Killington - Nov 27
        Arrived at the K1 lift line at 7:50 to find it already filled with
eager pounderhounds.  The word must have spread that the peak had gotten
lots of new snow.  We went straight for Escapade and found that tracks
from the previous day were nearly filled in.  That meant another 6-8 inches
overnight on top of the 6 or so inches the previous day.  The snow was
light and fluffy, even down to the base of the Canyon chair.  We
alternated between Escapade, the woods east of Escapade, and West
Glade.  We were good boys and did not poach a thing, although it was
tempting because people were skiing just about everything, including East
Fall, Royal Flush, Highline, Superstar (i.e., all but the steepest and
rockiest trails).  We went over to Snowdon with the intention of poaching
North Star, Vagabond, and Great Bear, but we didn't have to because they
were already open.  Killington has become very liberal with their opening
policy these days.  The highlight of the day was North Star because there
were only a few tracks on it when we skied it.  We did not even come close
to hitting a rock.  In fact, the snow was almost too deep because we had
trouble building up speed on the moderate pitches.  The downside was that
the lift line were too long for my liking (about 10 minutes) and the chair
kept shutting down because people have forgotten how to load fixed-grip
chairs in this day of detachables and gondolas.

Pico - Nov 28
        We knew that Killington would be way too crowded and everything
that is skiable would be tracked out, so we headed over to Pico.  Driving
by the day before we saw that the peak chair was closed, which meant that
there would be lots of untracked powder and that we better be prepared to
hike in case the lift did not open again.  Much to our delight the chair
did open and there was only one official trail open from the top.  A
patroller told us that he would not watch us duck the rope across Summit
Glade and that we were on our own.  He also said that conditions would not
be as good as we thought they would be.  Boy, was he ever wrong.  Just
like at Killington, we didn't hit any rocks through untracked powder with
a bit of wind-blown crust in exposed areas.  We told the same patroller at
the bottom that conditions sucked and that he should not open it.  We
spent the morning skiing Summit Glade, 49er (only open run), and Sunset
'71 (also untracked powder, albeit a bit heavy).  I met some other pinners
on Sunset '71 who had hiked up to the top.  One of the guys had a pass and
still chose to hike...you gotta' like that spirit.  As is typical for Pico,
 crowds were nonexistent.  I highly recommend Pico as a Kmart alternative
on busy weekends.  You'll generally find must better snow conditions and
much less competition for untracked snow.
        That was it for my Killinton season pass this season, as I go back
to Calgary in two weeks.  My only other Eastern skiing will be a trip to
Jay (my favourite) in early December, conditions permitting.

Jim