Killington Mountain Bike Park
This is a chair lift accessed bike park at Killington Ski Area. Their trail map shows a number of lifts serving different areas, but only the Snowshed and Rams Head quads were running. Most of my runs were from Snowshed. There is a wide range of terrain at this park, so take my rating with some salt. Some trails may be a little easier and others my be impassible.
Lift operators were great. I was there alone, and they stopped lift and loaded my chair without any issues. I’ve seen photos of people strapping their handcycles to a chairlift seat, but my bike fit on the bike rack no problem.
Snowshed trails:
Roller: A nice rolling trail on the easy end of the options. A couple of relatively mild off camber sections were manageable.
Step It Up: This is a little harder than Roller, but still very manageable and fun! My favorite run of the day. Lots of fun banked turns.
Jump Start: There are a lot of jumps on this one. I rolled over them, and thought this was a pretty fun ride, but there was definitely a lot of ups and downs.
Easy Street: Easiest trail. I only caught small sections between other trails
Rabbit Hole: I didn’t ride this because I was told it’s too narrow and technical for a handcycle. I don’t necessarily believe this, but I didn’t want to get in a jamb without some backup since I was riding alone.
Rams Head Quad: This lift is significantly longer than Snowshed, (they are both high speed detachable.) My impression was that the more hard core riders were in this area. I went up with the intention of riding Sideshow Bob down, but at the top I found a sign saying it was under construction and walking was required. Not sure if this was true, but people said it dumped into a section of Steel Panther that is very steep and muddy, so I opted to ride Blue Magic instead.
Blue Magic is a Jump trail, which meant a LOT of jumps. I am riding a One Off without any shocks, so I was not looking to catch air. Front wheel left the ground from time to time, but mostly rolled over jumps. There are a couple of jumps with significant off camber lips. One threw me (ouch,) and another one a little farther on scared the **** out of me. I was on guard after my crash, but it was narrow and had about a 10′ drop into trees on the side. Thankfully, I got over it, but I’m in no hurry to do it again. There was a lot more traffic on this trail than on others I rode, and I stopped a number of times to let others pass.
P.S. there are stairs down from unloading areas on both lifts. A ramp at Snow shed too, but looked too narrow with turns for the cycle. Snow shed stairs are short and easy to ride down. Ramshead are taller, but I descended them OK, (don’t use your front brakes.)
More Information
Trail Name: Killington Mountain Bike Park
Location: Mendon, Vermont
Type: Wide trail (≥ 30″), Start and end at the same point (Loop)
Rating:
Length: Miles
Steepest Section: Difficult – over 30º
Most Off-Camber Section: Difficult – over 30º
Terrain: Mostly hardpack, minimal loose sections
Obstacles: Root exposure, Drops, ledges, jumps
Help Needed? Yes, a little
Even more info: Killington Resort
Directions to Trailhead
Directions: Google Killington Resort.
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