Today was another unseasonably warm day at Killington. For the first time in several days the cloud cover lifted to reveal the mountain in all it's glory. Naturally, as luck would have it, this was not my day to ski. (I do have to work sometimes.) But it was still an interesting day.

Part of the work I had to do today was to participate in a planning meeting for this summers Killington Wine Festival. For the last 3 years, the Killington Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Farrell Distributors, has hosted a weekend of wine events in Killington in mid July. I will post more information on the blog as the event planning for this year takes shape.

Two other items caught my eye in the news today, which are sort of opposing stories. Of course, today is Ground Hogs Day, and Punxsatawney Phil saw his shadow. This means we are do for 6 more weeks of winter. This is in contrast with the activities of the sugar maples in Vermont. Because of the relatively warm days and the cool nights, the sap in the maple trees has already started to flow. By some estimates, the flow has started 6 to 8 weeks sooner than normal. I am not sure what either of these stories really mean when applied to ski conditions over the next couple of months, but at least we will not run out of maple syrup for breakfast in the spring this year before the new crop is brought in.

Highroad from Snow Shed Crossover
February 1, 2006, 10:30AM 

Killington continued to receive light snow overnight. Other than an ongoing visibility problem, ski conditions this morning at Killington were excellent on groomed surfaces of packed powder.

Visibility this morning was poor. The cloud deck extended down to around the 2600 foot level. Killington Peak, the Canyons, and Cascade were totally in the cloud. Bear Mountain had clouds down to the level of the Snow Shed Crossover. Cruise Control had good visibility, but after taking the Skye Ship back to the top of Skye Peak, we found ourselves in clouds again on Skyelark and Bittersweet.

Snow surfaces are in great shape. Killington has had on the order of 6-10 inches of snow this week, giving the groomers lots to play with. We did run into snow making on Skyeway at the junction of Bittersweet, but other than that we did not run into any guns going on our usual route. After 9 runs, even though the snow was great, we decided to call it an early day. If there was some sunshine, we would have stayed out a lot longer.

Jackson Gore Inn at Okemo in Ludlow Vermont 

If you live in the area, you would be hard pressed not to know that the Okemo Ski Resort, in Ludlow Vermont, about 25 miles south of Killington, was celebrating it's 50th year in business today. Lift tickets for those of us over the age of 50, and you know who you are, cost $5.00 for today. We have not done a road trip this year, so we decided for Five Bucks, what the heck.

When we got to Okemo, we went to the Jackson Gore entrance. All skiers are forced to park in a remote parking lot and shuttled to the Jackson Gore Inn. The shuttle driver was nice and friendly, but this is a step in the fine art of skiing that we are not used to at Killington, where essentially you can drive to a large parking lot surrounding every base lodge. Once at the inn, we were first directed to a ticket window, then to a common area for day skiers called the "Roundhouse" at one end of the inn. The facility was nice and comfortable, smaller than any base lodge at Killington, but very well appointed.

From a skiing standpoint, we boosted up several lifts, finally arriving at the "Summit Lodge". We were skiing green and blue trails, which are the majority of trails at Okemo. And it was a good thing, because the fog was so thick you could not see 10 feet in front of you. At one point, we were trying to locate the "Lower Fall Line" lift. We could hear the lift motor running, and the squeak of the cable pulling over wheels on lift towers, but we could not see the lift. It seemed like we did not see the lift until we skied into the lift line maze, but I know that is an exaggeration. The fog was really that thick.

After picking our way over to the far end of Okemo to the South Face Express Quad, we headed back to Jackson Gore. All told, we were on skis a little more than 3 hours, after which we retired to the Colebrook Tavern at Jackson Gore for lunch.

My overall impressions are mixed. It is hard to judge the skiing because of the fog and the surface conditions. The fresh snow was hiding a hard base which got considerably choppy as the morning wore on. Because we did not know the terrain, and we could not see, most of our skiing was done by feel...which can get pretty exciting. We found ourselves taking a lot of turns. By Killington standards, all of the slopes we took were Greens or Blues. On a bright sunny day, they were probably nice cruisers, but it was not meant to be. We will need to go back to properly evaluate the skiing component.

