Forest behind the Birch Ridge Inn getting covered with snow. 

Winter is making a valiant attempt to hang around at Killington these last few days. Continuous light, wet, snow flurries have blanketed the area over the last 36 hours.

Warm surfaces, such as roads and building roofs are quickly melting any accumulation. Grassy surfaces are accumulating a light coating of snow, especially at higher elevations. Snow covered surfaces are being freshened nicely with the new snow fall. Inn guests riding at the Killington Resort have reported that snow is starting to build up on many of the trails, with conditions still soft from the warm wet weather of the last few days.

This storm is, of course, just an echo of winter. While serious accumulation is not expected, it will nicely refresh ski trails for people to enjoy as the week progresses... Let it snow!

Skye and Killington Peaks covered in clouds from the 2nd Green on the Killington Golf Course. 

Springtime in New England. Mary and I were just getting to appreciate the light brown lawn trying to turn green around the inn when late yesterday afternoon...wham...here comes the snow. Around the inn, a couple of inches of wet snow fell, covering the back yard with a bright white blanket to soak up the morning sun. By late morning, the combination of sunshine and wet ground underneath had melted most of it away, revealing a mottled lawn with bits of snow cover, interspersed with brown and green grass.

The inn is at just under 1900 feet. Higher elevations saw significantly more snow fall. At our chef's house in Mendon, at around 2400 feet, he reported about 6 inches of new snow on the ground. The Killington Resort reported 7 inches of new snow at Killington Peak. A nice bit of white to cap of a strangely quiet weekend at the resort.

Friday there were a string of announcements in the ski industry in New England. Killington announced that they would continue to operate beyond their April 19th planned closing date. The new closing date planned for the end of the 2008/2009 ski season at Killington is May 2nd, "weather permitting" of course.

South of Killington, Mount Snow announced that they will be suspending operations this week. Currently they plan on re-opening Easter Weekend (next weekend) to close out their ski season. Okemo in Ludlow will be running all week, but they also plan on ending their season next weekend.

To the north, Mad River of the "Ski it if you Can" mantra is done for the year. They closed up shop today due to a combination of poor snowfall during March combined with the warm temperatures and wet conditions of the last couple of weeks. At Sugarbush, Mt Ellen is also closed. Lincoln peak is still operating, and plans to continue as long as snow conditions allow.

With Killington now announced that they will stay open until May, it will be interesting to see which is the last resort open between Killington and Sugarbush.

Around town, it was pretty quiet this weekend, which is strange considering this was Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge weekend. The BMMC has been a signature spring event at Killington for 28 year. I am sure that there will be plenty of head scratching taking place trying to understand what happened to the 29th edition of "The biggest party in the east centered around a full day of mogul skiing" to lift a quote directly from the resorts website. Historically, thousands of people have mingled at the BMMC festivities over the years (Search google...you will find plenty of videos and pictures of past events). This is of course the second year that Killington Pico Ski Resort Partners (KSRP a partnership between Powdr of Park City Utah and SP Land 2 of Killington Vermont) have run the event. I spoke with some of this years contestants, who were excited to participate. But there was also some disappointment that only a handful of people turned out to watch the event.

It is simplistic to say that the changes to the event that KSRP has made have caused the decline in audience participation. After all, KSRP made significant investments into skiing and riding at Bear Mountain this year with the construction of the new Skye Peak Express Quad and the Burton Stash. Overall through out the ski season, Bear Mountain has been the place to ski this year at the Killington Resort. That being said, the party still died.

The changing demographics of snow sports, combined with todays economy and very poor weather for skiing the last couple of weeks, clearly would have an impact on event attendance no matter who were running the this years Mogul Challenge. But it is also clear from this years event, that for the Mogul Challenge to survive another 29 years it needs to be seriously retooled to generate some excitement in the North East skiing and riding community. And that is something that KSRP will need to address, if it wants to take the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge into the future.

In the mean time, with the announced closing date of the resort May 2nd, there is still plenty of time to come to Killington to take the last turns of the ski season. So... Let it snow!

Top of Outer Limits looking towards the Super Pipe 

The last couple of days, Mary has been getting out to enjoy spring conditions on the mountain. During the evening, temperatures at Killington have been just touching the freezing mark. By mid morning, temperatures have been climbing into the 40's with snow surfaces nicely softening up.

While out on the hill, Mary has ventured over to Bear Mountain early each day for a few runs. Outer Limits has held up nicely, in preparation for this weekends Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge. The seeded bumps course is in place for this annual rite of spring, although Mary has not ventured into it to try it out. The lower sections of Sky Burst and Wildfire are showing signs of erosion, but they should hold up through out the weekend to support the BMMC festivities.

