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.

Great Room at Birch Ridge Inn,
Saturday, April 14, 2007 

Once again we are dealing with a late winter storm at Killington. A heavy wet snow began falling early this morning. Forecasters are calling for snow to continue to fall for the next 2 days with accumulations over 2 feet in the mountains of Vermont. Currently at the inn we have received about 3 inches of snow in the last 2 hours. It is really coming down hard.... So it goes!

Last Night was our last for dinner service at Birch Ridge for the 2006/2007 season. Mary and I thank all of our past guests who turned out to join us on our last evening of the season. Our restaurant will re-open for the 2007/2008 season on Friday June 28th. During the restaurant hiatus, we have a kitchen renovation project planned, which begins next week, and several private functions scheduled. A big thank you goes out to all of the guests who have joined us for dinner over the last year. Also Mary and I need to give credit where credit is deserved...our dedicated staff including Steve (AKA Frizzie), Johnnie D, Ryan, Merissa, Briana, Michalyn, Heidi, Annie, Steve's wife Pat, and all of our friends who we called upon at various times to help us during the year. Thank you..Thank you..Thank you! Think Spring!

Killington Resort busy with late season skiers and riders. 

The Killington Resort today is seeing fairly heavy crowds of skiers and riders taking advantage of all of the snow that has fallen over the last 10 days. With temperatures in the mid 30's, and partly cloudy conditions, all those who have made the trek to Killington are being rewarded with great spring skiing conditions.

Of course, in the background looms the prospect of another large storm heading into the area late Sunday. As I write this various weather services are predicting 1 to 2 feet of snow for the local area through Monday evening. With many local businesses preparing to shut down for the winter season over the next several days, many in the area are asking "Are we done yet?" with this wacky winter. Oh to have had all of this snow in November... So it goes!

Note from Bill... In the course of writing this blog, many times when things do not go as well as they may have, I use the expression "So it goes". This expression first hit my conscientiousness when I was introduced to the 1969 best seller "Saughterhouse Five", written by Kurt Vonnegut, in an english literature course during my freshman year of college. The protagonist in the novel, Billy Pilgrim, uses the expression when ever a bad thing happens, downplaying the terrible conditions he experiences during his disjointed life. The novel is loosely based on Kurt Vonnegut's actual experiences as an allied prisoner during WWII. Mr. Vonnegut was one of only 7 prisoners to have survived the firebombing of Dresden Germany near the end the war. Mr. Vonnegut credited his survival of the bombing to taking shelter in a meat locker at Schlachthof Funf (Slaughter House Five) in Dresden. Mr. Vonnegut passed away this week at the age of 84. So it goes!

Mary at the bottom of "Heavenly Traverse" 

It is extremely difficult to comprehend how much snow is on the mountain tops at Killington right now. Three weeks ago, we had what locals are now calling our "January Thaw". Snow surfaces at the mountain and the number of open trails had shrunk dramatically. The season was just about dead. All you need to do is look at the snow stake picture for April 4th. We were down to 2 inches of snow at the inn, and the mountain was in a similar circumstance. How New England weather can be fickle.

This morning, the snow stake read 17 inches. If you take into account 2 or 3 inches of melting during the day on Wednesday (I try to take the snow stake pictures at 8:30 AM), yesterdays storm dropped almost 10 inches of snow around the inn by 8:30 AM this morning. The mountain is reporting another 18 inches on Killington peak. And from being up there this morning, it is not an exageration.

The storm we got yesterday can not be confused with the powder storm we got last week. Yesterdays storm dropped prime snow ball snow (I never thru any snow balls at cars when I was a kid... honest!...don't get any ideas..) On the mountain, the snow was packing into nice little bumps everywhere. Great for little squiggly turns, or broad but some what jarring traverses.

This morning, Killington Peak was still in the middle of yesterdays storm. Visibility was less than 200 feet in blowing and drifting snow combined with heavy cloud cover/fog. The mountain was reporting wind gusts over 30 MPH. This is where we started our morning.

Mary and I started with a few runs in the North Ridge area. Other than skiing by braille, snow surfaces were consistently soft and deep. If the sun were out, we might never had left, but as more people got to the top of the mountain, we decided to move over towards Bear, hoping the visibility would improve. Coming off Killington Peak was interesting. It was not until we got lower than the South Ridge Lift terminus that the cloud cover raised enough so that you could see the trails.

Bear Mountain was beautiful. Terrain features were still set up on Upper Bear Trap. Upper Bear Claw was minimally tracked. I did not have my powder skis on today, but my Fischer's had enough buoyancy to keep me on top of the surface. Viper Pit, Anti Venom, and Lower Bear Claw were all soft little bumps. Outer Limits and Lower Wildfire were all chopped up with bump lines just starting to appear with increasing skier traffic.

