"Christmas Floral Arrangement", a gift from friends 

Christmas comes but once a year,
bringing children hope, and adults good cheer.
Whether a brand new toy or a lump of coal;
Christmas was meant to save our souls;
by the birth of a baby so tender and pure;
with a star in the sky so all would be sure.

Now the day for unwrapping gifts is done;
there's ski hills to play on in the bright winter sun;
with holiday vacationers from now to the New Year!

Let it snow!

"Christmas Creatures" 

Where ever you may be today, Mary and I, and our staff at the Birch Ridge Inn in Killington, wish you a very Merry Christmas.

Let it snow!

Killington Peak on Christmas Eve 

The nasty storm which came through the area yesterday with high winds and r@*n showers of varying intensity is clearing the area today. Temperatures overnight dropped from the mid 40's to the upper 20's. The drop appeared to be slow enough that much of the accumulated water in the snow pack had an opportunity to drain. Snowbanks around the inn, while "crisp" on the outside, are still too soft to stand on without sinking to your knees.

On the mountain, we were told by the Killington resort that their groomers were dispatched early this morning to prepare the mountain to greet holiday visitors. Light snow is currently falling across the area. (Negligible accumulations are expected.) Snow making operations are currently visible on the upper sections of the mountain including Rime and Skye Lark. With nice weather forecasted for Killington for the next several days, Holiday visitors should find the resort in great shape for their holiday ski trips.

Let it snow!

Pushing knee deep snow off the roof at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington 

I look at the snow stake at the inn almost every day. It is an interesting marker of the amount of natural snow on the ground around the inn. For the last week, we have had well over a foot on the ground. Now a foot seems like a small number, until you have to go out and work in it as I did yesterday afternoon.

With the forecast calling for r@*n showers today, I thought it would be wise to remove some of the snow from some of the inn's roofs. I have all of the tools including a 24 foot snow rake for the steep sections, and a wide pusher shovel for the flat sections. I did not think anything of it, after all, there was only 18 inches of snow on the ground. As you can see from the picture, that 18 inches translated into knee deep snow on the flat roof. In the back of the inn, I was wading around in waist deep snow drifts in places. There is a lot of snow on the ground in Killington. Even with some showers today, Killington is going to have a very white Christmas.

Let it snow!

Killington Peak as viewed from Killink 

The holiday season is always a busy one at Killington. With that in mind, I wanted to try to get out on the mountain for a little while today, to get a final peek before the Christmas rush. One catch... I only had 1 hour. One hour on Killington does not sound like much, but with a little local knowledge, you can literally ski for miles and miles.

I started from the Vail parking lot and skied over to the Rams Head lift. From Rams Head, I cruised down Caper to the Snowdon Quad. The Snowdon Quad is not a speed demon (hence the pejorative designation Slowdon Quad), but it can get you where you want to go. From their, I took Killink to the North Ridge Triple, stopping to take some pictures of the peak. Although the scene was some what dark and gloomy, as there was a high overcast, Killington Peak looked impressive in it's snow capped grandeur.

Here is where an hour at Killington becomes interesting. The next move was a traverse across Great Northern to Great Eastern to get over to Bear Trap at Bear Mountain. A solid 10 minutes of continuous skiing. Bear Trap was very interesting. Snow guns were just pummeling the trail. Visibility was about zero. Snow piles were becoming knee to waist deep in places. The mountain will need to do some serious grooming of this to support the holiday crowds.

Usually on a one hour jaunt around Killington I would take the Outer Limits quad, however, that was not operating today. So up I went on the Skye Peak Quad. This placed me a the top of Skye Lark. From Skye Lark, I traversed over to Superstar for the last run of my hour, crossing in front of the K1 Base Lodge on my way back to the car. Total elapsed time 1 hour, on 4 lifts with a combined elevation of 4299 feet and a length of 17,140 feet.

Ski conditions on the mountain are without a doubt the best they have been for Christmas in many years. Next week it looks like basically 100% of the resort will be open for skiing and riding, a huge difference from the last couple of years. Great snowmaking weather, a new owner willing to make lots of snow, and a few good early season snow storms have the mountain in great shape for holiday visitors. I just might have to sneak out for an hour or 2 again before the new year.

Let it snow!

'Snowy Woods" behind the Birch Ridge Inn 

A lot of tough calls this morning.....3 inches or so of nice fluff fell overnight...but Christmas shopping was no where near done....

For my snow fix this morning, instead of going skiing, I fired up the snow blower and did some work in the yard. Since we have a busy inn and Mary was not able to get out and go skiing, the fact that I got up and worked this morning might have scored me a few points... it's hard to tell.

With the snow all moved, I then headed out along the Killington Road for a little Christmas shopping. 2 hours later, after giving my American Express card a work out, with bags in hand I headed back to the inn. Killington has a lot of nice shops if you are looking for last minute Christmas gifts. And contrary to common opinions, many of the shops also offer non-skiing/riding items to round out your Christmas list. I would tell you about what I picked up this morning, but that would spoil Mary's Christmas surprise.

Temperatures have warmed up this afternoon at Killington. With all of the snow on the ground, I am sure that the skiing and riding today are just great. Hopefully I will hit the slopes for a couple of hours tomorrow, assuming some last minute shopping on the net works out this afternoon.. so it goes.

Let it snow!

Snow guns firing on Bear Trap 

The heavy snow fall of the last several days has caused the new owners of the Killington Pico Ski Resorts to rethink their plans. Today, for instance, Bear Mountain opened for skiing and riding a full 2 weeks earlier than the announced plan.

Virtually all of Bear Mountain was open for skiing and riding on ungroomed, natural snow fall. Snow guns were running on Bear Trap to build up base, but I did not see guns operating elsewhere. Bear Trap was covered with wind blown packed powder interspersed with snow making whales. I had my first "eject eject eject" of the season today, as my left ski got buried under some crust on Bear Trap, literally ripping the ski off my leg. I came to a stop about 40 feet away, upside down, in what seemed like waist deep powder. Of course today I had my all mountain skis on, not the powder skis... so it goes.

Outer Limits was open with all natural snow. There was no evidence of any snow guns being used on Outer Limits. The trail was ungroomed with several interesting exposed rocks. A lot of people had already challenged it. After looking at the rocks from the chair, we decided to pass.

The Killington Peak side of the mountain was primarily groomed flat. All of the trails we skied on were nice machine groomed packed powder. Great for making gentle carving turns with very little surface vibration. Cascade was still showing a little ice on the lower headwall, but I found it easily avoidable. Superstar was splendid, as was Skye Lark and Bittersweet. Cruise Control had not been groomed, but the skier traffic from yesterday left some very nice, soft bumps. The same held true for Needles Eye.

We left just before Noon. The Killington cloud had appeared turning off the sun shine of the early morning. But it did bring with it some snow squalls which will only help to keep things nice and fresh for tomorrow.

Let it snow!