Day 74 - Keystone

Out 8:30 to 3:00 with a long lunch in the car; warm and sunny with little to no wind, temps started right at freezing and ended in the forties; 19 runs; 29,798 vertical; skied the 2015 Volkl RaceTiger SL World Cups and the Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers, many very firm; not much of a crowd; Team Summit Masters - SL on Richtor; first fall of the season today - lost a ski when hooked a gate - went down hard, face first.

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Day 11 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 2:15 with a ½ hour lunch at the Summit Haus; sunny and warm with a little bit of wind later in the day and temps rising toward 50°; 19 runs; 34,853 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers; some people, but no lift lines; getting the routine down - walked up and loaded the Summit 4 at the very end of the 9:00 Rush this morning; 10th person up Montezuma this morning; first time I've been in the lodge this season; skiing okay; feeling okay; passed 200,000 today.

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Day 4 - Keystone

Out 9:00 to 11:15; clear and sunny with temps rising past freezing and little to no wind; 9 runs; 15,003 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; mid-winter, 3F; lots of people out, but never much of a lift line; lapped the Montezuma 6 with new friend Mike; the countdown is on - 25.

Peaks 1 thru 4 - I'm somewhere below that narrow avalache chute on the far right

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Day 3 - Keystone

Out 9:15 to 10:30; a dusting of snow overnight, cloudy today with temps just below freezing and virtually no wind; 5 runs; 8,254 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; the one open trail was groomed flat and it was a bit firmer than yesterday, but not icy at all; big crowd today right from the get go - that's why I left so early.

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Day 2 - Keystone

Well, I finally made it out for day 2. I was supposed to go back to Big Snow in September, but they had a fire and are closed till at least the new year. Then after a looooong drive out here over the weekend, I overslept and didn't have enough time to go out yesterday. So anyway, on to today's report:

On the hill 9:15 to 11:00; 3" of snow overnight with flurries today and temps around freezing with the tinyest bit of wind; 6 runs; 10,002 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; last night's snow was groomed in just before opening, so conditions were nice and soft and smooth; good cover on the one slope that was open - even after things got skied in, I never saw a rock; a pretty good crowd by the time I left, but never a lift line; started out a little slowly - most everybody passing me - and built up to a respectable pace by the time I left; left my phone in the car, so no Ski Tracks;

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Day 55 - Montage

Out 8:30 to 11:00, no break; < 1" of wet snow overnight ended as an hour of drizzle and mist this morning; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; 17 runs; 11,111 vertical; soft groomers; left as soon as there was even the hint of a crowd; poached the Ski Team's GS on Smoke twice and the NASTAR course once; skied okay.

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Day 51 - Montage

out 9:00 to 12:15, no break; overcast with temps right at freezing - snow showers left a thick coating of sticky, wet snow; 23 runs; 15,692 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's and the Fischer RC4 GS Cheater 18's; groomers; not much of a crowd - no lift line at all; skied with David W. till about 11:00, then finished off by myself; skied okay; Boomer excellent again - Smoke excellent as well; the Fischers skied very well the past two days.

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Day 47 - Montage

So ends our streak of winter weather. Out 8:45 to 2:30 with a ½ hour lunch break in the car; lots of rain overnight, intermittent fog today with a heavy overcast and temps in upper thirties; 35 runs; 23,642 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; super soft, rain soaked leftovers and some mushy groomers on the upper mountain - actually pretty nice; absolutely nobody else out till well after noon; skied till about 10:00 with Dave Wadas; lots of runs skied very well: skier's left on Boomer, all the groomers up top and the soft bumps on Lightning; had a nice day. #justgivemeagroomer    

Day 13 - Montage

Definately a 'holiday weekday'. Out 10:00 to 2:30 with a really, really long lunch break in the car watching RCS win the Bormio SG - late start today because I had a doctor's appointment this morning; mostly sunny with temps around freezing and an on again off again wind; 15 runs; 9,812 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; scratchy groomers; pretty big crowd - lift lines all day; didn't ski particularly well.

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Day 8 - Windham

Still waiting for the season to start here at home - big snowstorm expected Wednesday night. Out 9:00 to 3:30 with ¾ hour break for lunch in the car; light snow started on the drive up, stopping around 2 o'clock - an inch up top at the open, maybe another inch during the day - temps rising to just above freezing; 43,981 vertical; 33 runs; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's and the Blizzard Brahma #2's; generally variable early season conditions - Upper Wolverine had excellent coverage and a pretty good groom job - with the exception of a couple spots, all the flatter terrain from the middle of montain down was very thin; very few other people out - never rode the chair with another person; the Heads worked noticably better than the Blizzards on the steeps; skied okay I guess.

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Day 7 - Killington

So ends part 1 of my ski season - it's mostly Montage and NY state day trips from here. Out 9:00 to 4:00 with just a ½ hour in the car for lunch; an early, high level K Cloud gave way to a sunny, pleasant day with temps just above freezing - the wind did pick up a bit toward the end of the day; 41,692 vertical; 34 runs; skied the Fischer RC4 The Curv's and the Blizzard Brahma #2's; nice groomers at opening bell that got pretty scratchy as the day wore on - a little new snowmaking thrown in just for fun at the end of the day when they dropped the rope on Lower East Fall; huge crowd early that thinned out by the afternoon; after due consideration I've decided that I've absolutely ruined the Fischers by having them ground flat (0° base bevel) - I won't make that mistake any more; didn't ski particularly well today; looong drive home after a looong day on the hill.



