Larry after auguring in on his board chest deep on Dream Maker 

What a day. 6 runs in 3 hours.....and we skied right on to every lift with no lift lines, wind holds, or any other delays...

Only 6 runs you say!... Yup...6 of the craziest runs ever in some of the deepest snow I have ever experienced at Killington.

Snow depths across the mountain went from boot deep to neck deep, and everything in between. Of the 6 runs, none were on groomed trails, other than the first cruise down the Stash. Even that had very deep powder along skiers left. The six runs included "The Stash", Wildfire, Dream Maker, Needles Eye, North Star, and High Line. (The boys did High Line. I did the training run to Chute to lower Bunny Buster. A bum shoulder was acting up.)

Skiing and riding today were not for the feint of heart. I do not think that there was a run where all of us did not do a major tumble. Most of the falls were due to variations in snow depth caused by wind blown snow. A few were outright falls into crevasses. Lower Wild Fire and Dream Maker had some that were better than shoulder deep. And then there were the tumbles on the back side of bumps where the surface went from wind blown hard pack to over your head powder in less than 5 feet. Every tumble took major effort to haul yourself out of the deep snow to a place where you could right yourself and continue on. And none of us have anything to complain about...it was just a very crazy (good) day of skiing!

Of course, we could have skied nicely groomed trails. We probably would have gotten 20 runs in during 3 hours if we had gone that route. But why would we want to do that with all this powder around to play in?

.....Let it snow!

Birch Ridge Inn covered in new snow. 

I must admit when I looked at the snow stake today I was a bit puzzled. At noon time, I had just finished snow blowing what seemed like 8 to 12 inches of snow from the walkways around the inn. Yet the snow stake only read about 24 inches...a net gain of 2 inches from yesterday.

Then it dawned on me that the snow that fell on Saturday was a soft, light powder. The new snow falling on top of it is causing yesterdays ephemeral base to compress. Basic gravity in action.

Ah... if all of life's problems were so easily explained....so it goes!.....Let it snow!

The new snow blower arrived just in time! 

Over 14 inches of snow overnight and still snowing. Need I say more!

.....Let it snow!

"The Stash" officially opens today at Killington 

With little fan fare, and less pomp and circumstance, the Killington Resort launched a new detachable High Speed Quad and a redesigned trail system for the Sky Peak area of the resort. All summer, work was ongoing to install the new lift and build/change the trails on Sky Peak. Mary and I had done some extensive hikes through the area, but that was well before snow was on the ground. Today, I had a chance to ski it!

The entrance to the new Sky Peak starts out rather matter of fact at the top of Superstar. A small cut was made in a snow bank on the far side off the Superstar Quad. Over the lip and a sharp left, and you are on the glide path to Sky Peak and the Stash.

Sky Burst is both different and the same all at once. The top of Sky Burst drops over a 15 foot wall to the main trail. The only reason I know a wall is there is because I saw it in the summer. Right now it is throughly covered with snow. The 'New' Thing about Sky Burst is the lack of beginner skiers and riders crossing the trail mid way down slope on the Snowshed Crossover. The Crossover is dead!... Some will like this, some will hate this, but it now makes Sky Burst a nice long uninterrupted trail. And today the snow cover was sweet!

The new Sky Peak quad will also change how people ski Bear Mountain and Sky Peak. It is very fast! I took it 3 times, and other than a little early morning comedy, it averaged about 6 minutes from bottom to top....Very nice!

The one comedy was the first loop on the new Sky Peak Quad.

Who would have thought I would have been out until last chair??? (Click to enlarge.)

We skied right to it with virtually no waiting at 9:10. A nice, uneventful ride to the top. At the top terminal, we get to the safety nets (aka Tuna nets) and the chair unceremoniously stops. We swing in the breeze for 3 or 4 minutes. No big deal... then the lift supervisor comes out of the house....Tells a joke or two... then tells us to hold on and wait till we hear what he is going to do next. He climbs up the ladder with a couple of other people into the top of the lift terminal...hits a starter switch...big belch of smoke...and fires up the auxiliary diesel to evacuate the chair. The lift attendant is a little confused. He puts out the "Last Chair" sign on the chair in front of us. That lasted about 30 seconds until the lift supervisor sees it... looks at us, shakes his head, tells another joke, and we start moving. You just can't make this stuff up...

