Birch Ridge Inn covered in something white 

In a trend that started a couple of weeks ago, weird weather is continuing at Killington. Somehow, and it is not the magic of photoshop, snow depths at the inn's snow stake are continuing to grow. But the weird weather of snow, sleet, freezing r@*n and just plain r@*n is continuing.

Yesterdays ski conditions were best summed up by and English guest staying at the inn: "It was like skiing on creme brulee". 5 inches or so of snow on the mountain on Monday evening were followed with freezing r@*n, giving ungroomed surfaces a very crunchy topping over snow with a pudding like consistency. Groomed surfaces were wet but very skiable.

Overnight and into the early morning hours of today, light precipitation alternating between snow and r@*n of various genres has continued. Heavy fog developed in the overnight hours, which reduced the snow pack by about 1/2 inch around the inn, but a substantial natural, albeit wet, base remains. Precipitation is expected to turn to all snow this evening, with the forecast indicating a significant snow fall overnight, as a front passes through the area. The way the weather has been going, we will just have to wait and see.

Let it snow!

Superstar in pristine condition 

After skiing with some interesting weather for a couple of days last week, todays adventure on the mountain was fairly calm. Given the fact that the mountain faced an array of sleet, snow, and freezing r@*n since my last visit, the mountain was in great shape.

It is not often that the run of the day is the very first one. But today, you would have to call Superstar at 9:00AM the run of the day. Perfectly groomed, slightly firm packed powder conditions supported sweeping GS style turns from the top of the headwall all the way down to the lift corral at the bottom. If you can't have 2 feet of fresh powder, this was a pretty good alternative. We looped it a couple of times before boosting off the back towards Bear Mountain.

At Bear, we found pretty much the opposite of Superstar. Bear Claw and Bear Trap were not groomed. They were soft and interesting to ski on, but you needed to pay attention to your turns. Upper Wildfire was passable. Very solid with a few small bumps. Lower Wildfire was dreadful. Extremely hard icy patches interspersed with loose, ball bearing sized granular. Just awful, but the group skis enough so everyone survived.

From the Skye Peak Quad, Upper Skye Burst was in nice shape. Lower Dream Maker was fun as usual. Cruise Control was probably not groomed, but but by the time we got there the surface had been softened up by other traffic. Panic Button, Needles Eye, Skye Lark, High Road were all worthy do overs. Upper Bittersweet was not groomed and looked a lot like Wildfire so we avoided it, but Lower Bittersweet was in pretty good shape.

Off the K1 gondola, Cascade, East Falls and Highline were all in nice shape, as were the trails off the North Ridge Triple. There was an interesting drop off at the K1 Gondola maze. A snow making artifact about 2 feet high greeted people entering the maze about 5 feet from it's entrance. Ski it if you can I guess.

It looks like some weather will again be moving into the area. Pick your precipitation type and you will find it in the forecast. Temperatures look like they are forecasted to be at or below freezing in the Rutland area, so maybe the mountain will see most of the precipitation in a frozen state. We can hope.

Let it snow!

Larry on Cascade with heavy snow falling. 

I honestly don't know how they did it, but Killington's mountain operations team worked some kind of magic overnight on the trails at Killington. Unlike Thursdays tooth loosening rock hard surface, this morning found Killington with soft snow covered surfaces. Since we did not have any natural snow fall overnight, it can only be attributed to the work of the night team at Killington using all of the tools at their disposal. Way to go!. (Note from Bill: I try to be very balanced about life at Killington and conditions at the resort. I was truly shocked by the difference in snow surface condition from yesterday to today. The change was that substantial, and for the better!)

We spent most of our time between Bear Mountain and Needles Eye. Bear Trap/Bear Claw and Wildfire were all groomed soft with evidence of newly blown snow in high traffic areas. Dream Maker was still firm, but a lot of the bone shaking corduroy had been worked a second time into a softer surface. The Half Pipe at the base of Dream Maker looked interesting. The vertical sides were highly polished ice. Perhaps great riders would cherish the surface, but very few people were dropping into the pipe that we could see on our trips through Bear.

Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark, and Superstar were all in great shape. A little ice was showing on Panic Button, and the Upper Superstar headwall looked a little polished. But generally conditions were very good. New Snow was blown overnight near the merge of traffic from the Skyeship Stage 2 and Skye Lark.

The real story of the day started near 11:00AM. We took the K1 box to the peak. While in the box, it started to snow heavy. The temperature at the peak was 16F. I am not sure what the wind speed was, but snow boarders were getting knocked down by the wind when they made the turn onto Great Northern. We took a run down Cascade. Even in the short time since it had started snowing, there was rapid snow buildup on the trails because of the snowfall intensity. There was easily what seemed like an inch of new snow, on top of a well groomed surface. Other than the wind, it was a pretty nice ride.

The K1 was slow to load on the next trip, probably due to wind among other things. By the time we got back to the peak, it was about 11:40. The wind was howling. Near white out conditions. The temperature had dropped to 13F. Truly a life threatening blizzard was in progress at the peak. We decided to cruise through to North Ridge and down East Falls and outta there! By now both Rime and East Fall seemed coated with 2 to 3 inches of new snow. Really nice rides. When we got to the bottom, we called it quits because the weather was getting very rough. As we were leaving the K1 Base lodge, the resort was pulling the K1 gondola cars off the cable into there storage facility, closing the lift for the rest of the day. From what I saw at the top of the mountain, I can totally understand. The storm came in very fast, and with a very high intensity.

As I write this now at my desk at the inn at 3:45 PM, a very heavy snow/ice pellet combination is falling. Temperatures are in the mid 20's although the upper atmosphere must be over the freezing mark to create the ice pellets. With any luck we will stay this way and not progress over to freezing r@*n, but we won't know that one until we wake up tomorrow morning. If you are driving this evening to Killington, take your time and be careful.

Let it snow!

Flat and Fast is the order of the day.
Junction of East Fall and Rime just above North Ridge loading area. 

"eeeeaaaayyyyeeee thththththiiiiiiinkknknnknk mmmmmmmmmmymyyyyyyyyy ffffififififiiiiililllllliiininnnnnggggs aaaarrrrrreeee cococococoooommmmmmiiininnnnngggg lllllllooooooooossssssssssssssssssee" I was thinking as I roared through the North Ridge (AKA the Glades) this morning.

The mountain made a miraculous recovery from the wacky weather we had yesterday. Groomers were out most of the night mixing in the 2 to 3 inches of snow that fell on top of the ice coated r@*n soaked surface left by yesterdays storm. I skied by myself this morning, doing my usual loop. It felt a little like training for a GS or Super G event, as conditions were very fast over a very solid, but well groomed surface.

A couple of things stood out this morning. First, I do not know how the resorts grooming team did it, but I did not run into any "blue ice" anywhere. Don't get me wrong, east coast packed powder is ice to people who ski out west, but while firm, everything I crossed today was white and very receptive to taking an edge from my skis.

The other interesting thing was that there was actually a lot of good snow if you paid attention. With the winds we had yesterday, if you stayed close to the windward side of the trail under the trees, there was plenty of soft snow to be had. Not waist deep... Not powder shots... But nice soft snow worthy of a few turns (and a pleasant break from the chattering GS speed runs presented by the middle of the trails).

Let it snow!

Killington Peak just before the storm 

It has been a wild week at Killington and it is only Wednesday.

Yesterday was a ski day for me. I met the normal group up on the mountain at 9:00 AM and skied right thru until the r@*ns came at noon. Conditions on Tuesday were pretty good, although predominately flat and fast. Of course, since Tuesday noon time, everything has changed so no need for further details on Tuesdays outing.

