Snow guns blasting Superstar
Sunday January 13, 2008, 12:45 PM 

The great news is that we had a very busy weekend. We had a really nice group of people at our inn who were in Killington to hold a surprise 40th birthday party for one of our restaurant guests. That, and a DSL service outage kept me away from my normal posting routine.

Currently at Killington, we are experiencing fairly heavy snowfall. Surface conditions on the mountain, as reported by our Chef Frizzie from his morning tour, range from firm and slick to heavy and slow. If you are on a trail where the wind is scouring the trail, you are down to the hard pack. If you are in an area of windblown drifts, you are hitting heavy bumps. We are expecting almost a foot of snow at Killington today. I would presume as accumulations continue to build up, that the surface conditions should get more consistent and improve. I plan on getting out tomorrow for some first hand observations. As of 12 noon today, about 3 inches of new snow has accumulated at the snow stake at the inn.

Over the last couple of days, the January Thaw appears to have broken. Saturday and Sunday saw Killington resume snow making operations to resurface terrain impacted by last weeks r@*n and unseasonably warm temperatures. Yesterday, snow guns were very visible blowing snow on many trails on the Killington Peak side of the mountain. The picture of the guns on Superstar give an indication of the quantity of snow that the resort was trying to make.

Birch Ridge Inn under orange glow near sunset January 11, 2008 4:30 PM (Click to enlarge)

Last weeks weather finally broke late Friday with an incredible orange glow on the mountain. Just before sunset, I captured a really nice picture of our inn bathed in orange light. The remnants of the days ice storm are clearly visible in the parking lot in front of the inn. The inn, although the web picture might not clearly reveal it, was covered in about an inch of ice. The whole inn just glowed orange with the setting sun behind it.

Today, of course, the scene is changing by the hour. The inn is back to snow covered. Winter is back at Killington.

Let it snow!

Highline with ice covered trees 

if your other choice is a hot r@*n at a ski resort in Vermont in January.

Call me crazy, but with the weather that Killington has endured this week, the 1 inch coating of ice which we have outside the inn right now is at least frozen. The trees look pretty; although I have gone out a couple of times to knock the ice off of straining Birch trees around the inn. The inn looks nice, all bathed in an icy coating with icicles everywhere. The snow melt has stopped around the inn with a 5 inch base left. The candy coating of ice on the ground is catching the r@*n and preventing it from penetrating the surface.

The mountain today is dealing with a variety of problems. When I took the picture of Highline this morning, none of the detachable lifts (K1, Superstar, Snowshed Quad) were running. A few fixed grip chair lifts were turning to bring the handful of skiers and riders upslope for their runs. Yesterday the mountain fired up the worlds largest snow making system and started resurfacing terrain. I would presume that they would do the same later this evening, in addition to having their grooming fleet on the mountain chopping up the ice falling from the sky.

Ah... life at a ski resort in January. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. (But breakfast late this morning at Johnny Boys with my ski buddies, while not the ski day we had planned, was still pretty good.)

Let it snow!

Steve Selbo, from SP Land LLC, answering public questions about new Killington Village plans. 

The writing of the next chapter in the history of the town of Killington may have begun last evening at the Sherburne Memorial Library. Before an overflow crowd in excess of 100 people, Steve Selbo, president of SP Land LLC, unveiled preliminary plans for the construction of a village at the base of the Killington Resort to the Killington Planning Commission. Assisting Steve in the presentation was Paul Rowsey from E2MPartners, the principle investors in the project. In addition to Steve and Paul, assistance in the presentation was provided by Carl Spangler, who presented an overview of the checkered history of Killington Village proposals, Dwight Demay, lead planner for Hart Howerton, a land planning firm hired by SP Land to design the village concept, and Doug Wright, an architect for Hart Howerton.

The purpose of the meeting was to begin the formal process of requesting approval from the Town of Killington and the State of Vermont to begin development of the Killington Village. This was an informational meeting only, meant to educate the Planning Commission and the general public on the concepts for the village being proposed for development by SP Land.

