Killington cloud forming. A local weather phenomenon. 

Cool dry air overspread the area overnight, resulting in a mostly clear, deep blue, sky. Temperatures at 9:00 when I started skiing were in the single digits (5). By mid day, temps approached 20.

As the resort was working on the K1 parking lot, I put my car in the Vale parking lot and started my day from the Rams Head lift. Caper, back to the Snowdon Quad was beautifully soft. I was able to do long GS turns all the way to Snowdon, as I was basically the only person on the trail at the time.

From Snowdon, I traversed over to East Falls. East Falls was groomed flat. It was coated with a light fluff which made it much easier to ski than its black diamond status would indicate. From East Falls, I made my way to the K1 Gondola for a traverse across the back of the resort to Bear Mountain.

Normally when I traverse to Bear I take "Bear Trax" (formerly know as "Great Eastern") all the way. Today I decided to take "Pipe Dream", under the South Ridge Triple, to Bear Trax. Oops... it was a nasty mess of wind blown hard pack, exposed rock, and trampled brush. The good news is that the edges on my skis are pretty sharp, so turning on the stuff was possible. But overall, it was not a pleasant "milk run" across the back side of the resort.

I was rewarded when I got to Bear Mountain. I started on Wild Fire. Upper Wild Fire was nicely groomed on skiers right, with firm bumps down skiers left. Lower Wild Fire was covered with soft groomed snow. Overall, Wild Fire quickly made up for the mess on "Pipe Dream".

Next up was Bear Claw to Lower Sky Burst. The groom on Bear Claw covered the slope with little marbles. The condition persisted through the Viper Pit until Lower Sky Burst, which seemed to have had a little snow making to cover the surface. Lower Sky Burst features a series of snow making whales down the middle of the trail. The whales made for a lot of fun as one skied up and down the sides of the mounds.

Outer Limits was next up. It had been groomed earlier in the week. The cold temperatures had basically kept it flat. Skier traffic created a loose granular surface which set up nicely for carving turns.

After Outer Limits, I went up the Sky Peak Quad for a run down Dream Maker. Upper Dream Maker was covered with a soft velvet coating of man made snow. I don't think that the resort blew snow there. It probably landed there, carried by the wind from some other trail. That being said, Upper Dream Maker was almost as good as it gets. (Give me a foot and it would be the best... a couple of inches and it will only rate a good!). Middle Dream Maker with the free style features was will covered. Lower Dream Maker, on the way to the Super Pipe, also was covered with newly made snow. This was probably intentional, given the traffic this slope gets to get to the top of the pipe. Whatever the reason, however, it was very nice.

Leaving Bear Mountain, I did the Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet trio. All were good. Needles Eye, and Panic Button in particular, was probably the best of the bunch, as the groom resulted in a smoother surface.

I finished with a run down Super Star. It was in much better shape than the last couple of weeks. The resort has worked over the wind blown hardpack that made the trail a down hill skating rink last week. They have also made a lot of new snow, pretty much covering the trail with a new surface from side to side.

Todays picture comes from my ride up the Super Star quad. You have to remember that during my morning on the mountain, there were basically no clouds in the sky. Yet as I was riding the Super Star quad, I was witnessing the creation of the Infamous K Cloud on Killington Peak. There was obviously a wind from the west hitting the back side of the peak. The wind was compressing the air column as it ran into the mountain, resulting in clouds forming over the peak. The clouds would drift several hundred feet from the peak and disappear. It was like the peak was sending out smoke signals to the other mountains in the Green Mountain chain. But then, of course, I am easily entertained.......Let it snow!

Killington Wine Festival 

The last couple of days, neither Mary or I have had a chance to get out on the mountain. From listening to our guests, it does not sound like much has changed as temperatures have been in the cold side. Hopefully tomorrow we will have a chance to get out for a few turns.

The good news is that it is not the cold that is keeping us away, it's the work. In the last few days, I have started to turn my attention towards business in the summer. Planning activities for the Killington Wine Festival, which I project manage for the Killington Chamber of Commerce, has started in earnest. This years festival will be held from Friday July 17th through Sunday July 19th if you want to save the dates. Over the next few months you will be hearing more about the Wine Festival as it comes together.

