Killington Peak, 9:00 AM, November 10, 2005 

or is it the "Wizard of Id"......When I went up to the mountain to take this mornings picture, I had this very weird feeling. It was only reinforced when I got back to the inn and read this mornings Rutland Herald.

First to the mountain... it is another classic "Twig Season" day; cold, blustery, dreary,grey. The heavy rains last night have given way and been replaced with a chill that sinks into the body. A very loud sleet/hail/ice particle shower is happening at the inn, bouncing off the slate roof and windows. At 9:00 AM, Killington Peak had a 'Where's Waldo" character to it. Heavy Fog/Clouds shrouded the peak, half way down Double Dipper. The Killington resort has told us that they intend to restart their snowmaking system this afternoon. My guess is that the fog will need to dissipate substantially before that will happen.

When I got back to the inn, my 'Where's Waldo" feeling was reinforced by another installment of the "Mouse that Roared" in the Rutland Herald. On the front page, the Herald described a meeting in New Hampshire of the "New Hampshire Killington Incorporation Commission". This 3 person commission, created by the New Hampshire legislature, has been tasked to work with the Vermont legislature to hammer out the details between the states to allow Killington to secede from Vermont. The New Hampshire commission is writing a letter to Vermont political leaders including Vermont Gov. James Douglas, Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie, Sen. President Pro Tem Peter Welch and House Speaker Gaye Symington to encourage them to get Vermont moving to resolve Killingtons secession efforts. While having little news value, the Rutland Herald article once again provided a little poke at Vermont for failing to address the problems of Killington created by the tax structure of the state. The full article can be found at the Rutland Herald. (Editors Note: At the last two Killington town meetings, I have voted to allow the town of Killington to pursue secession from the state of Vermont. The tax structure of the state is very damaging to citizens of resort towns in Vermont (in my opinion)...The Vermont legislature has shown no desire to correct the inequities, and why would they as they can continue to shake the money tree and only affect a very small percentage of the Vermont electorate. However, they are in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg.... but this is another story altogether. I am sure that you will read more about it in the future.)

Killington Peak, 9:20 AM, November 9, 2005 

UPDATE TO STORY (Posted at 10:00 PM EST)...Since just before 3:00 PM this afternoon, we have been experiencing heavy rain, driving winds, and periods of freezing rain. It would appear that conditions on top of Killington are very unfavorable at this time to attempt to make snow. The mountain issued a press release after 5:00 PM today saying that they planned to turn on the snowmaking system late Thursday afternoon. While temperatures are supposed to drop in the evenings the next few nights, unless there is a miraculous change in the current driving rain storm to snow, it is unlikely that Killington will open for skiing this weekend as planned. The press release said that they would try to re-open the mountain "next week...as soon as we can provide a quality top to bottom skiing and snowboarding experience"... It's time for all of us to break out our favorite snow dances to get this season started. A symbolic sacrifice to the god of winter, Ullr, may also be appropriate...END OF UPDATE....

Dreary, cold, and damp. That best describes today at Killington.

I went up to the mountain this morning to see if the resort managers had turned on the Killington snow making system. Temperatures at the inn last night were below freezing. When I left for the mountain to take the picture at 9:30 AM, it was still just 32 at the inn. Much to my surprise, and disappointment, there was no snow on the top of Killington.

The resort is still making optimistic noises about being open for skiing and riding this weekend. Snow, sleet and freezing rain are predicted for the area this afternoon and evening. Colder temperatures are forecasted for the area thru the weekend. We will keep an eye out for the sign of snow being blown on the mountain, which would be a leading indicator of the resort attempting to open.

Summit Resort and Grist Mill Restaurant at Killington 

Congratulations are in order for long time Killington resident Bill Bauer. Bill, who for years has been the manager of the Summit Resort, has recently completed purchasing the Summit, and it companion restaurant, the Grist Mill from Ken Budzyna.

Ken, who happens to be the only other full time resident on Butler Road besides my partner and I, has been a principal owner of the Summit for 35 years. He built the Grist Mill in 1984 as a companion to the Summit. He plans on continuing to live in Killington, but he is also looking forward to spending some time in Costa Rica

In addition to being manager at the Summit, Bill has also been heavily involved in the community at Killington. He was previously on the towns Select Board, and had been an out spoken advocate for the town in the creation of the Green Mountain National Golf Course.

