Peace Train
with artist Jim Boughton and Killington resident Sally Curtis 

In typical New England fashion, Mother Nature is having fun with Killington today. Thus far have experienced bright sunshine early in the morning with temps in the 60's. This afternoon, we are seeing a driving, cold, wet storm blow through the area, with nary a snow flake in sight, punctuate by strong winds.

The Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge is underway today over a Bear Mountain on Outer Limits. One of our inn guests is competing in the event, and several more were going over to Bear to spectate. I am sure we will get a full report from them this evening on the festivities.

Last night we hosted Jim Boughton, the Executive Director of the Chaffee Center for the Visual Arts in Rutland as the featured artist in our ongoing "Meet the Artist" series. Jim is very active in the arts community in Rutland and one of the driving forces in the "All Aboard Rutland" program.

"All Aboard Rutland" is a program inspired by the local arts community which will transform the streetscape of Rutland into a rail yard of artist-decorated train engines. The oversized toy trains will highlight the creativity of Rutland's local arts community by recalling and celebrating Rutland's railroad history. In the 1800's, the railroads fueled the areas economy by allowing local quarries to ship stone products around the globe. For example, much of the marble used in government building in Washington DC was originally quarried in the Rutland region and shipped south by rail. Last night, Jim had the first public showing of his creation for "All Aboard Rutland" with his work titled "Peace Train". The official kick off celebration for "All Aboard Rutland" will take place on Saturday April 29th. To learn more about the project, visit the "All Aboard Rutland" website.

Superstar in all it's Glory
bumped up for spring!
March 31, 2006,11:00 AM 

Temperatures in the 60's! Brilliant blue sky! Bumps! It's spring time in Killington.

Conditions on the mountain this morning were very soft and wet. Virtually nothing had been groomed overnight (or so it seemed), but it did not matter because temperatures at 9:00 AM were knocking at 60. I had a meeting to go to this morning at 11:00 AM (Killington Wine Festival set for weekend of July 14,15, 16... more on that in later posts) so I bypassed the base lodge and parked in the Bay 1 parking lot, put the boots on in the car, and walked directly over to the K1 gondola.

4 runs in the Glades as a warm up had my legs rubbery enough to do East Falls. East Falls had been in direct sunlight for about 4 hours, resulting in very soft snow with the consistency of cream cheese. The only down side to doing East Falls was that the Canyon chair had not yet started to run, requiring a run out on Spillway. To quote Marlon Brando --- "The horror".. Spillway was a meat market of upside down snow boarders, face planted skiers, and walking telemarkers. All mixed with a nice brown slush. But it was the only way back to the box, so you make your turns and take your chances.

After a quick trip up the K1, I went down Cascade. Nice soft ice cream bumps. But again, I had to take Spillway. Oh boy.. it was nasty again.

One more trip up on the box, because I was not yet ready to call it a day. I thought I would take a run over on Snowdon, but when I got to Double Dipper, I saw that the chair was loading, so I needed to complete the trifecta. Dipper still had some firmness (if you can call it that) along the tree line on skiers right. But again, nice soft, little, bumps.

I finished the day by taking the Dipper chair and traversing over to Snowdon. The cross over to Snowdon, Great Northern, featured a few "pond skimming" events, but Snowdon itself was holding up pretty well. By 11:00 AM, I have finished a couple of loops from the Snowdon Quad, so I called it a day to go off to my meeting. As I am getting in the car, I have this funny feeling. I don't know if I have just skied my last day of the 2005/2006 season, or if the mountain will give some bonus days over the next week or two. We will see next week.

The works of Jim Boughton
presented at the Birch Ridge Inn
March 31, 2006, 6:00 PM 

The Birch Ridge Inn and the Killington Arts Guild are hosting an evening with Jim Boughton, a local artist, on Friday, March 31st. Jim has been with the Chaffee Center for the Visual Arts in Rutland, Vermont for the past four years and currently serves as its Executive Director. Jim has been a professional artist for years doing illustration work and commissioned pieces. Jim works in a variety of mediums but specializes in pastels; his subject matter consists of creative portraits, nature scenes and surreal subjects.

Jim was very involved in Brandon's last two community fundraisers; the painted birdhouses and last year's "Brandon Rocks". Many artists from the area painted Rocking Chairs for the Brandon event. Jim's rocking chair, which went for $1,200. at the final auction, will be on display at the "Meet the Artist night" at the Birch Ridge Inn.

Jim also is involved in Rutland's current community-wide event "All Aboard Rutland". This is an event that will take place this summer in the area and features trains painted by local artists to celebrate Rutland's railroad history. This summer over fifty wooden trains decorated by local artists will be on display throughout Rutland. Come and see Jim's "Peace Train" before they are presented to the public.

As well as a fine artist, Jim is a graphic designer and has a degree in computer programming and web development from Montclair State University. He has taught computer classes for the last three years at the Chaffee Art Center.

