Killington Peak in all it's glory just before noon today. Taken from Killink.

Killington Peak in all it's glory just before noon today. Taken from Killink.

Sweeeet!

The Killigton Ski Resort opened for the 2008/2009 winter season this morning under beautiful blue skies and seasonable cool temperatures. Scheduled to open at 10:00 AM, the resort pulled a final trick for Halloween visitors to the resort. They opened at 10:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time. Of course, where we set the clocks back an hour last night, that translated to 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. Trick or treat!

The time shift, of course, played mind games with the opening day crowd. Those who arrived very early were rewarded with first dibs on the goods. For the rest of us, due to continuous snow making operations, we still got nice soft surfaces, albeit with a few fresh tracks underneath. One thing that the early opening did accomplish, however, is that it spread out the crowds, which made the first runs of the season all that much nicer.

As part of the opening day, the resort was operating with 1700 feet of vertical spread out over a variety of trails. Great Northern was open from the top to Lower Bunny Buster. Lower Bunny took skiers and riders back home to the K1 Gondola. Rime, Reason and Upper East Fall were open, leading to the North Ridge Triple. A small terrain park was set up on Reason for those interested in getting the first hits of the season.

Snow surfaces were man made machine groomed packed powder, over a natural base. Base depths were more than adequate for the opening day of the season. Coverage was fairly broad and very consistent with few exposed surfaces. Rock skis were not required. (I was on my normal winter equipment.)

Snow making continued during the 2 1/2 hours I was on the mountain. (I got there at 9:30.. Left the parking lot about 12:15). Guns were running almost the entire length of Great Northern, where the resort wants to stockpile snow to allow continued operation, especially during the warmer weather anticipated during the week. Guns were also running on Upper Downdraft. That trail was closed for skiing and riding, but should be able to open soon based upon the amount of snow that was being made at the top of the mountain.

All told during my time on the mountain, I did about 12 lifts. Most were on the North Ridge Triple. When I arrived at the mountain, because they had already been loading people for 30 minutes, I was able to walk right on the K1 Sky Ship. Lift lines at the North Ridge Triple were variable. When I first arrived, because I was skiing before 10:00 AM, the singles line was running with about a 2 minute wait. By around 11:30AM, the singles line had about a 10 minute queue.

The crowd on the mountain seemed like a good mix of locals, season pass holders, and North East Skiers and Riders looking for first runs of the season. On my lift rides up, I spoke with locals, people from Burlington VT, Boston MA, Hartford CT, New Haven CT, New York City, and Long Island. Many of the people I spoke with specifically travelled to Killington to purposefully attend opening day. Unscientifically, I would say that about 2/3rds of those in attendance had a season pass product of some kind. The other third bought day tickets from the resort. Todays lift ticket price was $65.00.

I did take a bunch of pictures presented below. I must admit, I had intended on just taking 1 or 2 runs. I figured I would set up a few places and just take pictures. But it was so nice to be back on skis again, and conditions were so good, that my original plan was quickly modified to just skiing and taking random pictures when I stopped.

Great Northern looking back to K1 Top Terminal. (Click to enlarge.)

Rider emerging from guns on Great Northen at junction with Downdraft. (Click to enlarge.)

Skiers and riders on Great Northen at junction with Rime and Reason. (Click to enlarge.)

Looking up the North Ridge Triple lift line up Rime towards Killington Peak. (Click to enlarge.)

The queue at the North Ridge Triple. Notice the high concentration of brain buckets helmets. (Click to enlarge.)

Full North Ridge Triple. Even full, the pace of the chair leaves from plenty of empty space on the trails. (Click to enlarge.)

Chute. Snow making operations in full swing with new low energy guns. (Click to enlarge.)

Lower Bunny Buster with low energy snow guns at work. (Click to enlarge.)

One last look at Killington Peak under azure skies and snow guns operating everywhere. (Click to enlarge.)

The Killington Resort does plan on being open for skiing and riding from now thru next spring. The next couple of weeks will be very weather dependent, as is usually the case during the early season. But if today was any indication, the 2008/2009 ski season at Killington is off to a great start!.....let it snow!