We wish you a Merry Christmas 

We hope that all of you are having a joyous holiday season. Merry Christmas from Killington Vermont!.... Let it snow!

Tin soldiers stand guard at the front door to the Birch Ridge Inn 

As happens, unfortunately, more often then not this time of year, I have been under the weather with an early winter respiratory condition, causing me to not produce daily reports on Killingtonblog.com. To prevent spreading my affliction to inn staff and guests, I have been mostly hiding out in the owners quarters, out of sight and out of mind, with hot tea, a warm blanket, and a bottle of Nyquil.

But, all good things must come to an end. Christmas time in Killington is no time for slackers... so I returned to work today... Now I just need to figure out how to get that Christmas shopping I always put off till the last minute done...

The resort itself is getting into the Christmas spirit. More terrain is being opened every day. Late last week saw Needles Eye and Cruise Control come on line (my last healthy day on Friday had me stuck on a chair for 30 minutes at Needles Eye after getting first tracks down the newly opened trail... I have more than paid for the chill I got swinging from that chair!) This week Bear Mountain came online. When you combine the constant snow flurries that have been falling with all of the snow that the resort has made, it should be a good Christmas season to ski Killington.

I don't know if I will be able to make it out on the slopes again before the holiday. I would like to, but we will see how it goes. In the mean time... enjoy your last minute Christmas shopping, and.... Let it snow!

Snow guns operating on lower Superstar headwall 

Signs of terrain expansion at the Killington Resort are all over the place, if you notice where to look. Now that the mountain has made a beautiful recovery from the early week nasty weather, snow guns have been directed to new trails all across the resort.

Much of the activity is clearly visible off Sky Peak. Snow guns have started to build up the base on lower Superstar. Snow guns were visible off of Cruise Control heading towards the Skyship Stage 2(which was being run today but not loading) at the base of Needles Eye. Even cross connect trails from Killington Peak to Sky Peak were under the gun; clearly a sign that the resort is getting ready to break out of it's early season footprint.

We spent a short time out on the mountain today...think of it as going out for a jog, only with ski boots on your feet. We parked right at the Snowdon Quad and skied out of the car. From the quad, I took Mary down Upper Royal Flush for the first run. Skiers right hugging the trees had copious amounts of snow. Mary, on her new skis, was not impressed by the thin cover sign at the top and the wind blown grass sections in the middle of the trail. The good thing about it was it forced her to play in some of the soft bumps with me down the right line. I tried to convince her it was a good way to get her quads working... but I don't think she bought it.

From there we headed across the resort over to Superstar for multiple laps off the Superstar chair. I don't need to bore you with the details... the whole area off the Superstar chair was skiing very nice, as it was on Tuesday when I wrote about it. The only difference between today and Tuesday was that the top of Bittersweet was open for skiing and riding. On Tuesday the resort had Bittersweet closed to make snow in it.

After a half of dozen loops (it was really meant to be a short day on the hill) we headed back down the access road for a break at the newly opened Liquid Art Coffeehouse. Beth (Weinberg) Sarandrea has opened the establishment with her husband Jimi. (Many might know Beth from the Lookout Bar where she still covers a couple of shifts as an evening bartender.) The building on the corner of the Killington Road at Miller Brook Road (across from the Killington Market) has been complete renovated. The walls are decorated with murals and lots of pictures/artwork from Beth. It is designed to be a coffee house, although instead of an espresso drink we opted for a couple of huge hot chocolates. Stopping at Liquid Art was just a nice little peaceful pick me up on our way from the mountain before heading back to work at the inn....well worth the stop.

The weather the next few days at Killington calls for continued snow showers. White from the sky is just perfect as we head into the holiday season.... Let it snow!

From the top of Superstar looking towards Killington base 

The wintery mess that we had Sunday night into Monday exited the area overnight with sharply colder temperatures and heavy snow. Temperatures at the inn this morning, before heading off to the mountain, were in the single digits. 6 inches of newly fallen snow covered the ground that had basically been laid bare Sunday night by the torrential r@!n that had swept thru the area.

