Superstar (left) and Ovation (right) with full snow coverage 

The luck of the irish must be upon us. For the second "r@!ny" day in a row, Killington has been blessed with warm temperatures and bright sunshine.

I had a chance to get out on the mountain today after a brief hiatus manning the breakfast shift (and the night bar shift) at the inn while Mary was visiting family outside of Boston. Ski conditions were great with a mix of soft snow in the sunshine, little bumps, and early morning hard pack on ungroomed terrain with minimal skier traffic.

Most of the terrain on the mountain has been groomed at various times during the week to support crowds visiting Killington on Canadian School Break week. Seeded bumps courses could be found in the usual spots. Small, natural, bumps were forming on most trails due to the soft snow and skier traffic.

In my brief time on the mountain I visited many of my regular haunts. On Bear Mountain, the Stash, Wild Fire, Sky Burst, and Dream Maker were all firm in the shadows complimented by soft and creamy in the sunshine.

On Sky Peak, middle Superstar and Middle Sky Lark were firm. (Lower Sky Lark, and both Superstar Headwalls were closed in the early morning to give the trails time to soften up from last nights freeze.) Skier and Rider traffic had softened up Bittersweet from top to bottom. Because of high skier traffic, I also bypassed lower Bittersweet a couple of times, choosing to loop on a firm Low Road versus facing unguided missiles masquerading as school kids on break on lower Bitter.

The Killington Peak side of the resort was still firm in the shadows. South facing trails were softening up, but before noon the sun still had some magic to work in the Killington Basin area.

Spring skiing and riding has definitely arrived in Killington. I ignored my heavy mittens and ski jacket this morning for light cross country gloves and a ski vest. With so much snow on the trails, it should be a long and sweet spring to ski Killington.

....Let it snow! (but start thinking petunia...and I had a conversation about golf with a guest this week...)

Snowstake at Birch Ridge Inn before and after the storm. Relatively unchanged! 

To listen to the weather channel, you would think that animals should be lining up two by two. While our hearts do go out to our friends suffering from spring flooding to our south, Killington seems to have faired quite well from this latest pre-spring storm.

The latest storm to move across the area started the day yesterday with heavy wet snow. Snow continued to fall around the inn until well past midnight last night, before turning over to a light to moderate r@!n. The snow that fell during the day yesterday was of sufficient depth that I took the snow blower out to clean off the walks around the inn before the start of evening dinner service.

Showers continued in the Killington area this morning, with the majority of the precipitation taking place well before noon. R@!nfall has saturated the snow surface, but because of the amount of snow that fell yesterday, the net change in base depths thus far should be minimal.

The current forecast is calling for near freezing temperatures overnight and into tomorrow. If the forecast is correct, and what forecast is, surface water should have a chance to drain from parts of the snow pack, before below freezing temperatures lock it in place. As the water drains, I would anticipate that the measurements at the inn's snow stake will show some further compression. But all in all, the snow pack remains intact around the inn, and on the mountain as well.

....Let it snow! (but start thinking petunia!)

Yours truly flanked by my brother Peter and his wife Joan at the top of Upper Royal Flush. 

After 3 spectacular days on the mountain, today is a ski day of rest for me. Monday's deep snow, followed by great cruising days on Tuesday and Wednesday with my brother and sister in law are just hard to beat. (Not to mention the work piling up on my desk needs some attention...so it goes..)

This morning we woke up to a couple of inches of wet snow on the walkways around the inn. While not registering on the snow stake, because the snow from earlier in the week is still compressing, it is just another indicator that winter will not go quietly into the night in the mountains around Killington.

The snow is part of a front that is advancing over the area today. The local forecast is calling for snow today, with temperatures rising overnight as the front approaches. While it looks like our friends in New Jersey are going to get a soaker out of this storm, the National Weather Service is still calling for a Winter Weather Advisory with 3 to 5 inches of wet snow in the mountains today, changing to non-crystaline precipitation tomorrow before changing back to snow Friday night.

Of course, the snow stake at the inn will tell the story. With just over 30 inches of natural snow in the woods behind the inn, no matter what happens with the weather the next couple of days there will be plenty of snow to enjoy great skiing and riding at Killington.

....Let it snow! (but start thinking petunia!)

My brother, Peter, and his wife, Joan coming off Sky Burst towards Dream Maker 

Ski days rarely get better. The entire resort is covered with a foot plus of soft new snow, temperatures were in the mid 20's to low 30's, and there was nary a cloud in the sky yielding 100% sunshine. Still a lot colder than the week before Presidents' day, but you can tell spring, and petunia season, is coming.

I spent my day today on the mountain acting as a tour guide for my brother and sister in law. They are up skiing for a few days, taking advantage of the new snow and great weather.

We started the day with a simple cruise down Blue Heaven across South Ridge to Bear Claw. Beautiful snow coverage, and plenty of opportunity to observe skiing technique along the way.

