That is difficult for me to judge as I have never skied Killington during the spring. So I have no basis for comparison. The the new Killington logo with its foofy elegant script juxtaposed to the big bold THE BEAST logo is an identity crisis at its worst. Powd’r wants to demonstrate that this is a different Killington while simultaneously retaining, rediscovering, and redeveloping its prior culture and image.

Is THE BEAST Back? It may be too early to judge. But they are setup to go as late into spring as weather allows. I see no reason why they could not be last to close in the east. Whether or not they do depends if Killington wants to write the word “closed for the season” in flowery and flowy script or big bold lettering. Time will tell.

I worked the mountain south to north starting at Outer Limits and working back to the Canyon area. Having never skied south of Skye Peak at Killington nor the Canyon area, I tried so ski every steeper pitched open trail on the mountain and finally completie my knowledge of the terrain to a sufficient level (minus the trees). Snow varied from just past prime corn to sloppy mush. Conditions were best on moderately steep bumps and worst on flatter terrain, especially groomed out blue squares.

Outer Limits sported big banging widely spaced bumps with exception of the BMMC course which had tight bumps and deep troughs. Upper Wildfire was on fire with amazing perfect moderately pitched bumps. Sensational! Lapping Wildfire multiple times crossed my mind but I wanted to cover the entire ski area and needed to keep moving. Upper Needle’s Eye was okay but nothing special, good thin coverage skiing. Vertigo was off the hook with a bump course setup on the lower half. If not for wanting to keeping covering terrain, this would have been a great trail to lap multiple times.

Superstar had been recently groomed as the main trail featured slush piles instead of moguls. Bump lines on lower skier’s right were variable lines but REALLY good. Lines on Lower skier’s left were DEEP but really fun and fairly tight. The snow was kicking up as I skied the lower left steep lines which flattened out to perfect lower angle lines at the bottom. Upper Ovation was SMOKING!!! Great lines on Upper Ovation yielded to varaible and widely spaced crap bumps on Lower Ovaition. It was time for lunch!

Over in the Canyon area, Escapade was alright but Cascade was not so hot. Downdraft, on the other hand, was yet another trail that was SMOKING HOT! Nice lines and a characteristic trail unlike Killington’s standard straight and wide boulevards. Airing out an eight foot rock drop at the bottom of Downdraft was a nice way to finish out the run.

The remainder of the Canyon area did not impress but was still satisfactory. Double Dipper was rather crappy skiing due to well spaced out bumps. I found a good line skier’s left next to the Quad and made the best of things. Lower East Fall featured horrendous slides of mush piles due to its southernly exposure. I returned to Downdraft two more times before leaving the Canyon area to finish out the day with a final pair of runs on Upper Ovation to Lower Superstar.

Killington had many incredible bump trails. Unfortunately, the best lines were all over the mountain and generally not consistent top to bottom on any one trail. Upper Wildfire, Vertigo, Upper Ovation, Lower Superstar, and Downdraft were all awesome today.

The majority of open trails still have no notable bear spots. Despite the great coverage, warm temperatures, and sunny weather, all chairlifts were sending up many empty chairs. Killington has enormous uphill capacity, so perhaps this observation is not entirely fair. But the place should have been jam packed today yet it felt empty. Perhaps it was the Easter holiday? People need to get their priorities straight! Today was a great day to put on the sunscreen and ski in a short sleeve T-shirt all day. Lots of big smiles as the spring bump snow kicked up all around me explosion style. Great day at Killington, THE BEAST being back or not.