Mary has been spending much of her ski time in the Canyons and at Snowdon. She was particularly raving about Chute yesterday. Being sheltered, its surface was staying a little firmer with minimal snow cover erosion as yet.

While Mary has been out on the hill, I have begun my physical therapy routine for my left shoulder. Vermont Sports Medicine has a physical therapy office in the medical center at the bottom or Rams head. I will be visiting there a couple of times a week for the next few weeks to strengthen my shoulder. If it works out well, I may be able to avoid surgery later this spring. If not....so it goes.

To occupy my time at the inn prior to listening to Mary raving about skiing, I have been studiously preparing the tax package to give to our accountant to prepare this years tax returns. Each year I am amazed at the amount of paperwork our little business generates, and the amount of time spent on preparing it all. It is not necessarily a bad process, because it does cause you to look at "the numbers" in a relatively organized fashion. But I have this nagging feeling that there must be a better way to do this (and I am not talking about preparing tax forms, but collecting taxes in general) which would have a smaller drain on productivity. But rant I shall not...

On a positive note, I did find my golf clubs the other day. I am not sure if I will be using them this summer, but I needed to get out my 9 iron as a motivational tool. As part of my physical therapy, the therapist had me using a ski pole in a variety of positions during the exercise routine she prescribed. It is a perfectly logical thing to do in a therapists office at the base of a ski resort. If we were in October, and the season was about to begin, a ski pole would be the perfect motivating tool. But we've just entered Spring. Golf courses in the area are starting to rise up out of the snow pack (or is it the snow pack receding to reveal tees and greens?). So using a 9 iron instead of a ski pole as a physical therapy aid just seems like the right thing to do... Let it snow (I think)

The mountains of Killington under a beautiful sunny sky
on Saturday March 28, 2009 

The first full spring weekend of 2009 is coming to a dreary close after starting in spectacular fashion. While today is damp, skiers and riders who played hooky on Friday are returning home after 2 great days in the mountains.

Friday was a picture perfect spring skiing day. 100% sunshine. Early morning cold temperatures gave way to mid day temperatures approaching 50 degrees. I ventured out on the mountain with some friends around 10:00 AM. Over a 2 hour period, we did multiple loops through the Canyons and Skye Peak/Needles Eye. Just a beautiful time to be out playing in the snow.

While I did not get out on the slopes on Saturday, inn guests were reporting similar conditions to Friday with beautiful sunshine and soft snow surfaces. Those who made the trek to the mountains were rewarded for their efforts.

Unfortunately, today has seen some wet weather descend upon the area. Snow surfaces, damp from the warm weather of the last few days, are continuing to melt under the influence of spring showers and a light drizzle.

The ski season at Killington has a few more weeks to go. The resort is scheduled to operate through April 19th, conditions permitting.

The inn will stay open for lodging through out April, although we will be closing our restaurant in mid month to conduct our usual spring refurbishment. As it stands, our last night of dinner service for the general public for the 2008-2009 season is planned for Saturday April 11. We will reopen the restaurant, after spring hiatus, on Friday June 26.

We have several private functions scheduled at the inn during the hiatus period. If you have a group coming to Killington during the spring time, we would be happy to work with you to host your event at the inn......let it snow!

East Falls illuminated by brilliant sunshine 

Today was probably one of the top 5 ski days of the season. Full sunshine, temperatures starting in the 20's rising to the low 40's and loads of beautiful snow. While not being a powder day, it would be hard to ask for better.

Mary and I got on the slopes at the crack of 10 today. Temperatures overnight got very cold, so we wanted ski surfaces to warm up a bit. I dressed in a shell leaving the inn, but after putting my boots on in the Bay 1 parking lot, I thought better of it and put on my normal winter jacket for todays outing.

After a sun soaked ride up the Snowdon Quad, we started our ski day by doing the trilogy in the Canyons. East Falls, with its eastern exposure, was medium soft. Shaded surfaces were firm. Sunny surfaces were creamy but not wet. Double Dipper and Cascade were covered very nicely with machine groomed packed powder. Their more northern exposure kept them out of the early morning sunshine, keeping surfaces a little firmer underneath.

By 11:00 we headed over to Bear Mountain. The Stash, as usual, was groomed perfectly. All of the upper trails were still machine groomed snow cover. Lower Wildfire was starting to turn into ice cream. Its southern exposure was taking a beating in the sun. Lower Sky Burst was a little firmer, as there is some shade on the trail. Also, there is a lot more snow on lower Sky Burst left over from last weeks Slopestyle competition.

