Skiers and riders enjoying Superstar in the sunshine on Saturday of MLK weekend. 

It would be inappropriate to say that Martin Luther King weekend is living up to its' namesake. A google search of "Martin Luther King" and "Skiing" yields no linkage between the civil rights leader and the sport of skiing, other than the call of ski resorts all over the country beckoning skiers and riders to the slopes over the weekend. Similarly, a read of the biography of Martin Luther King Jr. on Wikipedia also does not connect him to downhill winter sports.

In our culture, however, it is easy to make the transition from a historical figure to time away from the daily grind. It is our good fortune that the struggle for equality in the United States has for the most part been settled due to the work of Dr. King and others. Because of that effort, many can take a break from their normal lives and celebrate with some time off.

Starting on Friday night, skiers and riders have flocked to resorts in the northeast. Long rides were reported coming out of both Boston and New York, as people headed to the mountains this weekend. The latest arrived at the Birch Ridge Inn on early Saturday morning about 1:00 AM after a trek out of Manhattan.

The resort itself is mum about attendance, as would be expected, but a quick tour around town the last couple of days indicates that it is a good weekend from a business perspective. Parking lots at the ski resort were generally full at mid day. Guests and friends who have been on the mountain were reporting that there are a fair amount of people on the ski trails at the resort. The good news is that Killington is built for busy weekends, with a huge amount of uphill lifting capacity. Guests are reporting that as long as you avoided typical resort choke points, like the K1 Gondola line, that there was little waiting in lift lines, allowing maximum time for skiing and riding Killington many miles of terrain.

And the great news for Killington when we woke up this morning is that we are expecting a small snow storm to pass thru the area tonight. Plus or minus 3 inches of light snow is forecasted by many weather services to fall in Killington overnight. The perfect ending to a winter weekend in Vermont.

........let it snow!

Snow grooming machine on Dream Maker building terrain park. 

Today was a little warmer than recent days. Temperatures at the inn just before 9 this morning were in the high 20's. It was warm enough to shed a layer this morning, which is welcomed after the cold air of the last couple of weeks.

Killington is set up beautifully for the Martin Luther King birthday weekend. The copious amounts of snow that the resort has made is being pushed around the resort, offering skiers and riders really nice surfaces to to enjoy their sport.

This morning we started with a brief tree run in the Stash followed by a top to bottom jaunt down Wildfire. The woods had some firmness to them, as the snow is beginning to get denser due to compression the last week or so. Upper Wildfire, while flat, had not been groomed. With temps in the high 20's, the snow had a very "grabby" feel to it. We quickly learned that it was an anomaly, a simple artifact of the temperature gradient and the trail not being groomed overnight. For, when we got to lower Wild Fire, we were rewarded with a nice soft mix of machine groomed packed powder. Lower Wild Fire was set up perfectly as a small bump cruiser which got several well deserved do-overs during the course of the morning.

Outer Limits saw some work overnight. Small rolling bumps with a touch of firmness in places kept speeds in check. It should see plenty of action over the weekend.

Needles Eye, Cruise Control, Upper Dream Maker, Skye Burst and Bitter Sweet were all excellent. A terrain park was being built on lower Dream Maker, so it was roped off. It should be open some time this weekend.

Vertigo was in nice shape. I avoided the headwall, as the entrance was filled with large bumps, but once past it via a Needles Eye entrance, middle and lower Vertigo was filled with nice soft rolling bumps.

The only real problems of the day were on Superstar, Skyelark and Ovation. Heavy cloud cover coated the top 300 feet or so of the mountain. The first run down the upper Superstar headwall was a little tentative in zero visibility, but it was groomed soft and flat so subsequent runs were ripped top to bottom.

If you are heading out to Killington this weekend, you will find great snow and mild temperatures. Enjoy you time on the slopes........let it snow!

Note: Thursday afternoon, about a mile from the inn, across the Roaring Brook Valley, there was a serious house fire. For those of you interested in that story, you can follow the link to the Rutland Herald for more information.

Bumps on Outer Limits 

Really...really nice day on the mountain.

Todays adventure on skis started like many January days with a trip up the Superstar Quad and a traverse over to Bear Mountain. Being closer to the equator, Bear is usually a little warmer than the Basin side of the resort. The real reason for the apparent temperature difference is that Bear Mountains slopes have a southern exposure aiming them at what little sunshine we get in this part of Vermont at this time of year. Slopes on the Basin side of the resort (the original part of the resort) predominately have a north facing exposure, or are in the shadow of Killington Peak. With the sun not getting very high on the horizon in early January, slopes on the Basin side of the resort tend to be colder this time of year. Hence the early morning trip to Bear Mountain where it's "warmer".

