Snow guns making snow at bottom of K1 Gondola

Snow guns making snow at bottom of K1 Gondola

All eyes around town looked to the mountain earlier today. When we woke up this morning, the Killington Resort was making snow from the top of Killington Peak all the way to the K1 base lodge. Of course the million dollar question is "When will the resort open?"

I'm getting ready........................are you?





Killington get's ready for the 2009 season. An exploratory hike around the resort. "Sky Peak Redesigned"

With the excitement of snow falling on the mountain and the resort getting ready to open, it was easy to lose the train of thought concerning our hike last week. Back to our walk about!

While the woods may be the goods when the Killington Resort talks about "The Stash", large numbers of skiers and riders having fun while they move around the 6 interconnected mountains at Killington is the real name of the game.

As anyone who has skied at Killington knows, the Killington Resort was planned a lot like a typical New England village.....randomly! No fancy grid system, no real traffic planning...if this looked like a good fall line to put in a ski trail... get out the chain saw.

Of course I take poetic license. To be able to move millions people around miles of ski trails during the resorts 50 year history does take more than a little forest husbandry. But the rapid growth of the resort during the 70's and 80's has woven an interconnected maze, and a few confused skiers looking for their car's at the wrong base lodge parking lot to boot.

Top of new Sky Peak Quad sitting in the K1 parking lot awaiting installation. (Click to enlarge.)

With that in mind, the resort owners, Killington Pico Ski Resort Partners, have begun the process to reconfigure the resort for the next 50 years of skiing and riding at Killington. Last year, they took some small steps in trying to close of sections of Great Northern on the Killington Peak side of the resort. That effort, which employed movable barriers but no trail cuts, was experimental at best. This year, after learning about how the resort really worked last season, they embarked on an ambitious program to redefine the skiing and riding experience off of Sky Peak. But instead of erecting barriers which can be easily circumvented, the resort owners have aggressively modified trails on Sky Peak to correct some of the sins of the past.

"The Stash" and the elimination of the "Snow Shed Crossover" trail are key elements of the redesigned Sky Peak. However, neither would be effective without replacing the Sky Peak Quad. And since the resort was going that far, a little terra forming on the top of Sky Peak, assisted by some high explosives, was also brought to bear to re-orient the route to be taken by skiers and riders in the future.

On our hikes through the mountains, it is hard to appreciate the scale of the efforts completed by the resort. The first evidence of activity at the top of Sky Peak that we saw was from the mid section of Sky Burst on the old Snow Shed Crossover. Looking upslope, we saw freshly painted lift towers, topped with new pulley systems for the new quad. A helicopter has been put into service over a number of days to install them on the towers used by the old Sky Peak Quad. But at the top of the tower line, something was unusual. Instead of a nice grassy slope, there was a huge rock rubble wall.

View upslope on Sky Burst towards Sky Peak from Snow Shed Crossover. (Click to enlarge.)

Closer look at the wall at the top of Sky Burst. (Click to enlarge.)

The purpose of the wall, once you climb to the top of it, is quite obvious... it forms the top of the new trail swinging around Sky Peak from the Sky Ship Gondola that is now part of the redesigned "Green" trail "Great Eastern". The rock was all lifted from the side of Sky Peak as part of the trail redesign.

The new lift terminal area at the top of Sky Peak, sans lift. (Click to enlarge.)

In the redesign of Sky Peak, the top lift terminal is roughly in the same place as the old lift. What is interesting is the way the resort has chosen to move people around it. From the lift, skiers and riders still can exit left or right. Exiting right brings you down the new Great Eastern. Exiting left brings you either to "The Stash" or Sky Burst. Skiers and Riders coming off of the K1 Gondola will be directed around Sky Peak on the newly created top of Great Eastern, crossing below the Sky Peak lift terminal.

If you are still with me, you will notice that the resort has just created a new intersection with trails crossing over one another. The difference this time, at least in theory, is that where the cross over takes place, all of the skiers and riders from both directions in the intersection will be traveling at a low velocity, hopefully minimizing any catastrophic collisions. It will be interesting to see it all covered in snow and in action in a few weeks.

To get to Great Eastern or "The Stash" from the Sky Ship Gondola, the resort literally blew up the side of Sky Peak and put in a broad lightly graded boulevard.

Mary at the bottom of the new trail cut in the side of Sky Peak looking back to the Sky Peak Quad terminal. (Click to enlarge.)

Looking towards Killington Peak on new trail cut around Sky Peak. Sky Peak Quad is behind the frame. Sky Ship Gondola is to the right of the frame on top of the man made cliff. (Click to enlarge.)

In our hikes on the mountain, Mary and I took this route a couple of times. The first time through, it was very rough, hardly recognizable as a ski trail. The finished product, as you can see, looks just like a road cut in the side of the mountain, which in fact it is. It is gently graded to allow skiers and riders to maintain some speed. And when the installation of the snow making pipe is completed, we could be skiing and riding on this trail in very short order.

Picture from an earlier hike of drilling equipment used to place charges to blast away at Sky Peak Direction is looking from the junction of Great Eastern and Gateway towards Sky Peak Quad.. (Click to enlarge.)

Finished product, ready for snow and skiers. Mount Washington in the White Mountains is in the distance. (Click to enlarge.)

When the snow flies, it will be interesting to see how the new layout will really work. Once we got to the new Sky Peak Quad, it is a very gentle slope on the new trail to the junction with Gateway. The views from the new trail are great. From the trail, it looks like you could almost reach out and touch the top of Bear Mountain. And in the distance to skiers right, you can see many of the ski resorts of southern Vermont, with the White Mountains of New Hampshire in front. On a clear day in the winter, I am sure there will be more than a few gawkers taking in the sights.

The one "hook" in the layout is the run down from the Sky Ship to join up with the new trail. The intersection will have skiers and riders doing a 180 degree turn to get on the new Great Eastern. During our hike, this section was still being worked on. We will have to wait until we see it in action this winter to see how it all works out.

The ski season at Killington will be here before you know it .....let it snow!