Killington peak is in this picture somewhere.

Killington peak is in this picture somewhere.

I had planned on skiing at Killington today. I really did!.

I did the right thing and set my alarm to wake me up at the right time. I had my bowl of oatmeal. I got dressed in multiple layers. All the while, I was listening to a ticking sound of freezing pellets bouncing off the roof of the owners quarters at the inn.

My first real hint that it might not be a ski day was in the inn's parking lot. My car was nicely coated with a solid layer of ice. Clearly the ticking freezing pellets falling from the sky had started out over night as freezing r@!n. The trees around the inn were also being contorted on every direction by a howling wind barreling down the mountain along the Killington Road. Freezing r@!n and wind cause very bad things to happen to lift operations at a ski resort.

The drive to the Resort, less than a mile from the inn, was uneventful. The roads were slick, but I am used to driving on snow covered roads, so it was no big deal. The parking lot at the K1 lodge should have been a giveaway that skiing was going to be doubtful today. At 8:55 when I arrived, there seemed to be less than 50 cars in the parking lot, when usually on a Monday there would be several hundred. When I got into the base lodge, I found out why.

The ice overnight had taken it's toll. Combined with the wind, the resort was only going to spin 4 lifts in the morning, including Superstar, the Snowdon Quad, Ram Head, and a lift on Snow Shed. Bear Mountain was closed. The Sky Ship, Needles Eye, and Northbrook Quads were closed. The K1 Gondola Cabins were still in their shed. Combined with the continuing bite of wind driven ice pellets falling from the sky, and it was clear that skiing this morning was not going to be in the cards. So it goes.....

The good news from todays weather is that the liquid precipitation that fell from the sky on Killington was held to a very bare minimum. Most of the precipitation this morning has been well frozen and very granular, as temperatures at ground level have been hovering in the high 20's. So I would expect little damage to surface conditions at the resort when the weather clears the area.

Tomorrow in Killington is Town Meeting Day. It is an annual event in free flowing democracy designed to set the tone for the coming year in managing the town of Killington. There are several issues boiling underneath the surface leading up to tomorrows meeting, not the least of which is the trend toward uncivilized behavior in public meetings by some current office holders. What ever the results, it is an opportunity for the citizens of Killington to come together and express their desires on how the town should be run for the coming year. What ever happens, it is always interesting.

Until tomorrow from town meeting ......Let it snow!