Red looks like the color. 

Yesterdays wind blown, with the help of a grooming machine, turned into today's packed powder. And it was marvelous!

With the exception of Superstar, soft snow was all we found on our trip around the Killington resort this morning. Mary and I joined six of our friends for our morning runs. All were long time Killington skiers, so we were able to get on the hill and ski!

The day was punctuated by overcast skies and constantly falling snow. Surfaces started the morning as soft groomed corduroy. After a little skier traffic, the surfaces quickly developed small powder bumps. There were great to ski in...would have been even better with a little sunshine....but so it goes.

Once again the Killington Peak was encased in a thick cloud, so we spent most of our day over a Bear Mountain. With the exception of upper Wildfire and Outer Limits (and probably Devils Fiddle), everything at Bear was groomed out flat. The first run, across the peak and down Bear Claw, was filled with big, sweeping turns on the freshly groomed trails. As the day wore on, turns became tighter as the snow started to bunch up. But it was all soft and glorious!

The only run that was really sketchy was Superstar. When we arrived at the mountain, we were greeted with a very odd sight. A lone Snow Cat was grooming Superstar. Not a really unusual sight, except the resort also had every snow gun available blasting the slope at the same time. We did not get the connection until we skied it about 2 hours later. It seems that the lower headwall of Superstar got scoured and polished clean by the wind. The snow cat was trying to break up the crust so that the snow made by the guns would have something to bond with. Upper Superstar, in the guns, was velvety smooth. But Lower Superstar was ugly. Needless to say with all the soft snow around the resort, Superstar was not a do over today.

One thing is certain from our morning on the slopes...The base depths of snow at the resort will make this a great weekend to ski or ride Killington........let it snow!

Dean at entrance to Summit Glades at Pico 

Just like unrequited love, today was an unrequited powder day at the Killington Resort.

Yesterdays snow storm ended with howling winds overnight. To prevent the snow from blowing away, the Killington Resort had their groomers out all night stabilizing the surfaces. Today, Mary and I split. I went to Pico to ski with some friends, Mary headed to Killington for a girls day out. We found remarkably similar conditions at both.

At both Pico and Killington, virtually every primary trail was groomed. Even with grooming, surface depths were impressive, and the trails were quite soft. Where grooming operations happened early, wind blown packed powder slabs developed. Some of the wind created cornices were feet high, leaving an interesting impression on you mind when you skied over them. In other places, the wind had scoured away the powder, revealing the hard packed base.

At Pico, gladed runs like Birch Glade and Summer Glades were covered with about a foot of firm wind blown. There were no face shots today, unless you were bitten by the proverbial snow snakes hiding amongst the slabs of snow. Open runs like 49er and Lower Pike were covered with several inches of wind blown. While it was nice to carve turns on, it was not the powder day everyone was anticipating when the storm first arrived in the region Wednesday morning.

But, even though it was not a powder day, the new snow will add hugely to base depths across the resort, leaving both Pico and Killington in perfect shape for February ski vacations........let it snow!

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!