If you are a Killington resident, property owner, or a member of the business community at Killington, and you care about the future of the Killington community, you should attend the Killington Community Meeting tonight at the Sherburne Elementary School. The meeting will be moderated by the Vermont Council on Rural Development. This is an opportunity for you to get involved and have a say about the future of Killington.

The meeting is scheduled as follows:

Community Visioning 5:00 pm
Free Community Dinner 6:00 pm
3 Focus Forums 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Sharing Ideas 8:30 - 9:00 pm

Forum Topics
1. Town of Killington Community Life
2. Building Killington's Four Season Economy and Sustainable Tourism
3. Designing and Building Killington's Infrastructure for the Future

All of the events will take place at the elementary school. Participants may attend part or all of the evening's events. Everyone is welcome.

Additional information about the meeting, and the Vermont Council on Rural Development can be found by contacting VCRD at (802) 223-6091, by email to vcrd2@sover.net, or visit www.vtrural.org.

Please get involved and attend this important meeting.

Let it snow!

Mary, with friends Jane and Chuck, at the base of Panic Button on Needles Eye. 

It was a little cold and breezy, but the snow conditions made today a nice day to be out on the mountain.

Today, because of time constraints with the weekend approaching,(it's that work thing you know) we did an abbreviated loop of the mountain. We parked beside Vale, skied down to Rams Head, and began our trip across the mountains of Killington. In quick succession we did Caper to the K1 Gondola. From there it was Blue Heaven to Great Eastern to Bear Trap. Looping from the Bear Chair on Outer Limits, we did another Bear Trap/Bear Claw combination followed by Wildfire. We then did a traverse on Great Eastern to Cruise Control followed by loops off the Needles Eye Quad onto Needles Eye and Bittersweet. We finished with a run down Bittersweet, cutting across the front of the K1 base lodge, before heading back to the car. All told, about an hour and twenty minutes on the mountain. Not bad for a work day!

Overnight, the resort dispatched it's grooming fleet to manicure the slopes for the weekend. In addition, is several spots, particularly on Wildfire, Bear Trap, and Bear Claw, new snow making whales had appeared; the result of overnight snow making.

The Killington side of the mountain had a stiff upslope breeze, probably caused by warm air on the valley floor rising to meet cold arctic air on the top of the mountain. Surfaces facing the breeze were suffering some wind scouring, revealing the icy base that lies below the powder we have received during the week. This was most noticeable on Bittersweet from todays runs, but I am sure you would find similar conditions where steep pitches are exposed to the wind. So it goes.

With that one exception, surface conditions were very good. The mountain should hold up quite well to weekend traffic. It should be a nice weekend to ski and ride Killington. Let it snow!

Highline from the K1 Gondola.
The shadows are the back sides of snowmaking whales left from newly blown snow. Click to enlarge. 

Empty trails and fresh snow. What more can you ask for?

Well maybe the heat could be raised a degree or two, but other than being a little chilly and dark today, ski conditions at Killington were excellent. And the chilly (low teens) and the dark are a good thing, because a light snow has been continuously falling at the resort for the last couple of days.

I did not get a chance to get on the hill yesterday. When I was out this morning, I was impressed with the amount of snow making the resort has been doing. They must be doing it at night when the temperatures are cooler, because there were no guns going any where I could see today. But the piles of newly made snow were all over the mountain this morning, waiting to be groomed out for this coming weekend.

When I started out this morning and I saw Highline from the K1 Gondola, I knew that needed to be my first run. From the K1, it looked like it was covered with multiple inches of freshly fallen snow. I noticed some shadows in the snow. As the light was dim, I did not think much of it while riding in the K1. But when I got to the top of Highline, I was in for a surprise.

The snow surface was still pure, only a single boarder had made it to Highline by 9:05. And the surface was covered with 2 to 3 inches of new fluff which had fallen during the night. But the shadows I saw from the K1 turned out to be very large mounds of snow blown last night from the tower snow guns along the trail. My cruise in fluff down a moderately steep trail, turned out to be a cruise in fluff over snow cliffs on the backside of whales. It was fun mind you, but it was not the warm up run I was expecting when I got on the K1 this morning.

