Killington ready for the Holidays 

It is basically up to UPS, USPS, Fedex, DHL,insert your favorite package delivery service here!

I did not have a chance to make a post in a timely fashion yesterday as Mary and I took one last shopping trip; this time to Lebanon New Hampshire. The night before, I had spent about 6 hours online with Amazon, LL Bean, and others, getting my holiday picks in under the shipping wire. I just have a few more trinkets to pick up for Mary's Christmas Stocking, then I am all done...

Our inn guests are reporting spectacular conditions on the mountain. Every night this week we have had an inch or 2 of very light fluffy snow which has greeted them in the morning. Overall the snow has not added up to much. It is so light it is either compressing down to nothing when the sun hits it, or blowing into the woods on a light breeze. (note...blowing into woods for later). Never matter, the mountain looks primed to have a really good holiday season. And light snow continues to dominate the local weather forecast.

At the inn, everyone is getting ready to greet holiday guests. The kitchen staff is working full tilt preparing for next week. We have great menus planned for Christmas Eve/Christmas day and New Years Eve, not to mention the fact that our restaurant menu will change several times during the week as well. Stop bye the inn for a beverage under our Christmas tree if you are at Killington. It should be a great Christmas season.

Snow Stake Night Picture, December 20, 2005, 11:00 PM 

I was not going to write much today, as I spent most of my time on mundane tasks getting ready for Christmas week. Then it started to snow.

At about 8:00 PM this evening, light, feathery powder descended from the heavens. After all of the inn guests retired from the bar this evening, I went outside with a flashlight and took a night shot of the snow stake just to see if I could get a clear picture. The shot is a little grainy, but with image enhancement, it looks like a good 3 inches of powder has fallen over the last 3 hours. Local weather forecasts are reporting continued snow showers all night, with additional snow expected Wednesday afternoon. For those of you who can make it to the mountain on Wednesday, ( and I am still out of commission with a bum ankle) have a great day in the pow!

Gifts on display at the Boutique at Killington on Route 4 

This time of year, when you live in Killington, you are faced with the question.. Do I go to amazon.com, or try to shop local? When we first moved to Vermont full time 9 years ago, the answer was pretty easy. I am clearly in the 'Early Adopter" portion of the online shopping public. But is recent years, several interesting shops have opened in the Killington area where I have been able to score a gift or three for people on my Christmas list. As today was the Monday before Christmas, today was a day to visit one of those special shops.

Late this afternoon, I went down to Route 4 and stopped in at a shop named The Boutique at Killington The shop is owned and operated by June Buttner, a very nice woman who moved to Killington years ago with her family. Every time I visit with June, I always find something I like, and today was no exception. If you are in the Killington area and looking for a gift, I can very easily recommend that you visit June at the Boutique, on Route 4 about 1/4 of a mile west of the junction of Route 4 and the Killington road.

Besides Christmas shopping today, Killington is pretty quiet this week. We are being blessed by a continuous light snow. It is not amounting to much, but it gives the resort a festive feeling when you are out shopping. Inn guests are reporting that conditions on the mountain are very good. One of the couples in the inn is here their fourth year in a row. They have seen all kinds of conditions the week before Christmas in the past, so I trust their observations about conditions. They have extended their stay 3 more days.

Killington cloud hangs over Killington Peak, December 18, 2005 

My partner, Mary, made a rare Sunday morning appearance on the slopes today. It was her first foray over to Bear Mountain for the season. She reports that the snow coverage on most of the mountain including Bear Claw and Wild Fire was great. Snow guns were firing away on Upper Wild Fire. The only problem trail was the training trail leading to the top of the half pipe, which was getting skied off with heavy traffic.

On my picture journey late this afternoon, the Killington cloud was in full swing, precipitating on the top of the mountain. The picture for today is a shot over the Showshed base lodge towards Kpeak, and is a good example of the infamous "K-Cloud".

While I was on the mountain, snow making operations had resumed on Ramshead. It looked like guns were set up on most trails, which make sense with the coming holiday week.

Half Pipe at Bear Mountain on Lower Dream Maker, December 17, 2005 

The Killington Ski Resort opened the Bear Mountain area to skiers and riders today. While "Outer Limits" and "Devils Fiddle" were not yet opened, from what I could see all of the other trails at Bear were in good shape and being enjoyed by light pre-holiday crowds.

As my ankle is still on the fritz, I have resorted to knowledge of the back roads in Killington to get good shots of the mountain. The picture for today is of the half pipe on Bear Mountain on lower "Dream Maker". To give you a sense of scale, this picture was taken from over a mile away as the crow flies. You can really appreciate how big Killington has made the half pipe, when you realize that the structure dwarfs the people inside of it. The picture was taken in the "Top Ridge" development, looking directly at "Dream Maker".

The other interesting thing about today was the weather. When I left the inn to take pictures, it was sunny and bright. Less than 1 mile away at the K1 base lodge, it was snowing heavily, making it basically impossible to take any pictures of Killington peak. Over at Bear Mountain, there was some light snow falling, which by adjusting the image contrast, I was able to filter out of the photo chosen for today.

Update @ 6:00 PM Heavy snow has stopped falling at Killington. Light snow flurries are continuing. Reports coming from friends indicate that I did not miss much skiing today. Our friend Carolyn reports that "(her husband Bill and friend) Ray went to Pico for opening day where everything was on hold because of the wind. They finally opened the triple and the boys, quoting Ray, did "2 and through". The snow was very heavy. Bill decided to head to Killington and went directly to Snowdon -- he made one run! Again, snow was very heavy, wind driven and cut up. Gondola and other lifts weren't running because of wind."

The afternoon picture of the snow stake, taken around 4:00 PM was at 12 and 1/4 inches. Based upon yesterdays reading, the storm yielded 5 and 1/2 inches. I can tell you from snowblowing snow around the inn that there was considerable wind driven drifts in some places.

Original Post: OK... this is getting upsetting. Today is one of those days that a skier moves to Killington for. Blowing and drifting snow.... Freshies on every run...But so it goes. I tried to put my boot on this morning, to see how it would feel. In the words of boxer Roberto Duran "¡No más!" It was a nice try, but that boot was not going on the foot today.

Thus far from todays storm, the snow stake at the inn is reading 10 3/4 inches as of 11:00 AM; up from 6 3/4 inches yesterday. It is supposed to snow the rest of the day. If I have the time, I will update the snow stake later in the day as the storm winds down.

Between meetings with clients and doctors appointments, today was a working day for me at Killington. The ankle injury is slowly getting better, but I am not yet ready to try my luck in a ski boot. With the very busy holiday season coming up, it needs to get a little better before I put too much stress on it.

Around the mountain today, the only conversation centered on the approaching winter storm. Once again, you can shop weathermen for the forecast you prefer. Hopefully we get over a foot of nice white snow. The snow stake measured 6 and 3/4 inches this morning. We will know the answer late Friday.