Killington Women's World Cup - Who is Going?

[PisteOff]

Just putting it out there to see who will be in attendance. I'll be there Thursday night through Monday and on top of tickets for the races I have a pair of Lift Tickets to burn.........

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We'll be in the area Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday-Friday staying on access road and skiing thursday/friday. Friday-Sunday we'll be at our friends house in Andover but at the GS race on saturday.

 

[PisteOff]

We'll be in the area Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday-Friday staying on access road and skiing thursday/friday. Friday-Sunday we'll be at our friends house in Andover but at the GS race on saturday.

We're staying at the Snowed Inn...... Not sure which days I will ski and I just may ski them all..... 2 for sure Probably Friday/Sunday but may go Saturday too depending on how legs feel.....

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We're staying at the Snowed Inn...... Not sure which days I will ski and I just may ski them all..... 2 for sure Probably Friday/Sunday but may go Saturday too depending on how legs feel.....

Awesome. We are staying at the hillside inn. Definitely skiing thurs/friday. Maybe we could take a run or two together or at least say hello on competition day. I'll message you my cell.

 

[K2 Rat]

I will be there both Sat and Sun, but not skiing nor staying there. I will be driving a van full of Mount Snow Academy racers to/from on Sat for the opening parade. Since I have to drive back to Mt Snow after the race on Sat, I might as well stay there in my house and just commute up the next morning. Be in the grandstand on Sunday and standing with the school on Sat.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Will be there all days skiing, volunteering or just hanging out enjoying the show. I'm easy to find as normally have the only pair of Renouns on the mountain.

 

[PisteOff]

Will be there all days skiing, volunteering or just hanging out enjoying the show. I'm easy to find as normally have the only pair of Renouns on the mountain.

If that's the case I'll be easy to spot too. I will be getting my first turns in on a pair of Endurance 98's.

 

[Pdub]

I was planning to bring my kids but you gotta wonder how likely they are to pull it off with the following forecast and 30 days to go:

 

[Wilhelmson]

I planted some grass (fescue blend not recreational) down here in Mass yesterday figuring it might be warm enough to germinate before winter.

Better to play it by ear if you're flexible enough not to have a set plan.

 

[Muleski]

My guess is that things will cool down, and they'll get a weather window to lay down a decent surface. The reason that they were awarded the races is because of their snowmaking capacity. Weather is a risk all over the globe.

I hope that the weather is cold enough during the race days and the days preceding them to assure a really hard surface. That's probably a bigger risk.

I'm optimistic that it will work out, at least the racing.

65 degrees at 10AM here near Boston, with inches of driving rain. It's New England.

 

[LKLA]

I too hope / expect temps to fall. Hard to imagine they will warm-up

It is still Oct. 25th and while the weather seems to have become more unpredictable, a lot of people I speak with around NYC are starting to worry - at least beginning to get concerned.

And while Killington has good snow making (far from the best on the East Coast or even in Vermont), there is not much they are going to be able to do if temperatures are too high, other than make a nice little stream.

Looking out to November 5 - less than three weeks from race day - the temps are averaging a high of 57 degrees in Rutland, VT with rain expected four of those days.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We have no choice but to be optimistic. Killington is the master at pulling things off so I'm hoping things will have cooled down by mid november so that they can do their thing. It's getting down to 28 one night in the next few days. I, for personal reasons hope to be skiing by mid November. I was originally shooting for October and well. I'm hopeful which is all I can be right now.

 

[Muleski]

This is the REAL deadline. The have to pass FIS snow control protocol, and get the green light to proceed, by November 16th.
Not sure who the FIS official is who makes the call. Pretty sure is a USST/USSA guy.

It doesn't have to be race ready, then, but there has to be a virtual certainty that it will be, based on all factors.

@LKLA clearly has his own opinion about NE and VT snowmaking. The reason why the race is in the US, in VT and not in Summit County is based on the hill itself, and the snowmaking. And the history of being open and ready to roll at that time. And of course the willingness to host the event, which should not be underestimated. Not like there's a list of better/other East Coast options.

And the reason for this over other North American venues WAS the snowmaking. Regardless of anybody's thoughts on PS. That has been mentioned in the press many a time in recent years.

