The Birch Ridge Inn at Killington,
covered with new snow. 

When you live in Vermont you realize that some days are pretty, and some days are downright nasty. Today is one of those nasty days.

Snow began to fall around the inn around 5:00 AM. Thus far today we have seen heavy snow, sleet, hail, Styrofoam balls...you name it... it has fallen from the sky. Surface roads in the area are passible, but driving conditions are not good. But, as the storm passes, driving conditions should improve very quickly as the snow plows, at least in the Killington area, seem to be keeping up with the storm thus far.

I choose not to go out skiing today. Sooner or later, business gets in the way. And today seemed like a pretty good day to sit in front of the computer and catch up on work. But, tomorrow is another day, and the slopes are definitely calling. It should be a great weekend for skiing and riding at Killington.... Think Spring!...

June Buttner, owner of
The Boutique at Killington,
showing good form on Superstar. 

For the first time in many days, when I woke up this morning the sun was shining and it was not snowing outside. With temperatures this morning in the high 20's, ski conditions at Killington were ideal for late season cruising and playing in the bumps.

Our first few runs this morning were in the Canyon area. East Fall and Double Dipper were both groomed soft and sweet. While neither took a lot of energy to ski as they were groomed flat, the side to side sweeping turns we made going down them at considerable speed were exhilarating just the same. To get the blood flowing in my legs, during several of our runs I entered the area through the bumps in FIS. The beautiful, soft, well spaced bumps on FIS were just enough in the early stage of the morning to get all of the muscles moving and warmed up.

We then traversed over the top of the mountain, via Great Eastern and Launch Pad to play over at Superstar. Superstar had not been groomed overnight. Middle Superstar was covered with very soft mounds of snow, not bumps yet, but precursors formed by people pushing soft snow around. You could basically cruise Middle Superstar over and around the mounds, making as many turns as you wanted to keep your speed under control. The Upper and Lower headwalls of Superstar were basically flat. They both were firm, but also covered in a soft snow which gave both of them a nice, consistent surface.

Later in the morning, I journeyed over to Bittersweet while the gang cruised down middle Skyelark. Bittersweet was covered with nice soft bumps. Most of the bump troughs on Bittersweet were filled with soft snow, but a few in high traffic locations were showing some scratch. As by now the temperatures had crossed the freezing level, it was too warm to call these locations ice as they were moist and edge-able. But on another day, if temps were well below freezing, I would probably be calling these spaces blue ice. At any rate, I made it through the bump field on middle Bittersweet before any of the others met me at the junction between High Road and Bittersweet..so the bumps did not slow me down at all.

Crowds today on the mountain were light. As it was such a beautiful day, we saw many local business owners out skiing and riding. Because everyone is funneled into the K1 box at some time during the day, there was a lot of socializing going on, chatting about the winter, vacation plans, the pending sale of the mountain, etc... That is until the doors opened at Kpeak....at which point everyone scattered to take their runs before meeting at the bottom again. Overall, just a gorgeous ski day in this wacky winter that would not start and now will not end.

Speaking of winter, the weather service is calling for a major winter storm to move through the area starting around midnight this evening. 12 inches are forecasted for central Vermont with snow predicted to fall all day long on Thursday. Let it snow!

Superstar framed by trees on Killink 

It is a very bitter sweet day at Killington. Skiing and Riding on the mountain are as good as it has been all season, if you ignore the fact that the number of operating lifts has been greatly reduced. It has been snowing constantly for the last week. Light and fluffy, keeping everything white. It looks like a major late season nor'easter will move into the area late Wednesday bringing a heavy snowfall over the area on Thursday. And the current Killington management team has announced that because ski conditions are so good, that they will re-open the Skye Ship Stage 2 and the Outer Limits lift at bear Mountain for skiing and riding on Friday. If you forget that this is mid April, you would think that the ski season was on an upswing. It has been a very wacky season. But then bitterness creeps in.

Upon returning to the inn this afternoon, Mary and I learned that Don Gray, a local Killington favorite musician who played with Frank Chase and the Bobby Darling Show past away after a fight with cancer.

Don Gray April 7, 1951 - April 9, 2007 from the Bobby Darling Show website.

Before moving to Killington full time, Mary and I spent many an evening in the Pickle Barrel Nightclub being entertained by the Bobby Darling Show. It was during an era when Killington had what seemed like hundreds of "Ski Houses", and everyone went to the Pickle Barrel for happy hour to see friends and begin the Saturday night party. Don was the drummer for the show. I don't think anyone who saw him can every forget "Little Ricky" and his impression of Mick Jagger singing "Satisfaction". I can still see the tee shirt and feathered boa to this day.

Don had genuine talent. He will be missed......so it goes!

Armenian Innkeepers visit the Birch Ridge Inn 

It has been a while since I have done any public speaking which required simultaneous translation, but today was different. Kim at the Killington Chamber of Commerce asked me to host a group of fellow innkeepers from Armenia along with representatives of the Armenian Tourism Development Agency. The group are visiting Vermont on a trip sponsored by the Vermont Council on World Affairs. In addition to showing them our inn and discussing innkeeping, the primary reason for the visit was to discuss how chambers of commerce and lodging establishments work together to promote travel and tourism. Due to the nature of the group, the presentation included simultaneous translation into both Russian and Armenian.

