Snow covers the forest floor
behind the Birch Ridge Inn. 

One month ago Killington experienced the Valentines day blizzard of 2007. Is St. Patrick's day the next quasi holiday to get snowed on???

Mother Nature has not been kind to north east skiing these last 2 days. Heavy r@!n and warm temperatures have soaked the mountains resulting in loss of snow pack, flood warnings in some of the river valleys, and the beginning of "Mud Season" on local country dirt roads.

Latest snowfall forecast from Accuweather.com as of Thursday March 15th

Overnight, the snow stake declined 9 additional inches, settling this morning with 9 inches of snow behind the inn. The mountain has seen similar reductions in snow cover, but initial reports indicate that the snow pack is still holding up reasonably well to the first test of spring. But it looks like things will be changing once again in the next 24 hours.

The current forecast indicates Killington will receive significant snowfall coming into the St Patrick's day weekend, just like we saw heading into Valentines day last month. My powder ski's are in the car. I am ready for an epic Saturday. Are you? Erin-go-Bragh! Let it Snow!

Howie holding court in the box
before our run down Double Dipper 

What a difference 50 degree temperatures can make.

Conditions this morning were pure spring skiing with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid 50's. We did not take any where near as many runs as we did last Friday, but the legs got a really good workout.

Overnight, the resort had groomed pretty much everything. Since snow surfaces were very soft and wet, the first few runs were punctuated with evasive maneuvers around huge cat track scars carved in the soft snow. But after a little skier traffic, the trails smoothed out nicely. Great conditions for a warm day.

We spent our ski day on the Killington Peak side of the mountain, figuring that it would stay firmer than the trails with souther exposure at Bear. Starting with multiple runs down Rime to loosen up the legs, we did East Fall, Double Dipper and Downdraft in rapid succession(ok... not so rapid succession as we needed to traverse down to the K1 Gondola each time as the Canyon Quad was not running). All of the runs were in beautiful shape with a soft base of heavy wet snow. We did not encounter any firm spots on the runs down thru the Canyon area.

We finished our morning on the mountain with laps on Superstar. The upper Superstar headwall was creamy soft from the new snow the resort had blown onto it last last week. Middle Superstar had a water skiing feel to it due to melting snow. Because it was groomed, there were no bumps in middle Superstar, so wide carving turns were in order. Lower Superstar was very soft with no skid plates in sight. By the time we were in it (11 AM) it was starting to feel the effect of skier traffic with little wet piles of snow building up through the middle of the trail. After a couple of loops we decided to call it a day and head for a late breakfast.

At the inn the snow stake this morning was reading 18 inches. Over the last week, the snow pack in the back of the inn has melted/compacted about 8 inches. Overall there is plenty of cover left for several weeks of skiing if warm temperatures continue. But this is March in New England, and we should expect at least 1 or 2 more snow storms before the season is done. Let it snow!

Stacking the last load of winter firewood. 

Spring is making an appearance at Killington today. Temperatures in the area are in the low 50's. Snow that had accumulated on roof tops is sliding off all over town. Some snow melt is starting to occur, but the snow pack was over 2 feet to start with so it will hold up for a while.

From the reports we are receiving, the warm temperatures have caused yesterdays firm ski conditions on the mountain to softened up. Canadian week crowds have definitely gotten a couple of nice days to start the week. It does look like we will have another shot of moist weather tomorrow before changing to snow on Thursday and Friday. Let it snow!

Mary negotiating the mixing bowl
at the top of the Needles Eye Quad 

The past weekends warm up and subsequent freezing temperatures last night resulted in a significant firming of the trails at Killington this morning. Most trails were frozen packed powder covered with a loose granular surface. Sharp ski edges were required!

Southern facing trails, and trails with the least amount of man made snow were frozen this morning. Northern facing trails, or trails which had minimal sun exposure and hence surface melting, were still nicely soft. Highline, where the resort has blown significant amounts of snow this winter, was the trail of the day. The upper entrance to Highline was a skating rink, but once you were past the merge with Racers Edge, surface conditions were machine groomed packed powder all the way to the K1 base lodge. The Bear Mountain and Needles Eye areas were most affected by the weekend weather. Panic Button off the Needles Eye Quad was extremely slick. Upper Cruise Control was very choppy with granular surfaces approaching beach sand. Lower Cruise Control by comparison, which does not get much sun exposure, was soft snow perfect for carving turns.

It looks like we have a few warm days ahead of us this week before winter returns. Let it snow!

Skiers and Riders on Lower Superstar 

Last night some light r@!n showers passed through the region. The good news is that they were very brief and light, the bad news is that it was not snow. But so it goes.

