The 2010 Birch Ridge Inn Christmas Tree waiting to be decorated. 

Below you will find a video on Youtube with a little vignette following all of us on Christmas Tree Monday 2010...Enjoy!

......Let it snow!

How great is this....Thanksgiving Turkey and it's chocolate! 

With the Thanksgiving Weekend coming to a close, the winter season at Killington is kicking into high gear.

The Killington Resort has started a major push to expand skiable terrain. Snow making has been active all day on Expert and Advanced Intermediate terrain. Today in addition to continuing trail resurfacing on currently open trails, the resort was making snow top to bottom on Highline, the run out from the Canyons, Sky Lark, Bitter Sweet and their companion cross connect to Super Star. While Mother Nature is cooperating with cold temperatures and snow flurries, the game is on to make snow across the resort. Assuming the weather stays in their favor, the resort should be rolling out expanded terrain on a regular schedule over the next several weeks.

Snowmaking on going all across the Killington Resort. Click to enlarge..

The next few weeks will see some rapid changes at the inn as we get ready for the Christmas holidays. It all starts tomorrow with Christmas Tree Monday, where we head out into the local forest to find the inn's Christmas Tree.

Mary and I would like to thank all of our friends in Killington, and the nice guests that stayed with us this weekend to help us celebrate Thanksgiving. A special thanks go to Nancy and Steve for the chocolate turkey. So far I have been able to keep Mary at bay from "carving the bird". But it is chocolate after all, so it is only a matter of time.....

Let It SNOW!!!!!!

Mary walking in the snow 

Blizzard it is not, but snow is setting the tone in Killington this Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. A steady, light, snow has been falling most of the day, bringing a festive mood to the area.

A little more than an inch (certainly not significant by mountain standards) has fallen at the inn, covering the ground and buildings in a white patina. More has fallen at the upper elevations. It is just enough to take away the doldrums of twig season, and remind everyone that winter will be quickly upon us, bringing joy to locals and visitors alike. Snow at Killington in late November is one of the many things we can be thankful for....

...Let it snow!

Killington Base Lodge with Killington Peak obscured in a snow squall 

First off, Mary and I hope all of you are having a nice Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great crowd over for the holiday. Based upon the number of belt buckles that got loosened, "The Turkey" was not the only thing that got stuffed yesterday....

Turning back to the resort, Black Friday really started off black. An early morning ice storm laid down a carpet of black ice all across the area causing some minor headaches for people traveling in Killington; and a slight delay in opening the resort. By 10 AM this morning, most things were back to normal and as I write this at 1:00 PM, the sun is shining with blue sky outside my office window at the inn.

Snow squalls are the order of the day on the mountain peaks around Killington. The Killington Peak cloud is doing it best to drop some of the white stuff on the resort. Nothing major, mind you, but it is white versus r@!n or ice...

The resort has some minor expansion of terrain the last couple of days with the addition of Chute, the Snowshed Learn to Ski area, and the Snow Play Park on Rams Head. Snowmaking was continuing yesterday on East Fall, which will probably be the next significant trail to open, once the resort repairs any damage from this morning ice event.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend watching football games or shopping, if you can't make your way up to Killington...Let it snow!

Great day to work on your goggle tan at Killington! 

With all the mess Mother Nature has thrown at the Green Mountains the last few days, it was really nice to get outside, get on skis, and work on the goggle tan. The Killington Resort is open for top to bottom skiing and riding, with major trail expansions queued up for the holiday weekend.

This morning the resort was carrying skiers and riders uphill on the K1 Gondola, the North Ridge Triple, and the Snowdon Poma. In addition, they were turning the Canyon Quad and the Snowdon Quad as they prepare to go into the Thanksgiving Weekend. Skiing and riding today were available off Killington Peak into the North Ridge area, Bunny Buster on Snowdon, and interconnecting trails betweek the two.

Trails on the upper part of the mountain were a machine groomed granular over a firm surface. While there were not ice flows visible, edges on your skis were important. On the upper part of the mountain, the resort was not making snow. Instead they decided to deep groom the area to manipulate the deep cover they had already created on the top of Killington Peak.

Trails on the lower part of the mountain, and interconnecting trails, were much softer. They were primarily covered with packed powder from extensive snow making operations that took place last night. Guns were still set up to resume snow making on lower trails most likely later this evening.

What was really impressive about today's excusion on the mountain was the aggressive amount of snow making taking place on closed trails in preparation for the weekend. The available terrain for skiing and riding at Killington is poised to take a major leap forward in the next day or 2 as the mountain brings online new trails.

Snowmaking was taking place today on East Fall all the way to the Canyon Quad. On Snowdon, Chute was under the snow making guns top to bottom, straight down to the Snowdon Quad. Snow making was also underway on the Vail Trail between Snowdon and Rams Head down to the Rams Head Quad. In addition, the Learn to Ski trails on Snow Shed and the Snow Play Zone on Rams Head were also getting blanked by snow making. With all of the snow making taking place, look to see both the lift count and the trail count to jump substantially during the Thanksgiving Weekend. Killington will have the most skiing and riding open in the east during the holiday.

You will find a gallery of pictures from my couple of hours on the mountain today at the Birch Ridge Inn's Facebook page. The gallery is located under Skiing the day before Thanksgiving at Killington - Nov 24, 2010..

Let it snow!

Significant Bumps today on Mouse Trap 

The forecasted pre-Thanksgiving warm up is in full swing in the Green Mountains. In a rare bit of forecasting accuracy, today's weather matched the 5 day forecast from last week with temps in the 40's and off and on showers at the base of Killington. The same is forecasted for Tuesday with the outlook for falling temperatures back below freezing on Tuesday night.

And why is this important may you ask? During last weeks extended cold spell, the resort was able to pump out a huge amount of man made snow to allow the resort to offer full top to bottom skiing and riding for the first time this season. The return of colder temperatures later on Tuesday will allow the resort to restart snow making, continuing to improve skiing and riding conditions at the resort for Thanksgiving weekend.

Today the resort was turning the K1 Gondola, the North Ridge Triple, and the Snowdon Poma, supporting skiing and riding on 15 trails. In addition to the North Ridge area, which the resort has had open for several weeks, skiing and riding was also supported on Snowdon down Bunny Buster and part of Chute with the two areas interconnected by Klink and Great Northern.

Surface conditions were soft across the resort, as one would expect with warmer temperatures. While most of the trails were groomed after the weekend, the soft snow was bumping up in places due to morning traffic. Of course Mouse Trap, shown in todays picture, was not groomed out. It was covered with bumps left over from weekend skiers and riders.

Let it snow!

Killington making snow on Snowdon to K1 Base Lodge 

The Killington Resort has gone all in over the last 24 hours to resurface existing trails and expand terrain for top to bottom skiing and riding. Mother Nature has been kind enough to extend a bubble of cold air over the mountain. Seeing an opportunity to expand terrain to accommodate Thanksgiving weekend skiers and riders, the resort decide to make the best of the cold air and turn on the snow guns to cover both Killington Peak and Snowdon mountains.

While over the last few years the weather in November in the northeast has been a crapshoot at best, the extended forecast for the Killington region is calling for below freezing temperatures through the weekend, allowing the resort to continue to make snow and improve on mountain conditions. If the weather follows the forecast, after a slight warm up on Monday and Tuesday, temperatures will again drop below freezing through the Thanksgiving weekend, which should give the resort another extended period to make snow prior to the arrival of Thanksgiving guests.

Let it snow!