Killington Peak - major changes underway

Killington Peak - major changes underway

Summer time is always a period at Killington where change takes place. During the winter season the attentiveness to guests required by the level of business in the area, combined with the winter elements, make any substantive changes problematic. But in the summertime, while the mass of humanity is watching "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel from their beach houses on Cape Cod, the Hamptons, of the Jersey Shore, changes take place in Killington.

In April, the Killington Resort announced their plans to replace the aging building on Killington Peak. The building was originally constructed as a Gondola Station, but more recently used as a base lodge and restaurant (although it is at 4200 feet) serving typical resort hamburger cuisine. Mother Nature and peoples tastes ravaged the building. Rightfully so, the Killington Resort recognized that change was required. And change we shall have.

Over the last 2 weeks, work crews have been taking aim at the peak lodge with various tools suited for high altitude demolition. This last week, after stripping the inside of the building of it's contents, the process began to tear down the building. The face of Killington will be forever changed. (My friend over at "Tales from a Female Ski Bum" has some good pictures of the demolition, if you are interested in the seeing the entrails of the Peak Lodge building being carted away for recycling.)

Killington Peak over the years. Click image to stop rotation. Click again to resume rotation.

Or course, change is important.... and in the case of the Killington Peak Lodge it is down right necessary. But while I was looking through some of the photos I have taken over the years we have lived in Killington, it hit me that a familiar icon that I have lived beside for a significant portion of my adult life, is undergoing a transition that will change it forever. The millions of photos that people have taken of Killington Peak since it became a major east coast destination ski resort over 50 years ago will now be "nostalgic" and "historic" versus "contemporary".

And I am ok with that.

It will be an interesting process over the next couple of years watching the landscape of Killington Peak being reshaped to a new vision which will dominate the local area for the next 50 years. The familiar will become the new. We will adapt as a new normal is being established.

The above photo gallery of Killington Peak is but a fraction of the pictures I have in my library. I hope you enjoy.

Where every you may be...stay cool, don't forget your sunscreen, and keep it in the fairway!