Killington Trip Report: The Final Stretch Of The 2022-23 Season

Skiing in May in New England is an accomplishment, especially after this past winter. It was warm and rainy for much of December, January, and February, leading to marginal snowmaking temperatures. Killington was able to persevere and pull off the Killington Cup in November and rebuild the Superstar Glacier for another deep spring.

Last Sunday, I made my obligatory May trip to Killington to see how the Superstar Glacier was holding up. I had some concerns last week about it surviving until Memorial Day, but they did a lot of snow farming to save the portion of the trail just below where the lift crosses over the snow.

Unlike last year, I surprisingly didn’t forget my Ikon Pass and was in the queue when the lift started spinning at 8 a.m. I surprisingly had to wear my winter jacket for the first couple of laps, as the winds make it feel like early spring conditions.

Usually, Killington grooms a portion of Superstar. The first lap gives you some corduroy turns, but it disappears pretty quickly, so you have some nice mashed potato turns for the next hour or so. The upper portion bumps up the fastest, with the lower leg being the second to see moguls.

The middle portion of the run was surprisingly a little firm, which I think may be from the Killington Cup surface back in November. After a few laps, I decided to hit the bumps on the skier’s left, which were super nice.

A couple of hours after opening, bumps on the formerly groomed portions began to form, especially on the Headwall and Lower Superstar.

An underrated part of May skiing on Superstar is that you can technically do some tree skiing. The snow patch covers a few trees on the skier’s right, which is a fun terrain feature.

I stuck around till noon, then decided to leave. The crossover spot had to start to show some dirt spots, so I didn’t want to mess up my skis any more than I had during this ski season. Everything considered, it was a pretty great day at Killington. The only negative thing about the experience I can think of is I’m 80% sure that some bird shat on my helmet’s ear flap.

This week, Killington has continued to push snow to keep the crossover covered up, to mixed results. It’s definitely going to need some more snow farming before reopening for Memorial Day Weekend.