The perfect Vermont Fall Watercolor.
Killington Peak last weekend with snow and fall colors. 

As the fall season approaches the last gasp for 2015, and with the 2015-2016 ski season already underway, it is nice to be able to sit at my desk for a few quiet moments to write down my thoughts.

Fall colors this season were late by historical standards. Usually in Killington the peak colors occur sometime between the 3rd and 7th of October. This year, with out a doubt, they occurred almost a week later, peaking on Columbus day weekend. Why the delay...who knows. The climate in Killington this summer was very benign. Not too hot, not too cold, and plenty of rain fall at points across the summer to keep the forest thriving. Combined with a warm early fall with no frost, and the trees just kept pretending summer would never end. I am sure some scientists somewhere are scratching thier collective heads on why foliage was late. But it does not really matter much for this season, as Mother Natures transition from summer to winter at Killington is still one of the greatest shows on earth.

While fall colors were slow to transition, the Killington Resort made a very rapid transition to winter operations. A shot of cold air came thru the region late last week allowing the resort to make snow on the upper reaches of Killington in the North Ridge trail pod. This past Sunday, Killington became the first ski resort in the US to open for the 2015-2016 ski season with lift serviced skiing and riding. While fall colors were a week late in changing, the ski resort opened about a full week early, versus the last several years. I am sure that the resort will need a little bit of luck, and a lot of compressed air, to keep the resort open every day...but the change of seasons is on their side. Each day at Killington right now is a little colder than the last as winter approaches.

At the inn, we are very much attuned to the changing seasons. The restaurant at the inn will be undergoing it's planned seasonal shift closing this Saturday for a few weeks before we resume our winter operations in early November. We have a full list of chores around the inn to complete before winter sets in, as we usually do. And there is some early season skiing we need to do so we are positioned mentally to enjoy the winter (and to help us find all of our ski kit that was hidden away late last spring.)

To all of our guests who visited with us during this fall season, Mary, I and the staff say "Thank You". We hope you enjoyed staying with us as much as we enjoyed meeting you and having you as our guests. Innkeeping is a rewarding profession. People from all over the world come to Killington to stay with us and dine with us at the Birch Ridge Inn. For that we are truly grateful.

Wherever you may be... enjoy the change in seasons. If you are out golfing, hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and remember the fall leaf rule. Otherwise, dig our your winter skiing and riding kit... and think snow!

View of the Roaring Brook Valley from the restaurant at Birch Ridge. 

Everything is shaping up to be a beautiful Columbus day weekend in Vermont.

Fall colors in the Killington area are starting to pop. The forest behind the inn is almost fully engaged in the fall spectacle. The tree tops have all started to change. The tree midsections are still showing green, but changes are starting to become evident upon closer inspection.

The sceen outside the inn towards the north along the Roaring Brook valley in Killington is beautiful. The reds, oranges, and yellows of the maple, oak, and birch trees are creating a watercolor like scene. With todays bright pastle blue sky, visitors to Vermont today have got to be thrilled.

The forecast calls from showers tomorrow. Given the state of the trees in the Killington area, I would not expect much in terms of color loss, assuming we do not have high winds with any squalls going through the area. After that, the weekend looks bright and cool. Perfect for touring around to take in the fall show.

In the mean time....Wherever you may be... hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and start contemplating the fall leaf rule if you are out on the course.

Honey bee on Dahlia in front of the Birch Ridge Inn - busy collecting the last pollen of the season. 

They say April showers bring May flowers.... what do September showers bring?

Today is moist at Killington. While rain is not currently falling, the atmosphere is saturated with moisture. Gray, lead colored clouds, hang over the mountain tops. The saving grace is that fall colors are brightening up an otherwise dreary landscape. Mother Nature is trying to put on a show to alleviate the feeling of dread that exists if you look straight up to the sky. She is trying. Her humble observers need to follow her lead and not get caught up in the day to day stew of the changing weather in the mountains.

Mother Natures minions will not be detered in their preparation for the season of white. Wooly caterpillars are crawling hither and yon, searching for the perfect spot to cacoon for the winter. Honey bees are really active in the flower bed in front of the inn. Each flower, and there are still many, has its own little bee busily collecting the last bits of pollen to bring back to the hive to make honey. If you think you work hard, take a break and watch the bees for a few minutes. Their safety net is in the honey they produce, and they are working it hard to maximize their output.

So what do September showers bring?

Full snow making ponds of course!

The Killington Resort covers a lot of its terrain with snow making. When they turn the system on later in October, they use a lot of water to cover the trails with beautiful white snow. And full snowmaking ponds due to September showers is a great situation to have when the temperatures turn favorable for making snow.

