Bear Mountain Opens Friday. We Scan, You Win winners
Posted by Tom Horrocks on December 21, 2009
Our snowmaking crew continues to take advantage of optimal temperatures and the World’s Most Extensive Snowmaking System to blanket additional terrain. Looks like Mother Nature will also lend a hand with some light snow for the next few days and maybe a more significant storm into the Christmas Holiday Weekend.
That said, snowmaking crews have been making tremendous progress and they are set to deliver us a little gift in the form of more terrain for Christmas Day. The Skye Peak Express will open Friday serving Skyeburst and Bearly trails. If all goes according to plan, we may open Gateway and Bear Claw, if not Friday, sometime over the holiday weekend. The Stash is close to opening as well, and we expect to have Burton’s signature all-natural terrain park open sometime during the week of Dec. 28th. Snowmaking will be underway on Lower Great Eastern and Home Run down toward the Skyeship Base Area this week, and we hope to have that area opened the week of Dec. 28th.
The Timberline Terrain Park at Ramshead is scheduled to open Saturday with a host of small and medium-sized features. If Mother Nature can bless us with 8-10 inches of snow, we’ll be able to open additional terrain, including a few trails in the South Ridge area.
We Scan, You Win winners
Congratulations to Rich Hoffman and Wesley Young, each winning a pair of lift tickets, and Alvin Delgado, winning a seasonal locker at the Snowshed Lodge in last week’s We Scan, You Win promotion. This week’s prize is a Giro helmet and goggle package. Just flash your Season Pass or Express Card through Sunday, Dec. 27th for a chance to win.
Your Comments
posted by Tom Horrocks on December 22, 2009 9:42 PM EST
Kevin - Our goal was to open Bear last week. However, Mother Nature threw a number of weather curve balls at us and Bear was delayed while we got the rest of the mountain up to speed. We're excited to finally get it open this weekend and we expect to have Sunrise open later next week as well. However, it is all based upon weather and snow conditions. Seeing as we have only had 48 inches of snow (total since October) this season, we're pretty excited that we've been able to get open as much as we've have with snowmaking and limited optimal snowmaking temperatures, with the exception of the past week. We're sorry you chose to go elsewhere, but we hope you have a good time and consider us for your next ski trip.
posted by dave on December 22, 2009 6:34 PM EST
full price ticket for half the mountain, way to go kmart. you could have opened up bear last week.
posted by longherb on December 22, 2009 3:04 PM EST
Hey guys, I agree that they are slow opening trails. I couldn't get a commitment from anyone at Killington of when they would open Sunrise or Bear. As a result, a group of us (15 in total) are going elsewhere during the Christmas and New Years week.
posted by Kevin on December 22, 2009 10:26 AM EST
I love all of the arm chair mountain operation experts that think they know how to run a ski resort. I was at two other VT resorts 12/12-12/13 and they opened "natural snow trails" with only 12-14" of snow on them. After 1 day they were skied off down to the grass. I appreciate that Killington has "standards" on when they will open natural snow trails, becasue base repair and ski tuning is expensive.
Maybe we should let the people that know how to run a ski resort do their Job...
And for the record I live in PA and have no affiliation with Killington or their parent corporation.
posted by randy on December 22, 2009 8:12 AM EST
The best trails on the mountain right now are the ones that are all natural snow that have not been groomed into skating rinks.Skyburst wildfire and bear claw have more than enough snow right now and would be spectacular.
posted by Charlie Connor on December 22, 2009 7:52 AM EST
Hey Tom: With the Bear lodge and Skye Peak Express opening, can we expect the Sunrise Chair to open during the holiday week?
posted by Tom Horrocks on December 21, 2009 9:21 PM EST
With only 12-14 inches of natural snow on the ground, we need an additional 12-14 inches of natural snow to open the vast majority of Bear Mountain terrain. Snowmaking will begin on Wildfire next week, then we'll move to OL and get it open. More details later this week as snowmaking continues.
posted by Sam on December 21, 2009 6:25 PM EST
Is it possible to open up trails on Bear Mountain like Outer Limits and Wildfire by the weekend?
posted by randy on December 21, 2009 5:52 PM EST
There is no reason at all that Bear should not be open now. What is up with the games?
posted by Tim on December 24, 2009 5:03 PM EST
All anyone ever does is complain about Killington. Do you guys expect that it should take only one day of smowmaking to open a trail? I think that you guys having almost 90 trails open for the holiday weekend is awesome considering that three weeks ago, we had 70 degrees and absolutely ZERO SNOW! Nice job.... Happy Holidays Killington!