Intricate ballet taking place at K1 Base Lodge

Intricate ballet taking place at K1 Base Lodge

On my visit to the K1 Base Lodge this noon time, I was struck by the intricate ballet that is taking place as the Killington resort readies for winter. Todays picture says it all in terms of how companies and people are juggling tasks in a post-Irene Vermont.

In the right of the frame you see skiers and riders coming down Lower Bunny Buster. The resort has been making snow when ever they could over the last couple of weeks. Late last week they made the connection to the K1 Base Lodge, opening up for top to bottom skiing and riding yesterday. In other words, the right side of the frame is fairly business as usual for the Killington Resort for the middle of November.

In the middle of the frame, it starts to get interesting. On the left of the K1 Base Lodge you can see plywood covering the doors leading out of the Mahogany Ridge bar. This is an indication that something is amiss. In front of the baselodge is a string of orange cones, with what looks like some new surepak on the road in front of the base lodge. You may or may not be able to put those two items together, but Hurricane Irene sure did. It turns out that the Roaring Brook runs right across that area. It took out a function room attached to Mahogany Ridge (hence the plywood covering on the doors) and ripped a chasm down the hill taking out half of the road in front of the K1 base lodge in the process (voila - new surpak!).

To the left of the frame, is Irene's lasting gift to skiers and riders at Killington, the new Umbrella Bar. Instead of replacing the function room at the K1 lodge that was destroyed with another boring appendage to the building, the Resort has decided to roll the dice and create a new space for people to enjoy. The Resort has built a pad in the old delivery parking lot beside the K1 Base Lodge facing the Superstar slope. On top of the pad sits the Umbrella Bar. It will be enclosed during the winter months. If the resort plays this new addition as many of us locals think they will, this will be the place to be in March, April and early May to enjoy watching skiers bumping down Superstar, reviving the old Killington Base Lodge deck of the 80's in the process.

In the front left of the frame, in front of the Umbrella Bar, you see a trench with all kinds of piping next to a control box of some kind. This is the construction that many of us have been watching intently. One of the secrets of Hurricane Irene is that all of the water rushing down the mountain took our quite a bit of infrastructure, in addition to buildings like the function room at K1. The Resort has been "busting their hump" working to rebuild and repair everything to get resort into operating shape for the winter season. Solid evidence of their progress has been the continued snow making activities that have taken place around Killington Peak, allowing the mountain to open for top to bottom skiing and riding on a fairly normal early season schedule.

And this is just the work that is going on in front of the K1 Base Lodge. Similar activities are taking place all across the resort and at virtually every private business in Killington. All of which is an intricate ballet that Killington is dancing to get the area in top shape for winter. And with the all important de-facto kickoff of the season taking place over the Thanksgiving Weekend (it's hard to believe that's next weekend), the pace has been quickening. It is all really impressive, especially when you consider that all the while skiers and riders have been enjoying the upper reaches of Killington Peak with traditional early season skiing and riding for weeks now. And this is only the start of the season!

Let it snow!!!