Killington Ski Trip February 2022

As part of my February 2022 vacation I spent a few days at Killington for some mid-week skiing. I was able to get a room at the Mountain Inn, which is near the top of the access road right next to the ski resort. I had wanted to stay there for years. Killington Distillery is in the same building as the hotel. The hotel has a ski locker room and a free shuttle to the Killington base lodge. The also have an outdoor heated pool!

They also have a nice patio with picnic tables and a fire pit plus a great view of the ski resort.

Since I did not have to drive I was looking forward to relaxing at the bar. As I mentioned, there is a distillery onsite.

They have some fantastic craft cocktails made from the Killington Distillery products.

I tried the Blackberry Bourbon Sour and loved it!

I loved that they had a fire pit outside. The weather and temperature was pretty good for winter and I had a fire nearby. It was nice watching the lights from the grooming machines going up and down the trails at Killington.

The Mountain Inn also has an outdoor heated pool. I did not use it during the first night of my stay on Sunday but I sure did Monday evening after skiing.

This was my first ski trip of the season so I was happy to take a couple warm up runs on the Snowshead trail.

My sister and nephew joined me for the day. We had some great runs on Ramshead, Snowdon, Killington Peak, Sky Peak and even a run down the Great Eastern to the Skyship Base. We had lunch at the summit lodge, which was nice. The place has lots of windows and some great views.

The weather on Tuesday was strange. It warmed up over night and the whole mountain was covered in snow fog. Since the visibility was so bad I did several runs on Showshead, which was fogged in but it was good enough to ski.

It cleared up first around the top of the Snowshead trail but rest of the ski area was fogged in. Once the fog burned off some snow flurries came through, which made visibility better but not perfect.

I eventually went back over to Ramshead mountain and did a bunch of runs on Easy Street and Caper.

Wednesday morning was beautiful and sunny. Before leaving I was able to get some beautiful photos of the mountain with my Pentax Kx camera. Below is Killinton peak and the K1 summit lodge.

Below is the Snowshead trail. Although it’s the easy training trail for the resort, I like it since it’s a nice relaxing ski with a great view.

Below is a photo of the Superstar lift and trail.

This is a panorama of Ramshead, Snowdon, Killington over to Skypeak and the Snowshead trail.

Bolton Valley Ski Trip

This week I had the desire to explore another new ski area. My sister Tina suggested I try Bolton Valley in Bolton, VT. It was a perfect spring skiing day with temperatures in the 40’s and the snow getting nice and soft as the day progressed. Since it was a Monday there were no crowds and the mid-week rate was only $49.

I had several fantastic runs down the Cobrass trail, which offers a great view of Bone Mt. and Camel’s Hump.

By mid-morning I made it over to the Timberline Lift and the Showtime trail. The snow was deep and well groomed on this trail and I have many great runs.

Being my first time at Bolton Valley I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy a nice view of Lake Champlain and the mountains of New York State in the distance.

I really like Bolton Valley and plan to return. It’s close to I-89 and therefore easy to get to. There is affordable slope side lodging and night skiing which would make it a great option for a ski vacation.

Killington Ski Trip

The forecast for Monday was for flurries and wind and warmer temperatures. With that in mind I decided that Killington would be a good place to visit this week. While Killington gets its share of wind I thought the skyship gondola would be comfortable ride. I also thought the Great Eastern might be a good trail if the wind was bad since much of it is below the treeline, which could cut down the wind.

The summit was covered in clouds for most of the day. It was a little eerie at times skiing through the fog.

In addition the Great Eastern I had several good runs down Skyburst to the bottom of the Skye Peak Express lift.

The morning flurries eventually stopped which improved the view lower down the mountain.

The Killington Website reported the snow conditions as packed powder I noticed that the conditions changed from packed powder (a bit damp) at the top to wet pack (mashed potatoes) at the bottom of the Great Eastern.

Pico Mountain Ski Trip

Another Monday and another ski trip adventure. This week I went to Pico Mountain Ski Area in Killington, VT. I had never been there and had always wanted to go. Like many people I had always gone to the larger and more glamorous (and higher priced) Killington Ski Area next door.

As I pass the Killington Access Road I noticed that the peak of Pico is hidden in a cloud.

Exploring a new mountain is always fun. I had both my camera and video camera with me. There was a light snow in the air as I got on the lift. At Pico you need to take the Golden Express Quad first and ski down to the Summit Express Quad to reach the top.

