Mousetrap 

Light crowds, moderate temperatures, and machine groomed packed powder greeted skiers and riders at Killington today.

Mary and I had an opportunity to get out on the slopes today for a couple of hours. We took runs of Rams Head, Snowdon, Killington Peak, Bear Mountain and Sky Peak. With the exception of a couple of trails, everything we skied was covered in a 1 to 2 inch film of machine groomed packed powder on a firm base. Todays picture, from the Snowdon Quad looking at Mousetrap, give a good representation of todays overall conditions.

The one exception we experienced was Dream Maker. The freestyle park, due to lack of skier and rider traffic, was still relatively soft and pliable. Groomed corduroy was still visible at noon time, when we skied the trail. People we spoke with on the lift also mentioned that Ovation was also relatively soft, as the resort had made new snow on it over the last couple of days. Unfortunately, time constraints prevented us from trying it out.

All eyes are now pointing to the western sky. A snow storm coming out of the Great Plains is forecasted to cover the area in 8 inches of new snow by mid day Thursday. Light snow began falling at Killington around 4 PM this afternoon. Snow is predicted to fall all night, which will significantly soften up surfaces on the mountain.......Let it snow!

"Bumps Course" snow sculpture on hill in front of Birch Ridge Inn. 

Mary and I survived the combination of Presidents Weekend and Valentine's Day relatively intact. We had a very nice group of guests who stayed with us over the weekend. The restaurant was also very busy. Overall, it was one of the strongest weekends of the ski season.

As part of the catch up process, today I finished working on our entry in the Harpoon Brewery Killington Snow Sculpture Contest. The theme of this years competition is Killington's 50th birthday. Our entry "It's all about the skiing" is a bumps course laid out on the hill in front of our inn. As it really is "All about the skiing" in winter, we felt it was an appropriate way to pay homage to the resort.

Of course, with the holiday weekend and week, neither Mary nor I have had an opportunity to travel to the hill to "point em down hill". Hopefully later in the week.......Let it snow!

Snowmaking today on Cascades at Killington Peak 

Killington has survived that latest trick that Mother Nature has thrown our way. Warm temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday, combined with light r@!n were no match for the snow cover built up around the area over the last several weeks. At the Birch Ridge Inn, without the aid of artificial snowmaking, the snow stake measures just over 14 inches of snow pack on the ground. As a special bonus, last nights storm also dropped 1 to 3 inches of snow around the area, changing the color of the snow pack from dull gray to bright white!

At the Killington Resort, grooming and snow making operations are in full swing to prepare the slopes for the crowds expected to be in the area to celebrate Valentine's Day and Presidents Weekend. Snow making is visible all along Cascades from Killington Peak. Snow making is also reported along Great Eastern and other areas. Cold temperatures overnight should allow the resort to continue to make snow to protect high traffic areas. With any luck, skiing and riding should be quite good this weekend. We can hope.......Let it snow!

Billy B in the Super Pipe followed by Norm 

Manyana Rewarded!

Whoa...what a day!. Snow surfaces were just creamy goodness! Depending upon the trail you were skiing, the snow seemed like the head of a proper pint of Guinness poured at the Inn at Long Trail, or the sweet creamy magic of a creme brulee at our restaurant at Birch Ridge, or the foaming creamy texture of a vigorously shaken Key Lime Pie martini, a drink that is making the rounds with the young drinking age ladies of Killington. Where ever you went today, spring like temperatures in the 40's softened up the snow pack to give skiers and riders a hint of the spring skiing days that we can look forward too in a the long days of early April.

The run of the day was probably Dream Maker. Upper Dream Maker was covered with several inches of sweet cream over a softening base. Mary, who usually backs away from the upper sections of Dream Maker did the trail 3 times. The combination of the steep pitch combined with the soft snow was just right.

Other notable mentions include Outer Limits and Super Star. Outer Limits was a leg work out as it was beginning to form bumps from skier traffic down the soft snow. Super Star, on the other hand, was a study in contrast. The upper headwall had a soft covering with a firm base. The middle section held on to its' corduroy for a couple of runs. The lower headwall required some solid leg work to carve through moist snow over a moist base.

Snow surfaces are due to stay soft tonight as some NCP moves through the area. The different forecasts have a high variability in them, so it is hard to tell how much wet will fall. What is certain is that the storm passing through the area is supposed to end as light snow tomorrow afternoon. We can hope.......Let it snow!

Mary an Sky Lark with "ball bearing" snow. 

Interesting day to comment about trail conditions at Killington. If you were a casual skier or rider visiting the area, you would have found firm but very skiable conditions. As a local, conditions were mostly boring, with milliseconds of anxiety thrown in for good measure. In either case, a good foot massage was enjoyed by all.

Overnight, temperatures dipped into the single digits, solidly freezing any residual moisture left over from the thaw on Saturday and Sunday. On top of that, the mountain received a couple of inches of insignificant fluff, the result of the cold air squeezing evaporated moisture out of the atmosphere. Throw grooming machines over all of this and you have a nice mix of faux corduroy which quickly disintegrates into loose ball bearings with skier traffic.

Of course, all of the resort was perfectly skiable. A casual Killington skier would just mutter something about east coast skiing and head down hill. But having experienced virtually pristine, soft snow, surfaces most of this ski season, as a local, todays conditions left me with a severe manyana attitude and a nice early lunch at Johnny Boy's Pancake House.

Looking at the trails today, Cascade was groomed early and covered with a couple of inches of snow. The underlying surface was firm but accepted an edge. East Falls seemed to have a snow gun problem. Our chef, Steve, found a lot of Ice on the top section, but the lower section was covered with soft velvet. The snow gun he skied through was wet leaving a sticky residue at its base which some people had trouble negotiating. Away from the gun, the snow it was making created a nice ski surface.

