At 10:18 AM 10/20/2005, Jim Crowley wrote:
>One could call South Ridge a mistake given that the top is flat, the lift ride
>is only outdone by the Jay Freezer in the cold department, and nobody skis
>there. But in the first couple years after it was built I enjoyed skiing there
>because every trail was gladed. There isn't much pitch to most of 
>those trails,
>so skiing between the trees added challenge. But then they cut all the trees,
>including on the way-too-wide Pipe Dream, the skier's left side of which is a
>wasteland similar to the trails I mentioned above. Echo Woods was 
>also levelled
>into a wasteland. Again, good ski terrain was destroyed.

Not by Killington management, however.  At least, not directly.  Echo 
Woods was laid waste by an ice and wind storm several years after it 
was built.  The other gladed areas gradually lost their trees not to 
deliberate cutting but to wind and weather; the construction of 
sustainable gladed terrain was poorly understood when these areas were created.

Two things can happen.  In a forest, the trees have adapted to 
certain amounts of protection from the other trees.  When large areas 
are opened up, the trees become more vulnerable to environmental 
factors.  One of the most common impacts of wind and greater amounts 
of sunlight is that the bark starts to split on exposed sides.  This 
creates disruption in the tree's circulation of moisture and 
nutrients, and also allows penetration by insects and other nasties 
that like to munch on whatever's inside the tree.  The net result is 
that the tree slowly dies... and when that happens, it's only a 
matter of time before before it must be taken down before it falls down.

Additionally, it must be remembered that on a mountainside the amount 
of overburden (soil)  can be pretty thin, and root structures can be 
both shallow and somewhat interlocking.  When opening up the terrain, 
the entire structure of the woods can be impacted, and made much more 
vulnerable to blowdown in a high-wind situation.  This was a 
significant factor in Echo Woods, in which the added coating of ice 
on the shallowly-rooted conifers that grew at that elevation made 
them that much more vulnerable to wind.

When cutting survivable glades, ski areas have to be very careful in 
how they plan and execute the cuts.  The routes through the trees 
need to be kept quite narrow, in order to reduce exposure to wind.  A 
certain number of the outer trees in a given island of trees can be 
expected to be lost due to wind cracking, which means that islands of 
trees need to be large enough to lose the outer band while the inner 
trees adapt to the new environmental conditions.  It can and is done, 
but it does require care.

Side note on the whole Killington South Ridge thing:  Pres Smith's 
original vision for it did NOT include skiing under the downhill line 
of the lift.  He was on vacation when it was cut, and rumor has it 
that he was mighty steamed to learn that not only was Lower Jug 
created, but that Jug Handle had been cut as well.

As to the reason for the triangular chairlift:  I've heard several 
theories advanced as to WHY this was done, but near as I can conclude 
the lift was done that way for the same reason that dogs lick their nethers.

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