Mary being buffeted by high winds on Killington Peak just off K1 Gondola. Notice the strap on her ski pole being held in the air by the wind. 

In sharp contrast to the weekend, a warm front has overrun the Killington area today, driven by very strong winds aloft. Temperatures in the area are in the high 40's to low 50's. Snow melt similar to spring time is occurring through out the region.

Mary and I went out on the mountain for a few hours this morning. Areas below ~3000 feet were clear. Above that line, low clouds and fog were overhanging the area. The clouds were not terribly dense, as at Killington Peak there was a very strong wind. Visibility was ok for skiing and riding. Taking panoramic pictures of the mountain...not so much.

Snow surfaces on the mountain were soft and spring like. Other than the parking lots, we did not see a hint of ice on the mountain. What we did see in abundance, however, were broken tree limbs and branch parts on many of the trails. The high winds, combined with the ice remaining from last weeks storm were taking a toll on the weaker branches on trees lining the slopes.

We rode the Ram Head Quad, Snowdon Quad, and the K1 Gondola. All lifts had small lines (less than a couple of minutes). The Superstar Quad was not loading this morning, although it was running intermittently. The wind direction was head on into Superstar which does complicate unloading at the top. Even though the Superstar Quad was not running, we did make a traverse across the top of the mountain for a run down Bittersweet. As we were the only ones on it at the time, it was quite easily our run of the day.

Temperatures in the area are predicted to fall back to more seasonable levels overnight. With plenty of cover on the mountain, that will help stabilize conditions for the rest of the week....Let it snow!

Ice glistening in back of the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington. Notice the snow stake in the middle of the frame. 

50 years ago today, the Killington Ski Resort opened for business. At the time, a young "kid" with a vision, a keen ability to evaluate natural resources, and a dynamite sales pitch, convinced the state of Vermont to let him turn Killington Peak into a lift serviced ski resort to satisfy the wander lust of post pubescent baby boomers. The resort that Preston Leete Smith created has been a centerpiece of the economy of central Vermont ever since, and a true innovator in the commercialization of downhill snow sports. While "retiring" from the scene he created 12 years ago, the legacy of Pres Smith still thrives in the center of Vermont's Green Mountains.

It is a direct result of the vision and hard work of Pres Smith and his small team of entrepreneurs that caused Mary and myself to visit Killington to recreate many years ago. I write "recreate" versus "ski" because the resort Pres Smith created means a lot more to us than just a "Ski Resort". With our decision 12 years ago this Christmas to move full time to Killington and found the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington has transcended "skiing" for us and become a way of life.

Since Pres Smith sold the ski resort in the late 90's, much has changed, and much has stayed the same. The mountain, bar none, provides the most complete skiing and riding experience in the eastern United States. That legacy of Pres Smith has not changed.

Unfortunately, the management teams that have taken Pres Smith's place in the intervening years did not have the same drive to perfect commercial recreational skiing and riding. For many of the 10 years following Pres Smith's departure, Killington was viewed as a cash cow to provide debt service for what became a bankrupt ski corporation. While many incremental improvements to the resort were made during the ASC period at Killington, the joie de vivre to provide the best possible ski experience was replaced by the insatiable demands to export cash from a company jewel to prop up a failing empire.

But in a life span of 50 years, there are bound to be ups and downs.

2 years ago, the ownership of the resort changed hands once again. Last season, some very tough love was given to the resort to help stabilize the operation. From that rough start, more than 10 million dollars has been invested in on mountain resources in the last 2 years to restore the ski experience at Killington to its rightful place at the top of the New England ski industry. If the weather cooperates, next weekend will see the opening of a brand new high speed quad servicing Bear Mountain and Sky Peak. It will be the first new lift at the resort in 10 years. In addition to the lift, many of the ski trails at Bear Mountain and on Sky Peak have been totally redesigned to improve the on slope experience of skiers and riders. And at the end of the day, that is what 50 years of the Killington Ski Resort is all about!

The renewal that is underway at Killington is very telling. Ski people are back in charge. It is very clear living at Killington that the legacy of Pres Smith, and his vision for skiing from the top of Mount Killington is as strong today as it was on December 13, 1958.

Happy Fiftieth Anniversary Killington!...Let it snow!

Moving some of the 5 inches of snow that fell at Killington last night 

Mary thinks that using that when I am out using snow thrower that I am "Playing in the Snow". I call it "Work"....so it goes...

it is hard to say anything about today except that the skiing and riding should be good tomorrow. When I got up this morning, the day held a lot of promise. The sun was trying to poke out of the clouds. It had been snowing all night. Unfortunately, the snow ended as a couple of hours of freezing r@!n. But on the positive side it helped lock down the snow so it would not blow away.

About 8:30 AM as I was leaving the Inn to go to the mountain, the power went out. Not just at the inn mind you, but all over Killington and much of Rutland County. Not a good omen....

