Trees on Skye Peak embraced by snow. 

Give the people what they want and they will respond, to paraphrase P.T. Barnum.

A nice coating of snow on the mountains has brought the people out to enjoy the early winter at Killington. With 24 trails opened, and more scheduled as snow making permits, Killington is boasting the most open ski terrain on the East Coast this weekend, and the activity around town supports that claim.

Overnight, we continued to have a light dusting of accumulating snow. While the snow stake has actually receded a little due to settling, the area is blanketed in a nice white coat. Guests in the area are all telling us that they are very happy between the mix of skiing, shopping, and other pre-holiday activities happening in the area. In addition to skiing and riding at Killington, guests are attending the Vermont Holiday Festival at the Killington Grand Hotel, and Wassail Weekend in neighboring Woodstock Vermont.

Mary - First day out of the 2006/2007 season 

Lot's to talk about today....We are skiing! We got Snow! We are Ready!

First the details...Last night Killington experienced a reasonable snow storm, dropping about 3 inches of snow around the inn. The mountain probably received more, but with all of the snow guns going it was hard to separate real versus man made. We had been talking yesterday about going skiing today, but there was still the possibility that we would take a pass. For those of you who remember your physics, one of Newton's laws of motion states that a body at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. Well 3 inches of light fluffy snow outside the inn was just enough of a force to cause us to gather up all of our equipment and head to the mountain.

We arrived fashionably late for us, getting to the hill around 9:30. The parking lots were packed. People from all over responded to last nights storm and decided today was the day. After taking a boost from the K1 gondola, we did laps up on Rime. The snow was a collection of really nice, soft little bumps. The kind of set up that March legs would relish, but December, first time out, legs got a work out. It was very cool up on the mountain, probably high single digits, with a combination of the Killington Cloud and snow guns causing the sun to play hide and seek.

Top of Skyelark Guns going at entrance to Bittersweet

After fooling around at the North Ridge area (formerly the Glades), while Mary went in to take off her boots, I took off to try Skye Lark and Bittersweet. I took the Superstar quad up. Superstar looks like they could get it open with about 24 hours of snow making, but I am sure there are other priorities. The resort was blowing snow on the Superstar Headwall near the lift terminal. When I got off of the lift, a severe case of vertigo set in. The Wind was whipping up slope, causing a large portion of the snow output from the snow guns on the headwall to fall just to the left of the lift terminal. I doubt I could see my ski's, it was sooooo thick. I saw several people push off to the right towards the Skye Peak gondola station. I kept telling myself to go left, and eventually I found my way to the top of Skye Lark. But it was a pretty hairy couple of minutes.

Skye Lark had guns going from just below the top all the way to the bottom. The snow being produced was fairly light and dry, so there were no problems with it sticking to equipment, but the new high efficiency guns put out so much snow that again there was no visibility. I skied down to Lower Bittersweet. There were still a few guns running there, but most had been turned off.

"Toyland" The Birch Ridge Inn Christmas Tree at the Vermont Holiday Festival

Bittersweet had not been groomed, so there were huge snow whales where ever the snow guns dropped their snow. My December legs were warmed up enough by this point that I enjoyed skiing up and down the whales. I would bet, however, that Killington will have lower Bittersweet groomed out tomorrow to help manage skier traffic. Even though the mountain was busy, because of the snow guns, there were only a few people in the Superstar area.

All in all, it was a very nice first day out skiing for the season. Now if work does not get in the way.......

One final note, last night we went to the Killington Grand to take in the Vermont Holiday Festival. Over 100 trees are beautifully decorated and on display for the general public. If you are in Killington this weekend, you should go to the Grand and vote for your favorite tree.

VT Holiday Festival ablaze in Christmas Lights 

It is a little warmer today at Killington. Temperatures at the inn are in the high 30's. The couple of inches of snow around the inn are melting, even though there is still a light snow flurry coming down from the sky. Snowmaking at the mountain has slowed down for the day with the warmer temperatures. But it is sure to resume this evening when temps get below freezing. The weather service is predicting temps below freezing for the next week, with light snow in the forecast for tonight. We can hope.

Mary and I have been threatening each other with going out on the mountain to ski. With preparation for the holidays, we have not been able to get out yet. Our ski's have been in the shop being tuned for the last 3 weeks (Our fault. we neglected to pick them up..) But, assuming the weather is nice tomorrow, it looks like Friday may be the day.

Just a tease...
The top of the Christmas Tree
at the Birch Ridge Inn 

The Third Annual Vermont Holiday Festival is set to kick off in Killington this weekend. Over 100 Christmas trees, decorated by local businesses and residents, will be on display at the Killington Grand Hotel. The trees may be viewed at the Killington Grand from Thursday December 7 through Saturday December 9th. Trees may be viewed Thursday and Friday evenings from 5 to 9 PM, and Saturday from 12 Noon until 9 PM. In addition to the trees, the festival also features a Santa's workshop for the kids, and Sleigh Rides. Historically, this has been a great family event. Mary was up at the Grand this morning decorating our tree for the festival. Based upon the number of trees being decorated, it should be a nice event to put you in the holiday spirit at Killington this weekend.

Blowing snow covering Killington! 

Hopefully there is a trend going!

For the second day in a row, light snow has been falling at Killington. Slowly but surely the ground in the region is taking on a white coat as the snow accumulates. We have not had much, about an inch or 2, but it has lifted the spirits of residents and visitors to the area greatly.

On the mountain, the resort is continuing to blow snow down the Great Northern route to the K1 base lodge. However, that is not all. On a very positive note, they have also begun snowmaking operations on Snowshed, and in the Bittersweet/Skylark area. By the weekend, they are promising to have both open, and to be running the Superstar Quad. The ski season looks like it has finally arrived!

Snow covers the Birch Ridge Inn 

What a beautiful sight to wake up too this morning! Snow!

Has winter finally arrive at Killington? Only time will tell. But at least this morning, the area took on the look and feel of winter. Light snow fell on the region aver night. The ground outside the inn is covered with about an inch or so; not much when you think about the calendar, but given the early season we are having it is downright cause for celebration.

Snow rising from guns at Killington 

With the early season weather we have had it is hard to get your expectations up, but it does look like winter will finally make an appearance this week at Killington. Temperatures all day at the inn struggled to get to the mid 30's. Killington has had their snow making system fired up all day. Snow showers are forecasted by the weather channel every day this week. We can hope, can't we???

The Killington resort re-opened for skiing and riding today on 11 trails. Killington has published statements to local businesses that they will have the snow making system turned on all week, with the intention of breaking out of the rut and expanding available terrain.

For those of you who may have noticed, the snow stake at the right of the page disappeared a couple of days ago. It turns out, that when I designed the software for the blog, I added a function to the snow stake software to remove the picture if there have been no updates in 20 days. I originally designed the software this way with the intention that the snow stake would disappear automatically in the spring. I never imagined a November at Killington without snow. Since the last picture for the snow stake was published on November 8th, the software dutifully removed the pictures from the right of the screen. If the weather channel is right, you will see the snow stake return this week.