Chef Frizzie preparing his famous dinner rolls. 

Yesterday was probably the hardest day of my life. Even harder than the day my father died this May, if that is possible. My father, and those who love him, knew he was approaching his end of days. Although he died quite suddenly, it was an inevitability. But nothing had prepared Mary or I for what we learned yesterday afternoon.

At about 4:00 PM, a Vermont State Trooper arrived at the front door of the Birch Ridge Inn. He had been asked to come to the inn by the wife of our chef. Earlier that afternoon, when she returned from work, she had found her husband, our dear friend, and dedicated employee, dead at home.

Chef Stephen Byrne joined the Birch Ridge Inn family in mid November 9 years ago. Virtually every day, whether he was scheduled to work or not, Chef Frizzie came to the inn. He quickly became an integral part of our lives. Most people know Chef Frizzie for his skills in the kitchen. We know Chef Frizzie as a great chef. But we also know him as a father who was so proud of his children, a devoted husband, a lumberjack, a finish carpenter, a hunter, a crazy skier, a solitary hiker with his dog in the woods, a snow plow driver, the ultimate staff taxi/rescuer, and most of all, a great friend.

The last time we saw Frizz was around 2 when he stepped out of the inn for his afternoon break.

I was planning to write today about the Christmas holidays...about the great menu Chef Frizzie was preparing to share with our guests. I wanted to tell you that even though it was raining outside, and rain is a horrible thing at a ski resort during Christmas week, that it would be ok because the sun is forecasted to come out on Christmas Day. I wanted to write about the happiness of the holidays and the anticipation of the New Year.

But I can't.

Stephen Byrne... Frizzie, may you rest in peace.

Looking north up the spine of the Green Mountains. Clouds moving in on Snowden, Rams Head, and Pico Peaks. 

We needed to take one last lap of the Killington Resort before the holidays. While we may try to squeeze a day on the snow in before the new year, the probability is low given the number of guests we are expecting at the inn.

Just like Friday, the resort was making snow in many places to prepare the mountains for the holidays. The cold weather that has settled across the area has been just ideal for the resort to make veritable mountains of snow. With a little luck, the resorts obvious strategy to "weather proof" skiing and riding at Killington during the holiday period will pay off. We will know fairly soon.

Today we hit most major mountain groups at the resort, including runs down Skye Burst, Cruise Control, Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark and Superstar off of Skye Peak; Great Northern, Rime, Reason, East Fall (Upper and Lower), and Ridge Run off Killington Peak; and Bunny Buster, Mouse Trap, Chute, and Great Bear on Snowdon.

Surfaces through out the resort were groomed packed powder. Bases were firm, but were basically ice free. A surface fog a couple of inches thick played tricks with visibility on Skye Burst and Superstar on Skye Peak. In both instances, the groomers had left fairly smooth surfaces going down the hill. But voids in the snow cover left depressions on the back sides of some small bumps. As they were hidden by the ground fog, when they were hit at speed the ground would literally drop away from your skiis. It is not quite like deliberately taking air, but there was a definite momentary feeling of weightlessness as you went airborne for what seemed like no apparent reason.

The resort was stockpiling huge whales of snow on Wild Fire at Bear and on Double Dipper/Cascasde at K-Peak. When and if they move the piles would be anyones guess, but they appear ready for what ever weather comes the resorts way.

My last run of the day was from the Snowdon Quad down Chute. I noticed from the chair that Great Bear was nicely bumped, so I dropped in off Chute to give the legs a final pre-Christmas work out. The bumps were fairly soft, and regular, allowing for a nice line at a quick yet comfortable pace. My pace was so quick, that I beat Mary back to the K-1 base lodge, even though she was skiing straight out. Now I usually ski faster than Mary, so that is not really unusual. What was unusual, was that I took the bump route down Great Bear. It just shows how nice the bumps were over there, and how good a line I could find and hold as I skied my way down. Every bump run should be so enjoyable!

