Skiing Pico Mountain
Sunday, March 8th, 2026
Runs: 17
Distance: 16.99 miles
Elevation: 19,613 feet
Max Speed: 36.7 mph
Avg. Speed: 13.1 mph
Moving Time: 1 hour, 24 minutes, 55 seconds
Total Time: 5 hours, 40 minutes, 38 seconds
Back to Pico for post-wedding celebrations! Sarah and I were up around 8:00am (having a wedding the night of Daylight Savings Time is CRIMINAL) against our better wishes, and we SLOWLY started getting out of bed, packed up, and dressed. Alec left earlier in the morning, so Sarah was back to being MY wife for the day! We eventually got out of the resort around 9:00am, landed at Pico around 9:25am (the parking lot was almost full!), and were booted up and ready to ski around 10:00am! It was a SLOW morning, but thankfully most of the cars were there for racing on Little Pico, which left most of the mountain uncrowded. We got breakfast burritos (delicious), and were ready to rumble! We were a few hours ahead of the rest of the wedding crew, which was a nice quiet way to start the day.
Snow Report
March 8, 2026 - 5:55am
Good morning, Pico family,
We had an amazing day of skiing and riding here yesterday. The sun popped out for much of the day, softening things up and making for some really fun, carve-friendly turns. It's really comfortable on the slopes and we're pretty excited to be making the most of it with every trail to choose from.
Cloudy skies will start the day before gradually clearing by late morning, with temperatures falling to around the mid-40s by the afternoon. Expect a windy day on the mountain, with west winds of 29 to 38 mph and gusts keeping things feeling a little brisk.
The slopes skied and rode really well yesterday, with light, soft snow that was easy to edge into and was moving quickly. With conditions like this, it's safe to say spring is starting to make its way onto the hill. The bumps were a joy on Upper Sunset 71 and Birch Grades and we can expect more of that today as the air stays warm and the snow stays soft across the mountain.
Our grooming team stayed off any trails that didn't see snowmaking to help preserve the depths there. Runs that are smooth and will provide a great ride are Mid and Lower Pike, Expressway, A Slope, and more. Be sure to check the Lifts & Trails Report for the full rundown.
The Summit Express Quad, Golden Express Quad, Little Pico Triple, and Bonanza Carpet are all scheduled to spin at 8:30 a.m. The Knomes Knoll Triple will join at 9:00 a.m. The Outpost Double remains closed as we look to source and repair a new drive component for the lift.
It's about time to think about getting your Spring Pass for unlimited skiing and riding from March 13, 2026, through the very last day of the season. Plus, your Spring Pass is also valid at Killington until it closes for the season.
Have a fun day of shredding! - Evan
Runs 1-3
Run 1: Golden Express Quad - Fool's Gold
[0.57 mi; 2:33; 499 ft; 31.3 mph max; 13.4 mph avg]
Run 2: Summit Express Quad - Forty Niner - Mid Pike
[1.13 mi; 5:12; 1,585 ft; 26.5 mph max; 15.1 mph avg]
Run 3: Summit Express Quad - Upper K.A. - Mid K.A. - Mid Pike - Lower K.A. - C Slope - Lower Pike
[1.71 mi; 11:03; 1,995 ft; 32.5 mph max; 9.3 mph avg]
I IMMEDIATELY noticed how much snow had melted over the past two days! There was pretty full coverage on Friday, with the only bare spots being on cliffs. Today was a WHOLE different story! Groomers were looking good, but natural trails had melted a ton! Our first run was up the Golden Express Quad (up and over the newly flowing river!) and down Fool's Gold. We were nervous about sticky snow (especially after my day yesterday), so we hoped the upper mountain would have the goods! Run #2 was up the Summit Express and down Forty Niner and Mid Pike, which actually skied wonderfully. There wasn't a refreeze overnight, so the snow was soft and almost corny.
Run #3 was down the entirety of the K.A.'s. Upper K.A. was closed on Friday, so I was eager to ski it today, and it was fun! Similar to Forty Niner, but narrower and steeper. It would have been BAD on Friday, so it makes sense to have had it closed. Mid K.A. was open on Friday, but I did not ski it after my tough time on Sunset 71, so I was happy to be on that lovely cruiser today! We had a brief stint on Mid Pike before turning onto Lower K.A., which is a lovely narrower run through the woods with... COMICALLY low tide. Some dirt spots were so big we had to ski on the banks and hope for the best! We continued onto C Slope, which was slow but in much better shape than Lower K.A. Lower Pike was also in good shape, and not sticky! We hopped inside after this one for a quick bathroom and hydration break - we weren't in rough shape per say, but we also were not in the best of shape (I was actually blown away by how not-horrible I was feeling. Again, I wasn't feeling great, but I should have been feeling MUCH worse based on how much wine I had!).