The overall village development falls under a town plan concept called a "Planned Unit Development", often referred to by it's acronym "PUD". "PUD's" allow a developer to seek permission from the town to develop a land parcel, usually containing a variety of compatible land uses, as a cohesive development with zoneing regulations specific to the "PUD". Within the town of Killington, "PUD"s are generally granted for a 4 year period. If a developer needs additional time to complete development of the PUD, generally 2 extensions of up to 4 years each are granted.

In the case of the Killington Village development, an existing PUD is in place which expires in September. With the informational meeting completed, SP Land intends to file a PUD renewal request with the Killington Planning Commission to extend the authorization of the current PUD. This is the first step in a long process which, after the PUD is renewed or a new PUD issued, will see SP Land filing for ACT 250 approval from the State of Vermont, and various site specific permits from the Town of Killington to begin construction of the various elements of the proposed village.

Act 250 governs land use in Vermont, establishing specific criteria which a developer must meet before going forward with a commercial project. SP Land estimated that the Act 250 process would cost several millions of dollars in expense and at least 9 to 12 months on the calendar. SP Land seeks renewal of the PUD from the Town of Killington before beginning the Act 250 process. Support by a town for a commercial development is one of the criteria used by the applicable Vermont District Environmental Commission, in this case Rutland County, to determine if an Act 250 application can be approved. SP Land committed to provide the renewal request paperwork to the Killington Planning Commission "within 2 to 4 weeks". The Town Planning Commission will then hold a public hearing on the request prior to accepting or rejecting it. Based upon the overflow crowd at the meeting, one of the the planning commissioners suggested that the public hearing take place at the Sherburne Elementary School, as that has an auditorium suitable for a large public gathering. No date has been set for that hearing.

The village proposal that was outlined encompasses many phases. According to Mr. Selbo and other presenters, Phase 1 of the development is well into the planning process. Phase 2 and beyond have undergone various levels of conceptual testing to evaluate their feasibility, but as the overall development effort will last many years, later phases of the project are not yet in a state for permit application. Selbo and Rowsey did tell the assembled crowd that they expected that future phases of the development would go forward. Because of the infrastructure work required to complete Phase 1, follow on phases would be required for E2MPartners to make a return on their investment.

Killington Village plan presented by SP Land Current Snowshed and Rams Head base lodges outlined in red. (Click to enlarge.)

Phase 1 of the Killington Village development encompasses 6 mixed use buildings (building 1A through 1G on the Village Land Plan), the creation of a new Skier Services Center/Base Lodge (building 1X) to replace the current Snowshed and Rams Head base lodges, construction of a transportation center, construction of a tunnel to divert the Killington Road under the Skier Service Center, and creation of a new ski area concept called "Ski Beach". "Ski Beach" will regrade the Snowshed and Rams Head base areas to provide a contiguous surface to allow skiers and riders to link between mountain areas. Today, skiers and riders must transit through a tunnel under the Killington Road to connect between base areas. In the new "Ski Beach" concept, both base areas would be at the same elevation, with the Killington Road transiting under the area in a tunnel.

The architecture of the new village will be modeled along traditional New England village lines with a central village green. Around the green, the 6 buildings in the central village of phase 1 will be mixed use including residential and commercial space. Street Level areas will be primarily dedicated to commercial space. 157 units of residential space are included in the initial village plan around the green.

The new Skier Services Center would reflect the "New England" style of architecture. Doug Wright, the lead architect for Hart Howerton, stated that this building should be "substantial and significant" in nature, befitting it's place in the overall village development, and in the level of services it will provide to skiers visiting the Killington Resort.

New Skier Services Center to replace current Snowshed and Rams Head base lodges. (Click to enlarge.)

In addition to the central village, SP Land also intends to develop 42 residential units in an area it calls "Rams Head Brook". "Rams Head Brook" is located approximately to the right of the entrance to the current Rams Head parking lot, which will disappear according the the plan discussed. Additional residential units would be built over time as commercial viability and market conditions warrant.

