Heavy snow falling around the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington VT 

Heavy snow is forecasted to fall across the Killington Region all day today and well into the night.

At 11:00 AM, heavy snow was falling around the Birch Ridge Inn. The temperature was 14 degrees. Snow consistency is powder, given the cold temperatures. The leading edge of the storm dusted the area beginning around 5:30 AM. Heavy snow began falling between 7 and 8 AM.

The snow stake at the inn at 11:00 AM is reporting 17 1/4 inches, up just under 2 inches since yesterdays report. Most of this snow has fallen since 8:00 AM this morning.

The National Weather Service is predicting that the pace of the snow fall will pick up as the afternoon approaches. Total snow fall accumulations for the storm in Rutland County is predicted between 8 and 16 inches with larger amounts in higher elevations. (read Killington)

It will be a Powder Day on Thursday, if you can make it to the mountains.......let it snow!

--------- 2 PM Update! -----------
The snow stake measurement at 2:00 PM is 19 3/8 inches. Total snow fall accumulation since the storm started is ~ 4 inches. Total accumulation the last 3 hours is just greater than 2 inches. It is going to be a very snowy afternoon in Killington... Let it snow!
--------- End 2 PM Update! -----------

High Line - Groomed flat and fast. 

If you could find a fault with today at Killington, you should have your attitude adjusted. It was just a beautiful blue bird day on the mountain. By 10:00 AM, temperatures were in the middle teens, the sun was shining brightly, there was very little wind, and the mountain was groomed to perfection. Just a nice day to ski!

Everywhere we went today, with the exception of some standing bump runs, was groomed flat awaiting the forecasted snow storm due to hit the area early Wednesday morning. Today was a day to cruise in the sunshine. True you should have been wearing a neck gator to keep your face warm, but this is January in Vermont after all.

There is little point in explaining run by run today, as they were all in great shape. There are so many candidates for run of the day. If I were to go with unadulterated cruising, Bittersweet would be high on the list. If I wanted to add a little technical component, Dream Maker from top to bottom deserves consideration, as well as the right side of Superstar.

There were a several minor spots where you needed to pay some attention. The snow making whales on the bottom of Sky Burst are getting ground up into ball bearings ranging from pea sized to golf balls. The bumps on skiers right on Needles Eye were a little unorganized with some slick troughs. Lower Sky Lark had some mammoth bumps left over from weekend snow making. These just added to the challenge of cruising in the sunshine; throwing in a little spice to keep things interesting.

And dare we think Powder Day for Wednesday or Thursday......let it snow!

Snow making operations continue on Sky Lark at Killington Resort 

It has been a somewhat strange weekend at Killington. Cool temperatures have once again settled over the area. The mountain is in great shape. Crowds have been moderate to light. Snow making is continuing quite visibly down the length of Sky Lark on the Killington Basin side of the resort.

Then you add in the weirdness. Local and State governments are starting to act up in response to the economic downturn and resultant decrease in tax collections. And then there was a disgruntled citizen who decided to take matters into their own hand.

At the State of Vermont level, discussions are ongoing about the fate of Amtrak Train service to the Rutland/Killington region. Legislators want to cut the transportation subsidy to Amtrak in the process eliminating train service to Rutland from Albany, New York City and points south. In its place, the Vermont Legislature is proposing subsidizing bus service from Albany to Rutland as a way to make up for the loss of train service. Local citizens and business people have rightly registered a complaint about these budget cuts. With no interstate road network, Amtrak train service is the only mass transit connection between western Vermont and the rest of the United States. In fairness to the legislature (or maybe in spite of the legislature) the Vermont State budget is a mess. Services will need to be cut. There are plenty of arguments for and against eliminating Amtrak service to Rutland. But one thing is fairly certain...if it is eliminated it will probably never return.

