RootDKJ Posted January 13, 2009 Report Share Posted January 13, 2009 Well folks I'm finally back from the great state of Vermont. Here's a not-so-typical trip report. Jan 2 - Leave NJ around 9AM. went slightly out of my way to stop at Campmor. GPS took me a good route from there that I didn't think of and I was surprised about that. My GPS also took me on I-787 through Albany to US-7 (instead of taking the Northway to NY-149). This was a much more scenic route and only took me about 10 minutes longer. It started snowing about an hour before I got to the hotel. Jan 3 - POWDER DAY!!! 8 inches of new snow at Killington. Conditions were kinda dicey, because under the new 8 inches, was some very slick and crusty surfaces. Very cold, around 10F with windchill around -10F. The wind was pretty constant so you can do the math. Cloudy until around 2pm. I took a pretty bad crash into the woods towards the end of the day, but fortunately, I was uninjured. There's a nice dent in my helmet though. This was the only time I fell. I skied 13940 vertical feet. Jan 4 - Post powder day. The snow conditions were very hard, but carve-able. Very sunny and lots of wind. Temps were hovering around 0F with windchill around -20F. Nothing really remarkable about the day, just cold. I skied 17592 vertical feet. Jan 5 - I woke up in the morning and saw a 1/4 inch of ice on my car. I went back to bed until 9:30. Bummed around the hotel until lunch time. Went to Sugarbush Farms which is in Woodstock, VT. They have the best Hickory & Maple smoked cheeses I've ever had. I bought 2 pounds. Their cheddar is amazing also. Jan 6 - Another Bluebird day. The snow was very hard and very fast. Excellent conditions and lots of snowmaking going on. Probably the warmest day of my trip at 15F with minimal winds. The Red Bull girls are on the mountain today. 6 of them had gotten on the Gondola and I was next up in the singles line. Since the gondi holds 8, I tried to get on that car, but the liftie stopped me and told me that they get a private car. Oh well, I had to try right? Jan 7 - Woke up and saw about 4" of new snow on the car covered by a thin layer of ice due to a mixed precipitation of snow and sleet. Went back to bed until 9:30 again. Went for a boot fitting. Was very surprised that both the shops I went to steered me towards similar boots (one of them being the boot I'm currently using). The 2nd shop didn't think that my boots needed to be replaced and he suggested based on my stance I take out the "rear spoiler" to create a more upright stance. Went to the Long Trail Brewery for a late lunch around 2pm. I started out with a bowl of chilli and the beer sampler. 6 4oz beers for $5.50. I asked the bartender if I could try the brewmasters Winter White special and he gave me a a 4oz glass of that also. Damn good with a hint of citrus tones. It didn't taste like a "winter" beer to me but at 7.2% ABV who cares right? I had 2 pints of the Blackbeary Wheat, which was sooooo good on tap. Total of $16 for the meal and beers. Jan 8 - POWDER DAY!!! At least a foot of snow on my car. Many lifts not running in the AM. I was hoping to hit some trails on Skye Peak ASAP, so I parked at Snowshed and high tailed my way down to Skyeship midstation. F'n closed. So was Needles Eye. Damn no way out....gotta take the Northbrook lift back to the top of Snowshed and traverse my way to K1. As it would turn out, K1 and Superstar weren't running either. I got to the area where everyone takes their skis off about 5 minutes after the started loading for the day. I came across a very untracked Rime and noticed that the North Ridge Tipple was running. I did about 3 laps on Rime from top to bottom in knee deep powder. Amazing. In fact, I hardly remember the rest of where I skied the day but it was truly an exceptional day of skiing. Total of 14260 vertical feet skied. Jan 9 - Post powder day. Killington had some of the best packed powder I've ever skied on. No ice, crud, crap, death cookies or snowsnakes anywhere. Just sweet packed powder. It was a "perfect" day and I skied on every peak. Additionally, I was skiing very well today, I think removing the spoiler helped a bit. Major cold again, with windchills back in the -20F to -30F range. Total of 18880 vertical feet. Went to 2 bars for Happy Hour. Sucks that there's no more free wings this year...damn economy. Left bar #1 because they didn't have Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat on tap. Their Goombay Smash wasn't the greatest either. Bar #2 was better, had more people, but still really dead for a Friday night. K's nightlife has changed a bit. Jan 10 - Took another rest day today. I basically didn't want to deal with the Saturday crowds. Took my time packing the car up and went back to the Long Trail brewery for lunch again. There were more snowmobiles in the parking lot then cars. LOL. Bartender recognized me, and asked me if I wanted another Blackbeary Wheat. I told him I'd start out with the Winter White and a burger. Then I had 2 "VT pints" of the Blackbeary. Total of $22. Weather was calling for another dump on Sunday. It's been two years since my K2's had seen a stone grind, so I decided to drop them off for a full tune. More on that later. Jan 11 - Powder day!!! I kinda had a bit of a later start but pulled into Rams Head lot around 7:55. 