After the presentation, a brief question and answer session was held. A variety of people asked questions that revolved around the theme "How will this project affect me?". These were politely answered by Mr. Selbo and his associates. The most telling question, in my estimation, was one of the simplest: "When will the development start?" Mr. Selbo, aware of the vacuity of the Act 250 process politely responded that he was not sure. "It depends on how we progress through the approval process". Mr. Rowsey was much more direct. "As soon as we get approvals from the state, and permits issued by the town, we will start building the village". I suspect that the number and quality of questions will increase substantially as people have an opportunity to review the provided plan in preparation for the to be scheduled Planning Commission hearing on the pending PUD renewal application. Interested parties desiring to inspect the material provided by SP Land can contact Dick Horner, Killington Town Planning and Zoning Administrator, at the Killington Town Offices at (802)422-3242.

Only time will tell on whether or not the development of a Village at Killington will be a success. The level of detail presented at yesterdays meeting exceeds the complexity one can reasonably write about in a single blog posting. The development plan must first, properly, go through a long and complex process of evaluation at both the local and state levels. Millions of dollars, the local economy, the ability of the area to continue to attract visitors, and the character of both the town and resort of Killington are at stake. The Chinese did get it right...we live in interesting times.

Let it snow!

Killington sign at town hall. 

The Town of Killington Planning Commission will convene their regular bi-weekly meeting tonight 7:30 PM at the Sherburne Memorial Library on River Road in Killington, instead of the normal venue at Town Hall. On the agenda for this evening is a presentation by Mr. Steve Selbo, of SP Land, on the plan for the new Killington Village being proposed for the Snowshed/Rams Head areas of the Killington Resort. If you are in Killington this evening and interested in the future plans for development at the resort, this would be a good meeting to attend. I plan on attending the meeting and will provide a full update on it in tomorrows blog.

The beautiful blue sunshine outside my office window this afternoon is some consolation for the heavy r@*n storms which passed through the area early this morning. The warm temperatures of the last couple of days have seriously degraded the snow pack in the area. While we have lost considerable snow cover, however, the ground around the inn is still covered with about 5 inches of snow at the inn's snow stake. With a return to more seasonable temperatures this evening, there should be little further degradation of snow cover. On the mountain, I would expect snow making operations to commence as soon as conditions allow. Hopefully, the worst of the January thaw is over.

Let it snow!

Snowmen on the march. 

The demise of the inn's Christmas tree each year marks the arrival of an invasion of snowmen at the inn. 10 years ago, (it does not seem like that long ago) after we removed the first Christmas tree from the inn, we noticed how barren the inn looked. From being filled with holiday decorations one day, to being just the plain inn the next, it was obvious that something was missing. Thus began Mary's quest to collect snowmen to decorate the inn.

I have lost track of the number of snowmen Mary has in the collection. They include stuffed snowmen, china snowmen, fiberglass snowmen, blown glass snowmen, snowmen that dance, snowmen that sing, snowmen snow globes, snowmen trivets...you name it... if it has a snowman associated with it, Mary probably has it.

It's all in great fun of course. The snowmen will take center stage at the inn over the next couple of weeks. They will morph slightly with the season, taking on the hearts of Valentines Day and a bit of the Irish on St Patrick's day. Winter, after all, does march into spring.

Talking about spring, today's temperatures at Killington are kicking at 50. We skied a few runs this morning, mostly for a little exercise to keep the holiday pounds from settling. Surface conditions were a combination of spring crust in low traffic and shady areas, to spring corn where skiers and riders had broken the surface up. It looks like one more day of warm before winter comes back to the area on Thursday. The resort had made so much snow earlier in the season that the base should survive this warm up. (I am sure that lesser mountains in the Northeast are not quite as lucky.)

(A little commentary) It will be interesting to see the snow guns turn back on at Killington come Wednesday night or Thursday. The new resort owners, Powdr, early strategy was to make lots of snow on a trail then move to the next. Will that same strategy exist as they try to refresh the mountain, or will they attempt to broadly distribute snow across all of the resorts open terrain? No matter which approach they take, even in the face of a very strong January thaw, we are still skiing at Killington. I suspect Killington will offer the most open terrain in the east this coming weekend. It will be interesting to watch.

