Killington in all it's pre-season glory

Killington in all it's pre-season glory

Ski season at Killington is almost here. 5 days and counting.

While conversation around town invariably drifted towards wondering why Killington did not open this weekend, let it be said that the new owners of Killington are pounding the mountain with snow making operations to prepare for opening the ski season at Killington this coming Friday. Snow making operations are going full bore on the Killington peak side of the mountain with guns clearly pumping out snow at the Peak, on Upper Downdraft, all through the North Ridge area (formerly called the Glades), and over on Chute, Mousetrap and Bunny Buster.

Killington ambassadors were on station in the K1 parking lot asking people to refrain from hiking on trails where snow making operations are ongoing. They had no problem with hikers staying on trails where no snow making was in progress. I hiked around the K1 base lodge and up Bittersweet to get some better views of the snow making. Suffice to say, they are clearly trying to make next weekends opening the biggest in the last couple of years with much more terrain being open than what's usually available for the first weekend of the season.

I plan on posting shots of the mountain all week in preparation for the opening. Over the weekend, my parents came to Killington to visit before the start of the holiday season. Dad came up with me as I walked up Bittersweet. He was "impressed" at how cold the mountain was (the ground was frozen pretty solid) and at the amount of snow the mountain was making. My folks live on Cape Cod so seeing somebody purposefully making that much snow was somewhat surprising.

On tap this week... pickup my season pass, find all of the ski gear, do some more exercising to get the legs stretched out (I've been bad this summer), and count down the days... 5 and counting!

Let it snow!