Over in the Needles Eye area, Cruise Control lived up to it's name. While making the traverse to Needles, we looked up slope on Skye Burst. After a box ride to the top of Skye Peak, on our next run we just had to go down it. Since it was not being serviced by the Skye Peak quad, almost no one had been on it. There was easily 1 to 2 feet of untracked snow from the middle of the trail out down skiers right. Without question, this was the one run of the day.

We did a run down Skye Lark to Bitter Sweet, at which time Mary had to leave to get back to the inn. I was expecting the Super Star quad to be running, it wasn't, so I traversed over to the Snowdon Quad. I did 5 runs off of Snowdon including Chute, North Star, Great Bear, Frolic to Vagabond, finishing up with a cruiser down Bunny Buster to Mouse Trap. Chute was nice little bumps. North Star, Great Bear, and Vagabond had large, yet soft bumps. The legs got a work out. But even after getting beaten up on North Star, I needed to take one more run, so I made it a cruiser down Bunny.

I perceive that skiing and riding this weekend at Killington should be pretty wild. With snow surfaces this deep and soft, and snow still falling on top of the mountain, it should be a great weekend to play in the mountains. And then of course, who knows what will happen next week.... Think Spring!...

The Birch Ridge Inn at Killington,
covered with new snow. 

When you live in Vermont you realize that some days are pretty, and some days are downright nasty. Today is one of those nasty days.

Snow began to fall around the inn around 5:00 AM. Thus far today we have seen heavy snow, sleet, hail, Styrofoam balls...you name it... it has fallen from the sky. Surface roads in the area are passible, but driving conditions are not good. But, as the storm passes, driving conditions should improve very quickly as the snow plows, at least in the Killington area, seem to be keeping up with the storm thus far.

I choose not to go out skiing today. Sooner or later, business gets in the way. And today seemed like a pretty good day to sit in front of the computer and catch up on work. But, tomorrow is another day, and the slopes are definitely calling. It should be a great weekend for skiing and riding at Killington.... Think Spring!...

June Buttner, owner of
The Boutique at Killington,
showing good form on Superstar. 

For the first time in many days, when I woke up this morning the sun was shining and it was not snowing outside. With temperatures this morning in the high 20's, ski conditions at Killington were ideal for late season cruising and playing in the bumps.

Our first few runs this morning were in the Canyon area. East Fall and Double Dipper were both groomed soft and sweet. While neither took a lot of energy to ski as they were groomed flat, the side to side sweeping turns we made going down them at considerable speed were exhilarating just the same. To get the blood flowing in my legs, during several of our runs I entered the area through the bumps in FIS. The beautiful, soft, well spaced bumps on FIS were just enough in the early stage of the morning to get all of the muscles moving and warmed up.

We then traversed over the top of the mountain, via Great Eastern and Launch Pad to play over at Superstar. Superstar had not been groomed overnight. Middle Superstar was covered with very soft mounds of snow, not bumps yet, but precursors formed by people pushing soft snow around. You could basically cruise Middle Superstar over and around the mounds, making as many turns as you wanted to keep your speed under control. The Upper and Lower headwalls of Superstar were basically flat. They both were firm, but also covered in a soft snow which gave both of them a nice, consistent surface.

Later in the morning, I journeyed over to Bittersweet while the gang cruised down middle Skyelark. Bittersweet was covered with nice soft bumps. Most of the bump troughs on Bittersweet were filled with soft snow, but a few in high traffic locations were showing some scratch. As by now the temperatures had crossed the freezing level, it was too warm to call these locations ice as they were moist and edge-able. But on another day, if temps were well below freezing, I would probably be calling these spaces blue ice. At any rate, I made it through the bump field on middle Bittersweet before any of the others met me at the junction between High Road and Bittersweet..so the bumps did not slow me down at all.

Crowds today on the mountain were light. As it was such a beautiful day, we saw many local business owners out skiing and riding. Because everyone is funneled into the K1 box at some time during the day, there was a lot of socializing going on, chatting about the winter, vacation plans, the pending sale of the mountain, etc... That is until the doors opened at Kpeak....at which point everyone scattered to take their runs before meeting at the bottom again. Overall, just a gorgeous ski day in this wacky winter that would not start and now will not end.

Speaking of winter, the weather service is calling for a major winter storm to move through the area starting around midnight this evening. 12 inches are forecasted for central Vermont with snow predicted to fall all day long on Thursday. Let it snow!