The holiday season is always a busy one at Killington. With that in mind, I wanted to try to get out on the mountain for a little while today, to get a final peek before the Christmas rush. One catch... I only had 1 hour. One hour on Killington does not sound like much, but with a little local knowledge, you can literally ski for miles and miles.

I started from the Vail parking lot and skied over to the Rams Head lift. From Rams Head, I cruised down Caper to the Snowdon Quad. The Snowdon Quad is not a speed demon (hence the pejorative designation Slowdon Quad), but it can get you where you want to go. From their, I took Killink to the North Ridge Triple, stopping to take some pictures of the peak. Although the scene was some what dark and gloomy, as there was a high overcast, Killington Peak looked impressive in it's snow capped grandeur.

Here is where an hour at Killington becomes interesting. The next move was a traverse across Great Northern to Great Eastern to get over to Bear Trap at Bear Mountain. A solid 10 minutes of continuous skiing. Bear Trap was very interesting. Snow guns were just pummeling the trail. Visibility was about zero. Snow piles were becoming knee to waist deep in places. The mountain will need to do some serious grooming of this to support the holiday crowds.

Usually on a one hour jaunt around Killington I would take the Outer Limits quad, however, that was not operating today. So up I went on the Skye Peak Quad. This placed me a the top of Skye Lark. From Skye Lark, I traversed over to Superstar for the last run of my hour, crossing in front of the K1 Base Lodge on my way back to the car. Total elapsed time 1 hour, on 4 lifts with a combined elevation of 4299 feet and a length of 17,140 feet.

Ski conditions on the mountain are without a doubt the best they have been for Christmas in many years. Next week it looks like basically 100% of the resort will be open for skiing and riding, a huge difference from the last couple of years. Great snowmaking weather, a new owner willing to make lots of snow, and a few good early season snow storms have the mountain in great shape for holiday visitors. I just might have to sneak out for an hour or 2 again before the new year.

Let it snow!

A lot of tough calls this morning.....3 inches or so of nice fluff fell overnight...but Christmas shopping was no where near done....

For my snow fix this morning, instead of going skiing, I fired up the snow blower and did some work in the yard. Since we have a busy inn and Mary was not able to get out and go skiing, the fact that I got up and worked this morning might have scored me a few points... it's hard to tell.

With the snow all moved, I then headed out along the Killington Road for a little Christmas shopping. 2 hours later, after giving my American Express card a work out, with bags in hand I headed back to the inn. Killington has a lot of nice shops if you are looking for last minute Christmas gifts. And contrary to common opinions, many of the shops also offer non-skiing/riding items to round out your Christmas list. I would tell you about what I picked up this morning, but that would spoil Mary's Christmas surprise.

Temperatures have warmed up this afternoon at Killington. With all of the snow on the ground, I am sure that the skiing and riding today are just great. Hopefully I will hit the slopes for a couple of hours tomorrow, assuming some last minute shopping on the net works out this afternoon.. so it goes.

Let it snow!

The heavy snow fall of the last several days has caused the new owners of the Killington Pico Ski Resorts to rethink their plans. Today, for instance, Bear Mountain opened for skiing and riding a full 2 weeks earlier than the announced plan.

Virtually all of Bear Mountain was open for skiing and riding on ungroomed, natural snow fall. Snow guns were running on Bear Trap to build up base, but I did not see guns operating elsewhere. Bear Trap was covered with wind blown packed powder interspersed with snow making whales. I had my first "eject eject eject" of the season today, as my left ski got buried under some crust on Bear Trap, literally ripping the ski off my leg. I came to a stop about 40 feet away, upside down, in what seemed like waist deep powder. Of course today I had my all mountain skis on, not the powder skis... so it goes.

Outer Limits was open with all natural snow. There was no evidence of any snow guns being used on Outer Limits. The trail was ungroomed with several interesting exposed rocks. A lot of people had already challenged it. After looking at the rocks from the chair, we decided to pass.

