Lone skier poaching a run under
the snow guns on Rime with dog,
Saturday December 2, around Noon. 

Snow making operations resumed today at Killington. Temperatures in the area range from the mid 20's to the low 30's under bright sunny skies.

The remnants of last nights violent storm have started to clear the area. At the inn last night we experienced a very violent (and unusual for December) thunderstorm in the mid evening hours with high winds. The whole area lost power around 1:15 AM. Power was restored at the inn around 3:30 AM. Much of the North Sherburne section of Killington is still without power as I right this at 2:00 PM on Saturday afternoon.

The resort has put out a statement announcing that they will re-open for skiing and riding on limited terrain on Sunday. They also announced plans to expand terrain all week, as forecasted temperatures will allow them to continue to ramp up snowmaking.

Sorry for the black "bunting", but today is a "dark day" in Killington. The Killington Ski Resort was forced to suspend operations because of the high temperatures this week and the heavy r@!n storm being experienced today in the region. The Following message was received from the resort:

"Killington has suspended operations for Friday due to weather conditions and we will re-evaluate based upon snowmaking progress the possibility of resuming operations for Saturday.

Killington's snowmaking crew is ready to fire up the world's most extensive snowmaking system Friday night. We currently have hundreds of snow guns in position, and based upon weather conditions, expect to have snowmaking operations resume Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday resurfacing our open trails.

As far as the weekend goes, Sunday is shaping up to be one of the best days of the season so far after our snowmaking crews attack the mountain with every available gun and our system operating at full power."

The storm here has been quite "entertaining". We have experienced some high winds which, combined with the wet soil, have succeeded in bringing down some trees around the inn. Nothing major from the standpoint of disrupting the inn's operation, but it will require spending Sunday with the chain saw in hand to clean it all up.

In other news, I have been remiss in posting this week because of all of the activity at the inn. Mary has been furiously decorating the Christmas Tree in the Great Room. It will make it's first public appearance tonight. In addition, yesterday we did a TV shoot at the inn for a program to run on the Fox channel in the Boston area starting at Christmas. Fox has been in Killington all week shooting scenes at various locations. I was interviewed as a 'Travel Expert" on country inns. In the process, I got a chance to talk about the Birch Ridge Inn, as well as several other inns in Killington. It is impossible to tell how the piece will look until it is all edited together, but we had a fun afternoon and evening filming at the inn.

Your truly with the prize!
The Christmas Tree for 2006 

The Monday after Thanksgiving holds a special place for Mary and I in Vermont. We refer to it as 'Christmas Tree Monday". Each year, in late October - early November, we trek out into the woods to find a Christmas Tree to take home. On the Monday after Thanksgiving, I gather some friends, and with chain saw in hand, we go back to the marked tree and cut it for that years Christmas Tree. We started the tradition before we owned the inn while living in Massachusetts, and have carried it over each year since we moved to Vermont.

Cutting down the Inn's Christmas Tree for 2006. Billy B - left, Yours truly - right, and Peter doing the honors.

This year, four of us went out into the woods to get this years tree. Now lest you think we are taking wild Vermont trees, the woods actually are located on a retired Christmas Tree farm where the owner still allows us to take trees. Peter from the Forerunner Ski Shop provided the transportation, I navigated, Billy B brought the rope to tie the trees to the truck, and Howie manned the camera to take pictures of the event.

Raising the Inn's Christmas Tree for 2006. From left, Billy B, Yours truly, Peter and Howie. Mary was on the camera.

Standing in the forest, this years tree stood about 16 feet. Trimmed out and standing in the Inn's great room, it measures 13 feet 5 inches. Billy B and Peter both got trees about the same size, with the plan to trim them down to around 10 feet at home. Over the next couple of days, Mary will be decorating the tree, along with the inn, to prepare for the Christmas season. For those of you visiting the Killington area, the tree should be just about finished being decorated by this coming Friday if you want to stop bye and see it.

Part of the festivities associated with Christmas Tree Monday is a nice lunch. This year we visited Sushi Yoshi for some chinese food. While there, we spoke with several locals who had journeyed out to the mountain this morning to ski. From the local reports, the mountain is still holding up reasonably well from the weekend. Warm temperatures had created some very soft surfaces. Some area's had thin cover. The forecast in the area calls for warm temperatures the next couple of days. Towards the end of the week, temperatures should become more seasonable and allow the resort to resume snowmaking.

Skiers and Riders on Lower Bunny Buster 

The 2006/2007 ski season has gotten off with a bang at Killington this Thanksgiving weekend. Killington opened on Thursday morning with top to bottom skiing and riding on 16 trails for over 6 miles of skiing serviced by 7 lifts. While it is a far cry from the amount of terrain that Killington sports mid-winter, as is usually the case for Killington, it is the most terrain open in the north east of any ski resort in North America.

Yesterday, the rumor number around town was that over 7000 skiers and riders made the trek to the slopes. Traffic diversion road blocks were set up around the ski resort to direct traffic to inactive base lodge parking lots and awaiting shuttle busses to bring people to the K1 base lodge. Our inn and restaurant were very busy on Friday...and more importantly, the guests that went skiing or riding reported at the bar last night that they had a good time on the slopes. All in all, a great start to the season. Now if it would only snow!

Cornucopia Treat for Thanksgiving 

Mary and I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving from Killington. Later this afternoon, Mary and I will be blessed to be able to sit down and share a Thanksgiving meal with many of our Killington friends. We hope that you are as fortunate as well. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Killington Ski Resort opened today for skiing and riding for the 2006-2007 winter season.

Skiers and Riders on Mouse Trap at Killington

Skiing and Riding today was serviced from 6 lifts including the K1 Gondola, North Ridge Triple, Snowdon Triple, Bunny Buster Poma and 2 small lifts at the children's learning center at Rams Head. While I did not have a chance to ski today because the inn is busy with Thanksgiving guests, I did speak with several locals who were at the lifts at 8:00 AM. They said that they were very happy with the early morning experience, and that Killington had done a great job blowing snow over all of the surfaces they skied. Hopefully, I will be able to get some better pictures of the action on Friday.

Snow making continuing at Killington 

Killington's snow makers are finishing up their activities today to get the resort ready to open tomorrow morning at 8:00AM. Killington will open for top to bottom skiing. From the looks at the K1 base lodge area, Killington should have at least 3 lifts operating; the K1 Gondola, the Snowdon Quad and the North Ridge Triple. It also looks like they would be able to run the Snowdon Triple (but I am speculating).

For all our friends out there, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow Guns blasting Lower Bunny Buster 

From the looks of the mountain this morning, the snowmaking system at Killington was in high gear last night. Temperatures dropped to the high teens/low twenties over night setting up perfect conditions for blanketing Killington in new snow.

At 8:15 this morning, the temperature at the K1 base lodge was 22. From what I could see, snowmakers over night had completely covered the Great Northern route from Kpeak down to Lower Bunny Buster. I walked up Lower Bunny Buster under the guns this morning. Snow depths were any where from ankle deep to many feet, depending upon ones proximity to a snow gun. Conditions were not yet skiable for the general population, due to the variability of snow cover. However, another day of making snow and some action by the groomers should take care of that in pretty short order to allow Killington to open on Thursday.

Local forecasts would imply that Killington should be able to continuously make snow at higher elevations during the day today. Temperatures are due to dip into the low 20's again tonight allowing another night of all out snow making on Killington.