The weather turned very quickly last night. At 6 PM the temperature was 52 degrees with a driving r@#n. By 8 PM, the temperature was 30 and snow and ice were falling from the sky.

Overnight, we had 4 inches of snow fall at the inn. Guests were reporting variable conditions on the mountain. Winds had drifted much of the snow. Skiing cold be characterized as mounds of powder separated by ice.

Killington turned on their snowmaking system full force late in the afternoon. Temperatures are dipping into the Minus numbers tonight with a warm up to 20 predicted for tomorrow. Ideal snow making conditions.

Highline at Killington, January 14, 2006 11:00 AM 

MLK weekend is in full swing at Killington. Now if we could get the weather to cooperate.

Mary and I are quite busy with a full inn. We had a good group of people join us for dinner on Friday night. Guests seem to be taking the torrential NCP (Non-crystaline precipitation) in stride, as the weathermen are still predicting a change to snow later this afternoon.

I went up to the mountain around 11. Crowds in the parking lots were light, as expected with the weather, but there were still many people skiing and riding. Trails that had extensive early season snow making look to be holding up well. Today's picture gives a graphic example of that. Highline is the trail to the left of the picture. Killington blow's snow on it regularly to support race programs. Conclusion is the trail on the right side of the picture. It is a natural trail and it has taken a beating with the weather. To put the picture into context...Killington has snowmaking on over 140 trails so the mountain still offers plenty of skiing and riding. However, let's hope the weathermen are right and the weather changes later today.

Warm temperatures have overspread the area. Temperatures today are in the high 40's. From speaking with inn guests and friends who were on the mountain today, skiing was very good. Winter snow conditions on the upper mountain, spring conditions on the lower mountain. Of course, what will happen over the next day or 2 is anyones guess. As is usually the case, you can shop your weatherman for the forecast you like best. Some are calling for considerable NCP, others are calling for NCP turning into over a foot of snow. Of course, we will know the result come Sunday morning.

The area is preparing for the Martin Luther King weekend. Budweiser is doing a big promotion on the mountain. Once again they have brought a team of Clydesdales to the hill. Temporary stables have been erected in the field near the "Fireside Lodge" across the Killington road from the Grist Mill.

At the inn, we are getting ready to host the Killington Ski Club. The Ski Club will be holding a cocktail party in our Great Room on Saturday. A 5 dollar donation to the Ski Club will be charged for admission. The money is being donated to various programs being run by the Ski Club over the course of the season. The party starts at 6:30 PM. And of course, don't forget the Patriots are playing the Bronco's on Saturday night. Game time is at 8:00 PM.

Highline at Killington, January 12, 2006 10:00 AM 

While driving up to the mountain this morning, I was a little concerned. Last night we had a howling storm at the inn with considerable NCP. The snow at the snow stake at the inn declined by almost 3 inches. Yet the weather stations were reporting that altitudes over 2000 feet would probably see snow. You can never tell until you get in the car and check things out for yourself.

Last nights storm clearly had 2 personalities. Up on the mountain, looking at Snowshed and Lower Ramshead, it was pretty clear that last nights precipitation was liquid. But, and here is the hook, when I went up to the K1 Base Lodge, things looked entirely different. At the base lodge itself, there was probably some NCP. But, if you look at the picture I posted today of Highline, you can see that the trees were coated with a heavy frost and some snow about 200 feet above the Killington Ski Club (roughly the 2400 foot level). Superstar had the same look. I could not see the peak because of cloud cover, but Killington is reporting that the mountain received 2-3 inches of snow last night. Looking at the K1 Base Lodge, that report probably accurate. when I speak with guests in the bar tonight, I will know more and I will post it in tomorrows update.

Great Northern in the Clouds, January 11, 2006 

Day 2 of my restarted ski season at Killington. I got a late start this morning as we had guests check in last night just before 3:00 AM. I slept in until 10:30. Made my way on to the mountain around 11.

The mountains today were totally cloud covered with clouds from an oncoming storm. Clouds covered down to around the 1900 foot level at 11:30AM. I took a run up to the Glades. Pretty much "Seeing Eye" skiing, although snow surfaces were in great shape. I then traversed over to Bear. Work was still going on in the new park on Lower Wildfire. A quick run down Cruse Control then up to Skye Lark and I called it a day. Not a lot of runs, but it was "Official".

Snow surfaces on all of the mountains was superb. Surfaces were very soft, almost spring like. Many areas had nice small bumps, which if my ankle was not injured I would have enjoyed. I did catch the tip of my left ski on one of these bumps while I was in a traverse. My ankle did not like it..but it was my own fault. I had violated one of the cardinal rules that a friend of mine, Billy Mac, is know to say..."Keep the tips pointed downhill you chickens@#t." For the rest of my time on the hill, I kept repeating Bill's mantra...and my ankle felt a lot better for it.

I did not have a chance to get up to the mountain today. Mary is in Boston visiting with her parents, so I won the breakfast shift this morning. By the time I was done, I received a "present" from UPS that I had purchased from Amazon.com the night before.... A Linksys WRE54G Wireless Network Range Expander.

Guests at Birch Ridge have had wireless access to the internet for about a year. The system was originally built with a 802.11b (caution...geek speak) wireless access point connected to our internal ethernet network. Coverage in the building was spotty. Most guests accessed the network from either in the Great Room, or in the Sitting Room, as the access point was located at the Front Desk. With the new computer at the front desk, we have upgraded the network to 802.11g.

In testing the network, I found vast dead zones in coverage in the building containing rooms 5 thru 10. After some investigation, I decided to procure a Wireless Range Extender to increase network coverage. Most of my day today has been spent running network tests to determine the optimum place to install the Range Extender. After about 4 hours of testing, it is now in and working for guests to use during their stay with us.

Ski Boot on again!

Taken on the Sky Peak Quad, 11:00 AM, January 9, 2006 

I did not stay out long, but today I finally made it out on the slopes for the first time since spraining my left ankle 1 month ago.

Just for giggles, I took out a trail map to do a the trail count for the trails I skied today. They included Gateway, Frostline, Great Eastern, Bear Trap, Anti Venom, Bear Claw, Skye Way, Skye Lark, High Road, and Bittersweet. 10 Trails.... or was it 2 runs??? Not really a legal ski day but it was great to be out on the slopes.

Conditions this morning were good. We had a clipper system go through overnight, dropping some insignificant light snow. When I arrived at the mountain, all of the peaks were cloud covered. I stayed on groomed surfaces as the ankle is tender. Everything I was on was a beautiful combination of packed power and man made. I did not run into any scratchiness or ice. Crowds were very light.

On the mountain, construction has begun on the terrain park on lower Wild Fire. From the Skye Peak chair, you could see 2 snow cats pushing snow around to create the terrain features. It looked like they had just started when I was on the lift. I would guess that they have a couple of days work ahead of them before re-opening the trail.