CORRECTION: We erroneously referred to Killington's vertical drop as the longest on the East Coast in this video. However, we should have *only* said it had the longest vert in New England. Whiteface, NY-with its 3,430-foot drop (3,166' of which is lift-serviced)-is actually longer!
I went to Whiteface in April 2021, conditions were slushy and/or icy throughout the whole mountain. I also thought essentially every lift was windy and uncomfortable aside from the gondola. I liked my time there, but only so much terrain was open.
Note that the 3166’ of “vertical” is a mere technicality. Nobody actually skis that in a single run. Functionally, it’s more like a 1700’ mountain, at best. Very few runs even do that much vert.
This channel is amazing. As a southeastern skier I use your videos heavily in my decisions on where to go on my 2-3 ski trips per year, both where to take my you to family and where I go with my adult ski friends. The fact that you’ve been to a lot of different places makes your opinions a lot more valuable. The length and content are exactly what I’m looking for in a ski review video. Please keep doing what your doing!
This is my home mountain, so I'll comment on a few things. It is relatively easy to avoid lift lines on most days. Two lifts consistently have the worst lines, the K1 Gondola and Ramshead Express. I suggest hitting Ramshead before 9am on weekends. That's when the ski school starts, and also around when the K1 parking lots fill up, and they start parking everyone at Ramshead. 12-1 is another good time for Ramshead. It won't be ski-on, but maybe a 5 minute wait instead of 15. Forget about the afternoon. It will hold its line right up till closing because so many people park there and take runs before they leave for the day. For the K1, it has a single rider line that is often much faster than then regular line. But you will not ride with members of your party. The other lifts won't necessarily be ski-on, but will have much shorter waits than K1 and Ramshead. They also have an app that shows the wait times, which can be useful to avoid ending up at an overcrowded base area. I'm surprised you never mentioned the World Cup, but it happens every year on Thanksgiving Weekend. It's held on the Superstar trail and is always fun to watch. Beware of crowds though, and you'll have to park in a remote lot and take a shuttle bus in. While it has its flaws, Killington is my favorite resort in the east, and I'm glad to have it as my home mountain.
Just gonna say, had an amazing spring saturday up there and never had to wait more than 3-4 gondola carriages at k-1 from like 10am-4pm lol. Spent about an hour or two bouncing around to skye and bear but it was amazingly empty. About half the time was just walk up and into a carriage off the singles line.
It's hard to rank high compared to the Rocky Mountain area, but I grew up back east skiing areas from New Jersey to Maine. Fun can be had, for sure. In 1970, on a bit of a whim, I went to Bozeman Montana for college. To say it was an epiphany is an understatement! It's always funny when people in the Rocky Mountains complain about ice. It's not ice unless you can read a newspaper through it and stuff we now call ice here, out east is just, "loud powder". Good reviews.
We used to stay right up from the gondola. Outter limits was no joke, I was like 12 but can’t wait to see it again. Awesome mountain . Incredible memories, I snap in and I’m 10 years old again. God i love skiing!
I definitely agree with you. I went this February, it is my favorite Vermont resort for the snow, but I think they could do a better job at the mountain aesthetic. I hope they can also expand by connecting Pico, but I'm not sure if that'll happen.
I love steep terrain but i think my favorite run at killington is great eastern. Killington also gets some points for the vibes. I alway end up shredding with a new stranger any time i go there. I offen sleep in my car to save some money from loding ,and i've been able to crash at a few peoples places after shredding there. which is very appriciated. Espeasially because I drive up from baltimore for long trips. and im basically out there winggin it trying to just make it tothe next day. lol Teey will also let you park overnight at the skyship parking lot maximum of 2 days in a row,which is awesome you can wake up and get right on the gondola. but ive never stayed there overnight wneh they had it open top to bottom.
The family and I are heading here next week. We all love the videos! And the kids would really like to see some about smaller mountains in the East (for example, Jiminy Peak).
Killington is my by far my favorite ski resort know it by heart love it!❤😎⛷!! Also there are 3 gondolas it’s confusion because there is the K1 peak gondola and there’s the 2 section gondola the sky ship witch are connected but there can be one operating and one not like other 2 section lifts but killington considers them as different lifts named as skye ship part 1 and skye ship part 2.