It was kind of strange riding the chairlift up into the cloud covering the summit.

No view from the top today. The top of the Forty-Niner trail is interesting because the trail winds between small islands of snow covered trees.

Using Google Earth helped me to learn a bit more about the view I see at all these ski area. The mountain in the foreground is Deer Leap Mountain.

The body of water visible down the valley on the left is the Chittenden Reservoir.

This is the view north looking at Deer Leap Rock and beyond towards Doubleday Mountain.

The summit stayed in the cloud most of the day with an occasional flurry coming through.

This is the view from high up on the Forty-Niner trail. In the distance is Kent Pond off of Route 100. Behind that is Doubleday Mountain to the left and Shaw Hill to the right.

It was a fantastic day! I really like the nice wide trails and excellent grooming at Pico. The crowds were sparse and I often had the trail all to myself. I will be sure to return to Pico in the future!

Ski Trip to Loon Mt.

I took a Monday off from work and made my first trip to Loon Mountain Ski Area in Lincoln, NH. This is a trip I had wanted to make for years. It was a clear and cold morning. They were making snow like crazy to recover from the rain of the previous week. Their efforts paid off since the snow conditions at Loon were better that day than many other New Hampshire and Vermont ski areas.

I enjoyed a fantastic view of the south face of Whaleback  Mt from the Rampasture trail. Rampasture turned out to be my favorite trail of the trip. I enjoyed more runs on this trail than any other on the mountain.

After many runs from the Kangcamagus Express Quad I finally made it over to the Gondola lift and went to the summit. I enjoyed a great vew north towards the Pemigewasset Wilderness region.

This is one photo of the view looking north from the first corner of the Exodus trail. The panorama view from this vantage point is spectacular.

This is the view northeast looking towards a snow covered Mt. Washington off in the distance. I am very impressed with the trails, the view and the grooming at Loon mountain and plan on going back, maybe even for an overnight trip.

In addition to photographs I took several minutes of video footage which I hope to make into a YouTube movie . Visit my page at Flickr.com for the full photo set and my channel on YouTube for the video.

Skiing at Mt. Sunapee

Christmas Eve day was my first day of the season on the ski slopes. I took the day off from work and headed to Mt. Sunapee. The weather report said it was going to be a nice day with temperatures in the mid-thirties so was surprised to find overcast skies and the summit covered in fog and snow from their snow guns. It was a little spooky skiing in the low visibility of the “fog like” conditions. It was not until mid-morning that the sun burned through so I could see the view of the lake that  Mt. Sunapee is famous for.

Although not all the trails were open conditions were good with well groomed packed powder and machine groomed snow.

I also took my video camera with me and experimented with shooting video on the ski slopes. I am working on a short video which I hope to post to my YouTube Channel.

Magic Monday at Mt. Sunapee

Mt. Sunapee has $39 lift tickets on most Mondays this year.

Monday January 28, 2008 was a fantastic day on the mountain. I was on the second chair going to the top and got some awesome runs on Mt. Sunapee’s exceptionally groomed trails. The crowds were smaller than the weekend with blue skies and temps in the low 30’s. The trails on the main face are in shadows until mid-morning so I did a few early runs on the Sunbowl side of the mountain.

I brought my new Olympus Stylus 790 and got a few good photos. I set up the camera for sports shots and got a few action ski photos. I was even able to get a few from the lift.

Midweek at Killington

I was able to make it up to Killington for some uncrowded mid-week skiing last week. I was glad to see they were making snow and recovering from the January thaw, although several trails were still closed. The weather was great and I was able to get some pretty good photos of the view. I did discover that resort services and lift operations are scaled back mid-week. Pico is only open Thursday – Monday. Stage one of the Skyship is also only running Thursday through Monday. Only the Snowshed and Ramshead lodges were providing full food services and the cafeteria at the top was completely closed.

I was able to get this photo of Ascutny Ski area from Skye Peak on Thursday morning. I also got a nice photo with a view to the south of Stratton Mt. on the right and Magic Mt. on the left.

A cold day at Killington

Killington_jan07_ 002

Originally uploaded by makarl_flickr.

I took a Friday January 26th off to go skiing at Killington.
I must have lost my mind!
It was four below at the base and even colder up top with the wind chill. This is why I like the gondola better then the chairlift at Killington.
My goggles fogged up then instantly froze during one run, and were useless for the rest of the way. Thankfully I made it to the bar for a hot coffee drink.