow , though, seems to be much less of a factor than does the night time temps... the day after all 4 powder days last may, you could not tell the difference
 
ishhhhhhhhh, Ok, now I think the fact is clear. K really made less snow than last years on Superstar. The headwall looks to be in it last weekend without walking, if they don't groom the trail. <BR> <BR>The snow coverage also looks to be seriously less big on the whole trail, but it can be an illusion too... except for headwall. Brian, sorry, but I think that june 6 will be for another year. <BR> <BR>May 1, 2001 (2 years ago !) <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2293.jpg" ALT="Superstar looking very good"> <BR> <BR>May 3, 2002 (last year !) <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2294.jpg" ALT="Superstar looking good"> <BR> <BR>May 3, 2003 (today !) <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2295.jpg" ALT="ishhhh"> <BR> <BR>that's really sad. I planned to "possibly" go to the mountain on may 24-25 weekend, after St-So closure, but looking this, I don't think it's gonna be possible.
 
i would really like to know what the hell is going on in the ski industry in general and at k in particular... does a good winter , good being defined as cold temps and above average natural snow fall mean that you can pretty much bank on an early ending to the season.. how twisted is that? i'd say frank's photo's offer pretty damning evidence that there has been a dramatic shift in policies, at k in particular and in the industry in general...looking at photo's like the above and reading the onslaught of anecdotes provided by no-bullers who have been around the block really fills my mind with many more questions than answers... among the questions that i've pondered in the last week, in no particular order, 1) is skiing dying?... are general public skiers today less skilled than 15 years ago ( i don't include the pro's becasue i think that they are in fact much more skilled today than 15 years ago, but contrarily, it seems like the general public seems to be going the other way ) what effect has this litigous society we live in had on early closings. ( i know the insurance premiums that some of the summer camps at whistler have to pay are, well, u would not belive it if i told you ) . what the hell is going on!!!!
 
i hit the post button by mistake before adding this onto the above.. just a quick anecdote , this past week when my buddy gil was at k on tues and wed, at the end of the day on wed, he said he was cooling down on the benches outside the back of the k 1 lodge... sitting beside him and chewin the fat were a couple of 50 something locals. gil caught wind of the negative tone of the conversation and found it to be about the lack of snow/seeming lack of commitment to staying open. apparently, these couple of locals were friends with the former owner oc k.. i guess it was one person who owned it before it went to the asc inc. the locasl were lamenting the fact that back when this cat owned the joint , they could " "take it to the bank " that they were goning to have lift access till the second week of june, and specifically remembered lift access one year on the 4th of july... i don't know how much of this is embelished and revisionist history but gil said the guys sounded pretty legit. they also said that this owner, who either still skis k or used to up until a short time ago, would always tell his close associates that he would have more people coming up to him and expressing thier disappointment that he infact sold the area, becasue it effectively killed the epic spring seasons that had apparently existed... i've been skiing for 7 years and really only for 4 at killington for the spring since i decided to try and ski bumps , so i have no historical perspective.. hearing stories like this though, and that one about the gm at cannon who tried to get it up and running on profile that summer and ended up losing his job, really gets me depressed!!!! again , what the hell is going on!!!!
 
Eh Joe, more for your point. Look at this pic of JUNE 1, 1996. It looks like there was about the same amount of snow than today, MAY 3. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/2296.jpg" ALT="June 1, 1996... wow !!!!"> <BR> <BR>Yep, the society changed a lot in 15 years. I'm sure there is a lot of reasons for all that, but it's sad for us.
 
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