I'll have to give it another shot. I'm an East cost snowboarder, but growing up I stuck to local mountains/hills to keep it easy on the wallet, so if I did get there as a child I don't remember. When I went last season, Killington was soooo crowded and whatever snow cover there was was skied off by 11:00. There were so many beginner skiers from out of state/New England who had no idea what they were doing, stopping in the middle of trails, being on trails that were too difficult, and drinking way, way too much (seemed like they only came so they could get hammered). For a $140 ticket I was thoroughly displeased.
Killingtons always been my home mountain and I love it. As long as you know what you're doing crowds are easy to avoid and good terrain is everywhere. Deep spring skiing is also a huge plus. 61 score overall is reasonable but its at least 85+ if compared only to other east coast mountains
I'm Travelling from Scotland at the end of March 2023 to attend a wedding in Texas and then heading here for 5 days. looking forward to it. We've some bad snow conditions in Scotland and this looks like it's going to be fun no matter what happens I'm going to love being in New England
@Bob Bilsonbart I had the best time. Was there from Monday 27th to Thursday 30th. Beautiful conditions, great snow and even had a freshen up on Wed night. Only cloudy day was Tuesday every other was clear blue and sun. Killington, you were awesome.
You aren’t kidding about getting lost. On my sisters first day back on skis in years we split up, she took a wrong turn and she got stuck on outer limits as a beginner.
It would be interesting to show the rank compared to others. For example - what are the immediate 3 resorts that are better and the 3 that are worse? I would love to see two columns - column 1 are the top 10 overall, and if in the top 20, column 2 would be 11-20. If not in the top 20, the second column would have the reviewed resort in the middle with the 5 that are immediately above and the 4 that are below.
I learned that if you can ski in NE,with that blue ice/ crud then you can ski anywhere. It made skiing In Colorado easy money/with real powder/excellent conditions-just close your mouth when crashing into powder-“ Winter Park”..
As a lifetime vt skier (not rlly bc I’m only 16😂) I’d agree with most of the ratings except navigation for its size for the east coast I’ve always found it to be amazing when it comes to crowd flow and navigation
Day trip mountains are small, Wachusett, crotched, ect. Weekend is loon, Okemos, mountain snow even. Killington is a week adventure just like Sunday river or jay peak. Even in that week your not knowing everything
i feel like killington I never feel like I am actually skiing, 90% of my time is spent trying to get where I want to go. like I have to take 2 lifts, and traverse across the entire mountain every time I want to get somewhere
Great video looks like a beautiful mountain but nothing there is remotely worth a black diamond rating at least by Rockies standards, still gotta visit to see where snowboarding began
There’s a number of minor mistakes and things you missed you need to get back there someday and ride that mountain with a local for at least a few days and some of your rating numbers will change significantly.🤘
I know I’d want to ride the steeps to stay entertained if I went, but all those clips look so icy and rocky. Literally looks like ski damage or injury waiting to happen.
The beginner-oriented parks are chiefly served by Ramshead, while the Stash and Dream Maker parks are served by the Skye Peak Express. Weekend lift lines for Ramshead are usually pretty bad; lines for Skye Peak are a bit more manageable, but also quite long during peak times.
Killington has been overpopulated for at least 50 years. no one comes close to their reliability/resiliency though. always ahead of the pack with snow making NY/VT.😄
Killington is the most overrated ski area in the east. You may want to cover in depth the fact that most of the mountain is not open early and late. This may seem normal but take away that long gondola trail and related trails, the ski area then is only operation at the top. Even then, it is not uncommon to have the ski lifts close to high winds. Yet they want a full ticket price, and which is one of the most expensive lift tickets in the east, makes you feel like you are getting ripped off. I remember this happening once to me where they closed down much of the mountain lifts to save money, so I drove down the road to Okemo and Okemo was all open, and I was able to ski the whole ski area, and for less of a lift ticked price than Killington. Killington is a rip off.
