Ice dams ready to release from the back building at the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington. 

Public Service Announcement - Did you remember that Monday is Saint Valentine's day? Be a hero! Do something nice for the one you love. - End Public Service Announcement.

Over the last few days, I have done no skiing what so ever. But that does not mean I have not been having any fun.

On Thursday and Friday, I had the opportunity to be down in Boston, my old home town. I was invited to a wine tasting held by a wine importer to introduce the 2009 vintage of fine wines from Burgundy. (One of the fringe benefits of owning an inn with a nice restaurant.) The wines were in general in a word "Awesome". I sipped and spitted about 60 different white and red wines. I have some tough choices to make as my pre-orders are due the end of this coming week.

While in Boston, there were a number of things that peaked my curiosity. One was at the wine tasting. Several hundred people attended, mostly from upscale restaurants in the Boston metro area. I have never seen so many "suits" since moving to Vermont full time 14 years ago. When I got dressed Thursday morning in Vermont before driving to Boston, the though crossed my mind to put on a suit. The tasting was in the Boston Harbor Hotel, a very posh location in Boston. Instead I opted for a simple white button down shirt and a black sweater. My "uniform" was the second most popular outfit at the wine tasting, but it was easily outnumbered by suits 3 to 1. I am not sure what it means, but at least in Boston some people are dressing up for business functions.

I stayed in Boston in the Back Bay at the Lenox Hotel. It is a nice hotel, rated #1 for Boston by Trip Advisor. There are a couple of small inns in the Back Bay where I usually stay, but they were both booked. So I decided to go big, and see what ideas I could steal to apply back to our inn in Killington. What really struck me about the Lenox, and Boston in general, was how "busy" it was. If there is a recession anywhere, it did not seem to be in Boston. Hotel occupancies were up, stores were crowded (remember Valentines day shopping), and the restaurants and bars at night were jammed.

At night, I went over to Newbury Street to check out some restaurants. I first stopped at the Capital Grille. At 8:30, the wait at the bar was probably going to be 2 hours, so I slid down the street (Newbury Street still had huge snow banks from all the snow Boston has gotten this winter) to an old haunt I used to go to regularly years ago, Sonsie. A classic, bistro style, restaurant, Sonsie like the Capital Grille was packed. I signaled a bartender for a drink, and casually stood at the bar for over an hour before finally getting a seat. (again..where is the recession?) The bar was filled with 30-40 somethings. I was definitely on the old end of the age spectrum. I proved this with a brief exchange with a 30 something women beside me at the bar. She had her purse on the bar. I asked her to "move her pocket book", as my appetizer plate was pushed into its side (the bar was packed). She laughed and told me she had not heard anyone call a clutch a pocket book since her grand mother had died several years ago. I laughed and shot right back: "There is a reason the woman who cuts my hair calls my color arctic blonde". She laughed, moved her "clutch" and bought me a glass of wine. Score one for the old guy!

Friday morning, after some Valentine's day shopping, I drove back to Killington and to winter. Starting the drive in Boston the temperature was a balmy 30 degrees. By the time I crossed the Connecticut River in Lebanon New Hampshire, the car read a cool 18. A little light snow on Friday night and Saturday, and my journey back to the frozen north was complete. I dressed with a tie on Saturday night... but I could not bring myself to put back on a suit. I'll probably save that for Valentines day.

We will be getting back onto the slopes this week to report of conditions. In the mean time.......Let it snow!

Ski Bridge from Killington Grand Hotel to Snowshed Base Lodge. 

Kudo's to Home Depot. After a 6 week absence, my 9HP Ariens Snow Blower has been returned from warranty service. It was a good thing too, as the snow at Killington has kept falling. Since my last blog post, the snow stake has seen a net increase of more than 6 inches of new snow. While that may not seem like much, when you take into account that the snow pack underneath is compressing at about 2 inches per day, we have received about a foot and a half of new snow in the last 4 days. Or to put it another way, about 6 hours of snow blowing since last Friday. No complaints, snow is a wonderful thing at a ski resort in the winter. WE WANT MORE!

