US Snowboarding Grand Prix Venue at Bear Mountain 

This weekend, Killington hosts the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Bear Mountain. The resort is expecting 100 world champions and olympic calibre snow boarders to participate in this years event.

Vermont natives Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter are scheduled to compete. Clark is returning as the Grand Prix champ going into this weekends event.

The resort has Bear Mountain prepared to greet competitors. The Superpipe on Lower Dream Maker was reshaped with considerable effort over the last 2 weeks. The pipe is 430 feet long with 22 foot high walls to meet olympic specifications. Prize money for pipe competitors totals $56,000 with $14,000 going to both the men's and women's champion.

Lower Sky Burst is set up for the Paul Mitchell Progression Session Slopestyle competition. The event, which features competitors performing on rails, boxes, and numerous large and small jumps sports a purse valued at $30,000. The top prize for the men's and women's competition in $7,500.

The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Killington is sponsored by Sprint. Competition starts today with halfpipe qualification this morning. On Saturday, the Paul Mitchell Progression Session slopestyle qualification begins at 9 a.m. Assuming the weather forecast for a beautiful sunny day holds true, the halfpipe finals will take place at 1 p.m Saturday. The slopestyle finals will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. American ska band Reel Big Fish is scheduled to perform at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday at Bear Mountain to provide late afternoon entertainment.

With lots of snow for skiing and riding at the rest of the resort, it should make for a fun weekend at Killington.... Let it snow!

Killington Village Plan heading to permit stage 

It has been a week since I have been out on the slopes of Killington, having been laid low first by a big bubble of work and then by a late season cold. I am looking forward to some spring skiing. We have always found the weeks around St. Patrick's day (March 17) offer the best combination of snow conditions and temperatures at Killington. With that in mind, Mary and I have high expectations for being on the slopes next week.

Last night, Mary and I attended an open house at the Killington Grand Hotel hosted by Steve Selbo and S.P. Land Company. Steve has been working quite diligently these last few years to create a Master Plan to develop the area at the base of the resort. While there have been fits and starts, Steve's company, S.P. Land intends to file permit requests with the town of Killington in the next 30 days or so to seek approval to go forward with a plan which will ultimately result in construction of a village at the base of Killington.

S.P. Land's application for plan approval by the town is but the first step in what will be a multi-year process. After the town approves the plan request, the process switches to the State of Vermont and the Act 250 land use hearings. Once approved by the State, individual permits will need to be filed for each area to be developed.

From last nights presentation, S.P. Land will be proposing in their permit application to develop the Killington Village over 5 phases. From start to finish, the effort will take and estimated 18-20 years to complete. Phase 1 timing, which includes a new base lodge between Rams Head and Snow Shed, may take 6 to 7 years to complete, including 3 to 6 months for town approval, 2 (or more) years for Act 250 approvals, and 4 years of construction.

All in all, the village development is an ambitious project. But it is also a very strong signal that the resort owners of Killington are both in it for the long haul, and committed to make substantial investments in the resort.

Later in the evening, when we were safely back at the inn, I experienced one of those paradoxes that only modern living can provide. About 10:45 PM the Killington area experienced a generalized power failure. At the time, I was sitting in the Great Room of the inn reading this months Scientific American. The article was on Albert Einstein and Quantum Weirdness. (My friends see copies of Scientific American around the inn all the time. They kid me about reading it... but in the end, I am a geek after all.)

Of course not wanting a little thing like a power failure to cause me to miss out on some reading, I dutifully went into our restaurant and got one of our oil lamps. When lit, it caste enough light to allow me to finish reading the article. Of course the paradox is that Albert Einstein wrote his special theory on relatively in Berne Switzerland over a hundred years ago, 1905 to be exact, probably by the light of an oil lamp. Proving once again that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

By the way... CVPS restored power to the area around 4 AM this morning... Let it snow!

New snow around the Birch Ridge Inn 

I have been laying low the last few days. We have been lucky in this economy to have a very busy inn. Combined that with a nagging shoulder injury and a slight cold, the net effect is that sleep has been at a premium over the last week or so. But the cold will take care of itself, a MRI is scheduled to peek at the shoulder, and the winter season will be winding down at Killington in the next 6 to 8 weeks...it all will come full circle....so it goes!

Snow has returned to Killington today. Warm weather the last week has eaten at the snow pack, but not today. About 4 inches of the white stuff has fallen thus far, with a couple more inches expected before the little clipper system hugging the southern New England coast clears out of the area. Even with the warm weather of last week there is still a foot and a half of natural snow around the inn. Much more snow is still on the mountain, setting up the resort to enjoy a nice long spring skiing and riding season.