After Highline, I took the box again and did Cascade and East Falls. (Double Dipper was roped off at the time.) Both trails felt like some new man made snow was down on them underneath the natural supplied by Mother Nature. The mounds were more pronounced on Cascade, but they were noticeable on East Falls as well. By this time I was feeling pretty impressed that the resort was continuing to make snow to refresh the trails, given we have had a continuous light snow fall all week, so I headed over to Bear Mountain to take a look.

I started out on Upper Skye Burst to Middle and Lower Dream Maker. Really, really nice. The park and pipe on Dream Maker were in great shape. Perfect companions to slow the pace down slightly after the cruise down Skye Burst. Bear Trap/Bear Claw again seemed like some new snow had been made. The junction of the trails just above the Viper Pit and Anti Venom were clearly worked on, but this makes sense as this is a high traffic area. Lower Bear Claw had a large mound of snow, staked off with bamboo, at the very bottom, probably positioned to groom into the lift mazes on the Bear Chair and Skye Peak.

After looping through Cruise Control and Needles Eye (both nice), I took a few laps on Bitter Sweet and Skye Lark before calling it a day. Both had plenty of snow cover and were set up well for the final run out to the K1 Base Lodge.

Overall, it was not a long day on the hill, but I must say that I am impressed that the conditions, created by the resort continuing to make snow, and the new stuff that has been falling from the sky all this week, were so good. Now if we could get a little sunshine please....

Let it snow!

On Monday, January 28th, the Vermont Council on Rural Development will be will be chairing a meeting of Killington residents, property owners, and business people, who are interested in the future of Killington. The meeting will be held at the Sherburne Elementary School, on Schoolhouse Road in Killington, starting at 5:00 PM.

The Vermont Council on Rural Development is a non-profit organization dedicated to support locally defined programs to develop Vermont's rural communities. They help communities like Killington to identify a path to create a prosperous and sustainable future through coordination, collaboration, and the effective use of public and private resources.

The Vermont Council on Rural Development was invited to Killington by the Killington Select Board at the urging of the Killington Economic Growth Initiative. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that there have been many significant activities occurring in Killington which will have a lasting impact on the character of the town. The Vermont Council on Rural Development was asked to work with the Killington community. As they are a non-partisan, unbiased resource, it was felt that they could work with all of the groups that make up Killington in a very beneficial way to help to define the future course of the community.

If you are a Killington resident, property owner, or a member of the business community at Killington, and you care about the future of the Killington community, you should attend this meeting. It is very easy to sit back and complain and let "other people" do it. Quite frankly, the stakes are too high to continue acting that way. The changes that are being queued up for Killington will impact the nature of the community. This is an opportunity for you to get involved and have a say about the future of the town.

The meeting on January 28 is scheduled as follows:

Community Visioning 5:00 pm
Free Community Dinner 6:00 pm
3 Focus Forums 7:00 - 8:30 pm
Sharing Ideas 8:30 - 9:00 pm

Forum Topics
1. Town of Killington Community Life
2. Building Killington's Four Season Economy and Sustainable Tourism
3. Designing and Building Killington's Infrastructure for the Future

All of the events will take place at the elementary school. Participants may attend part or all of the evening's events. Everyone is welcome.

Additional information about the meeting, and the Vermont Council on Rural Development can be found by contacting VCRD at (802) 223-6091, by email to vcrd2@sover.net, or visit www.vtrural.org.

Please get involved and attend this important meeting.

Let it snow!

Staring into the abyss.
Howie prepares to enter the half pipe at Bear Mountain. 

Note from Bill. Sometimes life catches up with you. This post was meant for January 22 but was posted on January 23rd. So it goes.

Based on a full morning of skiing, the Killington Ski Resort is in great shape after MLK weekend. While conditions in most areas can be described as firm, the resort has done an excellent job resurfacing trails after last weeks unfavorable weather and crowded weekend.