The second item in the news this week tips to a little Robin Hood behavior by the State of Vermont which impacts Killington residents and second home owners in regards to their property taxes. As many readers will know, Act 60 and Act 68 in Vermont established a state wide real estate tax with proceeds being distributed to cities and towns to fund education. The state has effectively passed administration of tax collection of this state wide tax back to the towns. As it stands at this moment, as the Killington Selectboard prepares documents for the Annual Town Meeting in March, it looks like local taxes might increase by as much as 11%. It turns out about $630,000 is owed in unpaid taxes to Killington in 2008. (Probably as a result of the current nation wide economic situation.) It would be bad enough that the town is owed this tax money, but it turns out that much of it is owed to the State of Vermont for Act 60/68 taxes. And even though the Town of Killington has not been paid this money, the town is required to pay the state. As a result, all of the taxpayers who have obeyed the law and paid their taxes will have to cough up the additional money to make up for scofflaws. The perfect Robin Hood scheme, or in other words..."Thank you for being responsible..now pay more!"

And finally, if state sponsored "pick pocketing" is not enough, the retail store at the Ki Base Lodge was robbed at gunpoint on Friday afternoon. Thankfully, no one was physically hurt, although understandably the clerk who had a gun pointed in his face was shaken up by the incident.

All I can say is, at the end of the day, I would rather be skiing...so it goes.........let it snow!

Mary at the entrance to "The Stash" 

Aside from the fact that the Killington Cloud was in full force, today was a really good day to ski Killington. Temperatures in the early morning hours started in the low 20's. By noon time, temps were approaching the freezing mark. Temperatures around the inn peaked this afternoon at 32 before starting to fall back as the day progressed. Although I don't keep temperature data, it is probably the warmest day at Killington since just after New Years.

Snow flurries overnight, combined with warming temperatures, produced consistently soft surfaces all across the Killington Resort. If we had just a little bit of sunshine, it would have been a truly great day on the slopes. Instead, I would rate it as just very good!

We started the day with a ride up the K1 Gondola. Killington Peak was completely encased in cloud. Fearing a repeat of yesterdays cloud covered Pico experience, we traversed across Bear Trax to Bear Mountain. The traverse was flat and fast with a few visibility surprises thrown in for good measure. We were by ourselves on the traverse so we were moving at a quick pace. Most of us, at one point or another, found ourselves airborne after hitting an unseen bump in the trail. I probably covered about 30 feet off one bump where Gateway and Bear Trax merged. Nothing like a little excitement to start out your day!

The trails at Bear Mountain were beautifully soft. Upper Wild Fire was groomed on skiers left and softly bumped on the right. Lower Wild Fire was groomed flat, supporting broad, sweeping turns. Outer Limits was groomed. Snow surfaces were soft and relatively deep. It seemed like 3 to 4 inches of snow were being moved with each turn. Not quite powder, but very soft by Outer Limits standards.

Upper Sky Burst was similar to OL, but the surface depth seemed a little shallower. Grooming on the Viper Pit was poor with lots of chunks and cat track marks on the first several passes through. Lower Sky Burst had freshly made snow that was still mounded in big, firm, snow whales. The first couple of times through, when we were the only people on the trail, they were fun to ride up and kick off of. But, as they were a little slick, when the trail started to get a little more crowded around 10:00 AM, the tops of the whales were a good place to avoid.

Upper Dream Maker was groomed earlier in the week. There were a few icy patches. As long as you stayed in the loose snow there was no problem controlling your speed or direction. The park on Lower Dream Maker was fun as always. It now fully extends to the top of the Super Pipe which opened earlier this week.

We took a run through the Stash. It always seems to have the best grooming on the mountain. We saw a few people taking some of the hits, but not as many as were enjoying the features on Lower Dream Maker.

By 11 or so we started to move back towards the Kpeak side of the resort. Great Eastern to Cruise Control was a mess of ski school groups, beginner skiers, and expert skiers. Lower Cruise Control was beautiful as the ski schools continued down Great Eastern, significantly reducing traffic on the trail.

The Needles Eye Quad was operating today, so we did a half dozen or so loops on it. Panic Button was groomed similar to Outer Limits, with a soft, relatively deep, powder surface. Needles Eye was groomed down the middle and on skiers left. The groomed terrain was firmer with a inch or so of loose granular on top. On skiers right, Needles Eye had nice, soft, little bumps. I did about half the trail down the bumps, then I realized I was catching up and skiing a little too close to some friends who were in front of me, so I courteously bailed out instead of running them over.

We finished our day, once again, on Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark and Super Star. All were nicely groomed with soft surfaces. Now if we only had a little sunshine, it would have been just perfect.......let it snow!

