Snow guns blasting Superstar
Sunday January 13, 2008, 12:45 PM

Snow guns blasting Superstar
Sunday January 13, 2008, 12:45 PM

The great news is that we had a very busy weekend. We had a really nice group of people at our inn who were in Killington to hold a surprise 40th birthday party for one of our restaurant guests. That, and a DSL service outage kept me away from my normal posting routine.

Currently at Killington, we are experiencing fairly heavy snowfall. Surface conditions on the mountain, as reported by our Chef Frizzie from his morning tour, range from firm and slick to heavy and slow. If you are on a trail where the wind is scouring the trail, you are down to the hard pack. If you are in an area of windblown drifts, you are hitting heavy bumps. We are expecting almost a foot of snow at Killington today. I would presume as accumulations continue to build up, that the surface conditions should get more consistent and improve. I plan on getting out tomorrow for some first hand observations. As of 12 noon today, about 3 inches of new snow has accumulated at the snow stake at the inn.

Over the last couple of days, the January Thaw appears to have broken. Saturday and Sunday saw Killington resume snow making operations to resurface terrain impacted by last weeks r@*n and unseasonably warm temperatures. Yesterday, snow guns were very visible blowing snow on many trails on the Killington Peak side of the mountain. The picture of the guns on Superstar give an indication of the quantity of snow that the resort was trying to make.

Birch Ridge Inn under orange glow near sunset January 11, 2008 4:30 PM (Click to enlarge)

Last weeks weather finally broke late Friday with an incredible orange glow on the mountain. Just before sunset, I captured a really nice picture of our inn bathed in orange light. The remnants of the days ice storm are clearly visible in the parking lot in front of the inn. The inn, although the web picture might not clearly reveal it, was covered in about an inch of ice. The whole inn just glowed orange with the setting sun behind it.

Today, of course, the scene is changing by the hour. The inn is back to snow covered. Winter is back at Killington.

Let it snow!