Mary at Killington Peak on Great Northern

Mary at Killington Peak on Great Northern

Finally... our first day on the slopes for the season is in the can....

While some of our employees are now solidly into double digit ski days, Mary and I finally got our act together and hit the slopes this morning for a few runs. By the time we had found all of the necessary bits and pieces to progress to the mountain, we managed to park the car in Bay 1 at the K1 base lodge at 9:15.

The Killington Resort has taken advantage of the last 5 days to make a tremendous amount of snow. While there has been skiing for several weeks in the North Ridge pod (Rime, Reason, Upper East Falls, Upper Great Northern, Upper Doube Dipper) it has only been in the last several days of cold temperatures that they have been able to make a break out and expand terrain. I know from first hand experience around the inn that last week the ground had not frozen. The cold weather over the weekend took care of that problem with the ground around the inn (and around the K1 Base Lodge) now solidly frozen.

With the cold weather, the resort has been able to make snow the entire length of Great Northern. Today was the first day where they were able to feature top to bottom skiing and riding with out the assistance of the stairway at the top of the North Ridge triple chair. In addition to the previously mentioned North Ridge Pod, the resort also opened Bunny Buster with it's Poma lift, to spread out those attending todays Thankgiving eve session.

Ski condtions were quite good with machine groomed man-made packed powder the length of the mountain. Surface depths are still relatively thin, given the lack of natural snow fall, but at no time did it occcur to us to ski on our rock ski's versus our all winter kit. There was some blowing and drifting snow around operational snow guns. Most were non events, although there was one at the base of Bunny Buster that was putting our slightly wet product. As with all early season skiing and riding, descretion is your friend in the face of variable conditions.

Looking forward to the weekend, the resort has made substaintial amounts of snow on Skylark from top to bottom on Skye Peak. In addition, they were also makeing snow in Snowdon down Chute to compliment Bunny Buster. I would expect that in addition to the K1 Gondola, the North Ridge triple, and the Bunny Buster poma that the resort should also be turning the Superstar and Snowdon quads to spread out Thanksgiving weekend skiers and riders.

At this point, skiing and riding is for intermediates and above. The resort has not had the opportunity yet to make snow on beginner terrain like Rams Head or Snowshed. The have started making snow in the learn to ski area at Snowshed and the Magic Carpet area on Rams Head. That would indicate that they are planning in the near term to have some nominal capability for opening ski school and childrens program, but we have not been privy to any announcements of availability for this weekend. But every indication is that it will be soon.

At the inn, we are back at work readying it for Thankgiving guests. We are not serving dinner to the general public on Thanksgiving day. We will be serving dinner Friday and Saturday evenings starting at 6:00 pm. You can find a copy of our restaurant menu online, as well as make reservations for dinner.

Where every you may be celebrating Thanksgiving, stay safe, and think snow!