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Day 5 - Killington

Better than a sharp stick in the eye today, but not by much. Out 9:00 to 3:00 with 45 minutes in the Ski Club Building for lunch; 50°, overcast and windy - ½ hour of light rain at 1:00; 31 runs; 30,385 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; no grooming overnight because of all the rain, so everything frozen up and was real rattlee till it got skied in quite a bit - the rain overnight also uncovered tons more thin spots; not too many people, but lots of the regulars - Barb and Don, Bob and Pheobe, Mark and Cindy, Mike C., Karen, Ric S. - lots of KMS and GMVS kids on the hill today too; skiing pretty well; despite the effort of skiing the ungroomed all day I'm feeling pretty well.



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Day 3 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 3:30 with coffee and lunch breaks at the Ski Club; overcast and very windy with temps rising through the twenties; 28 runs; 23,734 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; very good conditions - loved the rock hard groomers in Northridge and the skied-in snowmaking on Middle and Lower Chute; lots of people; small (2-5 minute) lift lines most of the day; Snowdon 6 down again till 11:00, then it was swamped so I headed up to Northridge for a couple of hours; just like yesterday, consecutive rides the Snowdon Triple stopped in almost the exact same spot; skiing pretty well; disappointed that the Snowdon 6 was down so much this trip - I estimate that riding the Snowdon Triple instead cost me 11 or 12 runs.



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Day 67 - Killington

Out 8:00 to 3:00 with coffee back at the condo to change skis and lunch in the bar at Snowshed; snowing and windy - 2" or so by the time I quit; 28 runs; 36,597 vertical; skied the Atomic Redster G9 RS's and Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers; some people did show up by noon;

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Day 66 - Killington

Out 11:00 to 4:00 with lunch at the condo; mostly clear and windy with temps in the twenties; 22 runs; 26,771 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's and the 2019 Head i.Speed GS Cheater 17 's; crunchy groomers; lots of people, but lots of lifts too; Double Dipper was firm and crunchy after it's first groom of the season - that's my favorite condition on my favorite slope so I did 15; glad for the slowness of the Canyon Quad today - top to bottom on a firm DD is a lot more work than zooming groomers for vert over on Bear.

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Day 65 - Killington

Out 10:00 to 1:00 with just a coffee break at the Ski Club after I didn't go back out after lunch at the condo; clear and very cold, but thankfully very little wind - temp was -5° overnight, never out of the single digits today; 16 runs; 17,230 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers where much firmer than yesterday, but still very carvable - not everything looked like the picture below; I couldn't get back around on the Snowdon Triple's mid-station before Barb and Rick skied over my tracks.



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Day 64 - Killington

Out 9:00 to 4:00 with coffee at the Ski Club and lunch at the condo; yesterday's drizzle ended as 2" overnight - freezing drizzle once again this morning, but the temps dropped and it started snowing by noon; 24 runs; 31,869 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; new snow on groomers; holiday crowd already starting to build; the Brahmas aren't near as smeary as Enforcers; was very tired today, but I stuck it out to the end; skied a few with Todd and his wife Melida.

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Day 52 - Killington

Out 8:00 to 3:45 with several race breaks and a lunch break at the Ski Club; clear and cold to start, but the sun quickly warmed things up to nearly 20° and it even felt warmer than that for a little while; 25 runs; 27,686 vertical; skied the Atomic Redster G9 RS's and the Blizzard Brahma #2's; groomers and some good snowmaking; not too many people out; if I would have know how badly I'd ski at Ski Bum today, I wouldn't have taken yesterday off; all sorts of lift problems today - stopped on or waited in line before they closed a lift for more than 5 minutes 4 different times today - oddly enough all on different lifts and two of the stops were more than 10 minutes; tons of fixed grip lifts today and today's vertical shows it; the snowmaking on Double Dipper was very, very good, especially the top ⅓ under the long armed tower guns - got to make turns down the steepest pitch along side tons of the slough I kicked off up above.

Race 1 - 151 BURNS MARTIN DNF

Race 2 - 24 151 MARTIN BURNS 25.97 (24) SM5 (4)



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Day 40 - Killington

Ski Bum Race. Out 9:15 to 4:00 with coffee and lunch breaks in the Ski Club Building; overcast and warm with very little wind again; 31 runs; 36,158 vertical; skied the Head i.Speed GS Cheater 19's and the Blizzard Brahma #2's; frozen granular; plenty of people, but no lift lines.

26 151 MARTIN BURNS 30.15 (26) SM5 (5)



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Day 23 - Killington

Race Camp Day 2. Out 9:00 to 3:30 in the pouring rain; 18 runs, 19,047 vertical; skied the Blizzard Brahma #2's; soft wet snow everywhere; this morning we did quite a few runs through a cool course down the remnants of the terrain park on Reason; all my classmates wimped out this afternoon, so I did 7 Gondi runs by myself; Lower East Fall was stellar; Cascade was real good too - it was just too bumpy for a redo.

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