2nd row of parking. Got booted up and decided to start the day with a run down swirl (since nobody ever skis it) 10" to a foot of fresh. Whoa....something's wrong....my skis have no life to them...WTF!!! Took the RHQ back up and took a run down header, which looked very groomed with an inch of fresh on top. I couldn't initiate any turns...very frustrating. Tried a 3rd run. No better. Went out to the car and grabbed my gummi stone to detune the tips/tails. Slightly better but still really lifeless. Very frustrated, I explained what had happened to customer service and they were nice enough to give me a voucher for the day. I'm really pissed. Went back to the shop where they refunded 1/2 the cost since they didn't see anything wrong with the tune. I'd go back there for boots, but they will never touch my skis again. Only 4620 vertical feet skied. Depressing, but it did bring my season total over 300K. On the drive home, I wanted to make a stop in Fort Ann, NY. I used to go camping there when I was a kid, and I was hoping to get a picture of the entrance to the campgrounds. I actually spoke to the person who is the caretaker of the property, who had just finished plowing out the driveway. He basically told me that they people who bought the property basically haven't used it in many years, and the husband recently passed away. I asked him if it would be ok to take a drive up and get some pictures, but he told me the wife doesn't want anyone on the property at all. I know where he lives, so I'll stop by at some point and talk with him again. He told me all of the infrastructure is still all in place (mess hall, chapel, BASE), the only thing that's really gone, are the platforms for the tents. Kinda sad that's the area is just being wasted. The rest of the drive home was un-eventful. I got home around 6PM. I didn't even unpack...I'm saving that for Wednesday. Overall it was an awesome trip. Vermont in January can be hit-or-miss at times but I picked a pretty good week. I still have to deal with my ski problem, but I'll give them a pretty decent hand tune this week and see what happens when I go skiing in PA this weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty mil Posted January 14, 2009 Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 nice TR... I was there from the 4th-9th and it was an awesome week. Thursday and Friday were such good days. There was so much powder on Thursday. I wiped out on Jughandle in snow so deep it took me about 5 minutes to dig myself out. haha. Awesome time though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootDKJ Posted January 14, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2009 Funny, I got stuck on Jug at one point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boardin_nerd Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 sounds like a great week. sucks about jan 11th... is juggernaut a rlly flat traiL? cuz i want to try it.. but with a snowboard i'm thinking that i dont want lots of flat spots where i can't get up enough speed before hadn and have to unstrap... hows the tree skiing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootDKJ Posted January 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 sounds like a great week. sucks about jan 11th...is juggernaut a rlly flat traiL? cuz i want to try it.. but with a snowboard i'm thinking that i dont want lots of flat spots where i can't get up enough speed before hadn and have to unstrap... hows the tree skiing? Don't do Juggernaut unless you have some rockets strapped to your board and really fast wax. I'm not much of a tree guy, but I hear it's pretty good if you know where to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moe ghoul Posted January 15, 2009 Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Sounds like a great trip, Good to hear you got a decent amount of fresh snow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootDKJ Posted January 15, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2009 Sounds like a great trip, Good to hear you got a decent amount of fresh snow.I had a great time. It was really cold, so I also took lots of safety breaks, but didn't include them in the report Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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