The Killington Peak side of the mountain had the best snow on Tuesday. East Falls, Cascade, and Highline offered flat and fast skiing on groomed packed powder surfaces. Surface conditions were very consistent. Although the trails were firm, minimal ice or slick spots were encountered.

Skye Peak and Bear Mountain trails were still works in progress. Conditions were generally machine groomed packed powder, but many spots featured conditions with chunks ranging from small ball bearings to candy bars. This undoubtedly was purposefully done by the mountain to turn over the firm surface to loosen it up. I would guess that conditions will continue to improve with one or two more grooming cycles.

While Cascade was probably the run of the day, (very consistent with great support for high speed GS turns) honorable mention has to go to the new terrain park opened on Lower Dreammaker. The features were a lot of fun to ski on. And the newly carved half pipe at the bottom of the trail provided more than a few hoots of delight from the guys I was skiing with. As light snow is forecasted for most of the week, conditions should only continue to improve.

Let it snow!

Killington peak on MLK day. 

The traditionally busy Martin Luther King birthday weekend is coming to a close at Killington. Once again this year, our inn served as the site for the Killington Ski Club MLK Mixer on Saturday evening. About 75 ski club members visited Birch Ridge during the course of the evening. In addition to a donation of $5.00 at the door, this mixer organizers from the ski club held a silent auction. Between the door donation and the silent auction, this years mixer raised over $4000. The money will be used to fund various programs within the Ski Club.

Temperatures in the area over the weekend were on the cold side. Daytime temperatures have been hovering in the low teens. While neither Mary nor I had a chance to venture out on the mountain over the weekend, our inn guests were reporting excellent ski conditions on groomed packed powder surfaces. The storms of late last week provided the Killington team with a lot of new snow to move around the resort, resulting in well groomed surfaces. With cold weather and light snow forecasted at Killington for most of this week, ski conditions should continue to improve. I will know for sure tomorrow when I get a chance to try out the slopes once again.

Let it snow!

Ski Killington in the cloud
or Johnny Boy's Pancake House? 

Thursday night and Friday morning at Killington saw a small snow storm blanket the area with 3 to 6 inches of snow, depending upon your elevation. The snow was fairly "heavy" in consistency. Not sleet, but not champagne either. It created some interesting early morning conditions on the mountain.

Today was probably one of those days were skiing later was better. At 9:00 this morning a light snow was in the air. Killington Peak and surrounding mountain tops were firmly in the embrace of storm clouds. Because there was no real sunshine at that hour, we decided to stay on the Killington Peak side of the resort for the morning, as abbreviated as it was.

From the peak, after a warm up run on North Ridge, we went immediately over to Highline. Highline was very good, with a nice 2 to 3 inch coating of new snow over a flat and fast base. From the K1 box, we did a couple of loops down it, each one etching our mark on the trail face. By the third time around, other than far skiers right, we had cut the trail up pretty good. It was time to move on.

We went down to the Snowdon Quad. Mouse Run was interesting, so we looped back up the Poma Lift. As Chute looked scratched off, we decided to take one more run down Highline and call it quits on this side of the mountain.

We headed over to Superstar for a run down Skyelark to High Road to Skyeship stage 2 in Needles Eye. Oops... Middle Skyelark saw snowmaking operations Thursday night and had not been groomed out. The trail was a mix of heavy crust, new snow, and stizmarks from previous skiers auguring into the mess. Without a doubt it was not fun...but so it goes.

After reaching High Road, we found that the Needles Eye Quad was running so we hopped on that for a few loops. Needles Eye looked suspiciously like Skyelark so we headed to Bitter Sweet. Upper Bitter had nice soft bumps on skiers left with a flat surface for cruising down skiers right.

We did a couple of loops between Bittersweet and High Road, but the group had had enough. Some one signaled "Oh Johnny Boy" and it was over. A run down lower Bittersweet, which was ungroomed semi glue, a quick change in the K1 base lodge, and a late breakfast (2 eggs over easy, home fries, bacon and whole wheat toast) and our morning was done. Not bad...not the sunshine of Wednesday and Thursday, but it was a nice breakfast...

Let it snow!