For those of you who need an atlas to find Armenia (I went to wikipedia), you will find it landlocked between Turkey, Georgia, Azerberijan and Iran. Up until 1920, Armenia has been an independent country. In 1920, Armenia was on the loosing side in the Turkish-Armenia war, was forced to demilitarize, and was subsequently invaded by the Soviet army. In 1991, when the Soviet Union broke apart, Armenia regained it's independence.

In the last 4 years, the Armenian Government organized the Armenian Tourism Development Agency to promote travel and tourism to Armenia. Structures such as Chambers of Commerce, are just being established in Armenia. This group was on a fact finding mission to determine the different aspects of how lodging properties and chambers of commerce work together.

Of course, while I was learning how to say "Good Morning" in Armenian - "bari luis" - Mary was out skiing in the 6 inches of fluff that fell overnight on the mountain. Ski conditions at Killington continue to be excellent on powder and packed powder surfaces. At the inn we received another 4 inches of snow, with a major storm predicted to move into the region on Thursday. Let it Snow!

The Easter Bunny and his chick 

Happy Easter from Killington. It is interesting how the celebration of the resurrection morphed into an orgy of chocolate Easter eggs and marshmallow peeps. We hope that where ever you may be in the world, that you have had a very Happy Easter!

Meanwhile at Killington....The calendar says April. We are between the vernal equinox and the summer solstice, so it is supposed to be spring. And it is still snowing at Killington. It is a wonderful thing. It has been quite literally snowing at the inn all day today. Nothing severe mind you, just fluffy light snow fall continuously from the sky. Let it snow!

Light Snow continues to fall on Killington Peak 

Although the weather at the inn, less than 1 mile from the main Killington Base Lodge, is only cloudy, up on the mountain light snow continues to fall. The Killington Cloud has produced a continuous light snow fall, even though the primary storm moved out of the area more than 24 hours ago. And we though spring had arrived! Let it snow!

Powder covered trees as seen from
the K1 Gondola midway up Cascade 

Oh my God! At the inn this morning when I woke up, on top of the 9 inches of snow we received yesterday was a new, fresh 5 inches of champagne bubbles. Unheard of at Killington in April...but there they were, just waiting for my powder skis.. Oh boy!

I tried to get out of the house before Mary had any ideas of me doing work around the inn this morning. Almost made it... I think she was watching for me at the front door. So we agreed I would be home by noon....The art of living and working together is compromise... but there was fresh powder waiting... so off I went.

I met up with Bill, Howie and Walt at about 8:45. There are no friends on a powder day... but off we went. We took the K1 Gondola up. The snow cover on the trees was just incredible. You need to remember that all of the snow pack was out of the trees last week. Everything on the trees is 100% natural, newly fallen snow.

When we got to the top, Howie and Walt dawdled a little. As Bill and I headed toward Cascade, that was the last we would see of them until we met up back in the base lodge at 11:30. Oh well.. we started the day together at least...

For my first run, instead of taking Great Northern to Cascade, I decided to take FIS. It is just a little trail, maybe about 300 feet long. I hit a little icy bump just at the top, then pitched right into the light brush on skier right. Waist deep powder. Waves of powder flowing up my chest over my head as I skied straight down the trail. Probably as close to a Warren Miller Movie experience I will ever have. Bill meanwhile bombed down Great Northern. He was probably 300 yards ahead of me past the warning rope on Cascade. No friends on a powder day!

I had my vintage Volkl Vertigo powder skis on. (In April in Killington!..go figure!) They just floated on top of the powder down Cascade on skiers left. They just burst through any bumps created by earlier skiers. Just a few very little mid course correction turns. It seemed like the fastest run down Cascade in my life, never out of control, but powder flowing and going everywhere... I think I forgot to breath, because by the time I got to the junction with Downdraft I was sucking big breaths of air. I caught a glimpse of Bill just going bye the non functional Canyon Quad headed back toward the box, so I could not stop. I crouched into a full tuck to go down Spillway and caught up to Bill just about at the bottom of Highline. An unbelievable first run!

We did 6 more runs like that between Northridge, East Falls, and Double Dipper. Everywhere we went we found this beautify light champagne powder. Of all the trails in the Canyon, Double Dipper was probably the most difficult. Like Highline yesterday, the middle of Dipper was icy bumps as it had not been groomed. Skiers right by the trees had an enormous amount of powder that was blown in by the wind. But even then, on the fat Volkl's, which are designed for running in powder, it was basically 4 or 5 turns up to your knees, stop and suck in a deep breath, and repeat.

After that, I went back to my car to get my normal skies (Fischer RX8's) as the trails were getting pretty chopped. We did a few runs off the Snowdon Quad. The snow was so soft and pliable, that it was just a delight to do some high speed cruising. All through the morning, it had been snowing. It also seemed like the temperatures had been dropping...although we were so warmed up on the powder runs it could have been just a reflex action to slowing down. What ever the case, by 11:30 we had had enough...

When we got back the K1 base lodge, Howie and Walt were waiting. Friends just know where to meet on powder days...

New Passport has arrived

Passport Update When I arrived back at the inn from the mountain, the Post Office had delivered an Express Mail envelop from the US State Department with my new passport. Including a weekend, the turn around time to expedite the passport request was 8 days... beating the 10 business days quoted on the State Departments web site. I am impressed! A branch of the government that exceeds expectations! All this and a legitimate powder day at Killington in April.. life is good. Let it Snow!