We called in the power outage, collected a couple of guests who were also heading to the mountain, and trekked off. Less than 5 minutes later, we are in the turn around area of the K1 parking lot, speaking to a Killington Ambassador. You guessed it.... the mountain was closed!

The power failure that had impacted the inn had also shut down the mountain. In addition, the freezing r@!n, which left a delicate coating of ice on the trees around the inn had reigned havoc on the resorts lifts. Icicles were clearly visible on the K1 Gondola Line. The boxes were still in their holding area. It was clear that the K1 Gondola would not be working any time soon.

The Killington ambassador was very nice. He politely told us that he had been told that power would be out for around 3 hours and it was uncertain if the resort would open for the day...so it goes!

We drove around a little bit and showed the resort off to our guests. Then we headed back to the inn, which was still dark. Around 10:45 the power came back on at the inn (which was a good thing as the snowblower was being finicky, refusing to start with the manual draw string). I spent the next couple of hours playing...er... working, moving snow around the inn to get ready for the weekend. No where near as good as skiing, but at least I was outside.

Mary went back up the mountain with our guests around 1:30 this afternoon. The parking lot was empty. The lifts were not turning. The resort was officially closed for the day....so it goes.

But all is not lost. Grooming machines were out working the trails at the resort to prepare for the weekend. Tomorrow is another day...Let it snow!

Snow falling at Killington. 

At least it got colder.

Wednesday's ugly weather stabilized in the early evening. However the predicted snow from the National Weather Service that was supposed to fall overnight never materialized. That's the bad news. The good news is that the predicted snow for Thursday afternoon and evening has materialized.

It has been snowing lightly at Killington since around Noon time. Since I snapped the photo of the snow stake, we have had a couple if inches of snow at the inn. I would guess that the mountain has received a little bit more due to higher elevation.

I did not go skiing this morning. With the holidays fast approaching, there were a number of inn related marketing items I needed to take care of. (I have to work some time... at least that is what Mary tells me!) If you are curious, I have published on the inn's website preliminary menu's for both Christmas and New Years. We are currently taking reservations for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Eve. If you are interested in joining us on any of these days, or any other time over the holiday, give us a call at 800-435-8566 to make a reservation.

I also spent a fair amount of time creating new graphics for the Mountain Times ad for our inn and restaurant. The ad copy will be first published in next weeks paper. If you are interested, you can find a copy of it also on our website here.

It is supposed to snow all evening. I do plan to go out on the mountain on Friday to take a first hand look at conditions. Wouldn't it be nice if powder skis were in order??? That would be a nice 50th anniversary present for Killington, wouldn't it? Let it snow!

If you enjoy skiing and riding and live in the Northeast United States, there is nothing nice you can say about last night and today. The nascent 2008/2009 ski season at every eastern resort took a hit overnight as a hot r@!n penetrated the area. Lesser ski areas which had not built up a base will be in trouble. The Killington Resort, which has spent the last month making feet of snow everywhere, should come though this just fine.

Needless to say, I did not ski today. There is no picture of the mountain, because all there was to see was an impenetrable cloud. The picture of the snow stake is also fairly poor, as the drenching non crystalline precipitation had turned the snow stake wood a dark brown. With a little help from Photoshop, I was able to pull out the details, and it is not pretty. At 10:00 AM this morning, the stake stood at 4 inches, down 5 and 3/4 inches from yesterday....so it goes.

The silver lining in all of this is that it looks like the warm up will be short lived. Temperatures at Killington have steadily declined all day, and are forecasted to go below freezing around sunset. The weather forecast is calling for todays storm to end with 4 to 6 inches of snow this evening followed by a major snow storm on Thursday evening into Friday. The National Weather Service has posted both a Winter Weather Advisory and a Winter Storm Watch for the area through Friday afternoon. NOAA is currently forecasting "in excess" of 6 inches of snow late Thursday night. Of course how many times is the weather forecast right? But we can hope.

With Killington's 50th Anniversary Weekend coming up, a nice coating of new snow will take care of everything.....let it snow!

Billy Mac is Back! 

For a day that was supposed to see storms moving across the area, today turned out to be a nice day to be on the mountain at Killington.

The storm passing west of us today blanketed the area in a skim coat of light fluff in the early morning. Temperatures were also significantly warmer, being in the mid 20's most of the day at Killington Peak. Yesterdays upslope (north) wind following the Superstar lift line was replaced with a down slope (west) wind along the K1 Gondola line from Killington Peak.

Snow surfaces on the mountain were similar to Monday with a varied mix of light powder, wind-blown powder, and frozen granular surfaces. Most of the trails were groomed overnight. Trails that saw grooming early in the evening had a skim coat of new snow that had not been locked into the surface by a grooming machine. Other than a few areas where the wind had scoured the terrain, most surfaces were fairly soft.

