Happy Easter 

Easter weekend at Killington brought 2 full days of bright sunshine for skiers and riders on the mountain. While Mary and I did not have the opportunity to go out on the hill, our guests reported that conditions ranged from icy firm in places not touched by sunshine, to early spring soft where the sun had a chance to work it's magic. With temps predicted for the mid 30's most of the week, it looks like spring skiing season will get into full swing.

Where ever you may be, Mary and I wish you a Happy Easter. Let it snow!....(at least for a few more weeks)

Fools Gold at Pico on way to Summit Express Quad, 9:05 AM March 21, 2008 

6 inches of champagne powder fell last night around the inn. At 6:30 AM the temperature was a balmy 15 degrees. Pico and Killington Peaks both got on the order of a foot of fluff. I had my powder skis in the car. I drove to Pico this morning, was number 8 in line on the Golden Express Quad at 8:55, number 4 onto the Summit Express Quad. You know the drill.

There are no friends on a powder day! Let it snow!

Forest behind the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington glistening under a heavy coating of ice. 

In typical New England fashion, the Killington region has experienced every possible kind of weather over the last 36 hours. Currently, 4 PM Thursday afternoon, it is snowing heavily. Previously we had experienced snow, sleet, r@*n, freezing r@*n, and a fair dose of wind.

Overnight the area experienced a considerable ice build up on exposed surfaces. Anything exposed to the elements is covered in a candy coating of ice from 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

The good news in all of this, however, is that snow levels actually rose slightly during the period. Once the slopes on the mountain get groomed out, conditions should be quite nice for some skiing and riding over the upcoming Easter weekend.

Let it snow!

Skye Peak Quad 

In a note to season pass holders sent out this afternoon, followed by a press release, the Killington-Pico Ski Resort announced a series of improvements that they plan to make for next ski season. Overall the mountain estimated that they would spend $8.4 million on improvements to the resort during the months leading up to the 2008-09 season.

The big announcement on the improvement list is replacement of the Skye Peak fixed grip quad with a high speed detachable quad. The mountain claims that the new lift will cut the time to ride up Skye Peak from 13 minutes to 5 minutes. From personal experience, the 13 minute ride was not unpleasant on sunny days like yesterday, but with the wind blowing in the middle of January, shaving 8 minutes off the time on the Skye Peak lift will be greatly appreciated.

Concurrent with the improvement announcement, Killington also announced Season Pass prices for the 2008-2009 season. If you would like more details, you can click through to the press release, and season pass pricing information on the resorts website: killington.com.

Let it snow!

Mary skiing across top of Superstar on her way to Skye Lark under a beautiful bright blue sky. 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. And while the official color of the day is definitely green, the bright blue of todays sky is a strong challenger.

Mary and I headed to the mountain a little later this morning. Weather conditions over the weekend promoted some surface melting. Temperatures in the area dipped into the teens last night. We felt going out a little later would give the sunshine some time to work it's magic... and it did! While surface conditions around the mountain were generally firm, the warm temperatures made them just pliable enough for a late morning of carving turns.

Skiing today at Bear Mountain was still limited while the resort cleans up from the weekends Chevy Grand Prix. Upper Bear Trap and Wildfire were in great shape. Lower Wildfire, on the other hand, was turning into it's typical spring time beach, as all of the skier and rider traffic coming to Bear Mountain was funneled down it's compound fall line.

The park on Middle Dream Maker was in nice shape. It was funneling out onto Great Eastern, again due to the Grand Prix cleanup. On a lark, when we got on to Great Eastern we decided to keep going all the way to the lower skyeship terminal on Route 4. Most of the way we took "Home Stretch", which had great snow coverage. It was just a beautiful day to cruise down the mountain.

From the Skyeship, I took Upper Dream Maker to Cruise Control. Mary took Skye Burst to Cruise. Upper Dream Maker was still firm on skier's right in the shade. Skiers left, in full sunshine, was nice and soft with little bumps forming. Mary reported that Skye Burst had nice soft snow coverage. It had been closed for a couple of days due to the Grand Prix so it did not get packed down with skier traffic like some of the other trails.

We finished up with several loops through Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark and Super Star. Under full sunshine with warm temperatures and a bright blue sky, they were all do overs.. We did not want to leave...so it goes.

Let it snow!

Chevy Snowboarding Grand Prix Competitors wait their turn on Bear Claw below the Viper Pit at Bear Mountain. 

The Chevy US Snowboarding Grand Prix at Bear Mountain, Killington, is wrapping up this afternoon. Under lightly overcast skies, the Men's and Women's Slopestyle competition was held on Lower Bear Claw on a park specifically created for the event.

The Halfpipe finals, originally scheduled for Saturday night, were rescheduled for this afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. Planned to take place under the lights on the half pipe carved on Lower Dream Maker,

People getting into position to watch the Half Pipe finals. (Click to enlarge.)

the half pipe finals were suspended on Saturday evening due to heavy fog obscuring visibility, limiting the judges ability to evaluate each competitor.

I skied over to Bear Mountain at mid day to watch the event for a few minutes. Crowds were just starting to form to watch the Half Pipe finals. Unfortunately, I needed to get back to the inn before the event took place, but it looked like it would be a fairly busy afternoon at Bear Mountain.

Let it snow!

Bear Mountain venue set up for the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix 

While competitors took training runs, workers at the Killington Resort were busy putting the finishing touches to get Bear Mountain ready to host the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix this weekend.

For the last 10 days, Killington has been rebuilding the Half Pipe on lower Dream Maker and a "Slopestyle" course on lower Bear Claw. The amount of snow that has been created and moved around to build the competition venue is nothing short of impressive. When you add in the lighting, public address, and television camera areas (NBC will be providing TV coverage), you start to appreciate that the resort did a lot more than just sending a couple of grooming machines out to move snow around to get ready for the event.

The schedule for the Chevy Snowboard Grand Prix this weekend is:

I went over to Bear Mountain this morning to take some background pictures of the venue. It is really impressive what the resort has done to rebuilt the half pipe on Dream Maker and build the Slopestyle course on lower Bear Claw. It should be a fun event to watch.

Half Pipe on lower Dream Maker. (Click to enlarge.)

Side View of the Half Pipe set up for the Chevy Grand Prix. (Click to enlarge.)

Snowboarding Slopestyle course set up on lower Bear Claw (Click to enlarge.)

A competitor takes some air during a practice session on the Slopestyle course. (Click to enlarge.)

Let it snow!