The group that "does this for a living", which would include FIS, the USSA/USST, the organizing committee at K, and I'd add more than a few in the snow surface business {and I don't mean K employees} placed the bet on Killington.

Cross your fingers and toes. If it does not work out, it will not be returning to VT in the foreseeable future. Higher elevation CO.

Hoping for the very best, but yeah, the weather has been record warm. Needs a huge shift.

 

[LKLA]

This is the REAL deadline. The have to pass FIS snow control protocol, and get the green light to proceed, by November 16th.
Not sure who the FIS official is who makes the call. Pretty sure is a USST/USSA guy.

It doesn't have to be race ready, then, but there has to be a virtual certainty that it will be, based on all factors.

@LKLA clearly has his own opinion about NE and VT snowmaking. The reason why the race is in the US, in VT and not in Summit County is based on the hill itself, and the snowmaking. And the history of being open and ready to roll at that time. And of course the willingness to host the event, which should not be underestimated. Not like there's a list of better/other East Coast options.

And the reason for this over other North American venues WAS the snowmaking. Regardless of anybody's thoughts on PS. That has been mentioned in the press many a time in recent years.

The group that "does this for a living", which would include FIS, the USSA/USST, the organizing committee at K, and I'd add more than a few in the snow surface business {and I don't mean K employees} placed the bet on Killington.

Cross your fingers and toes. If it does not work out, it will not be returning to VT in the foreseeable future. Higher elevation CO.

Hoping for the very best, but yeah, the weather has been record warm. Needs a huge shift.

Seems you clearly have an opinion as well - as you should. But, East Coast snow making capabilities is not the topic of this thread.

Let's not go blowing smoke up one another's you know what. The reason the race is in Killington has more to do with $ than anything else. It is about bringing World Cup ski racing to the most populated region of the country! Just between NYC and Boston you have enough of a captive audience with lots of disposable income who will pay $100-$500 for tickets and whatever for food, parking, swag, and lodging. And then you have enormous interest in Vermont around competitive skiing that is still very much alive today. Tickets sold out in less than two days. 30,000 plus spectators showed up last year. It will bring millions of dollars in economic impact to Vermont.

Killington is a great option and Superstar is a great hill. And given its "closeness" to NYC/Boston and enthusiasm for skiing in Vermont and its snow making capabilities, K-town is a logical choice. But keep in mind that they had to significantly beef up their snow making infrastructure along the Superstar tail to get this done - more hydrants, guns, piping,...snow making on Superstar is by no means representative of snow making at Killington as a whole. come to mind. And, I guess it did not hurt that Powdr Corp, which owns Killington, is close to the USSA after hosting World Cup and Grand Prix events at Copper Mountain and Park City. Yes, there are other options on the East Coast - Whiteface, Sugarloaf, Stowe...

One thing no one seems to be mentioning is the "logic" behind all this. Last year Killington used 16 million gallons of water and powered 140 snow guns for days on end to cover just one trail (spent close to $1.5M).

The weather does not look good. Hard to argue otherwise when temps are expected to reach into the mid to high 50s through November 5th.

 

[Muleski]

LKLA, whether you choose to believe it, or not, snowmaking most definitely was the driver in this being awarded to Killington. Without Atle Skaardl buying the pitch about the snowmaking, it never would have happened. I'm glad to see the event in the East.

Not one of the other venues you mention had interest, to my understanding, and none were even contacted. None have the ability to pull this off in 20016 or 2017. This was obviously a big item for the USST/USSA, and they were driving the process of picking the venue and pitching it to FIS. And they thought this one had some risk.

But the loss of the event in Aspen essentially meant that if the USSA put a good proposal together, it was going to stay in the US. Now Aspen has dug themselves into a hole with their local politics and the "stalling" of the lifts replacement and base renovation at Ajax. They want the event back. Lots of pressure there to fix their issues. No town in the USA has a ski racing history like Aspen.

The crowds were just tremendous. Amazing. To even those in the business, and the market research people who are retained by the USSA, it was a big surprise. It may be bigger this year.

We still can't get close to 100K people to watch WC racing on network TV in the USA. So getting 50K plus people to K is tremendous, no question.

Let's hope for snow!

 

[LKLA]

While the situation is concerning, by no means is it catastrophic. It "only" takes five days/nights of cold weather to build out Superstar for the world cup races.