From Killington Peak, the Northridge area, East Fall and Cascade were all in fine shape. Rime, Reason, and East Fall were covered with an inch or 2 of new snow. Cascade was a touch scratchy in places, as the wind was following down the slope from the peak. If you stayed on the right side, particularly on the lower segment, you were able to find some nice soft snow.

For some unknown reason the Superstar Quad was not running this morning. I did take Launch Pad across. The cross wind on Superstar was fairly strong blowing clouds of snow to the woods on skiers right. I rode the line further over to Skylark, which was more sheltered from the wind. Skylark was totally wind stripped of soft snow. While being down to the hard pack, it was still nicely skiable. As I was the only one on the trail at the time, I was able to make nice, side to side, cruising GS turns. I would have done it again had the Superstar Quad been operating.

Many of our retired friends are making their way back to Killington for the ski season. It is nice seeing them all again, and it is one more indicator that winter is here at Killington.........let it snow!

Killington Peak framed in snow. 

The sunshine was beautiful. The deep azure sky was resplendent as a backdrop for the surrounding countryside. If you factored in a 90 degree temperature difference, you might almost think you were in Rio de Janeiro. But string bikinis were not in vogue today at Killington. It was all Pillsbury Doughboy outfits. Layer upon layer upon layer.

Light dry snow continued falling around Killington last evening till around midnight. Strong winds pushed it around, contorting it into random drifts. This morning, when I left for the mountain, the snow stake had recorded an additional 3 inches on the ground. Not too shabby for early December.

Just before 9:00 AM as I was parking my car, the temperature read a balmy -1 degrees. A good sized gust hit the car, blowing snow in a small cyclone around me as I stepped out. Brrrrr.. So it goes.

Snow surfaces on the mountain were a varied mix of boot deep powder (in areas sheltered from the wind), wind-blown powder, and frozen granular surfaces scoured by the breeze. When I arrived at the K1 base lodge, I met a few of my friends. They were not distraught that I was a few minutes behind schedule. It was not going to be a real powder day. And dawdling for a few extra minutes in a warm base lodge seemed like a good thing to do.

For the first run, we took the K1 Gondola to Killington Peak and headed down East Fall. The snow on Great Northern at the peak was extremely sticky. Vigorous polling was in order to make any forward progress across the flat top of the peak. Upper East Fall was scoured pretty slick, although near the junction with Rime there was some wind packed drifts to negotiate. The traditional East Fall (why do trail names keep changing anyway?) was boot deep with firm wind packed powder. My skis wanted to work it, but my left leg cramped up pretty solid. I told the others to go along, as waiting for me in the cold was not going to be pleasant. I headed back to the K1 Base Lodge to strip off the boot to get rid of the cramp...so it goes.

After walking around the base lodge for a few minutes the cramp went away. I went back out and headed to the Superstar Quad. I figured that even with the cold, that swinging my leg under the chair would help prevent it from cramping up again.

Pico from Nivis Walk to the left of the upper lift terminal on Superstar. (Click to enlarge.)

While cold, the Superstar Chair was not that bad. The breeze was blowing up slope with the chair, so except for an occasional gust or mini cyclone, it was not a factor. Once above the lower headwall, the lift was in full sunshine. My black ski suit just soaked in the rays. I won't call it warm. And I certainly did not have any areas of exposed skin. But it was comfortable enough to do 8 loops before calling it a day.

From the Superstar Quad, conditions were all over the place. Bittersweet, Skyelark and Upper Superstar were all groomed some time during the night. Because of it's orientation to the wind, Bittersweet had sections near the trees on skiers left where several inches of soft powder had held against the wind. Skylark was also fairly soft, once off the very top. Superstar was scoured clean to the lower headwall. It was a firm cruiser, but the upslope wind in your face made it a little on the chilly side.

Two runs stick out today. Old Superstar, between Superstar and Ovation, was a legitimate powder run. Calf deep powder was across most of the trail from Launch Pad to High Road. For comic relief, the resort had a "Thin Cover" sign at the entrance on Launch Pad. I guess it was thin as there still was some brush poking through the 2 feet or so of snow on the trail. While I was on the trail, it was not even a consideration as I was going through the fluff.

The other run which was a mess in a negative way was Lower Superstar. On my loops on the Superstar Quad, I kept noticing that on skiers left under the chair there appeared to be a good amount of packed powder bumps. For my last run of the day, I decided to try it, figuring that if I burned out my legs...I was going in anyway...so what the heck. Well, those powder bumps were wind blown cornices on top of rock hard Volkswagen Bug sized bumps. I went down 3 times in the process. On one occasion, I skied through some soft snow, and all of a sudden there was nothing underneath me...pretty strange feeling. On the other two, I buried a tip into the snow, only to strike the frontside of a frozen bump underneath. Overall it was not pretty...but I got down without any major bruises (to my body or ego). It probably looked pretty funny from the chair, however, now that I think about it.

All in all, however, it was another good day on the mountain. Beautiful sunshine, stunning views, and fresh snow........let it snow!