The Killington Peak side of the mountain was primarily groomed flat. All of the trails we skied on were nice machine groomed packed powder. Great for making gentle carving turns with very little surface vibration. Cascade was still showing a little ice on the lower headwall, but I found it easily avoidable. Superstar was splendid, as was Skye Lark and Bittersweet. Cruise Control had not been groomed, but the skier traffic from yesterday left some very nice, soft bumps. The same held true for Needles Eye.

We left just before Noon. The Killington cloud had appeared turning off the sun shine of the early morning. But it did bring with it some snow squalls which will only help to keep things nice and fresh for tomorrow.

Let it snow!

Oh my! This weekends storm dumped beautiful powder all over Killington. While it was not the fine "Champagne" powder you get with some storms, it was powder just the same. Ski conditions are just plain great all over the mountain.

This morning when I arrived just before 9, the K1 Gondola and the Superstar Chair were both on wind hold, so off I went on the Snowdon quad with hundreds of my closest friends. Not the ideal situation on a powder day. I hooked up with some old ski house friends and did a few laps. Everything at Snowdon had been groomed late in the night, so there was only an inch or 2 of new snow to push around. I was on my powder ski's and contemplated going back to the parking lot to get my all mountains, but as it turned out it was good that I did not. The first runs were down Highline and East Fall. Very nice coverage on both. By the time we got to the bottom of East Fall, the K1 was operating so we hopped into the Box and headed to the peak.

I convinced the group that we should forget about Cascade, Dipper, Escapade, and Downdraft and traverse across the mountain to Needles. The Superstar chair was not yet running, so I though we could hit something before most people figured out it existed. Oh boy. I would bet that no more than 5 people had done Panic Button and Needles Eye before we had arrived there. All 4 of us were able to ski pure, untouched, powder from the crest of Panic Button all the way down to the Northbrook Quad. I did not cross anyones prior track the whole way down. Easily the run of the month so far, in this month of excellent skiing.

The trip back was cumbersome as we needed to take the Northbrook Quad and traverse back to the Superstar quad, as the Needles Eye quad or Skyship Stage 2 were not running. We did Needles Eye again, at which point I got out my camera and shot the video. Even then we were still the only people on the trail.

Once more we did the traverse, this time heading towards Skye Burst and Cruse Control. Guns were blowing on Skye Burst as the resort prepares to open Bear Mountain. Cruise Control was just beautiful, although because it is not quite as steep as Needles Eye we all noticed our legs were burning a little more. Probably too many turns as there were some whales on Cruise control, while Needles Eye was flat with pure powder on top.

We did a few more laps, but by this time people were starting to discover what we had found, and the Northbrook Quad was making some weird noises. To finish the morning, we took a run down Middle Ovation to lower Superstar. Both were nicely covered. But by now we had been thoroughly spoiled by Needles Eye...Oh Well... Tomorrow everything will be groomed and we will be back to cruising....

Let it Snow!

The severe winter storm has hit Killington as predicted today. Snow fall accumulations at the inn from this storm currently stand at around 5 inches bringing the total snow on the ground at the Birch Ridge Inn snow stake to 15 inches. High winds are creating white out conditions with blowing and drifting snow. We have also taken several short 2 to 5 minute power outages undoubtedly created by the weather.

Additional snow accumulations are predicted by the national weather service this evening. Assuming the wind does not knock down too many lifts, tomorrow ought to be a pretty nice day on the mountain.

Let it snow!

If you like 3 to 6 inches of fluff on the trail in front of you, poor visibility, driving snow, and pretty strong winds....this morning was your little piece of heaven.

Except for visibility issues, today was a very good ski day at Killington. Yesterdays hard pack was replaced with a near uniform coating of fluffy powder. And to top it all off, heavy snow continued all morning on the mountain, to the point that lightly travelled runs offered continuous freshies.

