Dream Maker Terrain Park 

As the area prepares for what could be the first major winter storm of the season, the Killington Resort this morning was in excellent shape. Most trails on the mountain were groomed overnight, creating a flat surface to receive snow forecasted for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Visability in the Killington Peak area this morning was poor as a thick cloud hung over the mountain. In the early morning darkness, we took our first run down Cascades. Snow surfaces were well manicured and very receptive to broad carving turns, but the light was so poor we decided to head towards Bear Mountain.

All of the trails at Bear Mountain were in excellent shape. The top of Outer Limits had a beautiful set of nice soft bumps, the remnants of all of the snow making that had been done at the top of OL on Sunday. We did take a coffee run down Great Eastern to the Skyeship Base at Route 4 where we suffered our only disappointment of the day....there was no coffee or hot chocolate service available other than a lonely vending machine. For some reason the Cafeteria at the Skyeship Base was closed this morning, even though there were a large amount of skiers and riders stopping to take a break there.

The gang does lunch at Charities. Photo courtesy or Rebecca, our waitress.

After our trip down to Route 4, we did some loops in the Needles Eye area. We headed back to the K1 Base Lodge via Super Star, which was just fantastic. Instead of going in, I did 3 more loops on Super Star, all down skiers left, which was in great shape. On Middle Super Star, skiers left had nice rolling bumps, the remnants of whales left from earlier snowmaking. They provided great entertainment riding up and down them. Skiers left on Lower Super Star was flat, but had received a fair amount of wind blown powder. It was a beautiful ride with nice carving turns and no skids.

We finished the day with a group lunch chaired by "Corduroy", who set todays lunchtime agenda. The good news is that at lunch we solved many of the problems facing the world today, the bad news is that I ate all the french fries that came with my sandwich, which is not a good thing for my waist line. Such is life in a ski town during the season.

Meanwhile, all eyes and ears are tuned to local weathermen to try to get a gauge of the storm predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. It sounds like Wednesday and Thursday will be nice powder days. We can hope. Let it Snow!

Bear Mountain from Sunrise 

Today is just one of those lazy Sundays. The kind of day that you know you should be doing something important, but you just forget about it because you can do it on another day. Since the weather outside was quite temperate for February, Mary and I decide it would be a great day to just take a hike out into the woods.

Killington is such a diverse area, it is hard to comprehend it's total scope. A few years ago, Killington abandoned skiing and riding in an area called the "Northeast Passage", just below Sunrise Mountain adjacent to Bear Mountain. The terrain in the area was fairly gentle, but the trails were also somewhat interesting as they wound their way through the forest towards Route 100. Instead of just closing the area, however, Killington now uses it to support snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snow shoeing. We decided to take our hike this afternoon at Sunrise to check the area out.

Trail map for Sunrise Back County Ski and Snowshoe Trails

From the inn, to get to Sunrise the quickest way is to take East Mountain Road over towards Bear Mountain. From there, you enter into the Sunrise Condominium development. We accessed the trail system from the Falls Brook Common area just below the Sunrise Triple Chair.

Since there is only around a foot of snow on the ground, we just used hiking boots, instead of bringing our snow shoes. I did bring some ski polls for stability purposes, as I had never hiked these trails before. We wandered around a moderate trail named the Wintergreen Loop. The trail itself had been packed down slightly by a snow mobile, so the footing was excellent. If there were a lot of new snow, snow shoes would have been a must, but where the terrain was fairly gentle, our hiking boots were fine this afternoon. All in all, a nice walk through the woods on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Rams Head Lift in the snow. 

Saturdays are usually not ski days for me, unless we have had a significant amount of new snow on Friday night. While it has been continuously snowing at Killington, it has not amounted to much, so I slept in.

Over the course of the week, there have been a lot of little news stories which are interesting. While it has been an interesting ski year, to say the least, the community of Killington is still as vibrant as ever. Some of the items in the news are as follows:

Killington sets May 6th as a tentative close date. In a comment on a Killington chat room, Killingtonzone.com the director of communications for Killington posted a May 6th's closing date for the mountain. This would be one of the earliest closings on record for the resort.