Paul coming out of woods between Summit Glades and Forty Niner 

Temperatures today in Killington moderated to the mid 20's. As usually happens this time of year, when the temps go up, clouds develop and light snow falls. We have basically been experiencing a constant snow flurry since early morning. Not much accumulation...just enough to make everything white. But light snow is a great thing at a ski resort in the winter.

Today I had the pleasure of skiing at Pico Mountain. A travel writer, Paul, for Cape Air's inflight magazine stayed with us overnight. (Cape Air offers service to both Lebanon NH and Rutland VT connecting out of Boston's Logan Airport.) Paul had skied at Killington yesterday. Today was his day at Pico. After breakfast at the inn, we headed to Pico around 9:00. By 9:30 we had boots on skis and we were on the slopes.

The weather today at Pico was similar to the inn. Snow flurries were depositing new snow all over the mountain, except at the very peak. The peak was in the middle of the cloud...too high to snow! It was a little strange at first, until we realized that as soon as we got out of the cloud and could see, there was fresh snow on the trails.

As I had never skied with Paul and his friend, for the first few runs we went easy. We started off the Golden Express Quad down Fools Gold to Lower Pike. The middle of Gold Rush was groomed for cruising. On either side, there was a nice 3-4 inch accumulation of powder just waiting for our turns. For the next loop, we turned right off the Golden Express and took Prospector to Expressway. Conditions were very similar, except there were a few more bumps on Prospector, which helped get the legs moving.

Now that we were warmed up, we headed over to the Summit Express Quad for some runs off the peak. The top 250 feet or so of Pico were firmly covered in cloud. We started down Forty Niner. Being a wide boulevard just off the peak allowed the cloud to settle right on the slope. The good news is that off the peak, Forty Niner was groomed flat, because we could not see the trail. And as if by magic, just before the Easy Street cutoff, the cloud thinned out allowing us to see the trail for the run back to the lift.

Upper KA was our next destination. Because the trail is much narrower that Forty Niner, the cloud cover at the peak was much less dense. While there were a few slick spots to negotiate, there was plenty of snow over all of the trail from the constant snow flurry. We exited via Mid KA and decided it was worthy of a do over.

On the next go round on Upper KA, I decided to take the boys over to Birch Glade off of Easy Street. Birch Glades was moderately bumped up with loosely spaced medium sized bumps. In places they were firm, with a little scratch in the troughs. I had a pretty good pace going through the the bumps. Paul, the writer, kept up fairly well. His friend, Dave, (the innkeeper at the Cranberry Gardens Inn in Wareham MA) met up with a snow snake somewhere in one of the bumps. Shaken, but not stirred, he still was smiling ear to ear when he caught up to us near the junction with Mid Pike.

After a few more loops, I thought for the last run of the morning we would try the Summit Glades. By now the cloud had lifted off the peak, so the visibility was pretty good. The cloud cover still blocked out the sun, so it was still rather dark, but the vertigo inducing solid white horizon was gone. The Summit Glades are often times left au natural. Today was no exception. We did a couple of hundred yards of bumps; some of which were a little nasty for people who don't ski all the time. We got down to one of the many unmarked woods trails, this one being a short connector to Forty Niner, where we decided exiting the Summit Glades was the best choice. I skied through first, with the others behind me. It was a "Kodak Moment" resulting in todays picture.

From Forty Niner we took Sunset Schuss to C Slope to the base lodge and lunch. Pico, with it's trails winding through the woods is just a gem to ski on. And today was no exception.......let it snow!

Heidi and Ruts on the Sky Peak Quad 

Seasonably cool temperatures, and constant snow flurries, have maintained consistent skiing and riding surfaces all week. With the possible exception that the Super Pipe is now open at Bear Mountain, not much has changed this week at the ski resort. Around town, however, 3 stories in the press have generated a little attention.

"The Mouse that Roared"
In an annual ritual, the Killington Selectboard has filed a request to the State contesting the calculations used by the State to determine local property taxes. Each year, in lieu of a complete physical reassessment, the State of Vermont uses a magic formula derived from property sales to calculate a Common Level of Appraisal to equalize property tax rates state wide. Since the inception of Act 60, which created a state wide property tax to fund education, the Killington Selectboard has had issues with the way the State equalizes the tax rate for Killington real estate. Because very few properties were sold in Killington in 2008 as a result of the current economic downturn, the Selectboard has once again challenged the State's methods.