Some weather looks like it will be moving into Killington on late Tuesday. As is usually the case this time of year, you can shop your forecast until you find one you like. While the concensus is for a wind driven r@!n storm along the Atlantic coast hitting the major east coast cities, in the mountains it looks like it will at least start out as snow before the cold air over hanging the region gets pushed out by warmer air from the south. By early afternoon on Christmas day most forecasters are predicting that the storm will be exiting the region, leaving nice weather with comfortble temperatures in place for most of next week.

Weather is as weather does. We will have a good time over Christmas no matter what Mother Nature decides to throw at us.

Speaking of Christmas, on both Christmas Eve and Christmas night the restaurant at Birch Ridge will be serving a special Christmas holiday menu. You can find the menu online at killingtonblog.com/christmas_menu.php. If you would like reservations, you can give us a call at the inn at 802.422.4293.

Where ever you may be, have a very Merry Christmas.

Let it snow!

Snow guns crushing lower Skye Burst 

It was nice to go skiing today, instead of being behind a 500lb snow blower for 3 hours. Don't get me wrong. We love snow. But we also love to get out and play in it as well.

Skiing and riding today at the Killington Resort were full on min-winter conditions. While there were peeks of blue sky on occaision, for the most part todays activities took place in temperatures that were in the low 20's under light cloud hanging at about 4100 feet.

Our ski journey today took us to Bear Mountain, Skye Peak, Killington Peak and Snowdon.

At Bear Mountain, aggressive snow making was taking place on Wildfire and Skye Burst. Surfaces were loose machine made fresh powder. My new skiis handled fairly well in the stuff, once I stopped making aggressive, tail bashing, turns. it is clear that the resort was going all out to make sure that conditions at Bear Mountain will be excellent during the holidays. Given all of the snow that has fallen in the area in the last 10 days, it would have been easy for the resort to pass on making new snow. To their credit, they have gone in the opposite direction, taking advantage of the colder tempertures to make a very high quality product.

From Bear Mountain we took our normal loop over to the Needles Eye area. We did not ski Needles, as it has basically stayed all bumpded and knarly from last weekend. We did do Cruise Control several times. it was set up nicely as a high speed groomer. We also went down Vertigo. The steep headwall of Vertigo was fairly flat. The surface was hard, but not ice. Making deliberate turns down the Vertigo headwall was easily achievable.

Also on Skye Peak, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark and Superstar were all skiing nice. Middle Superstar was a little choppy from grooming machines working the hardpack, but the Upper and Lower headwalls were in nice condition.

Over on Killington Peak, the Canyon area is also seeing heavy snow making. Every available snow gun position was in use on Double Dipper to make snow on that trail. it was an impressive display of the power of the resorts snow making system, even though it made for a cold and noisy ride on the Canyon Quad.

With cold weather in place for at least the next couple of days, expect the resort to continue to make snow in many areas. It shoudl be a very good holiday period of skiing and riding at Killington.

Let it snow!

Superstar and Skye Peak in bright sunshine above the clouds 

Delightful...

The Killington Resort skiis so nice when the majority of trails are open. It is hard to believe it is Mid December.

We have to be caareful about boasting, because Mother Nature can give us the goods, but she can also take them away. But today, at least, Mother Nature was being very kind to all of the skiers and riders who were visiting Killington.

Ski conditions were predominately slightly bumped au natural packed powder. The resort was making snow on some trails to base build for the upcoming holidays; but for the most part they were soaking up the glow of the sunshine on last weeks copious snow fall.

In general, the mountain was skiing great with the exception of minor visibility problems caused by a thermal inversion. The mountain peaks down to the 3000 foot level were for the most part in bright sunshine accented by a stunning blue ski and a late fall crescent moon. Below 3000 feet, there was a 200 foot thick cloud bank which limited visibility. Below the cloud bank, the sunlight was greatly muted, but other than a little darkness visibility had returned.