To finish the first run, I chose Anti-Venom around the Viper Pit, versus Wild Fire. Lower Sky Burst was groomed beautifully soft. In the full sun, it was a great first cruising trail to start off the day.

The OL chair was not running, so we took Sky Burst for a trip through the Stash. The Stash was not as soft as other trails, much of the snow being scraped off by snow boarders plowing the trail. From there we took Lower Wild Fire and headed back up towards Dream Maker. The rollers on Dream Maker were scarred by beginner skiers and riders doing check turns on the down slopes. My brother and his wife took a couple of the rollers, before bailing out on skiers right to get through the park.

After a trip to the Skyship Base on Route 4 for a break, we did loops on Cruise Control, Bitter Sweet/High Road, and Sky Lark/High Road before heading down Snow Shed for a few runs across the street at Rams Head. KMS was racing on Needles Eye, which took that out of play.

On Rams Head, Easy Street and Swirl were fun, if simple, cruisers. Caper to Snowdon had solid coverage. Because of the stops and starts on the Snowdon Quad we immediately traversed to North Ridge for runs down Rime and Reason. To get back to K1 we took the traverse on Great Northern to Highline. Highline was in full sunshine and getting delightfully soft. Definitely a black diamond trail, but after a morning of skiing Peter and Joan's legs were warmed up enough to have fun on it.

Killington has excellent snow cover all around. The r@!n storm of Sunday cleared out of here with well over a foot of snow on the mountain, more than making up for any base depths sacrificed to the weather gods. And with perfect sunshine, there will be a lot of people in town tonight wearing goggle tans as a merit badge for being on the mountain today.

....Let it snow! (but start thinking petunia!)

Needles Eye - with 12-18 inches of new snow... 

Not a bad day....

3 hours on the mountain with my powder skis. First run down Mouse Trap, first Run down Upper Royal Flush, first run down Bittersweet. Second chair on Superstar, first run down Needles Eye, in first half dozen down Cruise Control... First run down...oops can't talk about that one... Not a bad day at all.

Note the skier (a couple of pixels in the picture) on Needles Eye in the middle of the frame. It's Mary. She was trying to keep up with me on her powder skis, but augured into the deep snow on Needles. And yes, I did the right thing and waited for her at the lift!

It was a rather shaky start at the mountain this morning. With only a few lifts running, local knowledge came to play in search of fresh tracks. It started out with only the Snowdon Quad running. Then North Ridge, then North Brook, then the Canyon, then finally Superstar. By the time we left, the K1 was running, but it did not matter; the legs were shot from all of the movement around the mountain for untracked snow.

Mary and I were both on our powder skis. Mary does not usually go out on deep snow days, but she wanted to try today. She did well on trails with 2 to about 8 inches of new snow...but the deep stuff on Needles Eye was just too much. So it goes.

After Mary's departure, I did a couple of runs in the Superstar/Ovation area. Really deep and consistent snow down the sides allowed my powder skis to just float on the snow and run free. Just a super day with great skiing in store for the rest of the week.

....Let it snow! (but start thinking petunia!)

From Left - Bagel, Chuckles, Ben, Kenny, and Ruts on the top of Superstar. 

I do not mean to be impolite, but if you were skiing Killington today and you did not look and feel like a hero on the snow, please call the Killington Ski School at 800-923-9444 and take a lesson. With bright sunshine, and every trail basically a groomed cruiser, it was hard not to look and feel good on the slopes.

With few exceptions, every trail we skied on today was groomed flat with a deeply tilled loose surface. Most trails featured a firm base with 2 to 4 inches of soft snow on top. Conditions were set up perfectly for high speed cruising with wide carving turns.

By definition, the Stash, Wild Fire, Bear Claw, Sky Burst, and Dream Maker were just great. Conditions were so consistent, and early morning crowds were so light, I don't think I made 5 turns from top to bottom on Wildfire. The only trail that was sketchy was Outer Limits. It was rock hard with noticeable ice at the pinch point midway down the trail at the start of the Bumps course. OL was definitely not a do over, but every other trail at Bear Mountain was certainly worthy, if high speed cruising was your thing.

Moving left across the resort, we found the exact same well groomed conditions on Cruise Control, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark, Superstar and High Road. Superstar was very soft on the lower headwall on skiers left under the lift line. Upper Ovation was very firm with a powdery covering left over from skier and rider traffic. The rocket ride element of it persuaded us to not do lower Ovation. Looking at it from the opposite side of the resort on the top of Highline, it seemed like we made the right choice.

Continuing our leftward migration, East Falls was great. Cascade, which we did not get too, looked quite nice based on observing several groups of skiers and riders. Double Dipper was firm. Rime and Reason at North Ridge were simple cruisers. Ridge Run (formerly West Glade) had 2 to 3 foot icy bumps along the top 400 yards, before reaching the groomed parts along Great Northern.

