Day 30 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 12:45 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; cold and snowy with very little wind; snow started sometime before first light this morning; had 2" or so on the car this AM; snow continued all day; maybe 6" by the time I left; +11° in the parking lot; very little wind, so the snow fell straight down - very pretty; 16 runs; 17,500 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; a few inches of powder on top of last night's grooming - very nice!; first tracks on Needle's Eye was very floaty; did lots of things for the first time this season - rode the Skye Peak Quad and the Snowdon Triple - skied Vagabond, Conclusion, and Escapade; skiing ok, still feeling ok; finally picked up my new boots today after skiing; so ends part 1 of my Killington season - not sure what's next - I don't have to go home till Tuesday, so I might ski Stratton or Okemo over the weekend and on X-mas.

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Day 29 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 12:45 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; clear and cold with a very light wind - +8° in the parking lot this morning, +14° when I left; 20 runs; 20,000 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; 3f; not many folks on the hill today, but those that were there congregated around the K-1; skiing ok; amazingly enough, still feeling ok too!



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Day 28 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 12:30 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; temps in the mid-to-upper twenties with a plethora of sky and wind conditions - full on snow one minute, clear and calm the next; 19 runs; 21,000 vertical; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's; great conditions today - yesterday's soft snow firmed up perfectly after last night's grooming; Bear opened today - Gateway to Bear Trax to Bear Claw to the Bear Mountain Quad - Skyburst and Snowshed Crossover were open too, but not the Skye Peak Quad; Supe/Skyelark was nice to start - Needle's was good too - Upper Chute was exquisite; Lower Bear Claw was the only thing that wasn't top notch - lots of chuncks; still like these skis; skiing ok; still feeling ok; new boots still not ready.

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Day 27 - Killington

Out 9:30 to 12:45 with a ¾ hour coffee break at KSC to dry out; 3" of new snow overnight despite temps rising into the mid-thirties; 35° with a light rain in the parking lot when I arrived; windy with a light snow/sleet mix up top with light rain down low when I got out on the hill; 12 runs; 12,000 vertical; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's; soft, soft, soft; everything I skied was pretty good, but Highline was exceptional - good enough in fact that I did five despite having to ride the Slowdon Quad in the rain; skied ok given today's choice of skis didn't quite match conditions; still feeling good physically; a little late for the first time this year after watching Shiffrin win the W GS at Courchevel, France; all the frozen condensation that built up inside the K-1 Gondola cabins over the past few weeks unfroze overnight making for a 'rainy' first ride inside the Gondi this morning.

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Day 26 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 1:15 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; light snow accumulating to a couple of inches with temps rising into the mid-twenties, a low overcast, and a little wind; 20 runs; 23,100 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; really nice conditions - soft groomers with a packed powder topping; any crowd that showed up today quickly disappeared into all the open terrain - never waited in a lift line; Canyon Quad ran today :) ; skied Needles, Cruise Control, and Timberline for the first time this year today; despite my misgivings, I did middle Downdraft today - was able to miss most of the thin spots until I reached the last little drop off; with all the recent snows everything looks great.



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Day 25 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 1:00 with a ¾ hour coffee break at KSC; clear and cold with a little bit of wind - +5° in the parking lot this morning - +13° with a high overcast when I left; 20 runs; 21,500 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; soft groomers with some firm spots on the steeps; lots of people on the hill; skied pretty well today; still feeling ok physically; looking forward to skiing GS skis next week.

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Day 24 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 12:45 with a ¾ hour coffee break at KSC; clear, cold, and windy - +7° in the parking lot this morning, +13° when I left - a few clouds clearing to brilliant sunshine - not as windy as yesterday, but still pretty breezy; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; 17 runs; 17,700 vertical; packed powder and soft groomers; still lots of PSIA, but not much of a crowd otherwise; KMS had both Bunny and Highline closed today; everything was pretty good, but Northridge was really nice; took it easy today; skiing ok; feeling ok.



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Day 23 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 11:45 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; cold, windy, and snowy - +8° in the parking lot - constant 30 mph head wind on the Ramshead Quad - tons of new snow, 10" on my car this morning - the mountain is reporting 20" since yesterday morning; 7 runs; 7,600 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; started at Ramshead again today to avoid the Powder Day Crush around KBL; first 4 runs through knee deep, untracked powder on the top ⅓ of Header - very, very nice - lots of hoots and hollars from the chair; great tracks from my first run - 69 turns - left my phone in the car, so no pictures.