The terrain at Killington was basically what you made of it. Rams Heas was groomed flat for easy cruising. Snowdon down Chute and Mouse Trap was firm to allow one to practive their mid winter self control. Superstar was an idylic groomed cruiser, while Upper Ovation and Sky Hawke on either side were a bumpers paradise. Bitter Sweet and Sky Lark had some texture. Some thinking was required to negotiate sections. Needles Eye was bumps as far as the eye could see. No matter what kind of terrain you wanted today, it was all there and it was all good.

Now...if Mother Nature will just let it stay that way.....

Let it snow!

Birch Ridge Inn buried in early season snow 

Sometimes you get what you wish for....

Almost 2 feet of heavy snow has blanketed the Killington region since snow began falling late Tuesday afternoon. The Killington Resort is revelling in the snow. Their plans to open large amounts of terrain for the holidays look like they will come to fruition, barring another wierd weather event. The heavy wet snow is forming a great base layer for future terrain expansion.

But with the silver lining of the snow at the ski resort, the storm did form a dark cloud around Killington from which many are still struggling to recover from.

Snowfall during the storm as measured at the Birch Ridg Inn SnowStake..

Road travel around Killington on Wednesday and Thursday was problematical. While we did not hear of any major accidents, we did need to perform some rescues of staff and guests who were having trouble negotiating the roads.

Power in the area was a bigger problem. Upwards of 2700 people in Killington were without power during the height of the storm. The inn lost power for 19 hours from 2AM to 9PM on Thursday. We were the lucky ones. Many of or friends through out the area have been without power since Tuesday. GMP, the new state-wide power company, is telling them that they may not have power till sometime next week...so it goes.

But snow is a wonderful thing!

Bookings at the inn have gone vertical as skiing and riding fanatics have responded to the snow fall by making plans to visit Killington. People arriving at Killington today are marvelling at the winter wonderland that 2 feet of snow creates. It is just what a ski resort community needs as we head into the holiday season.

Where ever you may be, we hope that you can get out and enjoy the snow.

Let it snow!

Snow stake comparison - Tuesday 12/10 versus Monday 12/9 

Your milage may vary....

Heavy snow late in the day and overnight on Monday December 9th dumped 15 inches at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington according to before and after readings of the inn's snow stake. Situated in a protected area about 40 feet behind the inn, the snow stake is set up to measure actual snow fall without the influence of surrounding buildings or curious onlookers.

Last night's snowfall is very dense with a high water content. Given that it is early December, it should be the perfect snow cover to allow the Killington Resort to rapidly expand the open trail count across the resort, assuming that any follow on precipitation from the early December storm continues to be of the frozen variety.

At 10 AM as I write this, snow has currently stopped falling. According to various weather forecasters and the Weather Service, snow is to resume falling in the next several hours. If you do forecast shopping, you will hear various forecasters say that the Killington region could receive up to an additional foot of new snow today and tonight on top of the snow that which has fallen in the last 24 hours.

Bring your snorkle.

Let it snow!

Snow stake comparison early into the storm 

A pre-winter Nor-Easter spinning in the Atlantic Ocean off the south coast of New England is dumping heavy snow in Killington.

While snow started earlier at the peak of Killington, at the Birch Ridge Inn at an altitude of 1850 FT the snow started just after noon.

Based upon a comparison of snow stake readings, approximately 2 1/4 inches of snow has fallen in the last 3 hours at Killington. (The reading at 3:34 PM ws 5 1/8 inches. The initial reading this morning at 8:47 AM was 2 7/8 inches for a net running total at 3:34 of 2 1/4 inches.)

Current local weather forecasters are creating a shopping situation. Believe the one you want! The overall concensus is that Killington will see about 5 inches of new snow through the early evening hours, with up to 10 inches of new snow total by Wednesday mid morning, when the storm looks like it will cut off for a few hours.

The National Weather Service is calling for accumulations to 2 feet by Thursday evening, with more snow anticipated on Friday.

It is going to be an interesting 72 hours.

Where ever you may be, keep warm, stay safe, think thoughts of skiing/riding, and let it snow!