Approach to the 9th Green on Green Mountain National Golf Course 

Yesterday afternoon, Mary and I took our first swings of the nascent 2007 summer golf season at Green Mountain National Golf Course.

We casually walked the front nine late in the afternoon. The course is in beautiful shape this early in the season. As the weather in the Killington area has been relatively dry thus far this spring, the course has started the season in great shape with little evidence of winter damage, or damage from the spring thaw.

This was the first round for a new driver I had purchased on Sunday afternoon from the Golf and Ski Warehouse in Lebanon New Hampshire. (I got a great deal on one of last years Callaway Fusion FT-3 series drivers.) I can happily report that the new club performed well, helping me card my first birdie and several pars of the year along the way.

In news from around town, there has been no additional information made public concerning the sale of the Killington Resort by ASC last week, other than what had been previously published. Word is circulating about a letter sent by Allen Wilson to owners of lifetime passes at Killington which seems to be stirring some controversy. Other than that, no other news seems to be floating around town concerning the transition away from ASC.

Many town residents, especially those with out school age children, are starting to return from their early summer vacations. Golf course activity will be picking up sharply as we enter the spring tournament season. The first charity tournament to support ALS research in honor of former Green Mountain National Head Professional Jeff Hadley, will be played on Wednesday May 30th at both the Green Mountain National and Killington Resort courses.

Bill and Mary hoisting a glass
at the Jameson Irish Whiskey Factory
in Midleton Ireland. 

Updated at 4:00 PM EDT-----American Ski Company has announced that the sale of the Killington/Pico Ski Resorts to SP Land LLC has completed. Total price for the resort quoted on ASC's posting with the Securities and Exchange Commission was $85.2M with $3M being held in indemnity escrow until June 30, 2008. Complete details of the sale are listed on the Security and Exchange Commissions Edgar website.

In related news, Powdr Corp and SP Land have entered into an agreement to have Powdr Corp manage mountain operations. According to the Rutland Herald, Powdr Corp has named Chris Nyberg as the president of the Killington and Pico Resort, replacing Allen Wilson. Nyberg formerly was a VP at Prinoth, a company that manufactures Snow Groomers. More developments and commentary to follow in the coming days ------end of 4:00 PM Update

Back to work... so it goes!

First, I would like to thank the dozens of people who have sent us email over the last 2 weeks. As some of you know by now, Mary and I went on holiday to Ireland this year. We did not bring a lap top with us, and had limited access to the internet during our visit, so I did not make any postings while we were gone. Personally, I was surprised at how many people noticed we were gone. Thank you for keeping in touch in our absence.

On our trip to Ireland, as many who have been to the inn over the last several months are aware, we called our trip this year the "Irish Whiskey Tour". It turns out Mary is allergic to hops, so she could not partake of the fine selection of Irish Beers available in all the pubs. So she had to settle for sampling the various other brown nectars available in the Emerald Isle. We are busy getting the inn ready for a group celebrating the graduation of a student from Green Mountain College this weekend, so I can't give you all of the details of our trip. Next week, I will spend a few days writing about our trip, and I will go through the hundreds of photos we took to create a photo gallery. The long and short of it is...we had a great time, Guinness is good, Jameson is good, Irish roads are interesting at best..scary at worst, and I am already missing our nights spent in the lovely Irish pubs we visited each evening.

At Killington on our return, little has changed. Most of the ski related businesses have closed their doors for the season. The ski season ended at Killington as planned. Snow is still present on Superstar. Some people are still "earning their turns" by hiking up. The sale of Killington by ASC to SP Land has not yet closed. It appears that the State of Vermont has approved the transfers of all of the leases from Killington LTD to SP Land. It also is rumored that the closing process began yesterday in some law offices in Boston. However, there is no official word yet on the completion of the sale.

In other news at Killington, both the Killington Resort and Green Mountain National golf courses are open. I am sure that we will get the clubs out next week after we catch up on things at the inn...Think Spring!

Birch Ridge Inn Summer Web Site 

While we have seen the last run of skiing for the year, and our last guests of the season have departed, Mary and I still have been pretty busy all week.

The kitchen project that we have all been working wrapped up on Friday. The new floor is in place. All of the walls have been scrubbed. The stainless steel has been steam cleaned. The dining room floor was stripped and re-sealed. The carpet was cleaned. All in all, a surprising amount of work for an area which will look just about the same to guests as before we started.

At the inn, Mary and her assistant, Michalyn, have been going through each room, inspecting them to put together a work schedule for the summer. They have also started to work outside cleaning up some of the gardens which are not still snow covered. Mary has pots of top soil all over the inn starting her Dahlia's. They will not get transferred to the gardens until late May or early June.

I have been a little busy as well. Our main web site, birchridge.com has been updated for the summer. All of our room rates for the 2007/2008 season are now available. Golf packages with rounds of golf at the Killington Resort Course and Green Mountain National can now be priced for the 2007 summer season using our proprietary Golf Package Calculator. Ski packages for the 2007/2008 ski season can also be estimated using our Ski Package Calculator, although ski ticket prices are only estimated as it will be a few months before the Killington Resort releases ski ticket prices for next season.

In addition to skiing and golf packages, I have also put on the web site package information for the Killington Wine Festival to be held this year from July 12 through July 15th. Over the next couple of months, I will be posting updates on the Wine Festival, as the wine distributors to the Killington region finalize the list of vintners and winery's who will be participating in the event.

