Covered Carriageway at Birch Ridge Inn 

I am not sure what Dr. King would have thought if he knew that his crusade for equality for all would result in ski resorts in Vermont being crowded in his honor. But then again, I am not sure that the crowds know who Dr. Martin Luther King is as well. Such is the strange world we live in.

Mary and I have been very busy thus far this weekend with guests at the inn. Last night we hosted the traditional MLK Weekend mixer for the Killington Ski Club in our great room. This was the 3rd year in a row for this event which raises money to support the Ski Club's activities. Because of the number of people who attend the function each year(over 100 last night), we bring in extra staff and enlist the help of friends to support the event. For the third year in a row, our friend Larry has been with me out in the cold doing parking lot duty. Parking lot duty probably is right up there for worst job at the inn. But this year the weather cooperated nicely, the temperature was a crisp 28 degrees, there was little wind, and we saw an occasional snow flurry. Much nicer than prior years. Anyways... Thank you Larry for your help once again!

Today at the inn, other than cleaning up from last night, we are getting ready for what may be the first real snow storm of the season. Depending upon whose forecast you shop, we are either going to get a couple of inches or a foot. I like the idea of a foot of new snow, so that is the forecast I choose to believe. Hopefully I am not delusional. After all, we are all allowed to have a dream. Let it snow!

Mary at K1 Base Lodge getting ready for skiing. 

This morning, our chef, Stephen, came in and covered the inn while Mary and I went out on the mountain. Like Tuesday, when we arrived at the K1 Base Lodge, there were very few people in attendance. And also like Tuesday, the skiing was great! All week long we have a continuous snow flurry. It has not amounted to much, as the snow is basically compressing to the ground at the rate it is snowing. But when you combine the natural snow with all of the snow making the resort has been doing, you wind up with great conditions.

Freestyle Park set up on Bear Trap.

Our day started out on the Superstar Chair heading over the Bear Mountain. Killington peak was covered in clouds. Skye Peak was in the sun. The local joke that Bear Mountain is warmer because it is closer to the equator was the early morning mantra, so off we went. Over the last couple of days, Killington has been building a freestyle park on Upper Bear Trap. I did a few hits on some of the ramps, nothing crazy mind you, but the park is set up for some fun so why not. The snow surface was meticuliously groomed packed powder. Really nice.

We then took the Skye Peak Chair (Outer Limits is no where near ready to open) for a run down Skyeburst. The resort has made a lot of snow on upper Skyeburst. It had not been groomed out yet. While it was quite carveable, it was a little on the crusty side. If there were more people at the resort to ski it, the crust would break up nicely and the trail would have been great. My guess is that the resort will groom this out overnight for the weekend resulting in a nice packed powder surface.

Mary in motion at Rams Head

After Syeburst, we headed to Cruise Control. It was really nice. The Needles Eye chair was running, as it usually is on a Friday, so we did a half dozen loops on Cruise, and Bittersweet. We looked at Needles Eye itself, but it had the same appearance as Syeburst. From the lift you could see people breaking through the crust, so we took a pass. I will give the resort a lot of credit, however, as Needles Eye was completely covered with snow. On Tuesday the trail was just ugly looking, but the resort has spent a lot of time all week to be able to get it into shape for the weekend.

Lone skier on Needles Eye

We then decide to just cruise around the mountain to get a grasp of conditions. As innkeepers, we do spend a fair amount of time advising our guests on where to ski. With the busy weekend coming up, we felt a little reconnaissance was in order. We decided to go down Bittersweet to Snowshed via High Road. From Snowshed, we cut under the Killington Road and went to Rams Head. We did a couple of runs under the Rams Head lift. Conditions were very nice..just right for wide cruising turns.

Sky Ship in the clouds on Cascade

To end the day we went over to Snowdon. Mary headed to the base lodge, I went up to North Ridge, formerly the Glades and did a loop. I finished up on Cascade. Other than cloud cover on the top quarter of Cascades, the trail was superb. Beautiful soft packed powder just great for ripping turns. The headwall on Cascades was in good shape as well. A couple of scratchy spots, but if the Canyon Quad was running, Cascade would have been a definite do over!

All in all a nice morning to ski. Not a blue bird day with bright sunshine and 3 feet of face shot powder mind you, but still a very nice day on the mountain. Let it snow!