What??? Hold on, lets go over your “ratings” which are absolute NONSENSE. Killingtons “resiliency” is a 10, period, not arguable. 6? Thats a joke. I’ve been skiing K and everywhere else on the planet for 53 years now. I have my complaints about killington, resiliency is NOT one of them. I have never seen another mountain recover better, or faster. Last year for example, I skied a Monday in very poor conditions, they had very little snow, everything was boiler plate ice. Solid ice! Tuesday was worse, it poured out all day, on top of the ice, it was 45 degrees out. Overnight and into Wednesday morning it dropped to 7 degrees. I assumed it will be nothing but ice, i mean, how could it not be right? To my surprise, first tracks at 9am Wed morning felt like it had snowed 6 or 8” overnight. It didn’t snow a bit, the overnight crew ran all night long and crushed up the ice with the groomers, then smoothed it all out to corduroy and blew some snow on top of it. CRAZY! I have never seen anything like that. Diversity: Killington has by far the most diverse terrain on the east coast, again, not even close. REAL double blacks, some double blacks IN THE WOODS, AND TIGHT WOODS (ever ski Growler? straight down, tight trees, GIANT moguls!). K has the longest green/blue run in the east, by far. K has tons of blacks, tons of blues, tons of park stuff, and tons of green learning areas. Lots of tree runs, and best of all, TONS of ungroomed mogul runs for both Blue and Blacks which is rare. Not many resorts have blue mogul runs.
CORRECTION: We erroneously referred to Killington's vertical drop as the longest on the East Coast in this video. However, we should have *only* said it had the longest vert in New England. Whiteface, NY-with its 3,430-foot drop (3,166' of which is lift-serviced)-is actually longer!
I went to Whiteface in April 2021, conditions were slushy and/or icy throughout the whole mountain. I also thought essentially every lift was windy and uncomfortable aside from the gondola. I liked my time there, but only so much terrain was open.
@@ethanhcomposer Sounds like you almost got the full IceFace experience, try again next year when the gondola is on wind hold
Note that the 3166’ of “vertical” is a mere technicality. Nobody actually skis that in a single run. Functionally, it’s more like a 1700’ mountain, at best. Very few runs even do that much vert.
Killington has the longest RUN, not even close. That, is the most important number. The rest is non-sense.
@@Enzo7503 Ahhh I wouldn't trade IceFace for the world. Love that cold, lonely peak lmao.
This channel is amazing. As a southeastern skier I use your videos heavily in my decisions on where to go on my 2-3 ski trips per year, both where to take my you to family and where I go with my adult ski friends. The fact that you’ve been to a lot of different places makes your opinions a lot more valuable. The length and content are exactly what I’m looking for in a ski review video. Please keep doing what your doing!
This is my home mountain, so I'll comment on a few things.
It is relatively easy to avoid lift lines on most days. Two lifts consistently have the worst lines, the K1 Gondola and Ramshead Express. I suggest hitting Ramshead before 9am on weekends. That's when the ski school starts, and also around when the K1 parking lots fill up, and they start parking everyone at Ramshead. 12-1 is another good time for Ramshead. It won't be ski-on, but maybe a 5 minute wait instead of 15. Forget about the afternoon. It will hold its line right up till closing because so many people park there and take runs before they leave for the day. For the K1, it has a single rider line that is often much faster than then regular line. But you will not ride with members of your party. The other lifts won't necessarily be ski-on, but will have much shorter waits than K1 and Ramshead. They also have an app that shows the wait times, which can be useful to avoid ending up at an overcrowded base area.
I'm surprised you never mentioned the World Cup, but it happens every year on Thanksgiving Weekend. It's held on the Superstar trail and is always fun to watch. Beware of crowds though, and you'll have to park in a remote lot and take a shuttle bus in.
While it has its flaws, Killington is my favorite resort in the east, and I'm glad to have it as my home mountain.
Thanks for that info Collin!
Woop! Woop! Come and enjoy our beautiful Killington, VT. The skiing is great!