Lasts nights weather event did result in some snow melt and compression around the inn. The snow stake was at 22 1/2 inches, down 2 inches from yesterdays reading. All in all, not very much surface damage from the first shot of warm weather we have had at Killington in the last 8 weeks.

During the day today we are seeing intermittent snow flakes falling from the sky. Nothing of any consequence what so ever, but it does indicate that the atmosphere has cooled down somewhat from yesterdays warm temperatures.

If the weathermen are to be believed, this should be a great week for early spring skiing at Killington, before winter returns next week. Temps are predicted to be just above freezing during the day and just below freezing at night which should help maintain stable snow surface conditions. Now if we could only have one or two more dumpers! Let it snow!

Killington Peak in a gray overcast 

Since mid week we have been hearing about high temperatures and r@!n in the forecast for today. Well.... It did not happen. Those who came to Killington today for some skiing or riding were greeted with sunny skies and comfortable temperatures this morning with a gray cloud cover developing all afternoon.

Inn guests as they come back to the inn are reporting great snow surface conditions. First time skiers are coming back a little tired as surfaces have softened up with the rising temperatures. Experienced skiers and riders are just saying it is great! A beautiful bonus versus what had been predicted earlier in the week.

If you believe the weathermen, and the track record is questionable, they are predicting light showers this evening, possibly snow in the mountains, clearing out by daybreak. Hopefully, tomorrow is another nice day to be on the mountain. Let it snow!

Under the guns on Superstar 

Whoa... probably one of the 5 best ski days of the 2006-2007 ski season! It was that good!

Last night at the inn the temperature hit -17F just before 2:00 AM. When I went to bed, my expectations were pretty low. I figured that the day would require extra body armor and frequent loops on one of the boxes. Boy were my expectations all wrong.

When I got to the mountain this morning, just before 9:00 AM, the temperature in my car read 2F. Now that may sound cold, but when there is no wind, a beautiful blue sky with a glowing warm sun, and you are expecting -10..well it was almost time to break out the bathing suit. We started out by doing 5 very fast loops on Superstar. The resort was blowing snow on the upper headwall, which was by definition nice soft powder. Middle and Lower Superstar were groomed sweet. I am not sure if the resort had tilled the surface over, but the surface was nice and soft. We just ripped side to side GS turns at high speed, as the 4 of us basically had the trail to ourselves.

As we were doing our fifth run down Superstar, a bus or something must have pulled in, because as we were going back up the lift for number 6, our beautiful soft empty trail was now filled with a variety of skiers and riders, so we decided to head south to Bear Mountain. We took the requisite loops down Bear Trap, Bear Claw, Wildfire, and Outer Limits. All were in good shape, although I would guess that neither Wildfire nor Outer Limits had been groomed overnight. Each had a slightly different firmness than the other runs we had taken. But by this time we were in full cruise mode. We were not making many wide turns because the crowds had picked up, so the fact that OL and Wildfire were firm did not really matter much.

We followed our usual route over to the Needles Eye area. The Needles Quad was running, which meant we could cover a lot of terrain with a short hop lift. Needles Eye was a lot like Wednesday, with loose packed powder on a medium firm base. The bump line was still in good shape on skiers right. I jumped in for a half a dozen bumps, but the guys were just cruising so fast, I needed to hop out to keep up. We hopped over to Bittersweet, took another run down Superstar (it was still great) then traversed over to the Snowden quad for a little cooling down before heading in.

On Snowden, we pushed down Chute to the Poma Cutoff. We did not want to go back down to the K1 if we could avoid it so we then headed to the Glades...er North Ridge. On North Ridge, Rime was in beautiful shape. Of course it seemed like we were on the North Ridge Chair for 10 minutes for a 30 second run down Rime. We did this a couple of times then decided to call it a day with a run down Double Dipper. What a surprise!

Double Dipper was better than Superstar! Because the Canyon Quad was not running, there was no one on Dipper. I took skiers right which was ankle high soft powder from the crest of Dipper to lower Downdraft. Unreal. Bill B went down skiers left and reported similar conditions. Howie went down the middle and said he hit a couple of areas where he skidded a little. Bill B and I decided Dipper was a do-over, so we headed to the K1 box for the lift up. We took one more run down Dipper and called it a day.

All told, in about 2 hours and 45 minutes we did 17 runs. We would have easily done 5 of 6 more had the Canyon Quad been running, as we did not touch Cascade, Downdraft or East Falls. Without question, it was just a great day to be on the hill. One of the best this ski season! Let it snow!