Tonights rain will depart from the scene soon enough. As it does, the tree canopy will continue to develop more color each day. We hope to see you at the Birch Ridge Inn during your fall visit.

In the mean time....Wherever you may be... hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and don't forget your sunscreen.

Blood Moon - Lunar Eclispe seen from Birch Ridge Inn last night 

If the changing colors, colder temperatures, and last nights Blood Moon are not enough evidence for you that change is in the air, then todays announcement by the Killington Resort of ski ticket prices for the 2015-2016 ski season should be a reality check. Summer has come to an end. Fall is all around us. Winter is just a short time away.

The Killington Resort announced today, via an article in the local Rutland Herald, that they will be opting for a single price lift ticket at the ticket window this winter. People who walk up to the ticket window and purchase a day ticket will pay the same price mid-week as on weekends...$94 per day. ($96 during holidays).

While this might seem like a large number, it is important to understand that less than 10% of lift tickets are purchased at the ticket window.

Most lift tickets today are purchased online associated with lodging packages or advanced reservations. Killington in fact sells lift tickets online for people who plan their trips at a significant discount versus window pricing. This year, Killington has adopted an "Airline" pricing model to their advance ticket sales. The price of a lift ticket online for a future day will vary based upon a number of factors. As a result, Killington could actually change their online lift ticket price for future dates EVERY DAY! Bottom line... if you are planning ahead, when you see what looks like a deal....Grab It! because it might not be there tomorrow.

As an innkeeper, this has made life interesting. But coming out of an engineering background, I viewed this change on Killington's part as a challenge.

On our website, birchridge.com, and on it's mobile companion m.birchridge.com, the inn has always allowed guests to determine the total cost of a ski/ride package, including lodging, lift tickets, rental equipment, lessons, etc. In the past, the software would examine static tables with lift ticket price information to compute the overall package cost. Easy Peasy.... like adding 2 or more numbers together.

The changes made by Killington have added several additional layer of complexity to the problem. As prices for lift tickets can change every day, our website needs to be adaptive. Each day we go out and collect pricing information from Killington. While that sounds pretty easy, the total data collected from the resort each day comes in at about 500MBytes... yes you read that right... 1/2 Gigabytes of information related to current lift ticket pricing is collected each day. And this is just for Killington. An equivilent amount of information will be generated for Pico when lift ticket pricing is published for that subset of the resort.

While creating a table with this information is a trivial task, downloading 500MBytes of data down to a clients PC or Cell Phone each time they wanted to compute a lodging package is not nice. Most cell phone plans have data caps of 2 to 10Gbytes... We want our guests to be able to pay for a visit to Killington, not have a larger cell phone bill. As a result, taking advantage of some Web 2.0 technology(Ajax, Json), I developed a series of processes which collect the lift package pricing from the birchridge.com server only for the days that the guest plugs into the Ski/Ride package calculator. This keeps the communications load between the guests device and the server light, eliminating large data charges. While it does introduce a small amount of latency to the process as the clients device communicates with the server, the overall process due making the data transfers light weight is roughly the same as it was using our older methods.

So what does this mean for the potenital guest to the Birch Ridge Inn....

Very simple.... when ever a guest calculates a lift ticket package with a stay at the Birch Ridge Inn, our web site is quoting the best price we can give based upon the current pricing for lift ticket products from the Killington Resort. (Please note... restrictions in our agreement with Killington do not allow us to break out lift ticket prices separately from our lodging packages. Hence we can only show a combined price with lodging and lift ticket products.. But you can look at our lodging only pricing and figure it out.)

If you would like to get a quote for a Ski/Ride and Stay package from the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington, go to our Ski Package Calculator on birchridge.com.

Fall folage colors are continuing to progress nicely around Killington. We hope to see you at the Birch Ridge Inn during your fall visit.

In the mean time....Wherever you may be... hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and don't forget your sunscreen.

Fall color just starting to appear at K1 base lodge at Killington 

What a weekend. Brilliant blue sky. Warm temperatures. Nascent fall color in the tree canopy. It is hard to ask for a nicer weekend in early fall in the Green Mountains.

Fall color in the immediate Killington area is just on the cusp. Hints of color have started to appear across the mountain sides. Cold evening temperatures (it looked like there might have been a light frost last night) have started to set the process in place. Assuming that is the case, we should see an accelleration in color propagation through the mountains over the next 14 days of so. It should become pretty obvious in the next 3-5 days.

Fall color on Killington Peak is just starting to appear. Color in the area of the K1 baselodge at the gondola terminal to Killington Peak is spotty. Some trees have started to turn colors, but green is still predominant in most of the trees.