Just gonna say, had an amazing spring saturday up there and never had to wait more than 3-4 gondola carriages at k-1 from like 10am-4pm lol. Spent about an hour or two bouncing around to skye and bear but it was amazingly empty. About half the time was just walk up and into a carriage off the singles line.
@@ec688 I was there the same time as you and I never had to wait more than 30 seconds
My go to when lines get long is either the canyon quad, bear mountain quad or south ridge quad
It's hard to rank high compared to the Rocky Mountain area, but I grew up back east skiing areas from New Jersey to Maine. Fun can be had, for sure. In 1970, on a bit of a whim, I went to Bozeman Montana for college. To say it was an epiphany is an understatement! It's always funny when people in the Rocky Mountains complain about ice. It's not ice unless you can read a newspaper through it and stuff we now call ice here, out east is just, "loud powder". Good reviews.
yea people in the west will call any kind of slightly crunch snow ice. and they will only ski in ideal conditions with the lightest possible powder
We used to stay right up from the gondola. Outter limits was no joke, I was like 12 but can’t wait to see it again. Awesome mountain . Incredible memories, I snap in and I’m 10 years old again. God i love skiing!
Killington is No.1 in east coast for very good reason… glad you guys agree with me
The place I learned how to ski, meet new friends, and appreciate life! Killington!
your channel has been my favorite to binge watch, but I don't know have you have so little subscribers with the quality of your content.
I don't even use the information from these videos, I just use them to listen to! Great videos!
I definitely agree with you. I went this February, it is my favorite Vermont resort for the snow, but I think they could do a better job at the mountain aesthetic. I hope they can also expand by connecting Pico, but I'm not sure if that'll happen.
Spot on review, like ace, no comments. Great work. Hit all of the key points.
I love steep terrain but i think my favorite run at killington is great eastern. Killington also gets some points for the vibes. I alway end up shredding with a new stranger any time i go there. I offen sleep in my car to save some money from loding ,and i've been able to crash at a few peoples places after shredding there. which is very appriciated. Espeasially because I drive up from baltimore for long trips. and im basically out there winggin it trying to just make it tothe next day. lol Teey will also let you park overnight at the skyship parking lot maximum of 2 days in a row,which is awesome you can wake up and get right on the gondola. but ive never stayed there overnight wneh they had it open top to bottom.
The family and I are heading here next week. We all love the videos! And the kids would really like to see some about smaller mountains in the East (for example, Jiminy Peak).
Killington is my by far my favorite ski resort know it by heart love it!❤😎⛷!! Also there are 3 gondolas it’s confusion because there is the K1 peak gondola and there’s the 2 section gondola the sky ship witch are connected but there can be one operating and one not like other 2 section lifts but killington considers them as different lifts named as skye ship part 1 and skye ship part 2.
I'll have to give it another shot. I'm an East cost snowboarder, but growing up I stuck to local mountains/hills to keep it easy on the wallet, so if I did get there as a child I don't remember. When I went last season, Killington was soooo crowded and whatever snow cover there was was skied off by 11:00. There were so many beginner skiers from out of state/New England who had no idea what they were doing, stopping in the middle of trails, being on trails that were too difficult, and drinking way, way too much (seemed like they only came so they could get hammered). For a $140 ticket I was thoroughly displeased.
Killingtons always been my home mountain and I love it. As long as you know what you're doing crowds are easy to avoid and good terrain is everywhere. Deep spring skiing is also a huge plus. 61 score overall is reasonable but its at least 85+ if compared only to other east coast mountains
I'm Travelling from Scotland at the end of March 2023 to attend a wedding in Texas and then heading here for 5 days. looking forward to it. We've some bad snow conditions in Scotland and this looks like it's going to be fun no matter what happens I'm going to love being in New England
Lots of snow now!
@@CarletonGebhardt yes, I've been keeping an eye on the conditions through the app. I think I am going to enjoy my 5 days at Killington.
@@rickycameron4008 how did it go?
@Bob Bilsonbart I had the best time. Was there from Monday 27th to Thursday 30th. Beautiful conditions, great snow and even had a freshen up on Wed night. Only cloudy day was Tuesday every other was clear blue and sun. Killington, you were awesome.