On Snowdon, the grooming trend continued, including on Great Bear and North Star. Great Bear still had corduroy visible at 11:30. North Star was skiing firm with a smattering of loose snow covering a very firm base. By the time we had reached North Star we had spent our day basically heading straight down on every trail, so the firm surface was barely noticed.

We finished up on Highline in full sunshine. I followed Ruts down skiers left near the racing fence by the trees. The snow was beautifully soft packed powder; just right as a finish to our ski day.

If you can't have 6 inches of fresh powder, or play in the bumps, groomed hero snow is not a bad alternative. Match it with bright sunshine and mild temperatures... not bad... not bad at all....There will be a lot of rosy cheeks in the Great Room tonight.... Spring is coming. Time to break out the sun screen!

....Let it snow!

ROTD - East Falls 

After spending literally all day yesterday at the town of Killington's Town Meeting (more on that after we talk about the important stuff), this morning it was time to get out into the fresh air and make a few turns at the resort.

Given that we have now had several freeze/thaw cycles, surface conditions around the resort could generally be characterized as flat and fast. Some trails were definitely faster than others, but everything that was skiable (ie groomed) was basically flat. Since the last weather event at Killington on Monday, the resort has been able to make multiple grooming passes over most of their terrain. In general, surfaces were covered with a soft layer of machine groomed granular, over a firm base. The machine groomed layer was several inches deep in most places, preventing skiers and riders from reaching the firm base layer except in areas with very high traffic, or areas exposed to impact from the wind. After a couple of easy runs, it was obvious that surface conditions around the resort were fairly uniform, allowing for more aggressive skiing where skier traffic (or lack there of) permitted.

Trails on Bear Mountain saw surfaces that were more granular than on the Killington Peak side of the resort. The Stash had excellent, yet firm, coverage. Wild Fire from top to bottom was a beautiful groomed cruiser. With the exception of the steep pitch just under the Sky Burst Chair, Wild Fire was skiing as an advanced blue trail, versus its regular black diamond heritage. Bear Claw, Skye Burst, Outer Limits, and Dream Maker (top to bottom) were skiing well. The Dream Maker headwall was your basic GS slope, supporting 3 to 4 sweeping turns from the top to the bottom at most. If you did not keep your tips "pointed downhill you chicken@#!t", you were basically going to be sliding sideways any way, so best to take it like a skier and run with it. None in our group had any difficulty on Dream Maker, but there were a few beginner boarders on it (who should not have been), further polishing the flat trail left by the groomers.

On the Skye Peak part of the resort, Superstar was a tail of 3 trails. The headwall had its challenges. Middle Superstar was your basic groomed cruiser. The lower headwall was not quite a slide for life, but skier and boarder traffic was rapidly wearing away the groomed surface. Skylark was very granular. Bittersweet was mixed, with more granular conditions towards the middle of the trail versus more powder conditions on either side. Needles Eye was deep and steep. Multiple grooming cycles on Needles Eye left a very soft base for carving turns. Except for the fact that the Needles Eye chair was not operating today, we probably would have done the Needles Eye trail over several times.

During the last few weather cycles, I would guess that the temperatures stayed colder on the Killington Peak side of the resort, as the snow conditions remaining after the groomers finished their magic had more powder than granular content. All of North Ridge, and the Canyon areas were skiing beautifully. I felt that East Fall on skiers right was the run of the day this morning. Groomers had cut unto the snow bank on skiers right leaving a very soft, powder covered surface (before 11 AM this morning) that was just perfect of GS style carving turns. It was worth doing over several times.

Yesterday, instead of partaking in the beauty of the Killington Resort, we performed our civic duty and attended the Killington Annual Town Meeting. The meeting was attended by over 250 people. Highlights from the meeting were the election of Bernie Rome to a 3 year term on the board of selectman. Bernie beat out Patty McGrath, a fellow innkeeper at the Inn at Long Trail, by just 3 votes; proving once again that at Killington, your votes really matter. In addition to the contested selectman's race, the citizens of Killington decided to play fast and loose with a couple of decisions.

One was to redirect moneys collected by the towns 1% local option tax and apply it to the towns general fund, instead of exclusively to the Economic Development and Tourism Commission (EDTC). This basically turns the 1% money into a pot of gold to be raided at the pleasure of the selectboard. The same group, but not the same people,(and no offense meant to the past or current office holders as they are volunteers who try to do the right thing) who have so adroitly been able to run up millions of dollars in debt (mis)managing the towns Green Mountain National Golf Course. The other decision the citizens made was to reject the 2011 town budget. There was virtually no debate on budget line items before voting the budget down. Both of these items will result in a series of selectboard meetings to redefine the budget for the town, and a special town meeting later in the year to approve it. As Tip O'Neil used to day, "All Politics is Local"...that really applies to the town of Killington!

....Let it snow!