Speaking of snow, we have some really strange storms the last few days. Over the weekend we had a full blown severe thunderstorm accompanied by high winds, pea sized hail, sleet, and snow. Not a random clap of thunder, mind you, but a full half hour light show with thunder simultaneously crashing down on our heads with each lightning stroke. Really strange.

Yesterday we had a "No Name" blizzard. Snow flurries were predicted. White out conditions developed late in the afternoon. From about 3:00PM to 6:00PM about 6 inches of light powder fell. I usually don't break out the snow blower at night, but enough snow fell late yesterday afternoon that I needed to get it running to clear paths to allow restaurant guests to get access to the inn.

In addition to snow blowing, I have also started the process of removing snow from a section of flat roof over part of the inn. As you can see from the picture, the snow on the roof is about waist high. I could wait a few more weeks before I started this winter job. In past years, it has gotten shoulder high before starting to remove it, but now that the snow blower is back, I don't need to shovel walks around the inn. I might as well shovel the roof to keep the upper body in shape.

Clearing snow from a roof at the inn. Click to enlarge..

Lots of other things have taken place over the last couple of days besides snow removal which have kept me off my computer. Of course we have been out skiing in the new snow... that is a given. I was able to bracket a meeting at the Killington Grand Hotel on Monday on the Killington Wine Festival with an hour of skiing before and 2 hours after. (Including a couple of passes at skiing across the bridge between the Killington Grand and the Snowshed Base Lodge.) The Wine Festival will be the subject of future posts (Tenth Annual this year! July 22 thru 24, 2011)

Monday's excursion on the snow was punctuated with multiple high speed loops on Superstar. From 9:00AM to 9:45AM I was clocking in loops at about 6 1/2 minutes up and down Superstar. I had a knapsack on with my meeting material. Once the ticket checker figured out what I was doing, I was waved thru each time to keep my speed up. Fortunately (for me, not for the resort) there were not many other people skiing Superstar at the time.

Frozen Arctic air has descended on Killington Click to enlarge..

Today, Mary and I skied out of the car at the Snowdon Quad. Very cold air had descended on Killington. Temperatures this morning while we were out were in the single digits. That did not stop us from enjoying the resort, but it did keep us covered up from head to toe all morning.

We did a typical loop off the backside of Killington Peak over to Bear Mountain. The resort had groomed most of the trails to capture the fluff that had fallen overnight. We observed many drifts that were waist high or better in places. Hitting them was pretty much an instant stop, unless you were able to cant your skis airborne to ride over them.

The flat and fast grooming was great for cruising, but I also sought out some powder. Upper Dream Maker had not been groomed. I was not on my powder skis, choosing my all mountain skis from my quiver this morning. On Dream Maker that was a mistake. I got about a 3rd of the way down before I augured in. As the trail was not groomed, I got caught between two bumps buried by snow. About waist deep. I needed to figure out how to kick off my skis and swim out of the hole. It took me a while as Mary waited patiently for me at the junction of Dream Maker and Sky Burst (she went around upper Dream Maker). Once I righted myself, it still took a little work to get down. The snow was a little slabby. Every time I was on the down side of a buried bump, a mini avalanche would get started. But it was worth the excursion off groomed terrain to try to challenge the mountain.

A few more runs off the Sky Ship and we called it a day. I looped Superstar a couple of times, while Mary chose to do a Bitter Road before heading back to the car. Superstar on skiers left was groomed chunky and ski racer firm. There were a few wind blown areas, but overall the snow accepted edges nicely. On my bonus run (while Mary was waiting), I went down skiers right. The surface was covered with a couple of inches of soft powder, most likely blown over from the left side of the trail. Cruising on 2 inches of soft velvet was a nice way to finish the morning on the mountain, before heading back to the inn for another snow removal session.

.....Let it snow!

Ben ready to take flight on the Super Pipe at Bear Mountain 

With the exception of some of the epic powder days I can take advantage of because I live in Killington, today was the day. Probably in the top 5 non powder ski days in the last several years.

The morning was filled with bright sunshine and moderately chilly temperatures. Even though it was in the low teens, the bright sunshine at Bear Mountain made it seem warm.