When we left the base lodge just before 9:00 the K1 did not appear to be operating, so we headed to Superstar. The first run down Superstar was definitely seeing eye skiing. Visibility was probably less than 10 feet in blowing and drifting snow. The surface was nice soft powder, but because of the visibility, the run seemed like it involved an inordinate amount of turns. Visibility improved and declined all morning as the clouds and snow squalls moved across the mountains.

In rapid succession we did a couple of loops on Superstar, Skyelark, Bittersweet, and a run across to Panic Button and Needles Eye. The all were in excellent shape. Skyelark was probably the best, as the gentle slope held the newly fallen snow consistently. It was set up perfectly for medium speed powder cruising.

After 8 or 9 loops on the Superstar chair, we headed over to the K1 Gondola. Excellent coverage on the Glades (AKA North Ridge), East Fall, Bunny Buster, High Line and Chute.

After yesterdays mess, I needed to take a run down Cascades, so around Noon I traversed from the Snowdon Quad to the North Ridge Triple to see if Cascade had recovered. Middle Cascade was soft and sweet. Lower Cascade was still interesting. The middle of the trail was scraped off pretty well. Several snow boarders were having a very difficult time of it when I was going down lower Cascade. I took skiers left, hugging the edge of the trail. Given the prevailing winds and the heavy snow fall, there seemed like there was a good 6 inches to a foot of new snow all the way down the left side. Really nice, as long as you kept your turns tight and did not stray out to the middle of the trail.

For my final run, I took the box and traversed down Blue Heaven to Great Eastern to Launch Pad to Superstar. Heavy snow was still falling on top of the mountain. It seemed like several feet had blown into Blue Heaven, but by this time my legs were getting quite heavy so I am probably overstating the snow depth. The final run down Superstar was as consistent as the first run of the day, except I could see the trail. After almost 3 1/2 hours of non-stop skiing, my legs were cooked. It was time to go home.

At the inn we received about 5 inches of new snow from this storm. Now we are getting ready for Sunday, with what ever new white stuff that pending storm will bring.

Let it snow!

It is nice to be thinking about snow at Killington in December for a change. Based upon local weather reports, it looks like a one-two punch is headed to the area tonight and over the weekend. This evenings storm looks like it may be small by Killington snow storm standards, on the order of 3 to 6 inches. Sunday...who knows. The weather service detailed discussions are talking about a classic Nor'Easter. My powder skis are ready. Are yours?

I did hit the slopes this morning. Conditions can be described as "Flat and Fast". Tuesday nights NCP followed by temperatures in the single digits overnight have basically solidified the mountain. The good news is that it all but assures a white Christmas on the mountain. The bad news is that in some areas it is literally "bullet proof".

Snow surfaces across the mountain were flat, either by grooming action, or gravity pushing down the wet snow prior to it freezing. The most popular trails had all been groomed and were very skiable, although they were also very fast. Given that most of the skiers and riders on the mountain this morning were not meek, that was not much of a problem.

The was one exception, however. The one trail that was dangerous, and I don't use that term lightly, was Cascade. Upper and Middle Cascade had nice snow surfaces; firm but very edgeable. Lower Cascade was an edge to edge skating rink. The group I was skiing with today all knows what they are doing. We all have top of the line, well maintained equipment. We all have plus or minus 10 days on the hill already this year and ski well over 50 days a year. We all thought Cascades was ugly. One thing to note, however, is that Cascade was almost perfectly flat with no bumps. Put a couple of feet of powder on it, and we will all be fighting to get into the box first to ski it before it get's chopped up. But today on Cascade, it was strictly one and done. So it goes.

Everything else on the mountain that we skied was ok. And we were all thinking....today's cold temperatures and light traffic will prevent the mountain from getting bumped up. If we get 3 to 6 inches of snow tonight, with temperatures in the low teens...oh you can only dream!

Let it snow!