Killington peak this morning was still covered in a driving snow storm. We took the K1 gondola to the peak just after 9:00 for a few runs in the North Ridge area. 6 plus inches of new untracked snow greeted us on skiers right on Upper East Fall. Under the snow, the base was a little funky, consisting of a loose (almost wet) granular with a few larger chunks thrown in to keep you awake in the early morning air. Evidently the weather turned to snow so rapidly on Killington Peak that the wet snow created by the storm Sunday and Monday had not had a chance to set before being covered up.

Rime, Reason, and Upper Double Dipper were all in nice shape, with lots of untracked snow along the edges to carve into. Regular East Falls was slick in places, with a little thin cover exposed at the choke point midway down the trail. Highline was full of soft bumps down the lower headwall. Thin cover once again predominated the entrance to Highline, but once reaching the area near Racers Edge, Highline was deep with new snow.

In mid morning, I headed to the Superstar Quad. Mary stayed over at Snowdon. She reports that Chute was well covered with a few slick spots. Mouse Trap was more of the same, with the back side of the snow whale created by the tower mounted fan gun being particularly "special".

On Superstar, it was like being at a different resort. The blowing and drifting snow of Killington Peak was replaced with brilliant sunshine at the top of the Superstar Quad. The upper headwall of Superstar was groomed perfectly flat; set nicely for carving down the steep pitch. The snow whales on Superstar were also groomed. A large amount of powder accumulated on skiers right between the whales and the woods. It was good for more than a few nice pow turns.

Skylark was near perfect, although it did have a funky sound to it in places. It was probably groomed in the early morning hours. The corduroy was covered in most spots with an inch or 2 of fresh powder. On the upper section, the sound was like the trail was hollow underneath. Perhaps this was another artifact from the wet storm of the late weekend. Lower Skylark was nicely covered, although it had a pinch point in it which could have been nasty. The rocks on skiers right were exposed by the storm. A freestyle training course was roped off on skiers left. As a result, all traffic funneled into a 20 foot wide segment on the lower half of the trail.

Upper Bittersweet was being assaulted by snow guns. Lower Bittersweet was really nice; similar to Skylark but with a little more fluff on top. There was some weirdness at the bottom of Bittersweet this morning that was typical of the kind of weather the resort was experiencing. While the top section was in bright sunshine, as soon as you made the left turn to head back to the Superstar Quad you were greeted with the leading edge of the blizzard which was covering Killington Peak. It made for a strange push against a heavy wind into blowing snow to get back to the quad, but the Superstar, Skylark, Bittersweet combination was worth several laps in the late morning, before ending the ski day and heading back to the inn.

Let it snow!

Storm clouds move into Killington 

Mother Nature is at it again. A messy winter storm is striking the area this Sunday. Unlike the champagne powder storm we had earlier in the week, this storm is sloppy...which is probably just what the mountain needs as they prepare to push open new terrain before the approaching holidays.

Although the logic may sound reversed, the Champagne Storm, albeit fun while it lasted, did not do much for the area to get new terrain open. If it happened in February when the resort is fully snow covered, we would have been celebrating a couple of powder days. But as it was, high winds with the storm earlier last week saw to it that north facing slopes were scoured down to grass. Hence trails like Superstar saw it's lower headwall suitable for grazing by sheep, not skiing or riding by humans.

Todays weather event, in contrast, with it's high water content, should lay down a coating across the whole resort that should be relatively impervious to the winds accompanying the storm. Assuming the mountain does not get an inordinate amount of r@!n mixed with the snow, the resort should be left with a good base to allow their snow making system to finish the job when temperatures drop on the storms backside.

Meanwhile, back at the inn, we have been working to get everything ready for the upcoming holidays. Mary has fine tuned this years Christmas tree in the Great Room. Most of the other decorations for the holiday have also been placed around the inn. I have installed a new Samsung Flat Screen TV in the Great Room, along with an Apple TV to access internet video. Other than taking down the behemoth 27 inch CRT, the main job has been figuring out the channel layout from Comcast, and reprogramming the Denon AV system to deal with the new devices. For those of you keeping score, we how have 6 remotes in the Great Room (TV, DVD, CD, VCR, AV System, Apple TV). Since I came out of the electronics industry, I find this situation ridiculous. I have started to investigate a universal remote to pull everything together... but in the meantime, we will muddle through.