Jim Blackman anounces his run for Selectman. In an open letter to town citizens published in the Mountain Times, local resident Jim Blackman declared his intention to run for the Killington Selectboard seat being vacated by Butch Findeisen. The town meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 6, 2007. (Invariably a great powder day for anyone visiting the area.)

Killington Chamber of Commerce announces Killington Wine Festival and Killington Film Festival dates. The Killington Chamber of Commerce announced dates for 2 different summer events this week. The Killington Wine Festival will be returning for the fifth year this summer starting July 13th. Birch Ridge plans on hosting a wine dinner once again on Saturday July 14th. Stay tuned for more details. Also, the Killington Chamber of Commerce announced a new event for the summer, the Killington Film Festival, for the weekend starting Friday August 24th. Vermont film directors/producers Wes Craven and David Giancola are scheduled to present their new films. It should be a great event to attend.

Rumors persist concerning sale of Killington Ski Resort. Normally, I try not to traffic in rumors, but this one has been a persistent topic of conversation around town for weeks and it is starting to get coverage in the local newspapers. In an article published in the Rutland Herald, Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association said that it was likely that American Skiing Company would be selling the Killington Ski Resort and other east coast holdings. Powdr Resorts, a privately held Utah company is rumored to be engaged in talks to purchase Killington. At various local meetings, and to the press, Killington officials have refused comment on the rumors. (Editors note:...This has been a very persistent local rumor. Only time will tell if there is any validity to it.)

Rams Head and Pico Peak from Super Star 

Just a beautiful day for skiing and riding at Killington. Near 100% sunshine combined with several inches of light fluff overnight made for a nice day on the slopes. The only downside was that temps were in the single digits with a gusty up slope wind. Some places in the sun and out of the wind were nice and warm. Some others where wind was a factor were on the cold side. But overall a very nice day.

Official use of Snow Blower!
First time this season! 

I did not head to the mountain this morning. Over the last few days, we have had a fairly constant light snow. I have not though much of it, basically just pushing it off the front walk for our inn guests. But, with the weekend coming up, I though doing a little outside maintenance around the inn was in order. And I was a little surprised.

We have all heard on the news about western New York getting buried by lake effect snow. What most people do not realize is that the residual moisture that does not fall on New York winds up in the Green Mountains. And Killington, being the highest peak from here to Lake Ontario, acts as a big moisture trap, capturing anything that blows bye. In the summer, that means wet weather (They don't call them the Green Mountains for nothing!). In the winter, it means snow.

So today, I hauled out the roof rake and snow blower. I had used each once before this winter on trial runs to make sure that they were in good repair. But today was the real thing. On every flat surface around the inn where there was some kind of barrier, 2 to 4 inches of light snow had drifted in covering the surface. Now we have not gotten 2 real inches of snow overnight. The snow stake is only registering a minor increase, but what snow we have received has been blown into drifts where ever a break stops the wind, making life just a little more interesting. And it is still snowing, with the weather service predicting the potential for 4 to 6 inches overnight in some spots. (They really don't know where... it is the luck of the draw where the wind blows the lake effect moisture.)

Bottom line to all of this... If you are a property owner planning to come to Killington this weekend, you may need to do a little snow removal, depending upon how snow has drifted around your property. For everyone else, the mountain should be just getting better and better. I know I will find out tomorrow as it will be another ski day for me, so as I look out my office window, I can only think: "Let it snow!".

Mary going over first hit on
Upper Bear Claw 

We are starting to get spoiled. Other than being a little cool, Killington is just in great shape.

When we got to the mountain this morning, it was a beautiful bluebird kind of day. While we were in the K1 base lodge putting on our boots, the situation changed at Killington Peak, with a large grey cloud moving in. We took the box up to the peak anyway, but instead of doing warm up laps off the K1 Gondola, we decided to traverse to Bear Mountain which was still in radiant sunshine. it was a really good move.