 

[Muleski]

While the situation is concerning, by no means is it catastrophic. It "only" takes five days/nights of cold weather to build out Superstar for the world cup races.

Yep. They can get a lot snow on the hill in that time frame. Probably a couple or three feet. And that's sort of the start. The prep takes a lot of effort, and co-operating weather. Watering and draining the hill is just one example. The further this warmth continues, the more everything really has to fall into place. You can have an army ready to do the work, but you need the right weather.

They have to be able to convince Skartaal by 11/16 that this can happen, and he's not an easy sell {or so it seems to me.} Nor should he be. He needs to be assured that it can happen. I think Tom Johnson is in charge of the Snow Control report. He knows his stuff inside and out. Chief of Race for the upcoming Olympics.

I agree, it's not a catastrophe. There are some really good people in the mix. Even on the snowmaking side.

Fingers crossed, and very optimistic.

 

[K2 Rat]

If you look at last year, I was there on Nov 5th and there was only a couple of patches of snow. If it was not for 72 hours of round the clock snowmaking on the weekend of Nov 12th, there would not have been any race. After then temps went back into the mid 40's and could not have looked good on Snow Control day, although I remember it was a nice 50 degree day there. But the forecast was for colder temps to return about Nov 20th and they took a chance that Killington could get the hill ready after Snow Control day. They took a chance and it paid off. Although it did get warm for the GS and the surface peeled away, it set up better over night for the slalom.

Bottom-line, they got lucky last year and it may come down to luck again this year. I don't trust any weather reports past 10 days, but somewhere they will need 3 days snowmaking the week before Nov 16th Snow Control date. And yes, it is Tom Johnston running this Snow Control.

If anyone can pull this off as last year showed, it is Killington ! keep the faith and i think it will happen .

 

[surfsnowgirl]

If you look at last year, I was there on Nov 5th and there was only a couple of patches of snow. If it was not for 72 hours of round the clock snowmaking on the weekend of Nov 12th, there would not have been any race. After then temps went back into the mid 40's and could not have looked good on Snow Control day, although I remember it was a nice 50 degree day there. But the forecast was for colder temps to return about Nov 20th and they took a chance that Killington could get the hill ready after Snow Control day. They took a chance and it paid off. Although it did get warm for the GS and the surface peeled away, it set up better over night for the slalom.

Bottom-line, they got lucky last year and it may come down to luck again this year. I don't trust any weather reports past 10 days, but somewhere they will need 3 days snowmaking the week before Nov 16th Snow Control date. And yes, it is Tom Johnston running this Snow Control.

If anyone can pull this off as last year showed, it is Killington ! keep the faith and i think it will happen .

Me too. I have every hope it will happen. If anyone has the snowball's chance of pulling this off, it's K'ton. Our weather always does this wacky sh!t this time of year hence I barely look at weather beyond tomorrow let alone worry about what it's going to do a month from now. I have every hope things will turn around

 

[Muleski]

If you look at last year, I was there on Nov 5th and there was only a couple of patches of snow. If it was not for 72 hours of round the clock snowmaking on the weekend of Nov 12th, there would not have been any race. After then temps went back into the mid 40's and could not have looked good on Snow Control day, although I remember it was a nice 50 degree day there. But the forecast was for colder temps to return about Nov 20th and they took a chance that Killington could get the hill ready after Snow Control day. They took a chance and it paid off. Although it did get warm for the GS and the surface peeled away, it set up better over night for the slalom.

Bottom-line, they got lucky last year and it may come down to luck again this year. I don't trust any weather reports past 10 days, but somewhere they will need 3 days snowmaking the week before Nov 16th Snow Control date. And yes, it is Tom Johnston running this Snow Control.

If anyone can pull this off as last year showed, it is Killington ! keep the faith and i think it will happen .

I agree, 100%. This crew, and a few others who are adding some expertise and advice are about the very best in the business. Probably why I overreacted to the comment about K's ability to do this versus other VT resorts, or NE resorts. This is the major reason why it is there.

Thanks for confirming Tom J. That's key. IF he thinks they can get it done, regardless of how things look on 11/16, I suspect it will move forward. If he has well founded concerns, they may sadly pull the plug. They can make a huge amount of snow. I think the capacity is up over last year, as well.

OK, everybody.....fingers crossed!