Christmas Gifts 

All around town, anticipation is in the air. Christmas week is upon us. Guests are traveling from all over the world to visit Killington. Innkeepers, and Shop Keepers, and Restauranteurs, and ski instructors, waiters, waitresses, bar tenders, taxi drivers.... they are all ready for what can be the busiest week of the winter season.

And it finally snowed!!! (yea) ...not the light powdery kind that I would close the inn for to take a few turns... but the ground is white none the less. I actually needed to use a snow shovel this afternoon to clear the heavy wet snow off of the walks around the inn. And our plow guy is due momentarily to get the stuff off the parking lot...It's great!

Now if we could just get a few feet of the white stuff, I might actually be able to fire up the snow blower.....Think snow!

What ever you may have given or
received, we hope you had a very
Merry Christmas. 

As I write this on Christmas night, I hope that you had a very nice holiday weekend. We were blessed with a lot of nice guests in the inn over Christmas. Many have become friends in the last 9 years of running Birch Ridge; we hope that many more will become friends in the future.

In many ways, although this was our busiest Christmas ever at the inn, it was one of our easiest. We have a great staff working for us. Michalyn our assistant, has pulled double duty all weekend, working the house during the day and in the kitchen at night. Steve, aka "Frizzie", has been feeding an veritable army of people (for our size of restaurant) all weekend long. John D has been holding court in the bar, alternating between ski movies, Christmas carols and football. (So much for Dallas). Ryan our Sous Chef is coming into his own, cranking our some very nice appetizers and desserts for the holidays. And our newest employees, Briana and Merissa did a great job tending to people in the dining room. Last but not least, Mary and I are also fortunate that we were able to call on one of our first employees, Anne, to come in and help out with all of the linens during the day. We have a busy holiday week ahead of us, but our team, together with our guests, have really made our Christmas very enjoyable.

Bill and Mary in front of the Christmas Tree just before welcoming guests on Christmas Eve

Thank you all!

And to top off our Christmas festivities, at 9:00 PM this evening it started to snow! Nice white flakes are blanketing the ground around the inn. Forecast totals for this storm vary wildly, as the accumulation will be altitude dependent, but it looks like Killington did really have a White Christmas this year. I will follow up with a new snow stake during the day tomorrow. In the mean time... Think snow!

Solitary Snow Gun working diligently at Bear Mountain 

(Ed note: I am not exactly sure what date to call this post, as I am actually writing it at 2:15 AM on December 23rd. But since most of the activity took place on December 22, I will stick with that headline date.)

Today was a day of wacky contrasts in Killington. Earlier in the day, the sun was out, temps were in the high 20's to low 30's. Killington was making snow all over the front side of the mountain. As today's picture shows, they even had a lonely snow gun running at Bear Mountain to begin getting that mountain segment open.

All around town today, delivery trucks were zipping up and down the road. Almost every local I spoke with had a manic level of optimism, brought on by a sense of deja vu... or is it just wishful thinking... it is hard to tell. One thing was very certain in my comings and goings around town today: Christmas week is at our door steps. One of the most important weeks of the ski season is upon us, and the landscape is a dull grey except for the beautiful ribbons of white carefully painted on the mountains.

Our inn is very busy this weekend, so I went to get changed for dinner a little early this afternoon. Usually I am working away until around 5 before I change, today, I stopped at 4. When I left the front of the house at 4, the sky was a dull grey. The weatherman had predicted a storm was to move into the area around midnight. By the time I returned to the front of the house at 4:30, almost 1/2 inch of ice was encasing our front walks and driveways...the weather changed that quickly.

Tonight the weirdness continues. The temperature outside the inn while I write this is 27 degrees. By all rights, we should be in the middle of a howling snow storm, as the wind is swirling around the inn. But it is coming down liquid and freezing over everything. In the grand scheme of things, frozen is better than nothing. The walks can be salted, the drive way sanded, and the snow surfaces can be groomed. And tomorrow when the weirdness blows over, the resort will be at it again, expanding the ribbons of white on the mountain, to spread some Christmas cheer for all those planning on visiting Killington during the holiday season.