Last week, I had one of those AH HA moments. As many of you know, I use Apple computers almost exclusively around the inn. (I do have a copy of Microsoft Vista installed on a IMAC running in a Fusion virtual environment to allow running financial software, and a copy of Windows 2000 running on an old Dell for web site testing...but that's it.) Last spring, I purchased an Ipod Touch to use as a netbook to allow access to email and our web applications while we travelled on vacation. It works great in that application as along as you have access to a WiFi signal, which is basically everywhere. But I have never used it as an "Ipod" for music.

Last weekend we hosted a surprise 60th birthday party for one of our friends. I received a packet of photo's about our friend to put together a compilation to run on the television in our Great Room. I had done this before for some other friends in a pre-ipod time...scanning all of the pictures into my computer, stringing them together into a video, dubbing in music, cutting a dvd....All quite doable with the technology of 5 years ago.

I still needed to scan the photo's into my computer...but this time around instead of creating a movie, I took advantage of Apples IPhoto and ITunes to automatically create a slide show dubbed to music from my music library. I connected the IPod into our audio visual system with a RGB cable with audio. Voila... Pictures of our friend for his 60th birthday on TV complimented with music though the sound system. Nothing earth shaking here, mind you. It just worked! And that's the whole point.

When I got the IPod Touch almost a year ago, I did not really get the IPod phenomenon. I consider myself very technically savvy, so I did not view the technology as much of a big deal. But having a real world opportunity which caused me to put every piece of the puzzle together, not just some fun mashup for personal entertainment, I get it!

Now if everything else just worked as well.......Let it snow!

"The Canyon" at Killington. The junction of Double Dipper, Down Draft, Cascades, and East Fall from the Canyon Quad. 

With Town Meeting Day on Tuesday behind us, today was the day for many Killington residents to head out on the mountain. And a beautiful day it was! Temperatures were in the low 20's; the wind was light; and sunshine was at near 100% with just a few high clouds drifting over Killington peak.

Snow surfaces across Killington consisted of a very firm base covered by a 2 to 3 inch layer of machine groomed loose granular over most of the trails. Trails that were not groomed overnight were fairly slick hardback and not very appetizing.

A lot of the mountain was closed off today for a variety of reasons. At Bear Mountain, Lower SkyBurst , Lower Dream Maker and the Super Pipe were closed to allow the resort team time to build the course for the US Snowboarding Grand Prix. The Grand Prix will take place at the Killington Resort on March 13, 14 and 15. In addition to the closures at Bear Mountain, Needles Eye was set up for race training, and ski bum races were being held on High Line, limiting some of the available terrain. 100% sunshine and moderate temperatures more than compensated for the trail closures, however, as the rest of the mountain was fully open.

Super Star, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark, High Road, Dream Maker, Skye Burst, Bear Claw and Lower Wildfire were all in good shape. Upper Wildfire was not groomed and very "interesting" One of my turns went through a 270 degree rotation before coming to a stop on what can only be called blue ice. Needless to say, Upper Wildfire was not a do over. Outer Limits also looked very firm and unforgiving. The bright sun probably softened it up during the afternoon, but when we were at Bear Mountain before 10 it did not beckon a second look.

On the Killington Peak side of the resort, the sun has returned. The trilogy of Cascades, Double Dipper, and East Falls were very fast cruisers, each worthy of do overs in the late winter sun. They were made all the more tempting because the Canyon Quad was running today.

The North Ridge area and Snowdon were also nicely groomed. I did take a peak at North Star and Great Bear, but the do overs in the Canyon left me with too little time to do any exploring off the Snowdon Quad.

200 local residents attended yesterdays town meeting in Killington. The meeting was relatively uneventful, with the exception of the election of a new select board member. Sitting Selectmen Norm Holcomb was defeated in his re-election attempt by Chris Bianchi. Norm had served as a selectman in Killington for the last 9 years. While Killington Voters wanted a change, I also know from speaking with many of them that they thank Norm for his long service to the community.

Also at town meeting, both the School and Town budgets easily passed. The newly formed Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) committee gave their first formal report on their organizational activities. And there was some discussion on servicing of debt for the Green Mountain National Golf Course. Overall, however, it was a very tame town meeting by recent Killington standards.

Until the next time........Let it snow!

Superstar Lift Line, 9:00 AM 

An old fashioned Nor'Easter has traveled up the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States whipping snow and moderate winds into Killington today. Snowfall accumulations are light, in the 2 to 4 inch range, with blowing and drifting snow the order of the day. Total snow accumulation in the Killington area is still in doubt. Different forecasts are predicting different results. It all depends upon how quickly the storm departs the Gulf of Maine, and how much wrap around snow builds up in the Green Mountains. We will see for sure tomorrow morning.