After skiing the rest of the mountain for a couple of hours, I went down Sky Burst again. The new lift was running just fine, on its primary electric motor not it's auxiliary diesel. Just another day in paradise. With great skiing to boot......let it snow!

Worker reading the new high speed quad on Sky Peak for tomorrows opening day 

In the last 24 hours, a light fluff has continued to blanket the area. Accumulations overall have been minor (about 1/2 inch at the inn), but it is enough to keep everything nice and white. And it also nicely coated some of the trails on Killington overnight as well.

Mary and I went out for a couple of hours this morning. We spent a lot of time in the Superstar, Bittersweet and Sky Lark area. Upper Bittersweet was groomed and nicely coated with new snow. Upper and Middle Sky Lark were the same. Lower Sky Lark was not groomed overnight and took on an "icy bump" appearance. The Upper and Lower Superstar headwalls were not groomed. Lower Superstar looked glacial, with ice flows in evidence. Middle Superstar was groomed flat and fast and also was coated with about an inch of new fluff. It was a pretty sweet cruiser!

If the pitch were not so shallow, the run of the day would probably have been Snowshed. Instead of cutting in front of the K1 base lodge on one of our loops, we went down Snowshed over to Rams Head. The coverage on Snowshed was just superb.

Coming back to the Killington Peak side of the mountain, Caper from Rams Head to Snowdon was nicely covered. The North Ridge area was also skiing well. Cascade looked icy in spots, as well as East Fall. The Killington Peak side of the mountain was noticeably colder that the Superstar area. A low cloud was on top of K Peak, whereas I actually saw my shadow several times while skiing down Sky Lark (I guess that means at least 12 more weeks of winter!)

Snow showers and heavier snow are in the forecast for the next few days. It's a wonderful pre holiday present for the area. If your are driving up this weekend, stay safe.....Let it snow!

Snow still falling mid day on Killington 

Light snow moved through the Killington region overnight. Roughly 3 inches accumulated at the inn. Judging from conditions on the mountain, I would guess that 5 to 8 inches accumulated on Killington Peak with lesser amounts at lower elevations.

Overall, today was a good day to be skiing and riding at Killington. The first hour of the day was nice, mid density, powder skiing. I took the K1 Gondola up to the peak and traversed via Launch Pad to Sky Lark. Nice boot deep powder down the middle of the trail for the first run. When I got to the bottom, the Superstar chair was running, so I looped on it for a run down Bittersweet. A few people had already been down it, but there was plenty of untracked on skiers right. The grooming on lower Bittersweet was a little suspect. There was an upslope wind on lower Bittersweet which made the powder thin, revealing golf ball sized chucks on frozen granular as a base. It was fine to ski on, but quite different from the powder of Upper Bittersweet.

I took a few more loops on the Superstar Chair. The upper headwall and middle Superstar were quite nice. I stayed away from the lower Superstar headwall based on my performance in last weeks powder pileup. Conditions were similar to last week with many wind blown cornices visible over a scratchy base. Many people were doing it, cutting up the snow. But I decided to pass.

By now most of the new snow was pretty tracked up. I took a couple of loops on the K1 Gondola before heading back to the inn for a little late morning snow blowing.

If we are lucky, and the weathermen are correct (like that happens often) then we will be in a nice snow pattern the next week at Killington. Todays event will go a long way to softening up the base, once it gets groomed in. And more snow on top will make things nice.....Let it snow!

Advancing storm clouds cover Killington Peak 

Cold temperatures and clouds overspread the Killington region today as a snowstorm moves into the area from the south. Forecasts for total accumulation are all over the map on this storm. We will know when it is over on Wednesday.

Mary and I did not ski today. I spent most of the day visiting different retailers in the area looking for a new snow blower. My current unit is 11 years old and showing it. It had a hard time with the last several snow storms, which had a high moisture content. 11 years ago, it would have cut through the wet stuff like butter....not now.

I have not settled on a new unit yet. I looked at Ariens, Poulan, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, Yardman, and Simplicity. The interesting thing is that many units are actually the same, just rebadged by the company selling them. I have a little more research to do before acquiring a new unit. With snow continuously in the forecast for the foreseeable future, getting a new machine is turning into a high priority task.

Assuming we get the snow that the forecast is calling for overnight, I do plan on getting on the mountain on Wednesday. A little powder would be nice! .....Let it snow!