Hard to believe that I grew up in Rutland and didn't hike Killington until 2009, when I was 23 years old. Oh well. At least I got to it.
My first trip over Killington was an end-to-end hike over Killington and Pico with Bill. The weather was so cloudy and rainy that we didn't bother taking any pictures. We went up the Bucklin trail, the backside of the mountain, joined up with the AT near the top, tagged the summit, then took the AT three or four miles over to Pico, then down to Route 4, making for a 10-11 mile hike. I realized about halfway through the hike that I didn't have the keys we needed for the car at the other end. Thankfully we had cell service at the top of the mountain to solve the problem. What did we do before cell phones? Weird.
On Christmas Eve day in 2012 I went up and down the Bucklin trail, just over 7.5 miles, in breathtakingly beautiful weather. I almost didn't make it to the summit because of all the ice, but I powered through. My dad and I did the same hike this past Christmas, though we were not rewarded with nice weather, or good trail conditions. The entire trail was an absolute mess; basically a sheet of ice. The way down was significantly more harrowing than the way up.
Here are some pictures of the Christmas Eve 2012 hike.
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