Run 4: Golden Express Goad - Fool's Gold
[0.56 mi; 1:51; 499 ft; 31.4 mph max; 18.0 mph avg]
Run 5: Summit Express Quad - Upper Pike - Mid Pike
[1.19 mi; 5:28; 1,627 ft; 28.3 mph max; 13.0 mph avg]
Run 6: Summit Express Quad - Upper Giant Killer - Lower Giant Killer - Fool's Gold
[1.27 mi; 7:44; 1,621 ft; 26.0 mph max; 9.8 mph avg]
Once back out, we got back onto the Golden Express and zoomed down Fool's Gold. There were a lot of Vermont Adaptive folks out today, which was awesome! There was one physically impared skier though that nearly took Sarah and I both out - exciting! We got back on the Summit Express and did a run down Upper and Mid Pike, which were a blast! The bumps on Upper Pike were big and soft, and Mid Pike carved nicely. Only complaint was that about 1,000 other people were also on it (this was the ONLY time it felt crowded over the two days I was there!).
Run #6 was our adventure run down Upper and Lower Giant Killer! We skied onto Upper Pike and turned past the "MOST DIFFICULT EXTREMELY STEEP DIFFICULT TERRAIN EXPERTS ONLY!" sign and were immediately greeted by a giant patch of grass, smaller but similar to the one on Jay's closing day last year. This was fully covered on Friday! Sarah popped her skis off but I just carefully side-stepped to the skier's left side. There were two kids ahead of us and one behind us - the two ahead were truly made of rubber and alternated flying through the air, scraping over rocks, and falling. The poor one higher up simply sat down and gave up.
Once we made it to the snow we could finally make some turns, and it was super fun! A few sections were super narrow, but we made it without TOO much damage to our bases! Once lower down, the trail mellowed out in pitch but stayed nice and bumpy. Skier's left was the better side, as simply more people had been skiing it. The right side was basically made of cement - our skis would both stick and sink if we got too far right.
We eventually made it onto Lower Giant Killer, which was just a delightful groomer with a little bit of grab due to the warm temperatures. We continued onto Fool's Gold, and then back onto the Summit Express!
Runs 7-8
Run 7: Summit Express Quad - Summit Glades - Summit Glades East - Bushwhacker
[1.52 mi; 10:01; 1,621 ft; 28.5 mph max; 9.1 mph avg]
Run 8: Summit Express Quad - Upper Pike - Poma Loop - Birch Glades - Mid Pike - Lower Pike
[1.62 mi; 8:32; 1,973 ft; 24.7 mph max; 11.4 mph avg]
Run #7 soon became our favorite du jour! We got off the Summit Express and went onto Summit Glades, which is like Birch Glades, which is like Kokomo at Jay Peak, but with pitch. They're not true glades, but a series of winding lattices around tree islands - and FUN! These were bumpy, too, which made for some fun skiing! There was a 15 year old boy ZOOMING down with crazy arms, then us, and then his Dad behind us, basically playing leap frog the whole way down. There were some parts of thinner cover than others, but otherwise it was generally in great shape! The trail splits further down into east and west - we went east, which was a beautiful cruise through birch-lined trails and a few small bumps here and there. We eventually landed on Bushwhacker, which we followed over back to the Summit Express.
We both had to pee at this point, so we hopped back on the lift for one more. We went down Upper Pike to Poma Loop to Birch Glade - which was a favorite of mine and Gen's on Friday. Today, it was unpleasant! There was a groomed path on skier's right which was fine, but sticky, and everything else was dreadful cement. On well! We followed Mid Pike to Lower Pike all the way down to the bathrooms, and then we saw the text that the wedding crew had arrived!
Runs 9-11
Run 9: Golden Express Quad - Fool's Gold
[0.57 mi; 2:13; 502 ft; 29.9 mph max; 15.4 mph avg]
Run 10: Summit Express Quad - Sunset 71 - Lower Sunset 71 - Forty Niner - Mid Pike
[1.31 mi; 5:42; 1,585 ft; 26.7 mph max; 13.8 mph avg]
Run 11: Summit Express Quad - Forty Niner - Mid Pike
[1.22 mi; 4:24; 1,549 ft; 29.3 mph max; 16.6 mph avg]
Sarah and I were a couple minutes behind them - when we got to the lodge we got the "we're heading to the quad" text. We did a FAST pee and got right back on the Golden Express and took Fool's Gold to the Summit Express! We were the last ones to make it to the top, but everyone waited for us, and there were A LOT of people! More than I was emotionally prepared for! The main crew of my friends were me, Sarah, Emma, Linnea, and Andrew, with a light extended family of Devon who I met at the wedding last night, a bunch of groomsmen, and a few other folks who were DEFINITELY ex-ski racers - 15 people total! I was intrigued how this was going to go, the most I've ever skied with was probably 6-8 at Jay.