At Bear Mountain the Stash was very firm, as was Sky Burst, Bear Claw, Wildfire, and Outer Limits. Conditions were softer as you got to lower elevations, probably the result of early morning sun working its magic. Everything was groomed flat virtually edge to edge, which was a good thing as bumps would have been pretty hard. Cruise Control, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark, and Super Star were similar to Bear Mountain, although the lower elevations absent early morning sun were still quite firm.

If history stays true, the usual case with conditions after thaw-freeze cycles is that they get better with age. The first groom tends to leave "death cookies". Today we had the smaller variant "Ball Bearings". Another grooming cycle should break up the clumps and leave a smoother surface. Sprinkle on top a little added snow, and our soft conditions will return. We can hope.......Let it snow!

Birch Ridge Inn at Killington dusted with early February snow. 

Typical New England wait a minute weather has been the order of the day this weekend. Yesterday, temperatures hit the low 40's, the first time the freezing mark has been decisively cracked since late December. The snow pack around the inn was not impacted to a high degree, losing only about 2 inches out of 20 this far. But all of the ice dams that were building on the roofs of the inn due to January snow fall have released, which from a maintenance perspective really helps.

Today, we have seen sun, sleet, snow and a little wind thrown in for good measure. Trails at the mountain this morning were locked in a thaw freeze cycle, delaying opening of many of them. By around 9:00 AM the mountain was about half open, with grooming machines working the other trails to impart a measure of corduroy goodness. The great news is that the snow pack is relatively thick for this time of year, so the thaw freeze cycle should be a distant memory in very short order.

The interesting thing that occurred today for Mary and I started with a call from my mother down on Cape Cod. Mom is a voracious news paper reader. By 11 AM, she has usually "consumed" the Boston Globe and the Cape Cod Times.

In todays Globe, mom discovered an article entitled "Finding Romance - and great skiing" by Peggy Shinn in the travel section. Needless to say, I went down to the Killington Market and got a copy of the Sunday Globe. If you have a chance to read the article (Section M), you will find that the Birch Ridge Inn, Mary and I and our Chef Stephen got a very nice mention....and that's a pretty good thing for us for a Sunday in February.......Let it snow!

Killington cloud forming. A local weather phenomenon. 

Cool dry air overspread the area overnight, resulting in a mostly clear, deep blue, sky. Temperatures at 9:00 when I started skiing were in the single digits (5). By mid day, temps approached 20.

As the resort was working on the K1 parking lot, I put my car in the Vale parking lot and started my day from the Rams Head lift. Caper, back to the Snowdon Quad was beautifully soft. I was able to do long GS turns all the way to Snowdon, as I was basically the only person on the trail at the time.

From Snowdon, I traversed over to East Falls. East Falls was groomed flat. It was coated with a light fluff which made it much easier to ski than its black diamond status would indicate. From East Falls, I made my way to the K1 Gondola for a traverse across the back of the resort to Bear Mountain.

Normally when I traverse to Bear I take "Bear Trax" (formerly know as "Great Eastern") all the way. Today I decided to take "Pipe Dream", under the South Ridge Triple, to Bear Trax. Oops... it was a nasty mess of wind blown hard pack, exposed rock, and trampled brush. The good news is that the edges on my skis are pretty sharp, so turning on the stuff was possible. But overall, it was not a pleasant "milk run" across the back side of the resort.

I was rewarded when I got to Bear Mountain. I started on Wild Fire. Upper Wild Fire was nicely groomed on skiers right, with firm bumps down skiers left. Lower Wild Fire was covered with soft groomed snow. Overall, Wild Fire quickly made up for the mess on "Pipe Dream".

Next up was Bear Claw to Lower Sky Burst. The groom on Bear Claw covered the slope with little marbles. The condition persisted through the Viper Pit until Lower Sky Burst, which seemed to have had a little snow making to cover the surface. Lower Sky Burst features a series of snow making whales down the middle of the trail. The whales made for a lot of fun as one skied up and down the sides of the mounds.

Outer Limits was next up. It had been groomed earlier in the week. The cold temperatures had basically kept it flat. Skier traffic created a loose granular surface which set up nicely for carving turns.

After Outer Limits, I went up the Sky Peak Quad for a run down Dream Maker. Upper Dream Maker was covered with a soft velvet coating of man made snow. I don't think that the resort blew snow there. It probably landed there, carried by the wind from some other trail. That being said, Upper Dream Maker was almost as good as it gets. (Give me a foot and it would be the best... a couple of inches and it will only rate a good!). Middle Dream Maker with the free style features was will covered. Lower Dream Maker, on the way to the Super Pipe, also was covered with newly made snow. This was probably intentional, given the traffic this slope gets to get to the top of the pipe. Whatever the reason, however, it was very nice.

Leaving Bear Mountain, I did the Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet trio. All were good. Needles Eye, and Panic Button in particular, was probably the best of the bunch, as the groom resulted in a smoother surface.

I finished with a run down Super Star. It was in much better shape than the last couple of weeks. The resort has worked over the wind blown hardpack that made the trail a down hill skating rink last week. They have also made a lot of new snow, pretty much covering the trail with a new surface from side to side.

Todays picture comes from my ride up the Super Star quad. You have to remember that during my morning on the mountain, there were basically no clouds in the sky. Yet as I was riding the Super Star quad, I was witnessing the creation of the Infamous K Cloud on Killington Peak. There was obviously a wind from the west hitting the back side of the peak. The wind was compressing the air column as it ran into the mountain, resulting in clouds forming over the peak. The clouds would drift several hundred feet from the peak and disappear. It was like the peak was sending out smoke signals to the other mountains in the Green Mountain chain. But then, of course, I am easily entertained.......Let it snow!