Snow pack behind the Birch Ridge Inn, Killington 

It is just not a nice spring day in Killington. Last weeks warm temperatures have been replaced with cold and damp. Overnight saw some r@!n infiltrate the area for a few hours. On its exit, it has left mountain streams roaring in all their spring glory.

The snow pack at the inn is still holding its own. The fields and forest behind the inn are still maintaining good coverage, with the snow stake reading around 1 foot of snow remaining on the ground. Since around the inn is all natural snow accumulated over the winter, base depths on the mountain must be doing considerably better. Man-made snow from the resorts snow guns tends to be a little more resilient as it is slightly denser than the natural stuff. Also, due to elevation differences, the mountain tends to be cooler than the area around the inn as well, further mitigating effects.

With luck, tomorrow we will get out on the mountain for an on the trail look........let it snow!

Killington Peak in late winter sunshine. 

In usual fashion, skiers and riders who decided to take the week harboring Saint Patrick's day for their ski week at Killington have been royally rewarded. Temperatures today in Killington have been in the low 50's, with bright sunshine and soft snow ruling supreme.

Local weather forecasters are calling for more of the same on Saturday, before a return to more seasonable temperatures for Sunday and the early part of next week. Temperatures are once again predicted to be in the high 40's to low 50's on Saturday, before dropping down into the more normal 30's for the early part of next week. Light snow also appears in next weeks forecast on a couple of days, which should guarantee great conditions for next weekends Killington Mogul Challenge.

If you make it up to Killington this weekend, stop in.......let it snow! (Oh... and don't forget your sunscreen)

Bumps on skiers left on Superstar from K1 Base Lodge 

For the second day in a row, the weather at Killington has been ideal to enjoy early spring skiing and riding. While temperatures overnight dipped well below freezing, by 9:00 AM this morning the temperature at the K1 base lodge was in the mid 30's, with higher temperatures on the way. For the second day in a row, I hit the mountain for a couple of hours without my normal winter kit, choosing to ski in just my bib with a turtleneck and vest. After a dark winter in Vermont, the spring sun is just glorious. And no, we have not forgotten our sunscreen.

Todays journey saw laps on Bear Mountain, Sky Peak, and Snowdon. Bear Mountain at 9:00 AM was already softening up. Snow coverage in the warm temperatures is holding up very well. There will be plenty of snow at Bear Mountain for snoe.down and the Mogul Challenge the weekend after next.

As we traveled back across the resort to the northern trails, surface conditions became a little firmer. Early morning sunshine and skier traffic had softened up the tops of Skye Lark, Bitter Sweet and Superstar. The lower sections still had a little crunch around 10. The resort went so far as to put "Caution" signs on lower Skye Lark. I went down it at speed with no problem...but then again I have a lot of time on my ski legs this year and well tuned equipment. Others might have had a different experience. But that is the nature of winter sports.

Areas at Snowdon were firm in spots as well, especially the southern sides of trails against the tree line hidden from the sun. Chute was a good example...soft and buttery in spots under the lift line, firm and crunchy on skiers right near the trees.

My ski day got cut short this morning as I had to go to a meeting on this years Killington Wine Festival. Once again I am acting as the project manager for the event for the Killington Chamber of Commerce. For those of you who want to mark it on your calendars, this years festival is scheduled to take place from July 16 thru 18th. I will have a lot more details on the wine festival in coming weeks, as the planning efforts for the event move forward. In the meantime, we have a ski season to finish. If you like spring skiing, now is the time to head to the mountains.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! ......let it snow!

Ovation - spring soft bumpy goodness... 

It is an absolutely georgous day at Killington. The storm which deluged the communities to the south of Killington has finally pulled away, leaving in its place bright sunshine, temperatures in the mid 40's, and lots of creamy soft snow.

I had a meeting this morning, which was OK as temperatures overnight dipped to the mid 20's. By the time I was done, Mary and I headed to the mountain at the crack of noon. By 12:15 PM we were skis on the ground and off to the proverbial races.

In the next hour and 15 minutes (thank God for high speed lifts) we did 7 runs including Upper Royal Flush to Highline, Dream Maker, Bitter Sweet, Superstar Headwall to Skye Lark, Upper Ovation to Lower Superstar, Great Northern to Upper East Fall, and Rime to Great Northern to Mouse Trap.

Surface conditions were generally soft. The more southern exposure a trail had, the softer it was.

Highline was delightfully soft. Lower Dream Maker was quite soft in the early afternoon sun. Upper Dream Maker was a touch firmer than lower, probably due to overnight temperatures.

Superstar Headwall was powdery; it really was not in the sun to soften up much. Upper Ovation had a groomed stripe down the middle which was developing little regular bumps. Lower Superstar was getting sandy from all of the skier and boarder traffic side slipping down the trail.

Skye Lark and Bitter Sweet were both nicely soft. Skier traffic was moderate on both trails, except for lower Skye Lark (Most people exit via lower Bitter Sweet). Lower Skye Lark had been groomed by was also starting to develop some snow piles which were trying to coalesce into bumps.

