Pico Packs a Powder Punch - 2/10/08

Winter weather continues with blasts of snow and ice. Outside bike riding is not getting done due to slop on the road and poor conditions for ice biking in the woods. Spinning and Donato ART sessions, along with Sunday Snowboarding predominates.

On a ride up the Skye Mountain Quad at Killington I learned from a fellow riding with me that Pico Peak should not be missed, especially in powder conditions. Pico is covered on my Killington season pass - so why not? It just so happens the next Sunday we had a big storm in store, so Pico it was.

Pico is a steep peak with a lot of different options. I rode up the chair from the base and then over to the Summit Lift as I was instructed by one of the mountain ambassadors. Riding up the Summit Lift the first time I got to talk with a seasoned Pico skier and he gave me a good lesson on where to go to get in different rides. The main run down from the summit is Pike, a very wide black diamond that went straight under the lift. Good bumps, but icy from overuse in places. Over on the west side was Giant Killer, a double black that is steeper than most and to be avoided unless you really like the steep. To the east are glade trails -- one a blue, the others black. These were great! Bumpy and narrow and twisty. KP and Summit Glades were the blacks and I spent most of my time on these at first.

The snow started to come down heavy around 10 o'clock and the conditions were already perfect - about 6 inches of soft, moderate weight powder on top of a deep forgiving base. The bumps could be jammed into and not cause much reaction, but enough to use to turn. As the snow continued at over an inch per hour pace, the powder got deeper. Dropping off of one bump and landing on another was great fun.

I ventured into the Birch Woods area at first to get out of the wind and flying snow. After the first tentative run, I was thrilled. I wanted to learn how to board in the trees this year and this was the perfect place and conditions to do it. The second time through the trees I started up higher in a non-designated area that was all new fresh tracks. It was a mistake because I got out of control a couple of time and once hit my should and then my helmet (i.e. head) on tree trunks. Getting myself picked up out of the deep soft snow was physically draining also. No harm done, but a bit shaky going into the Birch Woods, I did not do too well. Not discouraged (i.e. stupid), I returned to the Birch Woods after doing a couple of runs on blues. This time it was great! I got a rhytem going and was riding the trees like I wanted to.

I got a run going where I would start off on the glade black diamonds from the summit, and then cut over to the start of the Birch Wood trees, then out the other side and back to the Summit Lift. The more I did it the better it got and the deeper the powder became. Finally my legs were giving up. I took a run all the way down to the bottom on the Summit Glades run and was going to call it a day at noon - but could not abandon this great mountain, these conditions and the new skill and thrill of riding the trees. Up I went again. This repeated about four more times until I finally called it a day and returned to the car to start digging it out from under about 8 inches of new snow.

The drive home was slow due to icy and snowy Route 4 coming down the mountain into Rutland; but, it would have been much worse had I gone over the top to Killington. There are still many runs to explore at Pico. I did not get to the Outpost Lift, which looks promising with several black diamonds and another woods to try out my newly aquired ability to ride in the trees. Little Pico to the east looks steep and fun. My choice of Pico was a good one from many standpoints, so I will return. Another great Ridin Day!