Of course, you need to understand that warmer in this context is 18 degrees versus 14 degrees. But for the first runs of the day when the blood has not started pumping hard through the body, a few degrees can make the difference between skiing all morning, or going in early from the cold.

Ski conditions today were quite good. The resort is still making snow in some places. In others, they have begun to groom out the snow whales they made the last couple of weeks; blending the snow into the trails surface. The result on most trails is a very soft packed powder surface which is really nice to ski on.

There are a few exceptions. Lower Wildfire today was a slippery mess. Snow making operations have stopped on lower Wildfire, at least for now. The snow whales created by the snow guns have not been groomed out, resulting in very firm surfaces and some large bumps. While very skiable, there were other trails which were much more enjoyable. Outer Limits was another trail that will see better days. It is filled with large bumps left over from snowmaking last week and skier traffic last weekend. I am sure that once it sees some work it will be delightful, because there is a lot of snow on it. But we will have to hold judgement on OL until later in the week.

Coming across the mountain, the Stash, Bear Claw, Skye Burst, and Dream Maker were all very nice. Snow making was taking place on lower Dream Maker from the junction with the Cruise Control cutoff. Cruise Control and Needles Eye were very nice. There was race training set up on Needles Eye earlier in the morning. Once that was done, we did several laps on Needles...it was well worth the do overs...

Prior to doing Needles Eye, we took the cruise down Great Eastern to the Skyeship Base on Route 4. A cup of hot chocolate later, we were all warmed up for the rest of the morning. Snow coverage on Great Eastern was very good. The surface was generally very soft the whole length of the trail with no scratchy spots evident anywhere. Your trip may of course vary as conditions change on the mountain, but the Skyeship base does make a good place to take a mid morning break.

Back on the mountain, Bitter Sweet, Skyelark, and Superstar were also very good. The snow made last week on Skyelark has been groomed. The surface was very soft and consistent. Superstar had a few strange bumps at the top of the lower headwall. I almost launched off of one in the dim light, but I figured it out before taking flight. The snow on the lower headwall was very soft. Waves of snow were avalanching down with each carving turn. Superstar would have been a do over late in the morning, but there was some work being done on the lift, so I headed to Killington Peak to end todays ski outing.

For my final run of the day, I decided on Cascade. It was about 12:30. There was about as much light as was possible today on the trail. From top to bottom, the trail was excellent with nice soft rolling terrain down the whole pitch. It was a great way to end a ski morning at Killington.

.....let it snow!

Mary at the entrance to Bear Claw 

Meetings, bloody Meetings.....they happen here in Killington too..

Today was a beautiful ski day at Killington. Temperatures were in the mid 20's. The sun was shining. There was a little wind, which made some of the lift rides a little cool. And the snow conditions are just plain great.

I had 45 minutes on skis this morning, before heading out to a 10:00 AM meeting. During that time, I was able to ski from Superstar to Bear Claw; a run thru the Stash; Bittersweet to Cruise Control; and a run home on Skyelark to the car parked in Bay 1 at KBL. In the middle of it all, there were 2 separate 9 minute top to bottom to top loops, taking advantage of the high speed Skye Peak Quad (what a great lift for a lot of skiing and riding).

Ski surfaces on my quick jaunt around the mountain were primarily groomed packed powder. Packed powder in New England can mean all kinds of things, but today it was really packed powder. For the most part, nice and soft. Very receptive to sweeping, carving turns.

Because of time constraints, I did not have much of a chance to explore around the mountain today...but I really did enjoy being able to be on the hill, even if it was only for a short time.

For those of you following local Killington politics, tonight(Monday) there will be a meeting at the Sherburne Elementary School at 7:00 PM hosted by the Killington Economic Development and Tourism Commission. The public meeting is an informational session to discuss the EDT's plan to have the town acquire a 38 acre piece of property on the Killington Road known as the "Fireside Lodge" property. The EDT eventually wants to use the property, once it is improved, as a site to hold events sponsored by the town of Killington. To move forward with the project, voters will be asked to approve a bond on town meeting day, March 2nd. In addition to tonight's meeting, there will be an officially warned town meeting on the subject to be held sometime in February before the vote in March.

.....let it snow!

Ruts in the woods somewhere in 'The Stash'. 