Let it snow!

Mary skiing towards the entrance of Bear Claw from Great Eastern. 

It happens every year. Some times it arrives early (this year), some times it arrives late... but we almost always get one....a January thaw.

Warm temperatures have overspread the ski mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. Temperatures today at Killington are in the upper 40's. Predicted high's for tomorrow are in the low 50's before seasonable winter weather returns later in the week.

Snow surface conditions on the mountain today were soft and creamy. Surfaces were generally flat with small soft bumps developing on many of the trails. If you enjoy spring like conditions, with the exception of a heavy fog starting at about 3000 feet, and a few brown spots showing in areas outside of snow gun coverage, skiing today was very good. It was not a powder day by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a day of nice soft snow.

Today was Mary's first day on the hill since the holiday's began. She needed to start a little later this morning, as we had a lot of guests stay with us last night.(She makes breakfast for inn guests in the morning.) We headed out to the mountain about 9:45. I convinced her to try my 1 hour loop, so we parked in the Vale parking lot and skied directly to the Rams Head quad, bypassing all of the base lodges.

We started with a run down Caper from Rams Head to the Snowdon quad. We hugged the tree line on skier's right at the top of Rams Head. Thick flog was blanketing the area. The trees provided some minimal visibility, and there was great snow coverage along the lightly traveled edge of the trail. From the Snowdon Quad we cut across Mouse Run to Highline. Highline was wonderfully soft with just the right pitch for little back and forth bump creating turns. From Highline, we got on the K1 Gondola and traversed across the back side of the resort to Bear Mountain.

Bear Mountain was basically just below the fog line with fog extending about 100 feet down from the top of the Outer Limits quad. Bear Claw had nice coverage down skiers right opposite the terrain park features. Lower Bear Claw, on skiers right underneath the tower mounted snow guns, was a wonderfully consistent ice cream texture. Soft, carving turns were the method of choice. Of course, as Mary had not been out in a couple of weeks, she developed a little leg burn along the way.

After a boost from the OL quad, we went down Wildfire. Upper Wildfire, while soft, was slightly firmer than the other trails we had been on. Mary actually passed me as she felt that she could run the trail a little (and her leg burn was telling her not to turn so much). The ice cream returned on Lower Wildfire. Several brown spots were developing in the high traffic area at Anti-Venom. But other than that, Wildfire was in great shape for spring like cruising.

From Wildfire, we traversed in front of the Bear Mountain base lodge to the Skye Peak quad. Mary's legs needed a rest after chasing me around the mountain. From the top of Skye Peak, we took Skye Lark from top to bottom. Upper Skye Lark was shrouded in fog. As the trail turns above High Road, there was some brown showing on skiers right which forced some evasive maneuvers. Lower Skye Lark was getting nicely bumped. The rest on the Skye Peak quad put a little extra back into Mary's legs. She had a great time (really) picking her way down lower Skye Lark.

One last trip to the peak on the K1 box and we cruised home down Great Northern back to the car in the Vale parking lot. We were not out for long, about an hour and a half, but we had skied all over the mountain. A really nice way to get some exercise after the holidays(I didn't gain any weight over the holidays...honest!).

I would guess from the weather forecast, and the huge amount of snow on the mountain, that tomorrows conditions will be similar. And maybe we will get a little sun thrown in for good measure.

Let it snow!

The final day for the 2007/2008 Christmas Tree at the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington. 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

All good things tend to come to an end. Such is the case with the holiday season at Killington. Mary and I were very fortunate, over the holidays, to have been visited by many nice guests who stayed at our Inn and dined in our Restaurant. We thank you!

But the holidays are now over. The project to take down the inn's Christmas tree began this afternoon. The boxes to hold all of the ornaments were removed from their storage places in the attic. The winter march of the snowmen will soon begin as Mary takes the inn out of it's holiday regalia and transforms it to a celebration of winter in the mountains.

And surely you'll buy your pint cup!
And surely I'll buy mine!
And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Let it snow!