Mary and I did have a chance to get on Killington today to take some turns. For the most part, surfaces were firm with and inch or 2 of new snow cover. Skier traffic on the mountain started very light today, probably the result of the blowing and drifting snow keeping ski week vacationers in their lodging facilities a little longer than normal today. By 11 AM the mountain seemed like it had its normal mid week crowd.

The run of the day was definitely Dream Maker from the top. Dream Maker was groomed relatively flat with 3 to 4 inches of new snow drifting onto the top section. The terrain park in the lower section was also well covered new snow resulting is a soft surface.

On the "Business" side of the resort, there are a couple of things to note. First, tomorrow, Tuesday March 3rd, is "Town Meeting" day in Vermont. The Killington Town Meeting will commence at 10:00 AM at the Sherburne Elementary School. A copy of the town meeting warrant can be found on the town of Killingtons' website.

The second item to cross my desk today is that the Killington Resort announced their season pass prices for the 2009/2010 season. Pass pricing can be found on Killintons' website.

Several important items to note about todays season pass announcement from Killington. The first is the length of the ski season: "...A Killington season pass includes Pico Mountain and is valid from early November through early May, weather and snow conditions permitting..." For the last 2 years, the Killington resort has quoted the season pass as being valid through early April. Early season closing was viewed by many as being a mistake which caused damage to the historic Killington Brand of being the "First to Open, Last to Close" for skiing in the eastern United States. The return of skiing and riding into early May will help restore Killingtons reputation for quality skiing and riding through our the whole season.

The second item to note is that "Unlimited season pass holders receive a 30-percent savings off KillingtonÕs popular Max 5 ChildrenÕs Ski and Snowboard School Programs." When Powdr bought into the resort as the resort operator, one of the changes they instituted was a significant price increase on children's programs, which impacted many season pass holder families. Since children of current skiers and riders are the future of the overall ski industry, the price change for children's programs for season pass holders is another positive step........Let it snow!

Snow removal from back roof of Birch Ridge Inn 

Sunday and Mondays snow dump yielded some great ski days earlier this week. Locals and guests alike enjoyed what Mother Nature gave us. But while guests are still playing on the slopes, work is going on all around town to clean up from the storm and, dare I say, get ready for the next.

In virtually every business around town, front end loaders, snow plows, or snow blowers have been used to move back mountains of snow. Many people, yours truly included, have also been out removing snow from building roofs using a variety of implements. On our flat roofs, I have a nice 3 foot wide scoop to push the snow. For steeper sections, I have a roof rake with 18 feet of extensions

As they say, life is full of trade offs. When it comes to moving piles of snow, you do what you have to do, so that the next time you can go out and play in the snow again!....Let it snow!

Which line do I take?
Or should it be the untracked
down the right side?
Larry (Ruts) at tbe base of Highline 

The snow stake on yesterdays post should have been the give away. The last 2 days at Killington were "epic" to use a superlative. As good a two day stretch of fresh powder as we get here in Vermont.

Yesterday, skiing and riding was in a full white out with blowing and drifting snow on the mountain all morning long. Today, while there was still plenty of wind, the sun was blazing revealing all kinds of sweet lines through the snow.

The run of the day, for those not interested in trees, was probably Upper Royal Flush to Highline. Upper Royal Flush was knee to waist deep powder with plenty of fresh untracked lines. Highline was covered in some of the nicest, deepest, powder bumps you would ever want to ski. Easily waist high in places. And you had a choice... you could either bump off them or blast through them....there were nice, soft, and very forgiving.

Our day today started on the K1 for a run down Cascade. Cascade was ungroomed, powder, bumps with many places suffering from wind blown compaction. Turns were earned, in a fun way, as the Cascade was very soft.

At Bear Mountain, Wildfire was soft bumps from top to bottom. Upper Wildfire looked like there was one pass of grooming on skiers right. Skiers left was monster soft bumps. Some of the back side troughs were a little slick, but there was really no reason to be there other than bouncing bump to bump. Bear Trap to Bear Claw was basically groomed from top to bottom. It was very soft. On a Saturday, it would have significantly bumped up, but because skier traffic was light, the trail was staying fairly flat. Upper Dream Maker had sections of untracked powder on the edges with big soft bumps down the middle. Cruise Control was groomed out, although probably before it had stopped snowing as it still was well covered and untracked in spots. Needles Eye was ungroomed. We did not have a chance to ski it, but from the Skyship it looked like people were having fun cruising through the pow.

Back on the Killington side of the mountain the Superstar Quad was down due to wind (it was howling). So it was one run down Sky Lark and in. Upper Skye Lark was groomed, probably to capture the snow from the wind. Lower Skye Lark was huge bumps on skiers left, with smaller versions down the right side.

All in all, two great ski days...and we are not yet into March!....Let it snow!