Mary on upper headwall of Superstar this morning. 

Bravo! The Killington Resort has done a great job recovering the mountain for skiing and riding. The deluge earlier this week should have knocked them for a loop. But their strategy of making tons of snow earlier in the month when the weather was right for snow making has left the mountain in great shape for skiing and riding.

Mary and I got to the mountain this morning around 10:15. We parked in Bay 1; 2 cars down from the K1 gondola. By 10:20, we were on the top of Killington Peak with skis on the ground. Killington Peak was cloud covered, with a fairly stiff breeze, so instead of taking a couple of runs in the North Ridge area, we decided to head directly to Bear Mountain.

At Bear, we found Bear Claw, Bear Trap, The Stash, Wild Fire, Skye Burst and Outer Limits all nicely groomed. The middle of Skye Burst had a section cordoned off for Killington Mountain School race training. We stopped for a few moments and watched some of the kids scream down Skye Burst, taking air as they crested the Viper Pit.

KMS student going around a gate on Skye Burst during race training. Click to enlarge.

During our time at Bear, it became obvious which trails had seen multiple passes with grooming machines. On most of the terrain, snow surfaces were loose granular mixed with fresh snow, which was falling continuously during our morning on the mountain. In the Stash, however, which is usually perfectly groomed, we did run into a stretch that had numerous golf ball sized chunks. Another grooming pass and skier traffic will have these broken up nicely for the weekend. But it did get our attention in a couple of places. On the flip side, we found very little evidence of ice on the trails. There were a few wind blown patches on some of the trails, but there was nothing remotely visible that was either clear or blue!

Snow making was also ongoing on many of the Green trails leading to Bear Mountain. We really don't ski them, so I can't tell you their condition, but we did see snow making operations, on both Bear Trax and Bear Cub. The new fan gun, installed on lower Skye Burst at the junction with Dream Maker was also making snow this morning.

Snow making is ongoing around the Killington Resort. The fan gun on lower Skye Burst was operating this morning. Click to enlarge.

In our usual fashion, we moved from Skye Burst over to Cruise Control and the Needles Eye area. Cruise, Needless, Bitter Sweet, and High Road had really nice surfaces. For some reason, the mountain had a couple of bamboo poles with a caution sign posted at the junction of Cruise Control and Great Eastern. While we were skiing it, we could not see anything worthy of a caution sign, but on the Skye Ship Gondola a ski patroller told us that some run off from the early week deluge had caused a spring to poke through the surface. Grooming and natural snow seemed to have covered it up, but I guess the resort was being extra careful to tell mid week skiers and riders to pay attention.

Without question, the run of the day was Skye Lark. From the very top to the bottom at the Super Star quad is was just beautifully set up. Upper and Middle Skye Lark had a soft, loose granular surface. It was very consistent. It did not have any of the chunks we experienced on other trails. Lower Skye Lark was similar, with the exception that the resort had made so much snow on the trail that it was filled with nice gentle rollers. From the High Road junction to the bottom, lower Skye Lark was a nice combination of machine groomed snow riding atop huge snow whales.

As we usually do when we are on the Bear Mountain/Skye Peak side of the resort, we finished our morning on Superstar. The upper headwall was nicely groomed. The middle of the pitch had a few wind blown sections. Skiers left was filled with loose snow just ripe for little bump style turns. Middle Superstar was a groomed flat cruiser. Pick your line and let it rip would be the easiest way to describe it. The Lower headwall was a little chunky, but when I skied it I was in bright sunshine. You just had to pick your line and make your turns. It was a nice run to end the day on the mountain.

The weather forecast at Killington for the rest of the week is calling for the snow flurries to continue. They are not amounting to much, but every little bit counts......let it snow!

Clouds linger over Killington. Cold air and snow flurries overtake the mountain. 

It was not nice in Killington the last 36 hours. But all in all, the resort weathered the storm quite well.