Great Norther, Rime and Upper East Fall were leg cool down runs before heading for home. All were creamy soft with small bumps forming, especially on the Upper East Fall section attached to Reason.

I finished my day with a quick hit through the seeded bumps course on Mouse Trap (Mary went around it.) Mouse Trap was softening up in the sun. The bumps course is short. It is a nice quick leg work out if you feel like you want a little more exercise.

The weather forecast, if you can believe it, is predicting a string of nice days like today through the week. Mary and I always took the week of Saint Patrick's day as our spring vacation at Killington when we were ski house members before starting the inn. Once again, it looks like this week could be one of the better weeks at Killington to enjoy skiing and riding at the resort.

......let it snow!

Killington Peak, Saturday March 13, 2010 at approximately 1:00PM 

Several of us were talking at the bar about the weather last night. The few inn guests that had not cancelled for the weekend were telling me that they had a great day on the mountain on Saturday. They had been dreading coming to Killington because the Weather Channel was hysterically bloviating on a great deluge descending on the North East this weekend. Yet there they sat, having a beverage, reveling in there accomplishments of having a great day on the mountain.

How could the Weather Channel have been so wrong? They had predicted rain for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They then changed the local Sunday forecast to snow.

The actual weather, as you can see from my last blog posts was warm with overcast on Thursday, low clouds on Friday, high clouds on Saturday (see todays picture). Today, Sunday, we are having a wet mix of light precipitation falling off and on. If you give the Weather Channel today, they are batting 25% for the last 4 days in predicting weather at Killington. And that is being generous.

How did things get this way? Why was the forecast so wrong?

Actually, the forecast by the Weather Channel was not technically wrong. They were predicting a deluge this weekend in the North East. Our friends who stayed home this weekend in Southern New England and the Upper Middle Atlantic states seem to be having a deluge of sorts. And there locations certainly qualify as "North East". Unfortunately, in our hyper media driven 21st century existence, where "information" is constantly no more than one click away, the term "North East" takes on a global specificity like the area is one big flat plain. However, nothing could be actually further from the truth as the true "North East" is riddled with hills, valleys, and mountain peaks. Each one, of course, creates its own micro climate, and also impacts the macro climate at large. The one size fits all forecast derived by the Weather Channel could not possibly cope with all the local variability. Hence they don't even try.

One must remember, the Weather Channel is a commercial venture whose goal is to drive the public to purchase the goods and services of their sponsors. The more fantastic the forecast, the longer people watch and the more eyeballs see advertisements. In the process, they provide some level of public service, ie predicting the weather. And when applied to a regional and national scale, they probably get the trends more right than wrong. But regional trends do not translate into accurate local forecasts with the regularity one would assume if all you did was watch the television or click on a web site. Some times you actually have to go outdoors and take a look!

Ski Resorts have attempted to fight the tyranny of the regional "Weather Forecast" by installing web cams on their respective web sites. (The Killington resort is so big, it has 3. And the weather can be different at each one!) The theory is that if you can take a "look outside" you can make your own judgements. The web cams work well, but in the opposite. If they show a heavy snow storm on Wednesday or Thursday, then people will flock to the mountain on the weekend. But if they show nice weather on a weekend...by then it's a little late.

The ski season at Killington has now started the long march into spring. For skiers and riders, there are but a hand full of weekends left before it will be time to put the boards away for next season. With the weather, some times you win, sometimes you lose. But for the guests who traveled to Killington and enjoyed the mountain this weekend, if they did not play the game, they would have been sitting home in the rain.

......let it snow!

Wheres the Bagel?
Yours truly, Gary, and Ruts on Ovation. 

Just like yesterday, soft snow ruled the day at Killington...with a couple of differences.

After skiing this morning, it was obvious that yesterdays snow was genuinely soft; the result of minimal overnight freezing on Wednesday night. Last night, temperatures reached below the freezing point, causing surfaces to at least initially firm up. Early runs saw spring firm conditions under foot. As skier and rider traffic increased through out the morning, surfaces once again took on a buttery softness on popular trails. Trails skied by fewer resort guests maintained there early morning firmness much longer.

And then there was the light...or lack thereof. Yesterdays overcast was replaced with a low cloud cover hanging around 3000 feet. While not dropping any precipitation, the clouds deposited a nice layer of condensation on goggles and other eyewear. But at least the Weather Channels pronouncement from earlier in the week have been proved false, as there was no precipitation to be found around the resort.

Unlike yesterday where we spent most of our time in the Killington Basin area, todays adventure focused on Bear Mountain and Sky Peak. The first runs down Bear Claw, Bear Trap, Wild Fire, Dream Maker, and Skye Burst were for the most part on firm terrain. Lower elevations were slightly softer. Firm in this case is not ice hard, as the temperatures did not get that cold overnight. But there was a definite crunchiness on some of the upper trails for the first hour or so. By 10:30, all trails at Bear Mountain that saw any skier traffic had softened up nicely. We did see one poor soul going down Outer Limits. The resort has left OL bumped up, causing most midweek skiers and riders to bypass it for smoother pastures. As a result, the bumps on OL have solidified, creating an interesting ride for the few brave enough to attempt it.