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Day 22 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 12:00 with a ½ hour coffee break at KSC; low to mid-twenties with moderate to heavy snow - a solid 3" in the Vale parking lot at 8:30 when I arrived and the heavy snow continued all day; 11 runs; 11,700 vertical; skied the Line Supernatural 108's; powder; deliberately started on Ramshead to avoid the 1st powder day of the year crush around KBL and was rewarded with the 1st and 4th runs down Easy Street - it may have been flat but it was totally untracked - sweet; missed a perfect opportunity to get a picture of my powder 8's directly under the Ramshead Quad when I didn't want pull my camera out of my pocket so I wouldn't get wet; after the velvety goodness of my first two runs, everything else was kind of blah.

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Day 21 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 1:00 with a ½ hour coffee break in the KSC building; temp around 20° with an unexpected light snow that accumulated enough to make any flat spots real sticky and no wind; 18 runs; 19,818 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; firm - last night's corduroy got skied away very quickly despite the light snow; skied Snowshed and Easy Street on Ramshead for the first time this season today; huge group of PSIA's on the hill today - you couldn't turn around without skiing up on another group of them; skiing ok; feeling ok; Nadine was out on the hill today - it was great to see her; totally wrong choice of skis given the conditions on the hill.



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Day 20 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 2:00 with a ½ hour coffee break in the Peak Lodge; temps in the low twenties with a few peeks of sunshine breaking through the cloud layer and no wind; 19 runs; 22,500 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's - had them ground flat, now all they want do is turn; firm or snowmaking; Cascade opened today - not too bad; had a couple of nice runs on Caper; snowmaking on Mouse Run was worth a second run; liked the firm steeps on Supe and High Line; skied pretty well today; feeling ok; blew off day 5 of Race Camp to ski with Tommy; big crowd today.



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Day 19 - Killington

Race Camp Day 4. Out 9:45 to 3:00 with an hour for lunch; temps in the mid-twenties with a light snow accumulating to 2 or 3"'s; 10 runs; 11,200 vertical; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; basically dust on crust today, but the accumulation of new snow was starting to make a difference by the time I left; did not ski well today;

6    61    -    47.92 (6)    47.03 (6)    1:34.95 (6)

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Day 18 - Killington

Race Camp Day 3. Out 9:00 to 2:30 with an hour for lunch; mid-twenties and windy with a decreasing overcast after last night's heavy rain; 15 runs; 11,100 vertical; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; what a shit show for conditions today - hope tomorrow is better; good afternoon: lots of tucking and 4 full GS runs on Bunny;

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Day 17 - Killington

Race Camp Day 2. Out 9:00 to 2:30 with a ½ hour break watching yesterday's video and an hour for lunch; mid-thirties with an on again off again light rain and a strong southwest wind - raining hard when I left after doing skis; 14 runs - 11 on Bunny via the Poma; 8,500 vertical; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; low, wide, and forward with countered upper body from the very first turn - don't be lazy and let the inside leg a-frame or the inside hand drop; short leg/long leg during transition into the top of the turn to reduce a-frame; fall away strategy: keep the upper body countered all the way around to the real fall line of the turn, not just down the general direction of the slope or coarse; short brush course followed by a short course with full gates this morning; full GS course this afternoon; did 5 runs through the full course this afternoon; Achilles was fine today, but my shins are a little sore this evening - I think that's a good thing; skiing much better today.

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Day 16 - Killington

Race Camp Day 1. Out 9:00 to 3:00 with an hour for lunch; sunny with temps in the low to mid-thirties and little to no wind; skied the Atomic D2 3.0 Race GS's; 19 runs - 10 on the Poma; 11,500 vertical; only really skied Rime and Upper Bunny, so I'm not sure how conditions were other places on the hill; in John Pierce's group with Bob, Ken, Roger, Cathy, Tim, ..., and ...; athletic stance - weight on the balls of the feet - flex ankles, knees, and hips together, not separately - hands up and in-from, visualize pushing open a door with both hands; turning with inside ski off the snow - tip contact ok, tail contact bad; statue of liberty with no poles; good skiing means low, wide, and forward; skied ok; my right Achilles is a little tight this evening; kept my mouth shut all day.

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Day 15 - Killington

What's better than 10 by 10? 15 by 11 on a weekday! Out 9:00 to 1:00 with a ½ hour KBL Coffee break; complete overcast with temps in the low-thirties down low and at or just below freezing up high with a constant cloud layer about mid-mountain and very little wind; 23 runs; 25,150 vertical; skied the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; lots of different conditions around the mountain - various types of crunchy snow and death cookies on Supe and Skylark - nice, hard packed groomers with an inch of new snow pushed into some small piles in Northridge - consistently firm groomers on Snowdown; did 15 round trips on the Superstar Quad before coffee at 11:00 skiing pretty good; feeling pretty good - not sure how I'll feel tomorrow after today's stout finish to this five day stretch.



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