Runs of the day were all over the place...Probably the best in bright sunshine was Royal Flush. Beautiful, well organized, soft bumps the whole length of the trail. And the bright sunshine is such a bonus on the Killington Basin side of the resort.

The surprise run of the day was Ridge Run (formerly known as West Glade). Feet of soft snow covered the trail. Soft bumps, with no icy troughs to be found anywhere, made Ridge Run a do over. I was skiing with 4 other guys on this trail. We all formed a single line, about a skier length apart, just cutting a line down the trail. Straight out of your favorite ski movie. It is not often that we even ski this trail, so to have it be a do over is just a testament to how great the snow is right now at the Killington Resort.

Superbowl Sunday usually sees reduced crowds at Killington. With more snow in the forecast for tomorrow afternoon, it is a great time to be out on the mountain.

....Let it snow!

Stash woods....lots of snow! 

I am definitely getting old... my legs are just burnt out!

Beautiful soft snow was the order of the day at Killington. Whether your choice was a groomer, a bumps run, au natural, or the woods, all you could find today was beautiful soft snow. (If you overlook the snow making whales on Superstar.)

I skied from the car today, starting at the Snow Shed Quad. Being by myself today, I was not too adventurous, but there was plenty of good stuff to be found lying around almost anywhere. I started my day on Upper Royal Flush. It seemed like a good choice, but once in it I had my concerns. The trail was covered with about 6 to 8 inches of new snow, but wind overnight created this slabtastic crust. The legs got pushed around a little, which given the shallow pitch of the trails was interesting in itself. Fortunately, this was the only trail which exhibited this type of surface.

All the traditional trails on Snowdon were well snow covered. On even the simplest groomed run, moguls were developing in the soft snow.

On the other side of the mountain, there was plenty of fun to be had in the Stash. The Stash Woods were in great shape. Lower down on the stash, the soft snow was bumping up on some of the features favored by skiers. Many boarders in the Stash today used the soft surfaces as an opportunity to get some air off the jumps. I doubt the soft snow created a softer landing zone, but psychologically it must have as there were a lot of people taking air today.

Upper Dream Maker, Old Needles Eye, and Vertigo were all bumps. Needles Eye and Cruise Control were your typical groomed cruisers, except the grooming did not stick. Skier traffic quickly broke up the surface into small snow bumps requiring the average skier or rider to make a turn or three.

I finished out on Old Superstar. Beautiful soft snow filled with soft, sub-knee height bumps. The bumps are all natural, but they were really spaced well; a testament to the quality of the skiers taking Old Superstar. You could get a nice rhythm on it.

Following Old Superstar, I tracked tight down skiers left on Superstar. Huge, hard, whales of snow mound the trail, the result of days of snow blowing. Some of the whales are approaching the height of the lift towers. Soft snow accumulated in the troughs to the left of the whales, which set up a nice bump run to the bottom. These bumps were not as well organized, so you needed to pick and choose your line a little more carefully. But why would you ski on a section of groomed flat trail when there is all this new snow to play in?

We finished up with a net gain in snow of 8 3/4 inches for this storm. Not epic, but with the snow at the stake now over 2 feet, it looks like we will have great skiing and riding for a long while to come.

....Let it snow!

Shoveling snow with my Ariens Snow Blower - NOT! 

Heavy snow spread across the Killington region last night, following up a small clipper system that passed through the area late yesterday afternoon. To listen to the weather forecasters, you would think that a snowy version of Armageddon was going to take place today. While the snow fall has been significant, at least at Killington the total amount thus far has not lived up to the hype generated on weather channels great and small.

At 11:00AM this morning, the snow stake at the inn stood at 24 inches. This is a net increase of 6 1/2 inches from the Monday reading of 17 1/2 inches. The snow stake reads the actual snow on the ground, not the snow accumulated by any individual storm (except for the first storm of course!). 6 1/2 inches of net new snow read at the the inn's snow stake could translate into several more inches of snow measured on a virgin snow measuring platform used to measure snow fall from individual storms. In addition, snow accumulations on Killington Peak are also usually larger to due elevation increase. The snow stake at the inn is at 1850 feet, whereas the peak of Killington is 4241 feet.

While it is fun to know the total snow fall amounts from individual storms, the total snow on the ground is the real number that is important to skiers and riders.