Yesterday afternoon, last night, and for most of this morning, Killington experienced a r@*n/ice storm. Not quite of the proportions of the storm we had a few weeks ago, but in general, surfaces around the inn were covered with 1/4 to 1/2 inches of ice. When I took the snow stake reading this morning, it was down to 8 inches, a drop of 1 3/4 inches from yesterday morning.

But then at noon time today, everything changed. The temperature dropped 10 degrees of so, and it started to snow...hard! Local roads instantly froze. (I have had to drive 2 cars up Butler Road for guests in the last hour) I went back out and re-took the snow stake picture around 2:00 PM. The reading stood at 10 inches. A full 2 inches of snow had fallen in about an hour or so. Of course the new snow is hiding the slush/ice from the prior 24 hours of r@*n. But hey, it's snow. We will take it. The mountain can groom it. Ski surfaces will survive again!

A few quick comments on the Killington Community Meeting on Monday Evening. First... what a turnout. Close to 300 people were in attendance. In a town with only about 900 adult residents, the fact that a third of the community turned out for a meeting about the towns future was quite impressive. Paul Costello, of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, led the assembled group in a brainstorming session to identify things that the Killington Community could do to improve the local economy. This meeting was a data collection process, with no results formulated. There will be a follow on meeting of February 26th where all of the ideas collected at Mondays meeting will be presented for towns people to prioritize. It will be an interesting process to participate in and follow.

Let it snow!

If you are a Killington resident, property owner, or a member of the business community at Killington, and you care about the future of the Killington community, you should attend the Killington Community Meeting tonight at the Sherburne Elementary School. The meeting will be moderated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development. This is an opportunity for you to get involved and have a say about the future of Killington.

The meeting is scheduled as follows:

Community Visioning 5:00 pm
Free Community Dinner 6:00 pm
3 Focus Forums 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Sharing Ideas 8:30 - 9:00 pm

Forum Topics
1. Town of Killington Community Life
2. Building Killington's Four Season Economy and Sustainable Tourism
3. Designing and Building Killington's Infrastructure for the Future

All of the events will take place at the elementary school. Participants may attend part or all of the evening's events. Everyone is welcome.

Additional information about the meeting, and the Vermont Council on Rural Development can be found by contacting VCRD at (802) 223-6091, by email to vcrd2@sover.net, or visit www.vtrural.org.

Please get involved and attend this important meeting.

Let it snow!

Mary, with friends Jane and Chuck, at the base of Panic Button on Needles Eye. 

It was a little cold and breezy, but the snow conditions made today a nice day to be out on the mountain.

Today, because of time constraints with the weekend approaching,(it's that work thing you know) we did an abbreviated loop of the mountain. We parked beside Vale, skied down to Rams Head, and began our trip across the mountains of Killington. In quick succession we did Caper to the K1 Gondola. From there it was Blue Heaven to Great Eastern to Bear Trap. Looping from the Bear Chair on Outer Limits, we did another Bear Trap/Bear Claw combination followed by Wildfire. We then did a traverse on Great Eastern to Cruise Control followed by loops off the Needles Eye Quad onto Needles Eye and Bittersweet. We finished with a run down Bittersweet, cutting across the front of the K1 base lodge, before heading back to the car. All told, about an hour and twenty minutes on the mountain. Not bad for a work day!

Overnight, the resort dispatched it's grooming fleet to manicure the slopes for the weekend. In addition, is several spots, particularly on Wildfire, Bear Trap, and Bear Claw, new snow making whales had appeared; the result of overnight snow making.

The Killington side of the mountain had a stiff upslope breeze, probably caused by warm air on the valley floor rising to meet cold arctic air on the top of the mountain. Surfaces facing the breeze were suffering some wind scouring, revealing the icy base that lies below the powder we have received during the week. This was most noticeable on Bittersweet from todays runs, but I am sure you would find similar conditions where steep pitches are exposed to the wind. So it goes.

With that one exception, surface conditions were very good. The mountain should hold up quite well to weekend traffic. It should be a nice weekend to ski and ride Killington. Let it snow!