Rime in the snow 

It is a blizzard. Snow started early in the morning. By 2:00 PM, about a foot of new snow has accumulated at the inn with heavy snow falling at a rate of 2 to 4 inches an hour.

I went up to the mountain this morning to take a few turns. At 9:00 AM the mountain had received 6 inches with heavy drifting over 2 feet in places. Today was definitely a powder day. I had my wide skis on. They just float through the snow. Howie and I stayed out until around 11:00, by which time many of the trails were getting chopped up. Also, the K1 gondola was experiencing wind delays. We experienced blizzard conditions on North Ridge with very high winds and blowing and drifting snow. We felt it was getting a little dangerous, so we headed out. What was interesting was that at the K1 base lodge, although there was heavy snow falling, there was virtually no wind.

Birch Ridge covered in snow

The inn at this point is buried in snow. When I returned, I was outside about 2 hours doing my snow blowing chores. I will be returning outside right after posting this blog to resume. This is one of those storms where the snow is coming down so hard, you almost need to stay outside to move it away it is accumulating so fast. But, we are at a ski resort so.... Let it Snow!

Highline from the K1 Gondola 

It was a brisk -8 when we left the inn this morning. But the sky was bright blue, and there was no wind. Other than an extra layer under the jacket, it had the makings of a great ski day.

We started out doing laps on on the K1 Gondola. Our first run took us down Upper Downdraft across Great Northern to Highline. All were beautifully groomed and glorious for cruising. For our next loop, we decided to do Downdraft top to bottom. it was in great shape, except as is usually the case this time of year, the lights went out on lower Downdraft. It was completely in the shadow of the mountain, and since we had been in bright sunshine at the peak, it took a few spooky turns on the steepest section of the trail for our eyes to adjust. We finished up with another loop on Highline. We noticed that we were doing the same route and keeping pace with a local group affectionately called the "IRT". We decided we needed to slow the pace down a bit so we headed over to Bear Mountain.

We did a few laps down Bear Trap, Bear Claw and Wildfire. Outer Limits looked OK so we decided to give it a try. As we were going up the OL lift, someone in the chair in front of us dropped their goggles at roughly lift pole 7. When we got to the top, we discovered that it was an english school group. The instructor with them stopped me and asked me if on my way down OL if I would mind recovering the goggles. No problem, so off we went. No problem except upper OL was polished to a high gloss finish. Skid, turn, slide, I made my way over to lift pole 8 and went under the ropes. I skied down in the powder, found the goggles, and retreated back to the slide for life. (I should have skied all the way down in the roped off area. The snow was great. But I did not for fear of hitting some snow making hoses.) Mid-way down OL, the resort had groomed the snow whales on skiers left. They provided a nice carving surface to negotiate the lower half of Outer Limits. While it was probably not pretty going down OL, being a good samaritan has it owns rewards. (And I got to officially duck under the ropes!)

The team rescues Carolyn, a visitor from the UK stuck on Skye Burst

We took a quick break then did a few more loops, ending up in the Super Pipe on Dream Maker. We decided after the pipe to take the Skye Peak quad up to the top, ski Skye Burst to Cruise Control and play in the Needles Eye area for a few turns before going home. Nope.. Not today.

When we got near the top of the Skye Peak lift, we saw a skier about 10 feet from the peak frozen solid and screaming. The snow surface was a little slick, but all in all it was not bad. Plenty of snow to maneuver in. I skied down to find out if we could lend some assistance. When I got there, I discovered an English girl (we have a lot of visitors from England at Killington this week) absolutely terrified, shaking, and crying her eyes out. The people she was with had skidded her off the top of Skye Peak, where she proceeded to freeze with fear. She was totally stuck in place and shaking. The people she was with had just left her there. They were no where to be found.

I skied around her and got on the down hill side to keep her from sliding if she fell. Howie got in position above her to keep people from running into her. Then Bill B skied up beside her and tried to coach her to get her moving. After a couple of minutes, we were able to calm her down a little bit. Bill was then able to get her to side slip down to the junction of Frost Line (get out your maps... it is a little used green trail 200 yards below the top of Skye Burst). From their, Bill got her into a snow plow wedge and we skied with her around Great Eastern to the Snow Shed Cross over and down to Snow Shed. This whole process took about an hour, and since the temperature was in the single digits, we had all gotten a little cold.