Both the Summit and the Grist Mill have been local favorites for years. We wish Ken a happy "retirement". And good luck to Bill as he puts his stamp on two of Killingtons best know institutions.

Killingtonblog.com supports RSS 

Over the last couple of days, some of you may have noticed some different little symbols and links appearing on the blog. Thats because I have been working to integrate a RSS feed into the blog.

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It's actually quite a few lines of software, so programming it was interesting, but for you, the reader, it introduces several nice features. If your computer (I develop on an Apple Dual G5 so I refuse to call it a pee cee) is equipped with a modern web browser like Apple's Safari, or Mozilla's Firefox, or Opera, you can subscribe to the RSS feed from Killingtonblog.com and get notified automatically when a new entry is posted. You can also get a standalone RSS reader to do the job, or subscribe to one of several Blog Syndication sites (for instance if you have a My Yahoo account, you can configure a content box to point to www.killingtonblog.com/rss.xml) . I have been using RSS to scan many online newspapers. If you have not used RSS before, it's actually very useful.

For those of you without RSS capability but curiosity gets the better of you, if you click on the RSS button on the menu, you will see a page of computer code, which is actually the RSS feed in a web language called XML (or Extensible Markup Language for those who want to know).

Twig Season in full bloom at Killington 

It's one of those quiet Saturdays in Killington after the fall foliage has dropped from the trees, but before the winter season starts in earnest. The excitement of the resort being open for skiing and riding last weekend, has given way to what Mary and I call "Twig Season". Each year at this time, a certain apprehension sets in to the resort. The beauty of the Vermont landscape in summer has given way to a dull grey, devoid of all apparent life. Of course, the situation will completely reverse itself as soon as the region is blanketed in snow. When that happens, everything will look fresh and pure. But until then, we basically have to make the best of the surroundings while making sure that everything is ready for the snow that we know will be coming in the near future.

Speaking of getting ready for winter, at the inn we have immediate openings for wait-staff to work in our dining room for dinner service in the evening. Both full and part time positions are available. If you are interested, you can contact the Birch Ridge Inn at 802-422-4293 for further details. Let us know you found out about us on the blog.

Will this Christmas Tree measure up? 

Hunting in Vermont is done with many weapons. Some people use guns, I use a ruler! For today was our annual trip into the woods to go hunting for the perfect Christmas tree to adorn the great room of our inn at Killington. My partner, Mary, and I always try to pick a nice fall day to go out into the woods to look for the annual tree. And today was just beautiful. Temperatures were in the warm 60's, moderate sunshine, a nice breeze... just perfect to find the right tree.

After walking around a grove of trees for about an hour, we identified this years candidate. It stands 23 feet, beside a corn field, in a town to the north west of Killington, on property owned by casual acquaintances who let us take a tree each year. When it is trimmed out, we expect the tree will stand 16 to 17 feet. Of course we will not really know how big it is until we cut it and bring it back to the inn after Thanksgiving.

The tree this year will be decorated in a silver and white motif with crystal ornaments. For those reading this who do not know us, each year we alternate between a crystal tree and a traditional colored ornament tree. This practice dates back to when we first purchased the property to convert it into the Birch Ridge Inn in 1997. Prior to that, we had 2 christmas trees in our home; the crystal tree in our foyer, and the colored ornament tree in our family room. In moving to the inn, we decided to have one large tree in our great room, and alternate styles on different years. If all goes well, this years Christmas tree will be at the inn and decorated the first weekend in December.

After a great opening to the ski season last weekend, the Killington region has seen unusually warm weather. The snow pack at the lower elevations of the mountain is quickly deteriorating. As a result, the Killington Ski Resort announced late Monday that they would not be re-opening as planned for skiing the weekend of November 5/6.

Killington had originally planned to open the winter ski season on November 11th, but the heavy snow the region experienced last week encouraged the resort to open on October 29th. Cold weather is expected next week which will allow the resort to resume snow making operations. When the ski season at Killington will resume is anybody's guess. Think Snow!