Once again the lights were out. The resort was covered in heavy clouds spitting a constant snow. Temperatures were in the mid teens...but there was not real wind. And snow guns were blasting the mountain almost at every turn with 20 foot drifts everywhere. It was "Glorious"!!!!

Because of the weather, a sane person might have thought that it was an awful day on the mountain. But if you ski in New England in January, you expect dim light and falling snow. And that falling snow, combined with the work of the snow makers at the resort, created really ski conditions all around the mountain.

We started our warm up run on Superstar. Straight top to bottom, non stop, point them down hill you chicken@#$t. Surface conditions were a firm groomed corduroy base with a couple of inches of fluff on top. Just perfect for sweeping GS turns down the length of the trail. it would have been a do over, but the Killington Mountain School was setting up a race course on half of the trail, so we headed over to Bear Mountain.

We started in the Stash. We followed some tracks into the woods on skiers right. The woods had been thinned out and were full of various hits and ramps. We came across this one huge structure, which climbed about 15 feet into a couple of trees. My friend, Ruts, thought about giving it a try, but then common sense took over.

We came out of the woods and went down Lower Wildfire. Snow guns were cranking out snow. Visibility was zero in many places. For the second real run of the day, it did a nice burn job on the quads. My legs turned to jello halfway down.

From the Bear Chair, Outer Limits was calling. It looked like it was relatively flat with nice fresh blown snow covering the surface. Oops...thank you for playing.... The fresh snow covered a very slick surface, interspersed with some ice balls that seemed specifically placed to stop your skis from turning after you got them pointed straight down hill. On his board, Ruts took most of OL on his behind (I have never seen him do that before in 20 years!) We took a couple of cat calls from friends riding the chair...but OL soon took it's revenge when they gave it a try. Later in the day when it was skied out, it looked like people were having an easier time. I am sure once it gets groomed out it will be fine for the weekend.

We took a run down Dream Maker next. Other than the top headwall which was all icy bumps which we avoided, the rest of the trail was just a perfect groomed cruiser. We exited down near where the base of the super pipe will be in a few weeks, right next to the new Fan Gun installed between Dream Maker and Skyeburst. The Fan Gun has pumped out a mound of snow that has to be 30 feet high. It is an impressive ride to the top, and an equally impressive ride down the back side.

Coming back to the basin side of the mountain, snow guns were pumping out huge amounts of snow up and down Vertigo and Skyelark. We chose not to do Vertigo as visibility in the guns was less than zero. Skyelark was covered with nice soft snow and huge snow whales. As long as you stayed close to the guns you could see. But if you strayed too far away from them you found yourself surrounded by a dense snow fog. The good news is that at 15 degrees, the guns were relatively dry. But every now and then you would hit a wet gun which completely iced over the goggles.

After meeting some other friends, we took a few runs in Needles Eye and headed back over to Bear Mountain. Even though the guns were still blasting on Wildfire, the next few runs were much better than the earlier experience. My legs were definitely warmed up and much more responsive in the deep snow. I still needed to check every now and then to figure out where I was, given the poor visibility, but the ski legs were back for the last couple of runs under the guns. Fresh snow, and good ski legs... that's what skiing is all about.

.....let it snow!

Looking up Skyeburst from the old Snowshed crossover. 

Sometimes interesting can be good. Other times, interesting can be bad. But most of the time, interesting is just interesting. And that just about describes todays ski journey around the Killington resort.

Today was Mary's first venture on to the slopes in 2010. The inn is settling down from the holidays. We still have quite a few people staying with us thru the week, but the pace has slowed a bit, allowing everyone to breathe a little easier. Around the inn, the Christmas decorations are beginning to disappear. The march of the snowmen, invading Birch Ridge, is imminent.

Mary and I got to the mountain late today, by our standards, arriving near the crack of 11 AM. Killington Peak was totally covered in a dark, foreboding cloud. A light, weird, snow-mist combination was falling from the sky. Temperatures were in the high teens with a light wind. We parked in the K1 parking lot, near the Snowdon Quad. Mary had put her boots on back at the inn. I slipped mine on in the parking lot... then off we went. Well sort of...

Turns out, while I was putting my boots on, the Snowdon Quad went down for some reason. The rope was put up blocking the corral, so instead of boosting up to get to Killington Peak, we skied down Great Northern, thru the ski tunnel between Rams Head and Snow Shed and wound up on the Snowshed Express Quad. From their, we took a left turn down High Road and found ourselves in Needles Eye.