Snow making operations underway on Highline 

Last night, the Killington area was buffeted by extremely high winds. The inn was hit repeatedly with high wind gusts during the evening hours. The light snow that was all around the inn from the previous 2 days of accumulation was scoured from the ground over night, even though temperatures were well below freezing. Very strange weather.

Today up on the mountain, the Killington Resort is continuing their very aggressive snowmaking stance. Thus far this week they have been able to resurface all of the terrain that had ben previously open, and expanded terrain to interconnect the K1 base area with Ramshead. In addition, they have been blowing snow top to bottom at Pico. Of course, everyone is waiting with baited breath for the weather system that is punishing Denver to move east. Depending how much "mix" we get in the forecasted "wintery mix" will tell the story about how much terrain the resort will be able to open over the Christmas Holidays.

Setting up auxiliary snow cannons at the base of Superstar

Killington management has been very communicative to local businesses. This afternoon, they sent a note out with their plans for the holidays. Assuming Saturday's storm is kind, Killington plans to expend terrain over to Bear Mountain via the Skye Peak quad, into the Needles Eye area along Cruise Control, Panic Button, and Needles Eye, and continue operations over at Pico on terrain around the Golden Express Quad. Think snow!

Snow Guns blasting at junction of
Chute, Great Northern and Lower
Bunny Buster 

Killington's snow making system has been fired up into overdrive to cover as much territory as possible prior to the arrival of Christmas guests to the region. Mary was out on the hill today skiing and trying out her new camera. She reported that conditions at the upper elevations were firm while lower elevations were still on the soft side. Overall coverage on snow making trails was good. Terrain expansion off the back of Superstar into the Needles Eye area looks like it is taking place, although it is not open for skiing yet.

While it was sunny and cool today, tonight we are having a howling wind storm at Killington. No precipitation at the Inn is evident, but we are receiving very strong winds which must be blowing snow around on the mountain. The forecast for snowmaking the next couple of days looks promising. There does look like a weather system will move in briefly on Saturday with a "Wintry Mix" predicted. Let it Snow!

Several items today happened which will impact the Killington resort over both the near and far term. Locally, winter is making an attempt to return. The area has been dusted with snow the last couple of days. Nothing that I would consider measurable, but the ground is trying to become white again. On the mountain, and I am sorry I don't have any pictures - work has gotten in the way, the resort is trying to blow snow every where on the Killington Peak side of the resort as they get ready for the very important Christmas Holiday week.

Also today, it was announced that the American Skiing Company, owner of Killington, has sold the Steamboat Resort to Intrawest in a deal valued at $265 million. Earlier today Killington senior management sent a message to all Killington employees about the sale. This evening, the Reuters News Service is also reporting the deal. The deal is set to close in March of 2007. It is being reported that after closing, it is anticipated that net proceeds from the sale will be used to repay all existing senior debt and outstanding revolver balances under ASC's senior credit facility and certain other indebtedness. That will certainly help the improve the financial condition of ASC, and by association the Killington Resort.

Christmas Tree for 2006 at the Birch Ridge Inn 

It may be rather warm and green outside, but the Holiday Season is in the air at Killington, at least at the Birch Ridge Inn. Mary visited her family in Boston this week and came back to Killington with a car load of presents for under our Christmas Tree. One of those presents she let me "open early": a new Canon 7 megapixel PowerShot camera I can slip into my ski jacket for pictures while on the hill. Todays Christmas Tree picture was taken with it last night.

Guests at the inn are also getting into the Christmas mode and doing their best to support the local Vermont economy. Guests have come back to the inn with shopping bags full of presents. The local ski shops including Aspen East, Basin, Forerunner, Darkside, and Peak Performance all seem to be doing well with our guests. Several have taken shopping excursions to Manchester Vermont with the requisite stop at the Vermont Country Store in Weston. And of course the local gift shops including the Boutique, the Green Brier and Cabin Fever Gifts all seem to be doing well.

Of course, I am continuing to encourage our guests to do their snow dances. Are you doing yours?