Longest vertical drop in the East is whiteface NY. Maybe Killington is longest vertical drop in Vermont? Good video though.
You're 100% right on that point--we'll update the description with a clarification!
You aren’t kidding about getting lost. On my sisters first day back on skis in years we split up, she took a wrong turn and she got stuck on outer limits as a beginner.
Was just here the past 3 days! Drove from Florida. Such a beautiful mountain. So many different routes to take.
It would be interesting to show the rank compared to others. For example - what are the immediate 3 resorts that are better and the 3 that are worse? I would love to see two columns - column 1 are the top 10 overall, and if in the top 20, column 2 would be 11-20. If not in the top 20, the second column would have the reviewed resort in the middle with the 5 that are immediately above and the 4 that are below.
Thanks for that feedback! We can definitely add that in future videos
I've skied it in September 93 and in June 28 in 97, on my thru hike. It use to be called Kmart, a while back. Looking forward to a good year.
Thank you for sharing. I just visited and will soon be posting ‘6 Peaks in 2 hrs’
I like the old fashion lifts. It is like skiing in Europe 30 years ago.
I’d love to see you do some NH mountains. Such as Cannon, Loon, Waterville valley, and attitash.
I learned that if you can ski in NE,with that blue ice/ crud then you can ski anywhere. It made skiing In Colorado easy money/with real powder/excellent conditions-just close your mouth when crashing into powder-“ Winter Park”..
As a lifetime vt skier (not rlly bc I’m only 16😂) I’d agree with most of the ratings except navigation for its size for the east coast I’ve always found it to be amazing when it comes to crowd flow and navigation
I learned on killington, its a special mtn to me
please do burke and smugglers notch and obviously sugarbush
Smuggs…jewel of the East
Cool, my home mountain.
Will you do a review of Jay Peak mountain resort?
Yep! In the coming months
@@PeakRankings Ok great! I have been there, although only in warm spring temps and it is amazing!
Day trip mountains are small, Wachusett, crotched, ect. Weekend is loon, Okemos, mountain snow even. Killington is a week adventure just like Sunday river or jay peak. Even in that week your not knowing everything
Nice! do stratton!
Was the release date (final day of skiing this season at Killington) on purpose?
Let's just say it was a happy coincidence 😊
Tbh catwalk is a single black when the snow is good but when it isn’t and the small chutes in it become exposed then it becomes a double black
Skied it 2/26/24..... got lost. Signage could be better. Conditions were decent for a bad snow year
Bear mountain gets gnarly.
i feel like killington I never feel like I am actually skiing, 90% of my time is spent trying to get where I want to go. like I have to take 2 lifts, and traverse across the entire mountain every time I want to get somewhere
I remember when it wasn’t there. Just a dirt road going up to the top of the hill.
Will there be a video for: Mont Ste Anne, Le Massif, Sugar Loaf, Jay Peak or Mont Tremblant ?
Jay Peak will have one! The others will likely be awhile.
@@PeakRankings Alright, thanks on the reply. Enjoyed the videos about Sunday River and Killiington.
I kind of actually want to ski here even though I live on the West Coast and get to go to Mammoth and Rockies resorts even closer.
Definitely the best in the east, but I’d only recommend going from the west coast if youre in the area for other reasons
It’s not a bad mountain but Honestly friends from colorado who have been there would not go back. Stick west if u can 😎
@@darrinsiberia Yeah, red or white? I like white chili because you can get pretty creative with it even though it’s not technically real chili.
Just kidding. I’ll probably go to Chile someday. What’s there?
About time.
When you can pretty much figure out which trail every shot came from, you know you've been to a mountain a few times.
Great video looks like a beautiful mountain but nothing there is remotely worth a black diamond rating at least by Rockies standards, still gotta visit to see where snowboarding began
All of the double blacks off the front would be black in the Rockies. It’s the gopro affect those trails have 40-45 degree pitches
There’s a number of minor mistakes and things you missed you need to get back there someday and ride that mountain with a local for at least a few days and some of your rating numbers will change significantly.🤘
I know I’d want to ride the steeps to stay entertained if I went, but all those clips look so icy and rocky. Literally looks like ski damage or injury waiting to happen.