In the Killington area, skiing and riding is still going on. For the first week of May, the mountain will be down to one lift (Superstar). The planned closing date of the resort is Sunday May 6th, so if you have the urge to take a few last turns, act on them soon. We are all still waiting for the sale of the resort from the American Skiing Company to SP Land/Powdr Corp to take place. There are all kinds of rumors around town about when it will happen and why it has taken so long to execute. But we have it from several good sources that the sale will take place. The complexity of the deal, with the myriad combinations of private land and leased land from the State of Vermont, appears to be taking a little longer than planned to sort out. Of course, with most of the winter visitors gone, it is all great grist for the locals to talk about as we all congregate at local watering holes. So it goes....

I am also starting to think about golf for personal enjoyment. I have not gotten the clubs out yet, but the urge to take a few swings in increasing as the days grow warmer...It will be soon... Think Spring!

On Bittersweet.
Sunday, April 22, 2007 

With all of the work Mary and I have been doing around the inn last week to clean up from the season, we had not taken the opportunity to head out on the slopes for one last hurrah. Yesterday was the day.

Sunday was just a glorious day to ski at Killington. We got to the K1 base lodge at 7:30 AM to sunny skies and temperatures in the high 40's. It has been a long time since we have both skied together on a Sunday, but we had worked hard all week so we deserved some time on the hill. In the old days, before owning the inn, we used to try to ski "10 by 10"...10 runs before 10 o'clock in the morning. That was our goal.

The Killington resort cooperated, running 7 lifts. We started out with our first 3 runs down Superstar, followed by runs down Skye Burst, and Bear Trap, Skye Cruise, Bitter Sweet, North Ridge, East Falls, ending with a Great Northern and out. 10 by 10 on soft, creamy snow. A great way to end our personal ski seasons.

Today at Killington, temperatures have hit the low 80's. Most of the snow on the grounds of the inn, other than snow banks, is now finding it way to the Connecticut River. Winter may still have a gasp or 2 left for Killington, but today definitely feels like spring is upon us. I am not quite ready to get out my golf clubs...but from the number of tournament sign up sheets we have received the last week, we know golf season at Killington will be on us soon.

It has been a truly weird and wacky winter. Although the ski season got off to a very slow start, the last 16 weeks have been amazing. I had my powder ski's out at Killington at least 8 times this year...I have been joking to Mary that I am starting to "wear them out...time for a new pair". Sunday was probably our last hurrah on the slopes for this season...unless Killington has another powder day? (I don't think so.) Think Spring!

Sunny...blue skies....60 degrees....spring has come to Killington!

Work is continuing on our kitchen renovations at the inn. Today we completed the installation of the new sub-floor. Tomorrow is kitchen tile day! With any luck, we will have everything put back together by Wednesday/Thursday next week.

While all this is going on, I have not gone out of the inn much. Mainly trips to Goodro's Lumber and Home Depot. But while eating lunch yesterday, I read an article on Don Gray in the Mountain Times written by another Killington musical legend, Joey Leone. If you are in Killington this weekend, there will be a memorial gathering for Don at the Summit Lodge on Sunday evening. Also, instead of posting a picture today, I found this vintage clip on Youtube of Don performing "Satisfaction" with the Bobby Darling show. Enjoy...Think Spring!

What a lovely mess 

Oh..what a lovely mess it is...

With the power back on reliably in Killington, we began our kitchen renovation project today at Birch Ridge. The first task was to get everything out of the kitchen. The inn has a relatively small kitchen, but it still took most of the day to move it all out into the restaurant for temporary storage.

Every year at this time we take everything out of the kitchen to clean it thoroughly. This year, in addition to our normal cleaning, and painting, we are also installing a new floor. Over the last 9 years, the weight of some of the kitchen appliances has caused the kitchen flooring to bend in places. (To bake cakes, for instance, required constant turning as we could never keep the ovens level.) To fix the problem, we are removing all of the plywood sub-flooring, replacing/adding new sleepers, pouring concrete pads for the heavy appliances, then putting down new plywood and linoleum. Our chef, Frizzie, is also an accomplished carpenter. Between the two of us, we hope to have the job done and the kitchen put back together in a week or so, before heading off to the next project on the spring renovation list.

I am not sure, based upon our construction schedule, if I will be able to take any turns on the mountain the next couple of days. Maybe over the weekend? Think Spring!

Wide spread tree damage and power outages have closed the Killington Ski Resort for the second day in a row.

At the inn, about 1 mile and 300 feet lower than the K1 base lodge, we were buffeted with extremely high winds from mid-day Sunday through early morning today(Tuesday). Power was out at the inn from approximately 7:00 AM on Monday until 10:30 AM this morning. A quick drive up and down the Killington Road shows little apparent physical damage. Many large tree branches are down around the area, but it does look like the Killington Road area was spared major storm damage. At the inn, based upon a quick check it looks like only a couple of trees have fallen, probably because the October 1995 storm had culled out weaker trees from the property.

Major damage is being reported to the west of Killington in Mendon, Chittenden, and Rutland. Our chef's property in Mendon has seemed to faire ok, but his brothers house had a tree fall on it, breaking 3 windows. News reports out of Rutland indicate thousands of trees are down, blocking many side roads. Based upon what we are hearing on local radio stations, officials are estimating that parts of Rutland will be without power, and marginally accessible for the next 4 or 5 days.

It appears that the Killington Ski Resort will remain closed today. Based upon reports we have received, and information posted on Killington's website, the resort will not operate due to instabilities in the electrical power grid. They will try to re-open on Wednesday, power permitting.

Given what appears to have happened in Rutland, it is very hard to tell how stable power will be in the area over the next couple of days. Our inn closed this morning officially for the season (Mary and I had planned to close today several weeks ago, based upon the departure of our last weekend guests). If you are planning to travel to the Killington Region this week, I would recommend contacting your lodging property in advance to verify status.