The public is invited to attend this presentation in the lounge area of the Birch Ridge Inn, where along with actual displays of his work, Jim will share his penchant for and devotion to representation in various mediums. From 6:00 to 8:00 PM coffee and little nibbles will be available as well as a cash bar. Following the presentation, persons wishing to join us for dinner can make reservations by calling the Birch Ridge Inn at 422-4293. Persons wishing further information regarding the presentation may call Sally Curtis at 422-3852.

Billy Mac and Bill Vog
bid goodbye until golf season
March 29, 2006, 11:45 AM, at Sushi Yoshi on Killington Road 

You just can't make this stuff up. It was another blue bird spring skiing day at Killington. Temperatures in the low 50's, 100% sunshine, no wind...just beautiful.

Today's festivities started with 3 laps on Superstar, which was groomed soft and sweet. We took an early run down Bitter Sweet. It has not been groomed so it was still crunchy. We followed up with a run down Skye Burst and Cruise Control. Both had soft snow with a consistency between vanilla ice cream and mashed potatoes. They were both a lot of fun pounding thru some nice soft bumps. We then hit the Glades and Snowdon areas. The Glades were still nicely firm (gave the legs a little rest). Snowdon was soft thru the middle, but a little wet at the bottom. To finish our day on ski's, we traversed across the top on Frost Line for one more run down Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet. A nice morning of skiing.

The phrase of the day was "Point them down hill", in honor of Billy Mac. He is one of the weekday regulars from the Snow Cats Ski Lodge in Mendon, and a former bartender at Birch Ridge, who put their ski's away for the season today. A small lunch was held in their honor at Sushi Yoshi. The Snow Cats are departing the winter scene at Killington because "There are boats to launch, and little white balls to chase" down south. But, the Snow Cats promised to reappear in late May to play golf in Killington on Memorial Day Weekend. In the mean time, we will just have to keep skiing in their absence.

Killington Peak
from base of Superstar Lift
March 28, 2006, 11:15 AM 

At the risk of getting boring, today was another really nice ski day on the mountain; beautiful blue skies, temperatures in the high 40's; no wind or crowds.

Our journey today took us thru the Glades, down High Line and the Canyons, across to Bear Mountain, Cruise Control and Needles Eye, with finishing laps on Super Star and Bitter Sweet. The upper parts of the mountain had soft creamy bumps, the lower reaches, particularly over at Bear, featured wet beach sand. After completing a run down Lower Wild Fire through the terrain park, Mary commented that skiing today could even be considered cardiovascular. With the warm sun, the little work out we got felt great! Golf season will be here soon enough.... we have a few more weeks to enjoy some great snow at Killington.

Killington and Skye Peaks
March 27, 2006, 12:15 PM 

Spring looks like it is here to stay. Temperatures at Killington today are approaching 50.

Today on the hill was filled with hero snow. From Highline to the Canyons to Bitter Sweet and Superstar, we found soft snow with little bumps to play in all morning. 100% sunshine, and warm temps saw the group breaking out spring shells and baseball caps. A beautiful spring skiing day.

Today also marks the last day of the Snow Stake for the 2005-2006 ski season. When I put it out back in late October, I was wondering if 6 feet was tall enough. Wishful thinking at it's best. It has been one of those snow years at Killington. If we get a late season storm, I will post a picture of it to show accumulations, but for now it is retired for the season.

I'm Flying!
A competitor takes flight in
the moguls at US National Freestyle
Competition at Bear Mountain
March 24, 2006, 10:15 AM 

A little warmer but more cloudy today on the mountain at Killington. Spring skiing has definitely arrived.

Conditions are continuing to soften up this morning. Frozen granular "Beach Sand" is making an appearance across all of the mountains. The first few runs we took today were down Superstar. It was groomed out from yesterday, so conditions were very consistent. The upper and lower headwalls were nicely soft, allowing for broad carving turns. Middle Superstar had also soften up from yesterday, but it was still firm enough to just let it rip while cruising towards the lower headwall.

Over at Bear we found deep "Beach Sand" on lower Bear Claw. The portion of Outer Limits opened to the public had been groomed flat, but was quite soft. A Side Slip area has been installed on skiers left in an attempts to provide a safe pathway down OL for timid skiers who want to get up close to the mogul field to watch this weekends competition. We saw no one use it during our time at Bear.

Single freestyle competitions were ongoing down OL's mogul field. You can really tell the difference between world class freestyle skiers, and kids in development programs. The way the course is laid out, you can ski down OL and get right beside the course. Again today we camped out just below the first jump to snap some pictures of some of the big air being taken by the competitors. Really impressive.

On our way out of Bear, we took a lap on Dream Maker. Lower Dream Maker is set up with a terrain park. Coverage is pretty good, except for some exposed rock on the last knoll before the Super Pipe.

To finish the day, we took the "Box" (K1 gondola) to the top of Killington for a run down Cascades. I loved it because it had nice soft bumps which my ski's just ate up. Others, on GS skis were not quite as enthusiastic about it. But so it goes. Being a democracy, the vote for the final run of the day, pre "Johnny Boy's" for brunch, was down High Line. High Line was a touch firmer than Cascade, probably due to less skier traffic. All in all, a very nice day of spring skiing indeed!