Birch Ridge Inn at Killington dusted with early February snow.

Birch Ridge Inn at Killington dusted with early February snow.

Typical New England wait a minute weather has been the order of the day this weekend. Yesterday, temperatures hit the low 40's, the first time the freezing mark has been decisively cracked since late December. The snow pack around the inn was not impacted to a high degree, losing only about 2 inches out of 20 this far. But all of the ice dams that were building on the roofs of the inn due to January snow fall have released, which from a maintenance perspective really helps.

Today, we have seen sun, sleet, snow and a little wind thrown in for good measure. Trails at the mountain this morning were locked in a thaw freeze cycle, delaying opening of many of them. By around 9:00 AM the mountain was about half open, with grooming machines working the other trails to impart a measure of corduroy goodness. The great news is that the snow pack is relatively thick for this time of year, so the thaw freeze cycle should be a distant memory in very short order.

The interesting thing that occurred today for Mary and I started with a call from my mother down on Cape Cod. Mom is a voracious news paper reader. By 11 AM, she has usually "consumed" the Boston Globe and the Cape Cod Times.

In todays Globe, mom discovered an article entitled "Finding Romance - and great skiing" by Peggy Shinn in the travel section. Needless to say, I went down to the Killington Market and got a copy of the Sunday Globe. If you have a chance to read the article (Section M), you will find that the Birch Ridge Inn, Mary and I and our Chef Stephen got a very nice mention....and that's a pretty good thing for us for a Sunday in February.......Let it snow!