WeRmudfun
New member
We took another trip to Vermont to grab Killington Peak, #53 on the New England 4000 Footer list. It’s a little further so the alarm clock was set for 4:30 AM and we were on the road by 5:30. We had been keeping an eye on Mountain Forecast all week and the morning was supposed to be ‘some clouds’ followed by a chance of light snow in the afternoon. Those ‘some clouds’ must have been overlapping each other, because as we got to Brewers Corner, all we saw was clouds and not the white puffy friendly kind either. 
The day was not looking promising, but it was a long ride to the trailhead, so we went anyway.
The Bucklin Trail starts out nice and flat and stays that way for around 2 miles. There was a little bit of incline at times where they had to reroute the trail due to T.S Irene, but nothing other than minor incline. We found 2 Geocaches along the way and crossed, we believe, three bridges. After the roughly 2 miles the trail will take a right and that is when the incline starts. It’s not as bad as I had seen in some reports. It’s a steady up, but not a really steep up. We had a bit of sleet fall on us, it was in the shape of 6 point stars. We had never seen anything like that before, it was cool.
When we got to the junction with the Long Trail, the skies opened up and the sleet came down like it was mad! We were only in long sleeve shirts, so we ran to the Cooper Lodge and pulled out our raincoats. While we were in there waiting to see what the weather was going to do, we saw a couple of guys coming down from the summit and one of them had on Microspikes. They said it was icy on the summit and getting slippery.
The last 0.2 miles to the summit is on Killington Spur and that is steep, add sleet and snow and it can be slippery and steep. We decided to go for it knowing we could abort at any time. Mind you we are only talking an inch of sleet/snow and this is New England, but it doesn’t take much to make rocks slippery.
We proceeded with caution and did make it to the summit. The summit views were fantastic if you like looking at clouds with wind blowing in your face. We did our summit video pan, then headed off to the Peak Lodge, on the J Trail, at the top of Killington Ski Area. We were surprised how many people were in the lodge and they were not skiers. The ski area opened this weekend so we heard. We used the restrooms and warmed up a bit, then headed back to the summit.
The snow had let up, so we grabbed a little more video then took the spur trail down. We expected it to be a nasty descent back to Cooper Lodge, but the temp must had gone up a bit and it made the snow a little sticky, going down was pretty easy. Once we got there we had lunch, then explored around the lodge. Whoever named the privy had a great sense of humor! The rest of the hike out was uneventful. We may revisit Killington again on a clear day to see what we missed.
The day was not looking promising, but it was a long ride to the trailhead, so we went anyway. The Bucklin Trail starts out nice and flat and stays that way for around 2 miles. There was a little bit of incline at times where they had to reroute the trail due to T.S Irene, but nothing other than minor incline. We found 2 Geocaches along the way and crossed, we believe, three bridges. After the roughly 2 miles the trail will take a right and that is when the incline starts. It’s not as bad as I had seen in some reports. It’s a steady up, but not a really steep up. We had a bit of sleet fall on us, it was in the shape of 6 point stars. We had never seen anything like that before, it was cool.
When we got to the junction with the Long Trail, the skies opened up and the sleet came down like it was mad!
We were only in long sleeve shirts, so we ran to the Cooper Lodge and pulled out our raincoats. While we were in there waiting to see what the weather was going to do, we saw a couple of guys coming down from the summit and one of them had on Microspikes. They said it was icy on the summit and getting slippery. The last 0.2 miles to the summit is on Killington Spur and that is steep, add sleet and snow and it can be slippery and steep. We decided to go for it knowing we could abort at any time. Mind you we are only talking an inch of sleet/snow and this is New England, but it doesn’t take much to make rocks slippery.
We proceeded with caution and did make it to the summit. The summit views were fantastic if you like looking at clouds with wind blowing in your face.
We did our summit video pan, then headed off to the Peak Lodge, on the J Trail, at the top of Killington Ski Area. We were surprised how many people were in the lodge and they were not skiers. The ski area opened this weekend so we heard. We used the restrooms and warmed up a bit, then headed back to the summit.The snow had let up, so we grabbed a little more video then took the spur trail down. We expected it to be a nasty descent back to Cooper Lodge, but the temp must had gone up a bit and it made the snow a little sticky, going down was pretty easy. Once we got there we had lunch, then explored around the lodge. Whoever named the privy had a great sense of humor!
The rest of the hike out was uneventful. We may revisit Killington again on a clear day to see what we missed.