After a relatively quick trip in the Skyeship Gondola to Skye Peak, we traversed off the back and headed over to Bear Mountain. When we left the K1 parking lot, the light was down right dreadful. At Skye Peak, although there were still some heavy clouds in the sky, the visibility was improved. What had been dark at K1 could now be best described as dim. But the snow was nice!

Bear Claw, Wildfire, and Skye Burst were similar to my ski day on Monday. All had some minor wind blown patches in places, with the majority of the trails covered with a top layer of several inches of dry powder. You needed to pay attention on the crests of drop offs along the trails in the dim light, but that's good practice anyway.

Cruise Control, Needles Eye, and Dream Maker all were skiing well. Outer Limits was open. Snow guns were pounding OL so we took a pass.

Coming back to the Basin side of the resort, Skyelark, Bittersweet, and Superstar were "interesting". Snow guns were going strong on parts of Superstar and the length of Skyelark. The wind was blowing everything on to Bittersweet. Combined with the dim light, visibility was near zero in spots along the trail. This was particularly true in the mixing zones where trails intersected. The peak area where people from the Skye Ship exit to Skyelark was particularly treacherous with copious snow drifts hidden in a fog of mist from snow guns and dim light.

Except for the visibility, Bittersweet was quite fun. The snow surface was soft due to new snow making. The resort did play a few tricks on skiers leaving enormous whales of snow all over the trail. On middle Bittersweet, in the dark with blowing snow, the new snow piles were medium sized. On lower Bittersweet, some were literally over 10 feet high. The good news is the visibility had improved considerably on lower Bittersweet, so riding up and over the snow whales was a lot of fun.

Light snow is continuing to fall at the resort. Taking into account snow compression, the new snow is not amounting to much, but it is keeping everything nice and white and fresh. Somewhere there is a tradeoff between dim light, bright sunshine, and falling snow. I am not sure where it exactly is... but for now, I will take the dim light as long as it keeps snowing at Killington.....let it snow!

Killington Peak and Sky Peak in the clouds as seen from Bear Peak 

Happy New Year!

For the first blog post of the new year, Mary and I would like to give a warm thank you to all of the guests who visited with us, and dined with us, during the holiday season. We appreciate your continued support. Also, a big thank you to our staff, without whom we would not be able to continue to provide a high quality of service for all of our guests...

With the holiday season coming to a close, I was able to had out to the mountain this morning to take in the slopes. A lot has changed since my last adventure on skis 10 days ago. The biggest one, of course, is the snow. Prior to the holidays, the resort was in an all out assault to make snow to open terrain for holiday visitors. Since Christmas, we have had abundant cold temperatures, and constant small snow storms passing through the area. It all adds up. With the exception of some double black diamonds (Outer Limits in particular) the Killington Resort enters the new year with all of it's base lodges open, and nearly all of its terrain available for skiers and riders. Based upon what I saw on the mountain this morning, someone's Christmas wish got granted.

I spent my ski morning checking out terrain I have not yet skied this year, primarily on Sky Peak and Bear Mountain. Overall, conditions were packed powder. The majority of the trails had 1 to 2 inches of fluff over a machine groomed base. On a couple of the crests, the wind had exposed a crust. In the more sheltered areas, it was not unusual to hit 4 to 6 inches of light powder. No face shots, mind you, but plenty of snow to go around.

From an individual trail stand point, Upper Bear Claw was firm. Upper Skyeburst had nice snow, a little deeper on the edges of course, but even the middle was nicely soft. Upper Wildfire was ugly icy bumps. (After working round the clock for the last 2 weeks, all I really wanted to do today was some nice cruising). Lower Wildfire was nice past the pinch point. Lower Skyeburst was well snow covered. The new snow cannon at the junction of Lower Skyeburst and Dream Maker was operating. It had made an impressive mound of snow at the bottom of Dream Maker.

Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet and High Road were all in nice shape. We took a break down at the Skye Ship base on Route 4. Great Eastern had some of the softest snow on the mountain on the way to Route 4. Clearly the trees sheltered the area from the wind of the last couple of days, allowing accumulating snow to stay in place.

The last run of the day was down Superstar. The headwall had a little scratch to it...but the big problem was it was in the dark. The sun this time of year does not get high enough to light the headwall up even at noon time. Middle Superstar was just a beautiful cruiser. Nice snow across the trail supporting broad sweeping turns. Everyone in our group thought Lower Superstar was also nice.

Light snow is due in the forecast pretty much all week. That should keep surfaces at Killington nice for a while. It should be a good week for skiing and riding at Killington.....let it snow!