Great day to work on your goggle tan at Killington!

Great day to work on your goggle tan at Killington!

With all the mess Mother Nature has thrown at the Green Mountains the last few days, it was really nice to get outside, get on skis, and work on the goggle tan. The Killington Resort is open for top to bottom skiing and riding, with major trail expansions queued up for the holiday weekend.

This morning the resort was carrying skiers and riders uphill on the K1 Gondola, the North Ridge Triple, and the Snowdon Poma. In addition, they were turning the Canyon Quad and the Snowdon Quad as they prepare to go into the Thanksgiving Weekend. Skiing and riding today were available off Killington Peak into the North Ridge area, Bunny Buster on Snowdon, and interconnecting trails betweek the two.

Trails on the upper part of the mountain were a machine groomed granular over a firm surface. While there were not ice flows visible, edges on your skis were important. On the upper part of the mountain, the resort was not making snow. Instead they decided to deep groom the area to manipulate the deep cover they had already created on the top of Killington Peak.

Trails on the lower part of the mountain, and interconnecting trails, were much softer. They were primarily covered with packed powder from extensive snow making operations that took place last night. Guns were still set up to resume snow making on lower trails most likely later this evening.

What was really impressive about today's excusion on the mountain was the aggressive amount of snow making taking place on closed trails in preparation for the weekend. The available terrain for skiing and riding at Killington is poised to take a major leap forward in the next day or 2 as the mountain brings online new trails.

Snowmaking was taking place today on East Fall all the way to the Canyon Quad. On Snowdon, Chute was under the snow making guns top to bottom, straight down to the Snowdon Quad. Snow making was also underway on the Vail Trail between Snowdon and Rams Head down to the Rams Head Quad. In addition, the Learn to Ski trails on Snow Shed and the Snow Play Zone on Rams Head were also getting blanked by snow making. With all of the snow making taking place, look to see both the lift count and the trail count to jump substantially during the Thanksgiving Weekend. Killington will have the most skiing and riding open in the east during the holiday.

You will find a gallery of pictures from my couple of hours on the mountain today at the Birch Ridge Inn's Facebook page. The gallery is located under Skiing the day before Thanksgiving at Killington - Nov 24, 2010..

Let it snow!