Upper Dream Maker to Cruise Control was great. Skiers left on Upper Dream Maker was in full sun. It had softened up nicely, but due to the higher elevation the temps still kept the trail relatively firm. Panic Button to Needles Eye were also skiing well.

The only bit of ugliness to report was the upper Superstar Headwall. For some reason, it had been groomed very chunky, with very large "death cookies" every where. But, it was easy to avoid, and overlook, because everything else we skied was in great shape.

Shoulder Update: I visited with my orthopedist yesterday for a reading of my MRI. As it stands, 4 of the 5 layers of tendons connecting my arm to my shoulder are torn (They look like little fiddlehead ferns in the MRI). The doctor said this level of injury is 50-50, maybe 60-40, for surgery, but he wants me to do some physical therapy first before making that call. I start PT next week. We will see what happens... so it goes.....let it snow!

Special cake made for KMS graduate 

Very cold temperatures returned to Killington the last couple of days, mitigating the effects of spring sunshine on the snow. Temperatures today did not pass the freezing mark at the inn, resulting in virtually no snow melt during the day.

I did not ski as my shoulder is still acting up, but our chef went out this morning. At 9:00 AM the temperature at the top of the mountain was around 15 degrees with a 20 MPH "breeze". Steve reported very firm conditions across the mountain. Even Outer Limits, which was groomed flat, was still firm at mid day. And I though we changed seasons from winter to spring!

The last couple of days have been hectic at the inn. In addition to my MRI work on my shoulder ( it did not happen on Thursday... the machine malfunctioned... it happened Sunday morning), and normal busy weekend inn business, we also catered a large private party for a graduating senior from Killington Mountain School. At the behest of the hostess, we commissioned a cake to celebrate the graduates accomplishments in KMS's freestyle program. The cake was made for the Birch Ridge Inn by Patrick Boandl, the chef at the Inn at Long Trail, who also has a cake decorating business on the side. Our chef, Stephen Byrne, worked the concept with Patrick who executed the final product.

Last week leading up to the party, the Inn's kitchen staff did yeoman's duty producing over 400 hors d'oeuvres (crab cakes, lolly pop lamb chops, tuna with wasabi, and bruchettas). At the party, we also served vegetable lasagna, baked brie en croute, and hand carved beef tenderloin "sliders". In addition to the cake, Mary made 100 of the inn's famous cookies to treat guests. (None were available for me to take home after the event. The guests were obviously watching my waistline!)

Local weather forecasts indicate that we have another cold day for Tuesday before spring temperatures arrive later in the week. Snow surfaces should loosen up, but as temps are forecasted to be below freezing all week at night, they should stay in good shape if your are planning on visiting Killington.....let it snow!

Left shoulder go boom 

Constant blog readers and guests to our inn are probably aware that I injured my left shoulder on the mad powder day just before Christmas. I was seen by a doctor at the clinic at the base of Rams Head at the time. We agreed that the best course of action would be to attempt to let the shoulder recover, and if it were still bothering me in mid February to begin the process to "repair" the injury...what ever that means.

Well February came and went. The shoulder did not get better (in fact it's probably gotten a little worse). The good doctors at Vermont Orthopedic gave me a preliminary diagnosis of a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder and a ticket, after being approved by my insurance company, to subject myself to the 21st century version of "The Rack", better know as an MRI (Magneto Resonant Imaging) machine.

My first attempt at completing an MRI was on Monday evening. Unfortunately, I only made it through about 13 minutes in a 25 minute session. To get "good pictures" my shoulder was contorted by the technician. I have a pretty good pain threshold, I think, but the way my shoulder was twisted just was a little too much to take.

Tonight is MRI part two. Fortified with a prescription for a pain killer (I am doing this because my shoulder is in pain after all), we will try again to peak inside my left shoulder to see what damage has been done.

I have no idea where the course of future treatment will lead. It could be something simple like cortisone shots and physical therapy, to something more interesting like surgery. I do know one thing, however, golf season is coming... I need to get this thing fixed!

The weather the last couple of days at Killington has been damp. Spring showers settled in the area late yesterday afternoon. They finished early this morning by changing to light snow, coating the area with a minor accumulation of fresh white. Ski surfaces are predictably soft. Our chef just came back from his morning turns saying the mountain was in nice shape for spring skiing. With 5 days of sunshine predicted, goggle tans will be the order of the day around town and sunscreen sales are about to soar...... Let it snow!