I have also attended a few meetings for the Killington Classic Motorcycle Touring Rally. This years rally is schedule to take place from September 10 through September 13th. It is being coordinated through the Town of Killington's newly formed department of Economic Development and Tourism. You will hear more about the Killington Classic later this spring.

All of these activities will help attract people to Killington and our inn over the summer months, and that of course is a good thing. Thank God, however, that neither of the last 2 days were powder days..so it goes!......Let it snow!

Mary underneath the Sky Burst Quad on her way to Dream Maker 

Killington was blessed with slightly warmer than normal temperatures over the last few days. Temperatures on Sunday and Monday just kissed the freezing point. With a storm moving out to see south of us, cold air was drawn back into the region, returning Killington to the low 20's for most of today.

I did not have the opportunity to ski on Monday, as several business meetings took precedence. Mary reported that the mountain was covered with beautifully soft snow; the result of last weeks storm combined with warm temperatures.

I did have a chance to take a few runs today. Colder temperatures saw surfaces firm up considerably. Yesterdays thaw, combined with last nights freeze, took most of the softness out of the snow. It was quite enjoyable and edge-able, but last weeks fresh soft snow morphed into something with a styrofoam like quality. (as long as you did not tumble...then you might think it was more brick like)

We started our abbreviated day around 10:30 on the K1 Gondola. No line...just walked on. As we were in the box, we noticed Cascade looked nicely groomed. So we decided that would be a good "warm up" run. I enjoyed it, finding plenty of soft fluff down skiers right. Mary stayed more to the center of the trail where she ran into firm conditions. I would have done it over, Mary wanted to move on, so off we headed towards Bear Mountain.

Bear Claw to lower Sky Burst were groomed flat and fast. The surface on Bear Claw was relatively pliable. Lower Sky Burst had a ball bearing quality to it, but as long as you paid attention the surface was very consistent.

Upper Stash was firmer than I expected. The thaw/freeze cycle must have been more pronounced there, as it is south facing. The rest of the Stash was similar to Bear Claw. I did some of the smaller features on skiers right, and found them quite enjoyable. Mary went down skiers left and ran into a few slick spots, probably created by skiers/riders going through the Stash avoiding the features.

Snow making took place last night on Upper Sky Burst. Soft snow piles on the trail was a definite change of pace from the firm surfaces we had previously skied. I found the little bumps fun. From there we took our final runs of the day down Cruise Control and Bitter Sweet. Both were in nice shape, although the flat light and small surface irregularities did result in several periods of unintended air.

We did not spend a lot of time on the slopes today, but what time we did was a great outdoor work out on a cool winters day.......Let it snow!

Red looks like the color. 

Yesterdays wind blown, with the help of a grooming machine, turned into today's packed powder. And it was marvelous!

With the exception of Superstar, soft snow was all we found on our trip around the Killington resort this morning. Mary and I joined six of our friends for our morning runs. All were long time Killington skiers, so we were able to get on the hill and ski!

The day was punctuated by overcast skies and constantly falling snow. Surfaces started the morning as soft groomed corduroy. After a little skier traffic, the surfaces quickly developed small powder bumps. There were great to ski in...would have been even better with a little sunshine....but so it goes.

Once again the Killington Peak was encased in a thick cloud, so we spent most of our day over a Bear Mountain. With the exception of upper Wildfire and Outer Limits (and probably Devils Fiddle), everything at Bear was groomed out flat. The first run, across the peak and down Bear Claw, was filled with big, sweeping turns on the freshly groomed trails. As the day wore on, turns became tighter as the snow started to bunch up. But it was all soft and glorious!

The only run that was really sketchy was Superstar. When we arrived at the mountain, we were greeted with a very odd sight. A lone Snow Cat was grooming Superstar. Not a really unusual sight, except the resort also had every snow gun available blasting the slope at the same time. We did not get the connection until we skied it about 2 hours later. It seems that the lower headwall of Superstar got scoured and polished clean by the wind. The snow cat was trying to break up the crust so that the snow made by the guns would have something to bond with. Upper Superstar, in the guns, was velvety smooth. But Lower Superstar was ugly. Needless to say with all the soft snow around the resort, Superstar was not a do over today.