Most of the crew went down Forty Niner. A few tried out the woods (and provided BAD reports). Sarah and I wanted to hit the one run off the top we hadn't yet - Sunset 71. It was fun! Bumps were reasonable in the upper stretch and the lower stretch was nice and soft. MUCH better than Friday! There were some patches of exposed grass that varied from small to huge, but overall it was great! We all congregated back at the Summit Express Quad and shuttled up for another run.
Run #11 was a nice run down Forty Niner. The social dynamic of skiing in a massive group is interesting. A lot of stopping and chatting, which I'm never much a fan of, especially since more than half of skiing is sitting on chair lifts with plenty of time to chat. Either way, the run was great! We got a nice group pole picture at the top of the trail, where Emma really had to engage her teacher crowd-control strategies, but she made it happen!
Runs 12-13
Run 12: Summit Express Quad - Upper K.A. - Mid Pike - Lower Pike
[1.63 mi; 9:05; 1,926 ft; 31.3 mph max; 10.7 mph avg]
Run 13: Little Pico Triple - A Slope Cutoff - A Slope
[0.52 mi; 2:14; 640 ft; 31.4 mph max; 13.9 mph avg]
We got back on the chair with Emma, Sarah, and Devon and chatted a bunch. Devon is from New England but lives in Colorado now and had so much more energy than the rest of us, it was impressive! At the top Emma desperately needed a social break and Sarah and I desperately needed food, so the three of said "bye bye for now!" and skied down Upper K.A. (scrapier than it was before) to Mid and Lower Pike all the way down to the lodge for some lunch and quiet time. At this point of the day, the sun was out and it felt WARM. We all got chicken tenders and friends with a few extra snacks, sat outside, and had a nice debrief on the weekends' festivities. We were all a little socially drained at this point, so it was nice to have time with just the three of us, who are all low-social-battery friends with one another.
But after a while, it was time to rally again! The main party was now on Little Pico, where Linnea grew up racing. The primary goal was to get a photo of them holding up a "JUST MARRIED" banner on the chairlift, so we got to work! They were all finishing up their ski day after this run, but the three muskateers (Sarah, Emma, and I) wanted to get some more low-key runs in. The massive group made our way down A Slope Cutoff and A Slope, and we said "see you soon!" to the main crew as we got back on the Little Pico Triple.
Runs 14-17
Run 14: Little Pico Triple - B Slope
[0.55 mi; 1:49; 676 ft; 36.7 mph max; 18.2 mph avg]
Run 15: Golden Express Quad - Expressway - Swinger - Triple Slope
[0.86 mi; 3:09; 856 ft; 31.7 mph max; 16.4 mph avg]
Run 16: Knomes Knoll Triple - Triple Slope (Mid)
[0.40 mi; 1:59; 349 ft; 30.6 mph max; 12.2 mph avg]
Run 17: Bonanza Carpet - Bonanza 1
[0.20 mi; 1:55; 72 ft; 13.2 mph max; 6.1 mph avg]
This next batch of runs were so delightfully low-key. Little Pico Triple onto B Slope was just a treat with soft turns and a nice pitch. The slight skate towards the carpet nearly killed us, so we got on the Golden Express Quad to work our way over. We giggled down Expressway, Swinger, and Triple Slope to hit the Knomes Knoll Triple next. We went back down Triple Slope (the middle stretch) and finally made it onto the Bonanza Carpet, where we got to hold hands as we skied down the upper half of Bonanza 1 (I had to let go becuase I dropped a pole... oops!). A LOVELY way to end the weekend!
We went up to the bar first to say our goodbyes and more congratulations, and naturally Sarah and I ran into a kid (now adult) we both taught at the high school... Afterwards, we debooted and made our way back to our respective cars, traversing the mud pit that was the parking lot (the ruts were DEEP!). Spring is here!
Emma and I decided that when we get married, our community ski day will be the day before the festivities in lieu of a welcome party so everyone is fresh and full of energy.
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