Torrential r@!n, an occasional clap of thunder, and gusty winds were the order of the day on Monday. By the time the storm subsided, the snow at the snow stake at the inn had been reduced by 5 7/8 inches from 13 7/8 inches on Sunday to 8 inches on Tuesday. While not good, we have seen much worse in the past.

Mary and I did not ski today, but I did have a chance to speak with several unbiased sources who did, including inn guests and our chef, Frizzie. When combined with visual observations from the base areas, it looks like the mountains strategy of making a staggering amount of snow on most trails with snow making has paid off. Our guests and our chef both reported that conditions today were softer than they expected. Temperatures overnight did not head into the deep freeze, allowing accumulated water time to drain away from the surface. While each reported a few icy spots on the mountain, probably in places where the r@!n wore away the snow to the hard base, in general they reported nice ski conditions on soft, creamy, snow.

Of course, the number of trails open today on the mountain was significantly reduced from the weekend. The basic rule appears to be if the trail was not groomed, it was not open. Natural trails and the woods were also set back, as Mondays deluge was more than a match for the small amount of natural snow which had fallen on the resort thus far this winter.

From observations and on mountain reports, limited snow making has resumed. Snow guns have been connected to the snow making system all over the mountain, in anticipation of temperatures continuing to drop as yesterdays storm completes it's exit from the area.

With luck, Mary and I will have a chance to get on the mountain tomorrow for some first hand observations. In the meantime......let it snow!

Storm clouds filtering into Killington Sunday afternoon. The Birch Ridge Inn is in the lower right corner of the frame. 

The resort is in great shape, even though we have not had a significant snow storm all season. And now r@!n...ugh...

If the weather forecasters are right, it will be in interesting 36 hours in Killington. The resort has prepared, making copious amounts of snow on every trail in an attempt to weather proof the mountain. It sounds like we will be able to see first hand if the resorts efforts are successful.

For the next day or so, the intense storm which has brought mudslides (and not the Kahlua kind) to the west coast will be transiting the area. High wind and flash flood warnings have been posted for Central Vermont. While they have a notoriously bad track record predicting these things in the mountains, the current forecasts call for 1 to 2 inches of NCP before a cold front behind the weather system puts the region back into the freezer.

So far, even with meager natural snow, we have around 14 inches of the white stuff at the snow stake at the inn. Stay tuned for Tuesdays reading to get a gauge on the impact of the storm

..........let it snow! Please!!!!

Ben, 'The Bagel' and Ken on Superstar 

Finally! A bright, sunny, day.

Today was just about the perfect mid winter ski day at Killington. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 20's; there was an imperceptible breeze; the sky was bright blue with a few high clouds; and the sun was burning brightly. Just perfect for a run or 20...

Today we started our runs from the K1 Gondola. At 9:00 AM Highline was all lit up in the morning sun, just calling us for a lap. While taking the K1 to the peak, there was a delay of about 5 minutes where we think they were unloading supplies for the Killington Peak restaurant. That delay was just long enough for the resort to close Highline for race training...hence we were banished to Mousetrap and a run down Lower Bunny Buster. Fear not...they were nicely groomed. Aside from a quickly forgotten disappointment for not being able to ski Highline, Mousetrap and Lower Bunny were very suitable first run alternatives.

From there we traversed across the top of the resort to Bear Mountain. The first run down Bear Claw was fairly quick, as we were basically the only ones on the trail at 9:15. There were 8 of us so we formed a small pack. But it would still be about an hour more before we would see any significant numbers of people.

After a quick ride up the Skye Peak Quad, we headed for the Stash. The Stash itself was groomed impecably. The woods between the Stash and Bear Claw were filled with nice soft "pillows" of snow, probably the result of snow coming out of the tree tops. I am not a huge tree skier, but this was a nice off piste excursion.

In the early morning set, Outer Limits looked like it was a candidate for run of the day. The Bear Chair was not running early on, so the only way onto OL was to traverse across from Wild Fire. Once on OL skiers were rewarded with nice, soft, snow over a slight rolling bump. The surface, and the number of skiers and riders on OL, was very receptive to trail edge to edge carving turns. Add in 100 percent sunshine, and Outer Limits was a treat this morning.