You will notice in todays picture I am using my 2 year old 9HP Ariens snow blower to move the snow around....NOT. The snow blower was purchased from Home Depot in Rutland in December 2008. The snow blower came with a 3 year warranty. Ariens warranty policy for purchases from Home Depot was to return the product to Home Depot, which I did on December 29th, 2010. Home Depot in Rutland sent the snow blower to a repair depot in Massachusetts, where it still sits waiting for a part from Ariens, which was supposed to ship from the factory on January 31st. At least I am getting some good exercise on my upper body to keep it strong for golf this summer. You have to look at life from the bright side...so it goes!

....Let it snow!

Snow making operations in full swing on Superstar 

We made it through the entire month of January with the ground being continuously covered with snow. Other than a brief warm up on New Years, we barely had a hint of a January thaw, resulting in great ski conditions all month....and what a month it has been!

Today on the mountain, the sun made a spectacular appearance with barely a cloud in the sky. Of course, the penalty for bright sunshine this time of year is usually cold temperatures. While not bitterly cold, when we started the day skiing (at the crack of 9) the temperatures were in the single digits. But with little breeze and bright sunshine, it was quite a nice day to be on the mountain.

Today we did an excursion on a broad number of trails, ranging from the North Ridge area, to Highline, to Outer Limits and everything in between. Cold temperatures tightened up the surfaces on most trails, leaving groomed packed powder as the order of the day. Depending upon when the trail was groomed, there was anywhere from a dusting to a couple of inches of light fluff to be found on most trails.

Some trails were beautiful, fast cruisers. Highline, Bitter Sweet and Cruise control come to mind. Some trails were a little crunchy with some golf ball sized relics of grooming left on the trails to play with. Outer Limits, Lower Wildfire, and Upper Sky Lark all featured little chunks that required a turn or three. Others were just a mid winter lark. Dream Maker with the new terrain features was just sweet.

Snow making operations are ongoing at various places around the mountain. The most visible is on Superstar. The snow banks are starting to approach the tops of some of the lift stanchions. With tripod mounted guns and tower guns all going at the same time, the resort is being really serious to cover Superstar in a lot of snow while the weather cooperates.

You will find a picture galleries of some shots of todays excursion around the mountain, before my camera battery froze, on the Birch Ridge Inn's Facebook page. The todays gallery is located under Ski day at Killington, January 31, 2011..

Meanwhile, we are all holding our breath watching the weather forecast. The first storm predicted for the area is supposed to move in tomorrow. It should be a light, fluffy, powder storm given the cold temperatures. On Wednesday, forecasters are calling for Killington to hit the jackpot. Of course, this is New England. Forecasts tend on the capricious side, so all bets are off till we measure the snow stake on Thursday morning.

In the meantime... let it snow!

Ruts and Gary exiting the Super Pipe at Bear Mountain 

It took a while, but Killington is back together after the Dew Tour.

The mega-features for the slopestyle events on Skye Burst have been removed. In their place are some of the biggest piles of snow on Skye Burst you will ever see. Skiing well into the spring should be a lock.

All of the hits that were on Skye Burst have now been moved to lower Dream Maker. A full park has been set up with the usual assortment of boxes, rails, and jumps. The park was open this morning and it was in great shape.

Overall ski conditions today featured groomed packed powder. Most of the trails had seen grooming overnight. Snow surfaces were soft, especially at the edges of the trails. Un-groomed trails, like Lower Sky Lark were firm with slick spots. I was able to negotiate lower Sky Lark quite easily (well tuned equipment plus multiple ski days on my legs), but I did see a few visitors having some problems getting down the trail.

Snow making was actively taking place on Upper Wildfire and Superstar. A lot of snow was being laid down on both trails.

Outer Limits was probably the run of the day for my short time on the mountain. A low cloud made the visibility at the entrance a little tough, but once you were below it the trail was a soft, steep groomer. I held a line down skiers right where snowmaking was taking place earlier in the week. Really nice snow.

Light snow is currently falling at Killington as I write this. We don't anticipate much, but it will keep the area looking fresh and skiing fun..so....Let it snow!