One thing is certain from our morning on the slopes...The base depths of snow at the resort will make this a great weekend to ski or ride Killington........let it snow!

Dean at entrance to Summit Glades at Pico 

Just like unrequited love, today was an unrequited powder day at the Killington Resort.

Yesterdays snow storm ended with howling winds overnight. To prevent the snow from blowing away, the Killington Resort had their groomers out all night stabilizing the surfaces. Today, Mary and I split. I went to Pico to ski with some friends, Mary headed to Killington for a girls day out. We found remarkably similar conditions at both.

At both Pico and Killington, virtually every primary trail was groomed. Even with grooming, surface depths were impressive, and the trails were quite soft. Where grooming operations happened early, wind blown packed powder slabs developed. Some of the wind created cornices were feet high, leaving an interesting impression on you mind when you skied over them. In other places, the wind had scoured away the powder, revealing the hard packed base.

At Pico, gladed runs like Birch Glade and Summer Glades were covered with about a foot of firm wind blown. There were no face shots today, unless you were bitten by the proverbial snow snakes hiding amongst the slabs of snow. Open runs like 49er and Lower Pike were covered with several inches of wind blown. While it was nice to carve turns on, it was not the powder day everyone was anticipating when the storm first arrived in the region Wednesday morning.

But, even though it was not a powder day, the new snow will add hugely to base depths across the resort, leaving both Pico and Killington in perfect shape for February ski vacations........let it snow!

Heavy snow falling around the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington VT 

Heavy snow is forecasted to fall across the Killington Region all day today and well into the night.

At 11:00 AM, heavy snow was falling around the Birch Ridge Inn. The temperature was 14 degrees. Snow consistency is powder, given the cold temperatures. The leading edge of the storm dusted the area beginning around 5:30 AM. Heavy snow began falling between 7 and 8 AM.

The snow stake at the inn at 11:00 AM is reporting 17 1/4 inches, up just under 2 inches since yesterdays report. Most of this snow has fallen since 8:00 AM this morning.

The National Weather Service is predicting that the pace of the snow fall will pick up as the afternoon approaches. Total snow fall accumulations for the storm in Rutland County is predicted between 8 and 16 inches with larger amounts in higher elevations. (read Killington)

It will be a Powder Day on Thursday, if you can make it to the mountains.......let it snow!

--------- 2 PM Update! -----------
The snow stake measurement at 2:00 PM is 19 3/8 inches. Total snow fall accumulation since the storm started is ~ 4 inches. Total accumulation the last 3 hours is just greater than 2 inches. It is going to be a very snowy afternoon in Killington... Let it snow!
--------- End 2 PM Update! -----------

High Line - Groomed flat and fast. 

If you could find a fault with today at Killington, you should have your attitude adjusted. It was just a beautiful blue bird day on the mountain. By 10:00 AM, temperatures were in the middle teens, the sun was shining brightly, there was very little wind, and the mountain was groomed to perfection. Just a nice day to ski!

Everywhere we went today, with the exception of some standing bump runs, was groomed flat awaiting the forecasted snow storm due to hit the area early Wednesday morning. Today was a day to cruise in the sunshine. True you should have been wearing a neck gator to keep your face warm, but this is January in Vermont after all.

There is little point in explaining run by run today, as they were all in great shape. There are so many candidates for run of the day. If I were to go with unadulterated cruising, Bittersweet would be high on the list. If I wanted to add a little technical component, Dream Maker from top to bottom deserves consideration, as well as the right side of Superstar.

There were a several minor spots where you needed to pay some attention. The snow making whales on the bottom of Sky Burst are getting ground up into ball bearings ranging from pea sized to golf balls. The bumps on skiers right on Needles Eye were a little unorganized with some slick troughs. Lower Sky Lark had some mammoth bumps left over from weekend snow making. These just added to the challenge of cruising in the sunshine; throwing in a little spice to keep things interesting.

And dare we think Powder Day for Wednesday or Thursday......let it snow!