Killington peak in early morning sunshine with a backdrop of high, wispy clouds. Click to enlarge.

We finished our morning at Bear with the requisite runs down Wild Fire and Dream Maker. The top of Wild Fire had been groomed to remove it's bumps. A slightly firm surface was left in their place. Upper Dream Maker was icy bumps. Lower Dream Maker was set up with a number of terrain park features. While our group is not prone to do rails or boxes, the snow features including large swales and jumps provided plenty of entertainment.

We then proceeded on our normal route via Cruise Control into Needles Eye. The Needles Eye quad was running this morning, so we did a number of loops between Cruise, Needles and Bitter Sweet. All were in great shape. The sun was doing a great job lighting up Cruise Control and Needles Eye, allowing for some very quick loops. As we headed to the north side of the mountain and Bitter Sweet, some shadows came into play. The surface was nicely groomed and soft, so you could trust it. But the transition from bright sunshine to dark shadow at ski speed can be momentarily spooky.

We finished the morning with laps of the Superstar Quad. Todays run of the day was unusual. Super Star and Skye Lark were both high speed cruisers. Ovations was the surprise. The run of the day, based upon the number of do overs the group ran, was Upper Ovations in the weeds to skiers right (of all places). The area was filled with small, rolling, bumps and beautiful soft snow. The group did it at least 3 times. Sadly to say, Lower Ovation was not as friendly. Los tres caballeros in todays first picture did Lower Ovations on one of the loops. Because of its angle to the sun, it was pitch black. It was also filled with a number of large, unpredictable, bumps. They survived it, but they were not very happy and they did not do it again.

A few more laps of Superstar brought the morning to a close. By noon time, the sun was lighting up the lower Superstar headwall on skiers right, near the woods. It was just plan nice to be able to ski Superstar for a change with top to bottom sunshine. A true January treat!

......let it snow!

Cloud deck surrounding Killington. Taken Sunday January 17, by Andrew Cooley 

Depending upon your location today, once again the area is either in a snow cloud or sunshine. Outside the inn the sun is resplendent. But nearby mountain peaks are covered in clouds with what appears to be snow coming out of them.

The weather forecast for the next 3 days is calling for beautiful ski weather with lots of sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s to low 30s. Since my time on the slopes Tuesday, I have been mainly working around the inn. But I will head back out on the slopes tomorrow with some friends who are coming up from Boston to spend the weekend in Killington.

Todays picture came to me from a friend, Nigel, whose son was skiing with friends at Killington last weekend. One of his friends captured a great picture of the cloud deck surrounding Killington Peak. The peak itself is bathed in sunshine, as is the top of Bear Mountain to the left center of the frame. Just below Bear Mountain peak a solid cloud deck covers the landscape. As the elevation of Bear Mountain is 3295 feet, the cloud deck appears to be topping out around 3100 feet.

In other news today, the Vermont State Legislature was to honor Ted Bridges, posthumously, for his enormous contribution to tourism in the state of Vermont. Teddy was best know as the innkeeper at the Cortina Inn for many years, prior to its sale several years ago to a developer. Around town, Ted made many valuable contributions working with both the Killington Chamber of Commerce and local town governments. Most recently he served as a commissioner on the Town of Killington's Economic Development and Tourism Commission. Ted was one of several "Larger than life characters" that have made Killington a special place. Ted passed away last month after a brief illness.

..........let it snow!

View today from the top of Rime. Can you see me now?? 

As I sit here in my office writing todays post, my legs are just shot....I have taken 2 Excedrin. Call me in the morning!

Monday afternoon, temperatures at Killington soared into the mid 30's causing some surface melting of the snow pack for the first time in weeks. The good news is that overnight, the Killington area received another 3 inches of so of medium wet snow, more than making up for what was lost to warm temperatures.