Please do a review of Stowe!
Not enough footage yet 😭will hopefully have one next season!
@@PeakRankings Great! Still love your channel!!
Thank you for holding off on a review until you have been there on a variety of days and conditions.
@1:56 Hilarious. 💀💀💀
Can you review Jay Peak?
Yep, will come soon!
@@PeakRankings looking at going there next season
Killington could also be considered the biggest ice rink on the East Coast too.
How long are weekend lift lines for the parks?
The beginner-oriented parks are chiefly served by Ramshead, while the Stash and Dream Maker parks are served by the Skye Peak Express. Weekend lift lines for Ramshead are usually pretty bad; lines for Skye Peak are a bit more manageable, but also quite long during peak times.
Killington has been overpopulated for at least 50 years. no one comes close to their reliability/resiliency though. always ahead of the pack with snow making NY/VT.😄
Jay peak sometime?
Sooner than you think.
☘ Irish Honey Badger - 💘 - Works for me.
☘ Irish Honey Badger - Yikes, I used to skip school often and hitch hike to ski. 😎
DONT BASH KILLINGTON KILLINGTON IS LIFE
do you know what a 'review' is?
Killington is the most overrated ski area in the east. You may want to cover in depth the fact that most of the mountain is not open early and late. This may seem normal but take away that long gondola trail and related trails, the ski area then is only operation at the top. Even then, it is not uncommon to have the ski lifts close to high winds. Yet they want a full ticket price, and which is one of the most expensive lift tickets in the east, makes you feel like you are getting ripped off. I remember this happening once to me where they closed down much of the mountain lifts to save money, so I drove down the road to Okemo and Okemo was all open, and I was able to ski the whole ski area, and for less of a lift ticked price than Killington. Killington is a rip off.
Best mountain in the East and it's not even close.
@@ImOriginallyGreen Been to whiteface and Tremblant. Killington is still better imo
especially better if you're coming from the Tri-state area
@@francescomeola What about jay? The runs off the face ridge look amazing!
Sugarloaf
What??? Hold on, lets go over your “ratings” which are absolute NONSENSE. Killingtons “resiliency” is a 10, period, not arguable. 6? Thats a joke. I’ve been skiing K and everywhere else on the planet for 53 years now. I have my complaints about killington, resiliency is NOT one of them. I have never seen another mountain recover better, or faster. Last year for example, I skied a Monday in very poor conditions, they had very little snow, everything was boiler plate ice. Solid ice! Tuesday was worse, it poured out all day, on top of the ice, it was 45 degrees out. Overnight and into Wednesday morning it dropped to 7 degrees. I assumed it will be nothing but ice, i mean, how could it not be right? To my surprise, first tracks at 9am Wed morning felt like it had snowed 6 or 8” overnight. It didn’t snow a bit, the overnight crew ran all night long and crushed up the ice with the groomers, then smoothed it all out to corduroy and blew some snow on top of it. CRAZY! I have never seen anything like that.
Diversity: Killington has by far the most diverse terrain on the east coast, again, not even close. REAL double blacks, some double blacks IN THE WOODS, AND TIGHT WOODS (ever ski Growler? straight down, tight trees, GIANT moguls!). K has the longest green/blue run in the east, by far. K has tons of blacks, tons of blues, tons of park stuff, and tons of green learning areas. Lots of tree runs, and best of all, TONS of ungroomed mogul runs for both Blue and Blacks which is rare. Not many resorts have blue mogul runs.
Bunny buster is a great blue that has moguls. It's actually pretty fun on a snowboard!
Review summary: Killington is KKKKKSSSSHHHHHKKKK.....the resort offers terrain paKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSHHHHHHCCCCHH...the snowmaking infrastruKKKKKKKKSSSSSSHHHCCCHHHH!!.........
Ice coast skiing in a nutshell.
Hah! Took me a minute to get that!
Really cool to keep the wannabe tricksters and the wannabe racers TOTALLY segregated. Spandex and Saggy Pants should never cross trails.