The top of the Superpipe on lower Dream Maker at Bear Mountain

Bear Mountain was in beautiful shape this morning. The parks on Bear Claw and Bear Trap and Dream Maker were covered with an inch or two of fresh snow over a nice groomed surface. With very few people on the mountain, and really consistent snow surfaces, we found ourselves just cruising through the parks. We had a lot of fun bouncing up and down the various terrain features. While I did not capture a picture of it, Mary even found herself taking a little air off some of the ramps, particularly on Dream Maker. (And yes, she made all of the landings!)

It is just amazing all of the snow that the resort has blown on the mountain in the last few days. Everywhere you go, you will find huge whales of snow blown onto the trails. With the warm weather we had earlier this season, it almost looks like the resort has created a little protection in case of an early spring. On skiers left on Outer Limits, the resort has blown a huge mound of snow several hundred feet long and 20 or so feet high. Last year, they used this area to build a jump for the aerials competition as part of the Spring Freestyle Championships held at the end of March. I am sure that they will use this whale of snow for that purpose, if they do not have to spread it around the slope before then.

Snow Whale on skiers left on Outer Limits

Before heading back to the Killington Peak side of the resort, we took a run down Great Eastern all the way to the Skyeship station on Route 4. We have been telling our inn guests to take this run over the last couple of days, so we though it would be a good thing to check it our first hand. Snow coverage on Great Eastern was very nice all the way down to Route 4. We did not do side trails, like Home Stretch, so I can not comment on them, but if you are looking to take beginner skiers on a nice ride, Great Eastern would certainly give them a chance to test their ski legs and see more of the resort than just Snowshed and Rams Head.

On the Killington side of the mountain, snow making operations are continuing on High Line. Huge amounts of snow have been blown on to High Line in the last 48 hours. Snowmaking had suspended on Superstar, although it looked like there were a couple of hours of snow making on Bitter Sweet. Bitter Sweet was generally soft from top to bottom. There was a very strong up slope wind on Lower Bitter Sweet. Both Mary and I were able to ski straight down lower Bitter Sweet with no turns because the wind was so strong.

Snow guns covering High Line

I finished up the day, as I often do, with a run down Superstar. The upper headwall, while not as soft as last week, still had a nice covering on it, allowing for some nice turns with little skidding. Middle Super Star was just set up for cruising this morning. Last nights snow put a nice soft layer on top of weeks of man made snow. Lower Superstar was wind blown in spots. I went down skiers left close to the trees. The wind had blown some snow into this area paving the way for a few nice soft turns on my final run before heading back to the inn.

Over the next couple of days, the weather forecast calls for temperatures to moderate (highs in the low 20's) with snow showers and snow flurries occurring every day. It should keep everything nice and white. Let it snow!

Killington Peak up the K1 Gondola Line 

Today was again on the cool side, but nothing like yesterday. Temperatures were in the single digits. There was a light up slope wind. Since this placed the breeze on your back on most chair lifts, they were quite manageable today. When you add in beautiful blue-violet skies with some high clouds and lots of sunshine, it was a pretty good morning to be out on the hill.

The word for the day on most skiable slopes was corduroy. With the exception of Highline, Cascade, Upper Wildfire and Needles Eye, everything we skied today took on the look and feel of a nicely groomed cruiser. Because there were few people on the hill, sweeping side to side GS turns at speed was the predominate ski style of the day. It was just a nice day to let the skis run.

The trails that weren't quite there, were interesting. Snowmaking operations were ongoing at Highline. Upper and Middle Cascade were great. Lower Cascade required an oral exam to count your fillings at the bottom. It had been groomed during the night, but the groom was very "lumpy" resulting in a huge amount of chatter and vibration as you skied down the lower portion of the trail.

We did not do Needles Eye as we could see from the Skye Ship that it had not been groomed overnight. According to several friends I spoke with, it was very slick and frozen. it was a good trail to bypass.

Wildfire on the other hand was interesting. Snowmaking operations had taken place recently on Upper Wildfire. The surface had not been groomed out. It was a combination of silky smooth surfaces punctuated by windblown sections. While being quiet skiable, it kept you on your toes versus some of the other cruising trails. Lower Wildfire on the other hand was generally magnificent. Nice snow on skiers left all the way to the bottom. It was one of the trails that qualified as a do-over today.

All in all a very nice early February day to ski.