Left shoulder go boom 

Constant blog readers and guests to our inn are probably aware that I injured my left shoulder on the mad powder day just before Christmas. I was seen by a doctor at the clinic at the base of Rams Head at the time. We agreed that the best course of action would be to attempt to let the shoulder recover, and if it were still bothering me in mid February to begin the process to "repair" the injury...what ever that means.

Well February came and went. The shoulder did not get better (in fact it's probably gotten a little worse). The good doctors at Vermont Orthopedic gave me a preliminary diagnosis of a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder and a ticket, after being approved by my insurance company, to subject myself to the 21st century version of "The Rack", better know as an MRI (Magneto Resonant Imaging) machine.

My first attempt at completing an MRI was on Monday evening. Unfortunately, I only made it through about 13 minutes in a 25 minute session. To get "good pictures" my shoulder was contorted by the technician. I have a pretty good pain threshold, I think, but the way my shoulder was twisted just was a little too much to take.

Tonight is MRI part two. Fortified with a prescription for a pain killer (I am doing this because my shoulder is in pain after all), we will try again to peak inside my left shoulder to see what damage has been done.

I have no idea where the course of future treatment will lead. It could be something simple like cortisone shots and physical therapy, to something more interesting like surgery. I do know one thing, however, golf season is coming... I need to get this thing fixed!

The weather the last couple of days at Killington has been damp. Spring showers settled in the area late yesterday afternoon. They finished early this morning by changing to light snow, coating the area with a minor accumulation of fresh white. Ski surfaces are predictably soft. Our chef just came back from his morning turns saying the mountain was in nice shape for spring skiing. With 5 days of sunshine predicted, goggle tans will be the order of the day around town and sunscreen sales are about to soar...... Let it snow!

Killington Peak in full sunshine 

Skiers and riders at Killington today could not have asked for a better day. Temperatures were in the mid 40's with virtually 100% sunshine. There will be a lot of goggle tans around town the next couple of days!

I have not been on the hill for just over a week. Today was a great day to return. North facing slopes on the Killington Basin side of the resort still had a touch of winter to them. Surfaces, while starting to soften ever so slightly, were still pretty firm underneath. Other than an occasional turn to avoid an inadvertent bump, skiing on the north side of the resort this morning was a fairly low energy affair.

South facing slopes were pure spring goodness. For the most part, the surfaces were soft and creamy, over a soft, edge-able base. High traffic trails, like lower Wildfire, were predictably building soft bumps, requiring many turns to negotiate the terrain. The legs enjoyed the work out.

The run of our day was definitely Upper Dream Maker. The southern exposure, with very little skier traffic, turned this black diamond trail into a very comfortable shade of blue. Other runs worth noting were "The Stash", East Falls, Cruise Control, and Bitter Sweet. All featured nice elements of spring goodness.

Tomorrows weather sounds a lot like todays. I can't wait..... Let it snow!

US Snowboarding Grand Prix Venue at Bear Mountain 

This weekend, Killington hosts the US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Bear Mountain. The resort is expecting 100 world champions and olympic calibre snow boarders to participate in this years event.

Vermont natives Kelly Clark and Hannah Teter are scheduled to compete. Clark is returning as the Grand Prix champ going into this weekends event.

The resort has Bear Mountain prepared to greet competitors. The Superpipe on Lower Dream Maker was reshaped with considerable effort over the last 2 weeks. The pipe is 430 feet long with 22 foot high walls to meet olympic specifications. Prize money for pipe competitors totals $56,000 with $14,000 going to both the men's and women's champion.

Lower Sky Burst is set up for the Paul Mitchell Progression Session Slopestyle competition. The event, which features competitors performing on rails, boxes, and numerous large and small jumps sports a purse valued at $30,000. The top prize for the men's and women's competition in $7,500.

The U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Killington is sponsored by Sprint. Competition starts today with halfpipe qualification this morning. On Saturday, the Paul Mitchell Progression Session slopestyle qualification begins at 9 a.m. Assuming the weather forecast for a beautiful sunny day holds true, the halfpipe finals will take place at 1 p.m Saturday. The slopestyle finals will take place Sunday at 1 p.m. American ska band Reel Big Fish is scheduled to perform at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday at Bear Mountain to provide late afternoon entertainment.

With lots of snow for skiing and riding at the rest of the resort, it should make for a fun weekend at Killington.... Let it snow!

Killington Village Plan heading to permit stage 

It has been a week since I have been out on the slopes of Killington, having been laid low first by a big bubble of work and then by a late season cold. I am looking forward to some spring skiing. We have always found the weeks around St. Patrick's day (March 17) offer the best combination of snow conditions and temperatures at Killington. With that in mind, Mary and I have high expectations for being on the slopes next week.