Widening out the picture to a panorama spanning Pico Peak to Skye Peak shows the same situation. Upper reaches where abundant sunshine has been in play are still mostly green. Mid elevations, which are starting to see less sunshine due to the shadow of the mountains have splotches of color, but for the most part the tree canopy is not fully engaged in the process yet. Over the next few days we will be watching for signs of accelerating color changes; and of course we will report it here on the blog.

The Killington basin area from Pico Peak to Skye Peak.

Until the next time, where ever you may be, hit the ball straight.... keep it in the fairway... and don't forget your sunscreen.

Getting Mary's Mustang out one more time before winter. 

If there are any doubts about summer coming to a close at Killington, one only needs to step outside this morning. Temperatures have struggled to reach 55F under a lead colored overcast sky. Folage colors are continuing to progress. The cool temperatures combined with the absence of sunshine will help move the process along.

Other signs that summer has come to an end at the Birch Ridge Inn are also readily apparant. Today is the ceremonial moving day for Mary's Mustang to swich from it's summer garage to a winter resting place. While we do not get a chance to take it for a spin through the Vermont country side as much as we would like, it is always a little bitter sweet to see it get put into the winter garage at the end of the summer. On the plus side, it is a sure sign that winter is approaching. And since we live at a ski resort, that can only be seen as a good thing. On the negative side, it means that summer is coming to a close. We can oly hope that the twig season between the time the fall foliage drops in 3 or so weeks and the time of the first snow is a short one.

Congratulations Deb Butler, Winner of the 2015 Birch Ridge Cup.

Another sign that summer will be coming to an end soon was last nights completion of the Birch Ridge Cup competition at Green Mountain National Golf Course. All summer long, Birch Ridge has been sponsoring a "FedEx Cup" style competition at the Thursday night scramble at the golf course.

Congratulations go out to Deb Butler, the 2015 Birch Ridge Cup Champion. Deb outpaced the field in collection Birch Ridge Cup points. She also has had perfect attendance every Thursday night over the summer season. To celebrate her victory, Deb will be host to 25 of her friends as guests at the Birch Ridge Inn for a Birch Ridge Cup cocktail party. Congratulations Deb.

Congratulations also go out to Joe Havelka who came in second in the Birch Ridge Cup standings, and Bob Butner who came in 3rd. Both Joe and Bob won gift certificates for dinner at Birch Ridge.

This weekend should see the coming out of good fall foliage color just to the north of Killington on the Route 100 corridor. Over the next couple of weeks, the colors will progress thru the area, culminating in peak fall colors in early October. Now is the time to finalize your plans for your 2015 Vermont Foliage trip. We hope you can get away for a few days and come to Vermont to enjoys Mother Nature's fall show.

Wherever you may be this weekend... hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and don't forget your sunscreen.

The clubhouse at Green Montain National Golf Course starting to show fall colors 

It's starting. The wonder of the change in seasons we call Fall Foliage is happening right now in Vermont.

This week saw the arrival of normal fall weather to the region. Nights are becoming much colder, with overnight temperatures approaching 40. While we have not yet challenged the frost line of 32F, it is only a matter of time.

During the day, we are experiencing stark contrasts. Guests leaving in the morning for their trips around Vermont are experiencing temperatures in the chilly 45-50F territory. When they return to the inn later in the afternoon, they are basking in the glow of Vermont to temperatures in the mid-70's. We have had only a couple of overcast and slightly damp days. Most days have been punctuated with cloudless bright blue skies.

On the fall color front, the colors in Killington have begun their change in earnest, albeit slowly. At the inn colors are starting to appear at the mid-levels of the tree canopy. While much of the forest is still showing green, in the early morning and late afternoon periods when the sun is at a sharp angle, the color contrast is starting to be come more pronounced.

Color on Route 100 north in the area of Green Mountain National Golf Course is farther along. This area is outside of the shadow of Killington Peak. It receives less moisture that what is received in the area immediately around the inn, as a result the color is slightly more advanced.

Guests are reporting the appearance of nice colors on Route 100 north of Killington. The gaps across the Green Mountains between Route 100 and Route 7 are starting to show more definitive color with the increase in altitude. Route 7 north of Rutland is normally behind Route 100 north of Killington, and that observation still is holding true this year.

Over the next couple of weeks we can expect an accelleration of color change through out the state of Vermont. A cold night with general temparatures below freezing will set the process in place. It is only a matter of time at this point, but I would guess that the early weekends of October and the weeks between will show great color throughout Vermont.

We hope to see you at the Birch Ridge Inn when you visit Killington.

In the mean time....Wherever you may be... hit them straight... keep it in the fairway... and don't forget your sunscreen.