Bill B and I did one more run on Super Star before calling it a day. Super Star was ok, nothing to write home about, but we needed to have a good hard run to finish the day after spending the last hour in a side slip.

Tonight, all eyes are to the sky. Local forecasters are calling for 2 storms the next 2 days. Tonight's storm is supposed to cover the area with about 6 inches of fluff. The storm on Wednesday and Thursday is supposed to leave over 2 feet of snow around the area. If that happens, it will be the largest snow storm the area has seen since Hurricane Wilma on October 25/26 in 2005. Let it Snow!

Dream Maker Terrain Park 

As the area prepares for what could be the first major winter storm of the season, the Killington Resort this morning was in excellent shape. Most trails on the mountain were groomed overnight, creating a flat surface to receive snow forecasted for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Visability in the Killington Peak area this morning was poor as a thick cloud hung over the mountain. In the early morning darkness, we took our first run down Cascades. Snow surfaces were well manicured and very receptive to broad carving turns, but the light was so poor we decided to head towards Bear Mountain.

All of the trails at Bear Mountain were in excellent shape. The top of Outer Limits had a beautiful set of nice soft bumps, the remnants of all of the snow making that had been done at the top of OL on Sunday. We did take a coffee run down Great Eastern to the Skyeship Base at Route 4 where we suffered our only disappointment of the day....there was no coffee or hot chocolate service available other than a lonely vending machine. For some reason the Cafeteria at the Skyeship Base was closed this morning, even though there were a large amount of skiers and riders stopping to take a break there.

The gang does lunch at Charities. Photo courtesy or Rebecca, our waitress.

After our trip down to Route 4, we did some loops in the Needles Eye area. We headed back to the K1 Base Lodge via Super Star, which was just fantastic. Instead of going in, I did 3 more loops on Super Star, all down skiers left, which was in great shape. On Middle Super Star, skiers left had nice rolling bumps, the remnants of whales left from earlier snowmaking. They provided great entertainment riding up and down them. Skiers left on Lower Super Star was flat, but had received a fair amount of wind blown powder. It was a beautiful ride with nice carving turns and no skids.

We finished the day with a group lunch chaired by "Corduroy", who set todays lunchtime agenda. The good news is that at lunch we solved many of the problems facing the world today, the bad news is that I ate all the french fries that came with my sandwich, which is not a good thing for my waist line. Such is life in a ski town during the season.

Meanwhile, all eyes and ears are tuned to local weathermen to try to get a gauge of the storm predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. It sounds like Wednesday and Thursday will be nice powder days. We can hope. Let it Snow!

Bear Mountain from Sunrise 

Today is just one of those lazy Sundays. The kind of day that you know you should be doing something important, but you just forget about it because you can do it on another day. Since the weather outside was quite temperate for February, Mary and I decide it would be a great day to just take a hike out into the woods.

Killington is such a diverse area, it is hard to comprehend it's total scope. A few years ago, Killington abandoned skiing and riding in an area called the "Northeast Passage", just below Sunrise Mountain adjacent to Bear Mountain. The terrain in the area was fairly gentle, but the trails were also somewhat interesting as they wound their way through the forest towards Route 100. Instead of just closing the area, however, Killington now uses it to support snowmobiling, cross country skiing and snow shoeing. We decided to take our hike this afternoon at Sunrise to check the area out.

Trail map for Sunrise Back County Ski and Snowshoe Trails

From the inn, to get to Sunrise the quickest way is to take East Mountain Road over towards Bear Mountain. From there, you enter into the Sunrise Condominium development. We accessed the trail system from the Falls Brook Common area just below the Sunrise Triple Chair.

Since there is only around a foot of snow on the ground, we just used hiking boots, instead of bringing our snow shoes. I did bring some ski polls for stability purposes, as I had never hiked these trails before. We wandered around a moderate trail named the Wintergreen Loop. The trail itself had been packed down slightly by a snow mobile, so the footing was excellent. If there were a lot of new snow, snow shoes would have been a must, but where the terrain was fairly gentle, our hiking boots were fine this afternoon. All in all, a nice walk through the woods on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Rams Head Lift in the snow. 