Last night, Mary and I attended an open house at the Killington Grand Hotel hosted by Steve Selbo and S.P. Land Company. Steve has been working quite diligently these last few years to create a Master Plan to develop the area at the base of the resort. While there have been fits and starts, Steve's company, S.P. Land intends to file permit requests with the town of Killington in the next 30 days or so to seek approval to go forward with a plan which will ultimately result in construction of a village at the base of Killington.

S.P. Land's application for plan approval by the town is but the first step in what will be a multi-year process. After the town approves the plan request, the process switches to the State of Vermont and the Act 250 land use hearings. Once approved by the State, individual permits will need to be filed for each area to be developed.

From last nights presentation, S.P. Land will be proposing in their permit application to develop the Killington Village over 5 phases. From start to finish, the effort will take and estimated 18-20 years to complete. Phase 1 timing, which includes a new base lodge between Rams Head and Snow Shed, may take 6 to 7 years to complete, including 3 to 6 months for town approval, 2 (or more) years for Act 250 approvals, and 4 years of construction.

All in all, the village development is an ambitious project. But it is also a very strong signal that the resort owners of Killington are both in it for the long haul, and committed to make substantial investments in the resort.

Later in the evening, when we were safely back at the inn, I experienced one of those paradoxes that only modern living can provide. About 10:45 PM the Killington area experienced a generalized power failure. At the time, I was sitting in the Great Room of the inn reading this months Scientific American. The article was on Albert Einstein and Quantum Weirdness. (My friends see copies of Scientific American around the inn all the time. They kid me about reading it... but in the end, I am a geek after all.)

Of course not wanting a little thing like a power failure to cause me to miss out on some reading, I dutifully went into our restaurant and got one of our oil lamps. When lit, it caste enough light to allow me to finish reading the article. Of course the paradox is that Albert Einstein wrote his special theory on relatively in Berne Switzerland over a hundred years ago, 1905 to be exact, probably by the light of an oil lamp. Proving once again that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

By the way... CVPS restored power to the area around 4 AM this morning... Let it snow!

New snow around the Birch Ridge Inn 

I have been laying low the last few days. We have been lucky in this economy to have a very busy inn. Combined that with a nagging shoulder injury and a slight cold, the net effect is that sleep has been at a premium over the last week or so. But the cold will take care of itself, a MRI is scheduled to peek at the shoulder, and the winter season will be winding down at Killington in the next 6 to 8 weeks...it all will come full circle....so it goes!

Snow has returned to Killington today. Warm weather the last week has eaten at the snow pack, but not today. About 4 inches of the white stuff has fallen thus far, with a couple more inches expected before the little clipper system hugging the southern New England coast clears out of the area. Even with the warm weather of last week there is still a foot and a half of natural snow around the inn. Much more snow is still on the mountain, setting up the resort to enjoy a nice long spring skiing and riding season.

Last week, I had one of those AH HA moments. As many of you know, I use Apple computers almost exclusively around the inn. (I do have a copy of Microsoft Vista installed on a IMAC running in a Fusion virtual environment to allow running financial software, and a copy of Windows 2000 running on an old Dell for web site testing...but that's it.) Last spring, I purchased an Ipod Touch to use as a netbook to allow access to email and our web applications while we travelled on vacation. It works great in that application as along as you have access to a WiFi signal, which is basically everywhere. But I have never used it as an "Ipod" for music.

Last weekend we hosted a surprise 60th birthday party for one of our friends. I received a packet of photo's about our friend to put together a compilation to run on the television in our Great Room. I had done this before for some other friends in a pre-ipod time...scanning all of the pictures into my computer, stringing them together into a video, dubbing in music, cutting a dvd....All quite doable with the technology of 5 years ago.

I still needed to scan the photo's into my computer...but this time around instead of creating a movie, I took advantage of Apples IPhoto and ITunes to automatically create a slide show dubbed to music from my music library. I connected the IPod into our audio visual system with a RGB cable with audio. Voila... Pictures of our friend for his 60th birthday on TV complimented with music though the sound system. Nothing earth shaking here, mind you. It just worked! And that's the whole point.

When I got the IPod Touch almost a year ago, I did not really get the IPod phenomenon. I consider myself very technically savvy, so I did not view the technology as much of a big deal. But having a real world opportunity which caused me to put every piece of the puzzle together, not just some fun mashup for personal entertainment, I get it!

Now if everything else just worked as well.......Let it snow!

"The Canyon" at Killington. The junction of Double Dipper, Down Draft, Cascades, and East Fall from the Canyon Quad. 

With Town Meeting Day on Tuesday behind us, today was the day for many Killington residents to head out on the mountain. And a beautiful day it was! Temperatures were in the low 20's; the wind was light; and sunshine was at near 100% with just a few high clouds drifting over Killington peak.