"Let the chips fall where they lay"
A comment by the Vermont State Auditor, Thomas Salmon, has gotten the attention of more than a few individuals. Mr. Salmon suggested that one of the ways Vermont could possibly make up it's budget shortfall could be to "Consider a state-owned casino in a resort area like Killington, with net profits directly to roads, bridges and infrastructure". The story was picked up by the Associated Press and has since circulated around the globe. Summit Lodge owner, Bill Bauer, was quoted in the story as being in favor of the proposal. Tom Horrocks spokesman for the resort, was also quoted as saying the idea is worth considering. Other than generating some chatter around town, it is too early to tell if this story has legs. State officials were quoted in the story as being negative on the proposal. Conversations I have had with friends around town is mixed. Local business people would clearly like to see more tourists drawn to the area. The concept of giving all of the proceeds to the State, as outlined in the AP story, has raised a few eyebrows however, as the town would undoubtedly take on additional responsibilities and expenses if a casino were placed in Killington.

"Our blizzard trumps your depression"
Bruce Edwards of the Rutland Herald Staff wrote a story about attendance at ski resorts in Vermont over the just past Martin Luther King Weekend. Comments by Parker Riehle of the Vermont Ski Areas Association were subdued. Since Parker's job is to promote skiing in Vermont, subdued comments can be looked upon as neutral at best. The Okemo Resort in Ludlow made statements indicating that skier visits were "comparable with other winter weekends but below skier visit numbers over last year's MLK holiday" Bolton Valley spokesman, Josh Arneson, commented that "business throughout the MLK holiday was even with last year, including day traffic and lodging." Tom Horrocks from Killington said that "Skier visits at Killington... are running 2 percent to 4 percent ahead of last season."

Comments attributed to Tom caught some attention yesterday with local business people I spoke with. In fairness to Tom, tracking overall activity in the resort is fraught with danger as peoples memories are colored by what happened "yesterday". Unless you are using rigorous statistical methods, personal opinions will flavor the results. Many people I spoke with thought business in Killington over the MLK weekend was down. But on the flip side, because the Christmas/New Years holiday period stretched to a full 2 weeks this year, overall business for the season seems like it is an anxiety creating push so far. If the economy were roaring, there would be few concerns. But since no one is standing in line to help businesses in Killington get through the national economic turmoil, daily business upticks/downticks are being examined under a magnifying glass.

Of course, all of these stories are fodder for active minds enjoying libations in any number of Killington establishments and at "water coolers" in offices down country where Killington skiers and riders do their day jobs. The good news in all of this is that the doldrums of January are almost behind us. And since ski conditions on the mountain are great, thats a good thing.......let it snow!

History 

There can be no doubt in anyones mind that today is one of those few moments in a persons life where true history is being made. There also should be no doubt, that as I write this at 11:00 AM, before the transfer of power in the government of the United States, that we are experiencing the last moments of unbridled optimism about the possibilities for the future.

One of the first historical moments I remember in my life is the inauguration of President Kennedy in 1961. Remember is of course a convenient construct of the mind. I was 7 years old. The big event was my father had bought my mother a television, our families first, so she could watch the inauguration. I would be hard pressed to remember a word President Kennedy spoke that day, if I were to rely on my memory from that day only and not the constant replay of his inaugural address. But it does not really matter. I remember history was made that day and I was a witness.

Looking back on that day, and the innocence of a 7 year old, I am struck by the meaning of it all. As a 7 year old, I had no concept of the future. I did not know if it would be good or bad, and yes it was both. But I knew from the look of my mother and father on that day that something special, something significant was taking place. And I had a "front row" seat.

Today, before the oath of office and the inaugural address, we as a nation are once again swept up in a moment of innocence. We can wrap ourselves in a blanket of denial for another hour, firmly pretending that life will become easy once the clock strikes high noon. And after the last 8 years of...(my mother once told me if you can't say something good, don't say it).... having an hour of blissful denial is actually quite peaceful.

Today, of course, the promise of change translates into the hard work of making change happen. The innocence that it will be easy will be replaced with the reality that it is hard work. But as a nation we are ready to work. We are ready to replace the narcissism of I with the selflessness of we. For today is truly a day of history. And we are its witness......let it snow!