In an attempt to fight off meeting boredom, I scheduled a meeting this morning to take place on the slopes at Killington. I am a firm believer in the 5 minute rule....if you can't get your point across on a chairlift ride in 5 minutes....what's the point. And today was a pretty nice day to ski.

Before my meeting started, I took a ride up the Snowdon Quad. The K1 gondola was delayed for some reason, so the quad seemed like a good idea. At the top, I took a run down Mouse Run to Mouse Trap on my way to Lower Bunny Buster and the meeting spot at the K1 Gondola. Mouse Run, Mouse Trap and Lower Bunny Buster were all groomed flat and covered with 3 inches of light, untracked, snow. Just a beautiful warm up run to get the legs going for a morning of skiing.

From the K1 Gondola, we headed over to Bear Mountain. On the K1 we noticed that the cloud deck was lowering. It was difficult to really tell, as the boxes were totally snow covered by snow guns making snow on Cascade. While traversing across South Ridge, it became apparent that the cloud deck was not lowering, it was on the deck. Bear Mountain, which has yielded the best visibility at the resort of late, was totally encased in clouds right down to lower Skye Burst and Wild Fire. It did not stop the skiing, of course, but it did make it "interesting".

Skye Burst, Wild Fire and Bear Claw were well covered with fresh snow. For the first few runs, the skiing was predominately on untracked surfaces with visibility of 5 feet or less. The great news is that the surface was so consistent that the low visibility on these runs was not an issue. While not rip it and go conditions, until the trails got chopped up, there was really no need to hold back.

By the time we got to Cruise Control, surfaces were getting cut up. But, being at a slightly lower elevation, lower Cruise Control was below the cloud deck. The light surface chop was easy given you could see it and make your turns appropriately.

Skye Peak was a different story. By mid morning, upper Bitter Sweet, Skye Lark and Super Star were totally socked in. At normal ski speeds you could barely see a couple of feet in front of yourself. Again, the snow surfaces were in great shape. As long as you followed the golden rule.."Point em down hill you chicken$#!t" there were no problems negotiating any of the terrain.

In an attempt to find better visibility, we headed back to Killington Peak. Rime, Reason, and Upper East Fall were all above the clouds. With the new snow, a few of cruising runs were a good pick me up for the legs. East Fall proper and Double Dipper were totally cloud covered, which made for interesting runs. But with the Canyon Quad running, and nice snow surfaces, several loops were required. To head back to the K1 Gondola for a final boost top Killington Peak, we took a run down Highline. The traverse down the tree lined Great Northern was nice. Highline was socked in as expected.

The final run of the day had us boosting across the top on Launch Pad for one more shot at Superstar. Superstar was now totally cloud covered from top to almost the bottom. But hugging the tree line on skiers right yielded enough visibility to make it a fun last run.

Oh... and it was a productive meeting as well. Who needs a conference room when you can ride a chair lift..........let it snow!

One of the many snowmen at the Birch Ridge Inn. 

Each year after the end of the holiday season, Mary changes the decorations all around the inn to include Snowmen. They are in all shapes and sizes, occupying many quiet spaces all around the inn. Many move. Some sing. The most complicated sing and dance. All to the delight of inn guests during the winter season.

The little number in todays picture is both a paragon of complexity, hiding under a simple theme. This snowman is a variation of the venerable snow globe...but with a high tech twist. With the flick of a switch on the back of the snow man, it lights up with a sequence of colors. While the lights are dancing, a magnetically coupled impeller spins at random at the bottom of the snowman, spinning water and thrusting glitter all through the snowmans body. I though of doing a little video of the creation, but I concluded that it would probably be as interesting as one of those electronic gold fish bowls, so I demurred. But the battery operated creature is quite hypnotic in real life.

Around the mountain, skiers and riders departing the area from their MLK weekend visits found 3 inches of new snow to greet them this morning. Snow showers are in the forecast for most of the week which will help keep a nice white patina on top of the Green Mountains. With luck, I will be on the slopes tomorrow with an updated ski report.........let it snow!