Snow surfaces across Killington consisted of a very firm base covered by a 2 to 3 inch layer of machine groomed loose granular over most of the trails. Trails that were not groomed overnight were fairly slick hardback and not very appetizing.

A lot of the mountain was closed off today for a variety of reasons. At Bear Mountain, Lower SkyBurst , Lower Dream Maker and the Super Pipe were closed to allow the resort team time to build the course for the US Snowboarding Grand Prix. The Grand Prix will take place at the Killington Resort on March 13, 14 and 15. In addition to the closures at Bear Mountain, Needles Eye was set up for race training, and ski bum races were being held on High Line, limiting some of the available terrain. 100% sunshine and moderate temperatures more than compensated for the trail closures, however, as the rest of the mountain was fully open.

Super Star, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark, High Road, Dream Maker, Skye Burst, Bear Claw and Lower Wildfire were all in good shape. Upper Wildfire was not groomed and very "interesting" One of my turns went through a 270 degree rotation before coming to a stop on what can only be called blue ice. Needless to say, Upper Wildfire was not a do over. Outer Limits also looked very firm and unforgiving. The bright sun probably softened it up during the afternoon, but when we were at Bear Mountain before 10 it did not beckon a second look.

On the Killington Peak side of the resort, the sun has returned. The trilogy of Cascades, Double Dipper, and East Falls were very fast cruisers, each worthy of do overs in the late winter sun. They were made all the more tempting because the Canyon Quad was running today.

The North Ridge area and Snowdon were also nicely groomed. I did take a peak at North Star and Great Bear, but the do overs in the Canyon left me with too little time to do any exploring off the Snowdon Quad.

200 local residents attended yesterdays town meeting in Killington. The meeting was relatively uneventful, with the exception of the election of a new select board member. Sitting Selectmen Norm Holcomb was defeated in his re-election attempt by Chris Bianchi. Norm had served as a selectman in Killington for the last 9 years. While Killington Voters wanted a change, I also know from speaking with many of them that they thank Norm for his long service to the community.

Also at town meeting, both the School and Town budgets easily passed. The newly formed Economic Development and Tourism (EDT) committee gave their first formal report on their organizational activities. And there was some discussion on servicing of debt for the Green Mountain National Golf Course. Overall, however, it was a very tame town meeting by recent Killington standards.

Until the next time........Let it snow!

Superstar Lift Line, 9:00 AM 

An old fashioned Nor'Easter has traveled up the Atlantic Seaboard of the United States whipping snow and moderate winds into Killington today. Snowfall accumulations are light, in the 2 to 4 inch range, with blowing and drifting snow the order of the day. Total snow accumulation in the Killington area is still in doubt. Different forecasts are predicting different results. It all depends upon how quickly the storm departs the Gulf of Maine, and how much wrap around snow builds up in the Green Mountains. We will see for sure tomorrow morning.

Mary and I did have a chance to get on Killington today to take some turns. For the most part, surfaces were firm with and inch or 2 of new snow cover. Skier traffic on the mountain started very light today, probably the result of the blowing and drifting snow keeping ski week vacationers in their lodging facilities a little longer than normal today. By 11 AM the mountain seemed like it had its normal mid week crowd.

The run of the day was definitely Dream Maker from the top. Dream Maker was groomed relatively flat with 3 to 4 inches of new snow drifting onto the top section. The terrain park in the lower section was also well covered new snow resulting is a soft surface.

On the "Business" side of the resort, there are a couple of things to note. First, tomorrow, Tuesday March 3rd, is "Town Meeting" day in Vermont. The Killington Town Meeting will commence at 10:00 AM at the Sherburne Elementary School. A copy of the town meeting warrant can be found on the town of Killingtons' website.

The second item to cross my desk today is that the Killington Resort announced their season pass prices for the 2009/2010 season. Pass pricing can be found on Killintons' website.

Several important items to note about todays season pass announcement from Killington. The first is the length of the ski season: "...A Killington season pass includes Pico Mountain and is valid from early November through early May, weather and snow conditions permitting..." For the last 2 years, the Killington resort has quoted the season pass as being valid through early April. Early season closing was viewed by many as being a mistake which caused damage to the historic Killington Brand of being the "First to Open, Last to Close" for skiing in the eastern United States. The return of skiing and riding into early May will help restore Killingtons reputation for quality skiing and riding through our the whole season.

The second item to note is that "Unlimited season pass holders receive a 30-percent savings off KillingtonÕs popular Max 5 ChildrenÕs Ski and Snowboard School Programs." When Powdr bought into the resort as the resort operator, one of the changes they instituted was a significant price increase on children's programs, which impacted many season pass holder families. Since children of current skiers and riders are the future of the overall ski industry, the price change for children's programs for season pass holders is another positive step........Let it snow!