Panorama of Killington,
Thursday January 11, 2006, 11:15 AM 

All around town today, people are getting ready for the important Martin Luther King birthday weekend. Historically, this is one of the busiest weekends at the Killington resort. The resort is pulling out all of the stops to make sure that guests to the area enjoy great skiing and riding.

Even though our friends to the south have been experiencing warmer weather the last couple of days, at Killington temperatures have allowed for round the clock snow making conditions. Temperatures have been in the 20's all week, dipping into the single digits at night. Last night it was 5 degrees at the inn around midnight.

This morning snowmaking was visible in the Needles Eye area, on Snowshed, Rams Head, Snowdon and on the Peak. When you add in the fact that we have also had several inches of lake effect snow, the whole mountain has once again been transformed, covered in a fluffy white blanket.

Over the last couple of days I have not had a chance to get out. (I have been helping another business with a computer network installation.) But our inn guests are reporting very good skiing and riding on packed powder surfaces. I plan on getting out in the morning on Friday and I will get some pictures from around the mountain. In the mean time.... think snow!

Snowmen making appearance at Birch Ridge 

The end of the holiday season is upon us this week at the inn. All week long we have been taking down the holiday decorations; packing up the Christmas tree ornaments; vacuuming up pine needles and tinsel. The good news, of course, is that while all this is happening, we have been getting a steady snow fall in the area all week. Classic lake effect snow blowing across NY state from the Great Lakes and winding up coming down on Killington. It has made everything in the area look nice and white.

Now that the holiday season is through, the inn is being invaded by snowmen. Each year at this time, they reappear all over the inn. By the end of the week, several hundred should be out to greet visitors to the inn over the Martin Luther King birthday weekend. Now if we could get a real snow man outside!

Killington Peak.
Covered in snow once again! 

Last night when I went to bed at 2:30 AM, I set my alarm for 8:00 AM so I would get up and go skiing. I was not expecting very much when I went to sleep. There was a little precipitation falling from the sky, but it was not supposed to amount to much. So you can imagine how surprised I was this morning when I woke up and saw the grounds of the inn covered with 2 to 3 inches of beautiful, sweet, white gold, er... snow.

Killington base lodge at 8:45. Where is everybody?

I rushed to put my ski gear on, wanting to get up on the mountain to catch the first chair. When I got to the mountain, I was in for my second shock of the day. There was no one there! I usually meet all kinds of people at the base lodge in the morning. Usually there are 20-30 locals I know always there, looking for someone to take a few runs with. But at 8:45 AM the base lodge was empty... vancant, no one... very weird... everyone must have rolled over and gone back to bed.

Unsure of the snow surfaces because of the weather at Killington the last couple of days, I went over the the K1 Gondola to take a few runs on the North Ridge trails, formerly known as the Glades. It happened again. Was I still asleep and this was just a dream???

Rime. Untracked powder... No one in sight!

When I skied off the gondola. There were a few college kids fooling around with their equipment at the peak. I skied off towards Rime. I did the courteous skier routine and stopped before entering the trail. Looking up slope I was shocked. Fresh untracked powder. Untouched except for the snow mobile track on skiers right which brought the lifty to his post at the top lift house. Wierd and wonderful at the same time. I did 2 runs on Rime. The surface conditions were 3 inches of light powder on top of a loose machine groomed base. The runs were just classic carving runs. Very exhilarating in a positive way. (read no ice any where to be found... just great edge-able snow with a light powder coating.)

Skiers coming down Great Northern at the top of Cascade

After Rime, I popped over to Cascade. The surface conditions were basically the same, although by the time I had gotten there a half a dozen skiers and riders had already come through. Unlike last Thursday, when Cascade was covered with soft snow from new snow making, Killington had groomed Cascade over night to spread the base around. The base had not had a chance to ice up before it started to snow last night, so the 3 to 4 inches of powder on top just made Cascade fun. No face shots of powder, mind you, just a very consistent soft surface great for carving sweeping turns and kicking up rooster tails.

Snow Shed has snow again!

After Cascade, I took the Snowdon Quad for a run over on Bunny Buster. Again nice. I then boosted over the Peak on the K1 and headed to Bear Mountain. Unfortunately, Mother Nature was not as kind to the Bear side of Killington; after all it is closer to the equator. When I got there, Bear Trap was closed. The rope was down on Bear Claw but that looked sketchy. So I went over to Cruise Control. Cruise Control was in ok shape on skiers left. A lot of exposed rock on skiers right. Needles Eye was closed. They will be starting all over again there with new snow making. I then took several runs down Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet off of the Superstar Chair. Snow making operations were in full swing on both trails, with big mounds of man made snow all over the place. After a couple of runs through the guns, I decided to call it quits.