From a resort component, Okemo has done some nice things. We quickly became aware that to the left of the top of each lift was a large trail map with a big "You are Here" sticker. Killington has map boards spread out around the mountain, but the boards at Okemo were particularly conspicuous. The facilities we used were also nice. Both the "Summit House" and the "Jackson Gore Inn" facilities were in great shape, very nice and comfortable. Lunch at the Colebrook Tavern was excellent. Our Waiter, Joquim, from Chile, was very polite and attentive. He left a nice final impression.

The one downside we noticed was that we could not get out of the weather. At Killington, if you don't like the weather, you ski to a different mountain, which faces in a different direction, which usually has different weather conditions. At Okemo, all of the peaks appear to face in the same direction, hence if a cloud blows over one peak, it blows over them all.

Will I go back to Okemo? Most likely yes... some day... In the mean time... Best Wishes to Okemo on the celebration 50 years in business!

Superstar Chair in operation
Monday, January 30, 2006, 12:15 PM 

Late yesterday I updated the blog site to report snow falling in the region. Between 3:30 PM and 8:30 PM, we received on the order of 4 inches of very heavy wet snow at the inn. Unfortunately, some time around 8:30 PM, the precipitation changed to liquid, completely washing away any snow we received.

Conditions at the mountain remain good. Guests who skied this morning before heading home are reporting soft surfaces with new snow at higher elevations. Today's picture is of the Superstar lift. The rumor around town was that it was out of commission with some failure, but this morning it was running normally.

Skye and Killington Peaks
January 29, 2006, 12:30 PM 

In contrast to the brilliant sunshine of the last couple of days, Killington is covered in a solid overcast this morning. Temperatures are very mild, in the mid 30's. From my visit to the mountain, snow surface conditions looked like they were softening up considerably, but they appeared to be holding up well. We are expecting a weather system to move by late tonight. Once again the forecast for the mountains is ambiguous, so we will need to watch and wait to see what develops.

Update 5:30 PM Light snow started to fall at the Inn at 3:30 PM. At 5:30 PM, it is still snowing with the temperature holding at 32 degrees. Based upon the weather forecast, we expect it to continue snowing off and on all night. It is not supposed to amount to much from an accumulation standpoint, but the snow this evening will refresh the area for skiing and riding next week.

Needle Eye Triple
January 27, 2006, 10:30 AM 

Another beautiful day in Killington. Skiers and riders were greeted this morning with mild temperatures in the mid 30's combined with 100% sunshine.

I drove up to the mountain this morning around 11:30 AM. From the number of cars in the parking lots, and traffic on the Killington Road, the Resort is probably having it's busiest day of the season thus far.

Last night at the inn, we hosted local Killington Pastel artist Kasia Karazim. Kasia presented a number of her works to a group of about 30 people. Kasia's artwork will be on display in the Great Room of Birch Ridge through Sunday afternoon for viewing by the public.

Pico Peak
from Bitter Sweet
January 27, 2006, 10:30 AM 

It got fairly cold last night. Temperatures dipped well into the single digits. But this time of year, unless there is a snow storm moving in, a temperature dip at night usually means lots of sun the next day. And today was a perfect example.

The mountain this morning was set up flat and fast. The dampness that was in the base from last weeks precipitation has finally solidified. No ice was visible this morning, because of all of the snow that we have had this week, but you could tell that the base had firmed up. Snow making operations were ongoing on Outer Limits, Wild Fire, Dream Maker, Lower Bitter Sweet, and Low Road.

For this first time in a while, I can say that there was a significant number of people out on the slopes. I spoke with a number of locals who just could not pass up such a perfect day. I also talked to a lot of weekenders who played hooky to take advantage of the conditions.

I did get bumped by a snow boarder on lower Bear Claw. Went over my left ski (of course... could not be my good leg) and spun me around. The good news is my binding released. Of course, the torque on my left ankle during this process left me quite speechless with pain, as the boarder continued to rip down the trail oblivious to the collision. After the collision, I did another half dozen runs. Got a good bruise mid calf, above the top of my boot, on my left leg, but so it goes.

Today's picture was a real tossup. For the first time all week, I had pictures with multiple skiers and riders in each frame. But, the skiing pictures do not tell the story of today. The real story was beautiful, sunny, crisp blue skies that provided unlimited visibility. From Bitter Sweet, it looked like you could reach out and touch the top of Pico... hence today's picture.