Later this week, we will be back out on the mountain again... In the mean time.... Let it snow!

Superstar at Sky Peak from Rams Head 

It is definitely winter now.... Depending upon altitude, Killington easily received 6 to 12 inches of snow from the storm that hit the area yesterday. At the snow stake at the inn, the measurement this morning was 6 1/2 inches.

I headed to the resort bright and early this morning to catch some runs. I was on the Snowdon Quad by 9, avoiding the "first run freshies" queue that had developed at the K1 Gondola. The resort had a strange configuration of lifts running this morning, which I did not find out about till I was on the mountain as I had bypassed starting my day at the K1 Base Lodge. From the Snowdon Quad, I attempted to traverse over to the North Ridge Triple to get a boost up higher. I was greeted by the dreaded "North Ridge Triple Closed" sign... so it goes.

Instead of moving forward and heading down East Falls, I doubled back to head down Highline. At the entrance to Highline there was a "thin cover" sign... I should have paid a little more attention, but in I went. At 9:00 AM, Highline was a winter version of Dante's Inferno. There was plenty of thin cover at the top, due to wind scouring the snow at the trail entrance. Once you were into the trail, the resort had every snow making hydrant connected and pumping out snow. The trail featured half filled water bars, huge snow whales from the guns, and a foot of fresh powder hiding everything else, in case you really wanted to pick out any trail detail to hit or avoid. In a phrase....I got my butt kicked....and it was glorious! My early season ski legs have been doing pretty well cruising around the mountain. But playing "Seeing Eye" skiing on uncertain terrain with dirt, bumps, twigs, and powder is another thing all together.

After being humbled, I took the K1 to the peak to try it again. This time I headed down Great Northern to Rime to East Fall. Great Northern and Rime were groomed. The Resort did a lot of grooming overnight to set the snow to keep it from blowing away in the wind. East Fall was slightly bumpy with about a foot of fresh powder. Skiers and Riders were starting to push the snow around into little hits. But after my experience on Highline, East Fall seemed almost groomed flat in comparison.

I spent the next couple of hours repeating my loop from the Ki Gondola, alternating between East Fall and Great Northern. I finished with an excursion from Killington Peak down Great Northern, to Lower Chute to Rams Head. At Rams Head the resort was also pumping out a huge amount of snow up and down the length of Header. Clearly the resort is taking advantage of the cold temps to continue the push to expand open terrain.

From the Rams Head Chair, I looped down Caper to the Snowdon Quad for one last run down Chute. With temps in the low teens, snow in the air, and blustery winds in the 10 to 30 mph zone, I was ready to head home to the inn for a hot shower.

Overall, the resort did a nice job "capturing" the snow that fell the last several days. Northern facing terrain (Superstar for instance) showed visible signs of wind scour. This was really visible in places where snow making has not yet begun. Everywhere else, the resort was skiing on a nice packed powder surface with the odd wind blow spot just to make sure you were paying attention.

Winter has definitely arrive in Killington!!! Let it snow!

(Killington, VT 8:00 PM) The first significant snow storm of the 2010/2011 winter season struck Killington today. Multiple inches of very light powder, atypical for an early season snow storm in the Green Mountains, has blanketed the area in a beautiful white coat.

At the Birch Ridge Inn, elevation 1850 feet, over six inches of snow is on the ground from this storm as of 8:00 PM. Light snow is continuing to fall. High winds are also blowing the snow into drifts in many of the usual places. Killington's Roaring Brook Valley, in the Killington Basin area, is roaring tonight with a combination of howling winds and the echo of snow guns continuing to make snow at the resort. With luck, the wind does not scour the snow off the ski trails to allow tomorrow to be declared a "Powder Day" in Killington.

Let it snow!