Flat and Fast is the order of the day.
Junction of East Fall and Rime just above North Ridge loading area. 

"eeeeaaaayyyyeeee thththththiiiiiiinkknknnknk mmmmmmmmmmymyyyyyyyyy ffffififififiiiiililllllliiininnnnnggggs aaaarrrrrreeee cococococoooommmmmmiiininnnnngggg lllllllooooooooossssssssssssssssssee" I was thinking as I roared through the North Ridge (AKA the Glades) this morning.

The mountain made a miraculous recovery from the wacky weather we had yesterday. Groomers were out most of the night mixing in the 2 to 3 inches of snow that fell on top of the ice coated r@*n soaked surface left by yesterdays storm. I skied by myself this morning, doing my usual loop. It felt a little like training for a GS or Super G event, as conditions were very fast over a very solid, but well groomed surface.

A couple of things stood out this morning. First, I do not know how the resorts grooming team did it, but I did not run into any "blue ice" anywhere. Don't get me wrong, east coast packed powder is ice to people who ski out west, but while firm, everything I crossed today was white and very receptive to taking an edge from my skis.

The other interesting thing was that there was actually a lot of good snow if you paid attention. With the winds we had yesterday, if you stayed close to the windward side of the trail under the trees, there was plenty of soft snow to be had. Not waist deep... Not powder shots... But nice soft snow worthy of a few turns (and a pleasant break from the chattering GS speed runs presented by the middle of the trails).

Let it snow!

Killington Peak just before the storm 

It has been a wild week at Killington and it is only Wednesday.

Yesterday was a ski day for me. I met the normal group up on the mountain at 9:00 AM and skied right thru until the r@*ns came at noon. Conditions on Tuesday were pretty good, although predominately flat and fast. Of course, since Tuesday noon time, everything has changed so no need for further details on Tuesdays outing.

Yesterday afternoon, last night, and for most of this morning, Killington experienced a r@*n/ice storm. Not quite of the proportions of the storm we had a few weeks ago, but in general, surfaces around the inn were covered with 1/4 to 1/2 inches of ice. When I took the snow stake reading this morning, it was down to 8 inches, a drop of 1 3/4 inches from yesterday morning.

But then at noon time today, everything changed. The temperature dropped 10 degrees of so, and it started to snow...hard! Local roads instantly froze. (I have had to drive 2 cars up Butler Road for guests in the last hour) I went back out and re-took the snow stake picture around 2:00 PM. The reading stood at 10 inches. A full 2 inches of snow had fallen in about an hour or so. Of course the new snow is hiding the slush/ice from the prior 24 hours of r@*n. But hey, it's snow. We will take it. The mountain can groom it. Ski surfaces will survive again!

A few quick comments on the Killington Community Meeting on Monday Evening. First... what a turnout. Close to 300 people were in attendance. In a town with only about 900 adult residents, the fact that a third of the community turned out for a meeting about the towns future was quite impressive. Paul Costello, of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, led the assembled group in a brainstorming session to identify things that the Killington Community could do to improve the local economy. This meeting was a data collection process, with no results formulated. There will be a follow on meeting of February 26th where all of the ideas collected at Mondays meeting will be presented for towns people to prioritize. It will be an interesting process to participate in and follow.

Let it snow!

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!