Saturdays are usually not ski days for me, unless we have had a significant amount of new snow on Friday night. While it has been continuously snowing at Killington, it has not amounted to much, so I slept in.

Over the course of the week, there have been a lot of little news stories which are interesting. While it has been an interesting ski year, to say the least, the community of Killington is still as vibrant as ever. Some of the items in the news are as follows:

Killington sets May 6th as a tentative close date. In a comment on a Killington chat room, Killingtonzone.com the director of communications for Killington posted a May 6th's closing date for the mountain. This would be one of the earliest closings on record for the resort.

Jim Blackman anounces his run for Selectman. In an open letter to town citizens published in the Mountain Times, local resident Jim Blackman declared his intention to run for the Killington Selectboard seat being vacated by Butch Findeisen. The town meeting is scheduled for Tuesday March 6, 2007. (Invariably a great powder day for anyone visiting the area.)

Killington Chamber of Commerce announces Killington Wine Festival and Killington Film Festival dates. The Killington Chamber of Commerce announced dates for 2 different summer events this week. The Killington Wine Festival will be returning for the fifth year this summer starting July 13th. Birch Ridge plans on hosting a wine dinner once again on Saturday July 14th. Stay tuned for more details. Also, the Killington Chamber of Commerce announced a new event for the summer, the Killington Film Festival, for the weekend starting Friday August 24th. Vermont film directors/producers Wes Craven and David Giancola are scheduled to present their new films. It should be a great event to attend.

Rumors persist concerning sale of Killington Ski Resort. Normally, I try not to traffic in rumors, but this one has been a persistent topic of conversation around town for weeks and it is starting to get coverage in the local newspapers. In an article published in the Rutland Herald, Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association said that it was likely that American Skiing Company would be selling the Killington Ski Resort and other east coast holdings. Powdr Resorts, a privately held Utah company is rumored to be engaged in talks to purchase Killington. At various local meetings, and to the press, Killington officials have refused comment on the rumors. (Editors note:...This has been a very persistent local rumor. Only time will tell if there is any validity to it.)

Rams Head and Pico Peak from Super Star 

Just a beautiful day for skiing and riding at Killington. Near 100% sunshine combined with several inches of light fluff overnight made for a nice day on the slopes. The only downside was that temps were in the single digits with a gusty up slope wind. Some places in the sun and out of the wind were nice and warm. Some others where wind was a factor were on the cold side. But overall a very nice day.

Official use of Snow Blower!
First time this season! 

I did not head to the mountain this morning. Over the last few days, we have had a fairly constant light snow. I have not though much of it, basically just pushing it off the front walk for our inn guests. But, with the weekend coming up, I though doing a little outside maintenance around the inn was in order. And I was a little surprised.

We have all heard on the news about western New York getting buried by lake effect snow. What most people do not realize is that the residual moisture that does not fall on New York winds up in the Green Mountains. And Killington, being the highest peak from here to Lake Ontario, acts as a big moisture trap, capturing anything that blows bye. In the summer, that means wet weather (They don't call them the Green Mountains for nothing!). In the winter, it means snow.

So today, I hauled out the roof rake and snow blower. I had used each once before this winter on trial runs to make sure that they were in good repair. But today was the real thing. On every flat surface around the inn where there was some kind of barrier, 2 to 4 inches of light snow had drifted in covering the surface. Now we have not gotten 2 real inches of snow overnight. The snow stake is only registering a minor increase, but what snow we have received has been blown into drifts where ever a break stops the wind, making life just a little more interesting. And it is still snowing, with the weather service predicting the potential for 4 to 6 inches overnight in some spots. (They really don't know where... it is the luck of the draw where the wind blows the lake effect moisture.)

Bottom line to all of this... If you are a property owner planning to come to Killington this weekend, you may need to do a little snow removal, depending upon how snow has drifted around your property. For everyone else, the mountain should be just getting better and better. I know I will find out tomorrow as it will be another ski day for me, so as I look out my office window, I can only think: "Let it snow!".