I have since decided that I was not dreaming this morning (the camera had pictures in it to prove I was on the mountain), so I would like to thank all of you for your snow dances. Great Results this morning! But don't stop! We need more help. So Keep Dancing!

Killington. Battle damaged by Mother Nature....but fighting back! 

Of course I am dating myself, but many people still remember an old tv commercial for a margarine (do people still eat margarine?) where the tag line went "It's not nice to fool mother nature!." Well what about declaring open war!

I have been laid low for a couple of days with a nasty bronchial condition. A little gift no doubt from a Christmas guest. The weather the last couple of days I can only say has been awful, so being holed up at the inn was not necessarily a bad thing. But when I went to the mountain this morning, I did not know wether to cry or to cheer.

if you take a look at today's lead picture, a photo of Killington Peak from the Upper Snowshed parking lot, and compare it to the picture I took from the same place on January 3rd you will understand why crying would be in order. The damage done to the ski slopes by 36 hours of temperatures in the high 50's with a warm r@!n that sounded more typical of an August thunderstorm downpour than light spring showers is just incredible to look at.

Snowshed showing damage on skiers right.

Looking across the parking lot to the Showshed slope displays the total carnage suffered due to this weird weather we are having. But then I took a drive up to the main K1 base lodge and my optimism increased. I felt like cheering!

The Killington Resort is expending a huge amount of resources fighting to stay open. In reality, it is a fight for the life of the resort, as the last couple of winters have not been too kind to Killington.

Snow Guns Firing on Killington Peak

But when I got to the K1 Base Lodge, with the temperature in my car reading 38 degrees, I saw Killington firing snow guns all over the top of the mountain. A solid string of snow guns was firing from the K1 Gondola station at the peak, down through the North Ridge Area, building up the ski surface at the peak for the season still ahead of us. Killington was basically re-starting the ski season. I went back to a previous blog entry posted on December 2nd, and found almost the exact same picture (avec dog). Talk about deja vu all over again.

Snow Guns Firing at the junction of East Fall and Rime

I give the Killington team a lot of credit for continuing to fight this weird winter. We all know that there have been bad winters before.... but this one seems exceptional (or is that because we are living it now!). It would be very easy for the resort to throw up their hands and give up. But so far they are not. The resort seems fully engaged to continue to provide the best on snow product they can, even if it means open warfare with Mother Nature.

Mountain on fire at sunset!

One final note on this weird weather. Late yesterday afternoon the atmosphere was highly saturated with water vapor. Just at sunset, the mountains took on a eerie glow. The clouds and the sun and the moisture in the air cast a strange light on the mountain peaks to the east of the inn. The whole mountain ridge line was glowing in a strange orange. It looked like the whole mountain top was on fire, which was highly improbable given the downpours we had experienced all day. It was just another sign of this weird winter.

The good news in all of this is that while a significant snow storm is not anticipated this week, temperatures at Killington should allow for continuous snow making on the mountain. How long Killington's snow making budget will last is any one's guess. So where every you may be this week... think cold thoughts... think snow! We need the help!

Mary at the junction of Cruise Control and Great Eastern 

Conditions are softening up at Killington.

Yesterday we had a chance to take some turns on the hill. Killington has done a great job making snow all over the mountain. Our journey took us to Bear Mountain, Skye Peak, SnowShed, Rams Head, Snowdon, and Kpeak. Everywhere we went, we found nice surfaces of loose machine made snow.

My run of the day was Cascade. Killington had been blowing snow all week on Cascade. It had not been groomed. It was filled with fairly regular, nice soft bumps. My legs are not yet in great ski shape (as we have not been out enough), so Cascade was a work out... but it was also both challenging and fun.

Today, while I have not been out, I would expect that surfaces have softened up quite a bit more. We had some liquid precipitation last night, which reduced the snow around the inn. I would say that the same held true on the mountain. Temperatures are not expected to dip much below freezing the next couple of days, so I would guess that skiing this weekend will be on soft surfaces resembling spring conditions. Assuming the showers stay away, it should be pretty good.

The next snow in the forecast is for early next week. Crank up your snow dances... we could use the help!