Got Snow!
Snow Guns on Lower Bunny Buster
February 6, 2006, 11:15 AM 

In comparison to the last week, today is cold and blustery at Killington. Snow squalls are moving through the area and are forecasted to continue most of the week. Surface conditions have significantly firmed up overnight as temperatures dipped into the low 20's. In other words, today can be characterized as "Dust on Crust".

Killington restarted snow making operations last night. This morning, snow guns were visible in operation in the Snowdon area. (I did not have a chance to get to Bear Mountain to see if guns were running there.) Surface conditions should rapidly improve thru the week as Killington continues to blow snow combined with the natural snow fall occurring across the region. Killington's snow makers and grooming fleet have done an outstanding job this year keeping snow surfaces in great shape. It looks like mother nature, and Killington's management team, will be providing them with more snow to work with this week.

Lone Skier on OL Lift
with Skier on Wild Fire Jump
February 5, 2006, 3:15PM 

Our usual walk around the block, a nice 2 mile loop from the inn, usually takes around 30 minutes. Today, it was over 2 hours. It was just one of those unusual days. We ran into many week-enders who were coming off the mountain from this mornings adventure. (more on that later) We ran into locals out walking on a very mild winter day. Some friends had a new puppy which Mary had to meet. Some other friends gave us a house tour of the new home they are building. All in all, it was a a really nice neighbor hood type of walk, the type of which you usually don't get in a resort. A very nice walk indeed.

The people we spoke with who went to the mountain this morning were pleasantly surprised. Even though we have been warm the last couple of days, and had some unpleasant weather for a ski resort, the mountain is staying in good shape for skiing and riding. Conditions this morning were very spring like, with early runs on the firm and crunchy side with later runs softening up.

Temperatures have been falling all day. We expect to be in the high 20's by early evening. The weather forecast is calling for snow showers on and off the next 3 days. Hopefully they are right. But on the mountain it should not matter as temperatures should be ideal for snow making.

Today's picture is from Bear Mountain. I went over to the Bear base lodge around 2:45 this afternoon to take a look around. Outer Limits was set up for a bump competition. The half pipe had a some boarders in it. But, being Super Bowl afternoon, the area was pretty quiet. Hence the lone skier on the Outer Limits Quad.

Killington Peak for Green Side
Hole 2, Killington Resort Golf Course
February 4, 2006, 12:30PM 

Some winters can be long in Killington, some can be quite short. But one thing is certain....The weathermen rarely get it right!.

Today was supposed to start out sunny with NCP (non-crystaline precipitation) moving into the area around noon. We spoke with all our inn guests last night at dinner to tell them to go out early, ski the morning, and if liquid started falling to come back to the inn for a mid-afternoon nap. Well it is currently 2:00 PM while I write this, partly sunny outside, with the nearest precipitation according to the weather radars somewhere over Pennsylvania...still hours away. If skiing were like a soccer game, the announcer would be yelling SCOOOOORE!!!!, because anyone who came to Killington this weekend has gotten a great day to ski.

Saturday is not a ski day for me, but with the beautiful weather I needed to get out. Warm days get me thinking about the other sport I enjoy, so I walked over to the Killington Resort Golf Course. I did not get a lot of exercise, mind you, because the course is basically across the road from the inn. But I did take todays picture, which shows Killington Peak from green-side of Hole 2.

For all the non-winter we are having, the golf course was still quite snow covered. Not knee deep by any stretch of the imagination, but a solid 2 to 4 inches in most places. If you believe the Weather Channel, with any luck, over the next couple of weeks local golf courses will get covered by several feet of snow. Of course, I have no knowledge that this will occur. But, being trained in math and science as an engineer, I know that by just taking simple probability theory, that sooner or later the weatherman have to guess right.

Last night, we received about 1 and 1/2 inches of wet snow as part of a storm system moving through the area. This morning, unfortunately, it has turned liquid. By the time the weather system moves thru in mid afternoon, snow depths will probably wind up being equal to what they were before it started. It has been one of those winters. I would expect weekend skiing to be quite good on soft surfaces, as the temperatures behind this storm are not due to drop much below freezing.

Of course, Superbowl weekend is upon us. It is always hard to guess how busy the mountain will be on this weekend, especially since over the last few years the New England Patriots have been one of the contenders. This weekend, however, where there is no Boston or New York team involved, and the game is in Detroit, it looks like the mountain may be a little busier than normal (if our inn and restaurant reservations are any guide). Now if we could just get a little sunshine like yesterday.

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!