By 10:30 we switched gears and moved over to Skye Peak. The top of Dream Maker was firm, but that did not stop me from going down it's little bumps. Middle and Lower Dream Maker through the terrain park, featured primarily a wet, mixed granular surface. Very responsive under foot.

Panic Button at Needles Eye was closed to prepare it for race training. You could still enter Needles Eye underneath the Skyeship Gondola, which we did. Needles Eye was surprisingly firm, but still provided some easy cruising to refresh the legs.

Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark and Super Star were all quite soft. Skier traffic had worked its magic by 11, leaving ski surfaces with a nice soft upper texture. The bumps on Lower Skye Lark maintained some hard spots, probably due to a low volume of skiers and riders. In contrast, lower Bitter Sweet and Super Star were like a high fat ice cream, filled with creamy goodness.

We finished up on Ovation and Old Super Star. The cloud deck was right on top of middle Ovation. The group followed a pretty tight course down the middle, one skier on the tails of the person in front. It left for a few comedic moments and near collisions as the distance between us expanded and contracted in response to the bumps we encountered going down the trail. But as you can see from the picture, we all made it down to the connector with Super Star, choosing to bypass Lower Ovation for another day.

Old Super Star was similar to Ovation, only the bumps were bigger and firmer. Far few skiers had ventured down Old Super Star. As a result, the bumps had a crunchy crust which, when combined with the cloud on the deck, toyed with the psyche. But it was fun just the same.

......let it snow!

Bill coming out of the seeded bumps on Upper Royal Flush 

Snow conditions at the Killington Resort today were spring soft, with nice little bumps forming on many of the trails. The sky was overcast; the result of a storm passing to the south of the area. Temperatures were in the mid 40's.

Mary and I headed to the mountain this morning around 10 for a couple of hours of exercise. Starting out at the Snowdon Quad our first run was down Upper Royal Flush through the seeded bump course followed by a soft cruise down Highline. The seeded bump course was just fun. If you are at Killington, and you want to try some easy bumps, give it a try...you might surprise yourself. Highline was creamy soft. It was set up really nicely for sweeping turns for the return run back to the K1 gondola.

From the Gondola, we took advantage of the Canyon Quad and did the trilogy of Cascade, Double Dipper, and East Fall. Upper and middle Cascade tight to the right tree line was like a natural terrain park, with rides up and down the slope back and forth from the trees. Lower Cascade was just like Highline, except for the compound fall line. Broad, cruising turns were in order.

Double Dipper had a strip about 20 feet wide that was groomed up it's middle. When it was groomed is hard to tell, as it was still filled with small spring bumps. But there was a noticeable line with much larger bumps down both skiers right and skiers left. East Fall was flat and relatively fast for soft snow. Lots of intermediate snow boarders were cruising East Fall as it did not have many bumps.

After the trilogy, we headed across the back side of the mountain for a few runs off of the Superstar Quad. I started on Upper Ovations which was filled with small to medium sized bumps all the way to the Superstar cutoff. Lots of fun...really!

Superstar clearly started the day groomed. The upper headwall was still basically flat. The soft snow was doing a good job checking peoples speed, so not a lot of turns were required on this stretch. As a result, there were not many bumps on Upper Superstar this morning. Middle Superstar was your basic groomed cruiser with lines starting to form due to skier traffic. The snow whales from February's snowmaking effort now form a large hump down skiers left. I rode up and down it all the way to the lower headwall. Lower Superstar was creamy. It was being churned up by a combination of good skiers and riders making tight turns, combined with beginner snow boarders and skiers, who should not have been on the trail, side slipping down it's length. Soft conditions made the trail negotiable for most abilities...but I really don't care to use human beings as slalom gates.

After the Superstar run, we decided to take a cruise down Upper Skyelark to Lower Bitter Sweet. As we suspected, both trails had been groomed out. Combined with the soft snow, this route was a nice intermediate cruiser, allowing our quads and other leg muscles a little breathing space to cool down.

Looping up the Superstar quad once more, I decided to try the bumps on Old Superstar. They were really nice and well formed. Skier traffic taking Old Superstar is primarily people who know what they are doing. As a result, the bumps that form naturally on this trail reflect the rhythm of the skiers and riders who bump down it. As this was the last run, I continued bumping down skiers left under and to the left of the Superstar Quad. By the time I reached the bottom, my legs were pretty fried...but as it was the last run of the morning for us, it was a great feeling.

Mary finished up with a run top to bottom on Skyelark. She cruised down the middle section. On lower Skyelark she was greeted by a collection of moguls of various sizes. She was raving about lower Skyelark in the car when we met up, as the bumps were soft and well spaced with no ice in the troughs.

All told this morning we were out on the mountain for just under 2 hours. The soft snow and the bumps got our hearts pumping and our legs moving. Who need a gym when the Killington Resort and the Green Mountains are in your back yard?

......let it snow!