Cornucopia Treat for Thanksgiving 

Mary and I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving from Killington. Later this afternoon, Mary and I will be blessed to be able to sit down and share a Thanksgiving meal with many of our Killington friends. We hope that you are as fortunate as well. Happy Thanksgiving!

The Killington Ski Resort opened today for skiing and riding for the 2006-2007 winter season.

Skiers and Riders on Mouse Trap at Killington

Skiing and Riding today was serviced from 6 lifts including the K1 Gondola, North Ridge Triple, Snowdon Triple, Bunny Buster Poma and 2 small lifts at the children's learning center at Rams Head. While I did not have a chance to ski today because the inn is busy with Thanksgiving guests, I did speak with several locals who were at the lifts at 8:00 AM. They said that they were very happy with the early morning experience, and that Killington had done a great job blowing snow over all of the surfaces they skied. Hopefully, I will be able to get some better pictures of the action on Friday.

Snow making continuing at Killington 

Killington's snow makers are finishing up their activities today to get the resort ready to open tomorrow morning at 8:00AM. Killington will open for top to bottom skiing. From the looks at the K1 base lodge area, Killington should have at least 3 lifts operating; the K1 Gondola, the Snowdon Quad and the North Ridge Triple. It also looks like they would be able to run the Snowdon Triple (but I am speculating).

For all our friends out there, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow Guns blasting Lower Bunny Buster 

From the looks of the mountain this morning, the snowmaking system at Killington was in high gear last night. Temperatures dropped to the high teens/low twenties over night setting up perfect conditions for blanketing Killington in new snow.

At 8:15 this morning, the temperature at the K1 base lodge was 22. From what I could see, snowmakers over night had completely covered the Great Northern route from Kpeak down to Lower Bunny Buster. I walked up Lower Bunny Buster under the guns this morning. Snow depths were any where from ankle deep to many feet, depending upon ones proximity to a snow gun. Conditions were not yet skiable for the general population, due to the variability of snow cover. However, another day of making snow and some action by the groomers should take care of that in pretty short order to allow Killington to open on Thursday.

Local forecasts would imply that Killington should be able to continuously make snow at higher elevations during the day today. Temperatures are due to dip into the low 20's again tonight allowing another night of all out snow making on Killington.

Killington turning white to start the ski season. 

Stunning! Beautiful! Gorgeous!

No, I am not talking about some young lady that visited the bar last night.. I am talking about how the mountain looked this morning as I drove on to Killington Road to take my morning pictures. At a ski resort, there is nothing that can get your level of anticipation up more than to see a mountain covered in a frosty white blanket, snow guns blasting, lifts turning....Just beautiful!

Today's picture is a panorama taken around 9:45 AM. Double click on the picture to display it full size in your browser window.

The Killington Resort is pushing hard to get open. Current public statements indicated that they will be open for top to bottom skiing and riding starting Thanksgiving day at 8:00 AM. The ski season is almost here at last!

Solitary snow gun in operation at K1 Base Lodge 

When I went up to the mountain this morning, I had this strange feeling of deja vu. Perhaps I have done too much reading in life, so my mind races to create connections, but the scene at the K1 base lodge this morning could have come directly from a ski town version of "The Mouse that Roared".

In a brave act of defiance, the Killington resort has declared war against Mother Nature. For those of you who need an update on "The Mouse that Roared", it is a story about the Duchy of Grand Fenwick. This little principality decided that the only way for it to get out of it's economic woes was to declare war on the United States. It knew that in any battle that it would lose. But it also knew that in the process it's economy would be rebuilt due to the American peoples largess to provide economic assistance to any country suffering from the ravages of war. Such is the stage that has been set this morning as Killington wages a similar battle with Mother Nature.

When I arrived at the K1 base lodge, the temperature in my car read 34 degrees. The air was thick with a very cold overcast. The cloud deck was down below 3000 feet. Heavy frost is forming on all of the trees only a couple of hundred feet higher than the base lodge. And here was this solitary snow gun just blasting away. The noise from it was fantastic; the air pressure blasting the water stream seemed to be set incredibly high, probably to compensate for the high relative temperature at the base lodge.

The one solitary snow gun will not do much in the short run to get the resort open. But it clearly was putting a marker down. It clearly was a statement of defiance to Mother Nature that Killington is committed to have snow to open, no matter what it takes at this point. It will be an interesting week as we see how the story of opening the ski resort for the 2006/2007 season unfolds. Will Killington's massive snow making machine allow it to overcome, at least in the short term, the torment thrown it's way by Mother Nature? Or will Killington lose the battle, only to have Mother Nature relent and provide us with a blanket of natural snow? An interesting week indeed!

Killington resumes snow making operations 

The race between Mother Nature, the Calendar, and the Killington Ski Resort is on!

Last night, snow making operations resumed on Killington peak. Wide spread snowmaking was clearly visible from the base of the mountain this morning in the North Ridge area(formerly know as the glades.) Killington resumed resurfacing the area they had blown snow on previously in a race between the resort and the calendar to prepare for the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday.

Mother Nature had not cooperated very much in the last few weeks. Snow making operations on lower elevations depend on a couple of items. First, there is a lot of water running off the mountain from the last 2 weeks storms. That has to run before surfaces will hold much snow. Second, temperatures need to continue to chill down to firm up the terrain and allow efficient snow making. The weather forecast indicates cold temperatures will continue to infiltrate the area of the next day or two, allowing lower elevation snow making to begin. Needless to say, the race is on! We should be skiing (or riding) at Killington very soon!

Keep double clicking on todays picture to reveal a full panorama of snow making operations at Killington Peak. The scope of it, when you look at the whole peak, is amazing. And it is only the beginning efforts.

Repairing Casa Cassella 

The weather is in the process of making an abrupt change at Killington. The last several days have seen some very wet weather, punctuated last night by torrential r@!n and high winds. Our dumpster enclosure, nicknamed Casa Cassella because our dumpster is serviced by Cassella Waste Management, had it's doors blown off their hinges by a strong gust of wind during the evening. The wind was that strong.

This morning, the storm pattern of the last couple of days is clearing out. Temperatures started out in the mid 60's this morning, but they are rapidly dropping. Temperatures will be solidly below freezing by early evening.

All eyes in town will be turned towards to mountain as the resort restarts snow making operations. Killington has publicly stated that they will be open for skiing and riding over the Thanksgiving holiday period. It should be quite a show the next couple of days as they create a man made blizzard on the slopes.