An icy Northwest wind pushes a snow squall across Killington Peak Tuesday afternoon.

An icy Northwest wind pushes a snow squall across Killington Peak Tuesday afternoon.

If you had any doubts about winter at Killington...step outside. It is a balmy 0 degrees fahrenheit today with a gentle 10-20 mph breeze; adding just a touch of wind chill to the overall scene.

With the holiday season and MLK weekend behind us, Mary and I did have a chance to venture out on the slopes of Killington yesterday for a few runs. Overall, conditions were 2-4 inches of light powder on top of a machine groomed granular base. In some places, where significant snow making has taken place, the base was very soft. In other places, especially high traffic areas, the base was decidedly firm. We are not talking blue ice firm, but it got your attention none the less.

Snowmaking operations in the low temperatures were continuing all over the resort. Large whales of snow were being made on lower Sky Burst, Dream Maker, Sky Lark, Bunny Buster and elsewhere. The resort seems to have adopted a strategy of turning the snow guns on and letting them rip; leaving the resultant snow piles for the snow cats to spread out where needed along the trails.

Bear Mountain, being farther south, was by far the warmest part of the resort. (Please don't get confused here.. we are talking 5 versus 0).Bits of sunshine were piercing a cloud covered sky, simulating warmth as we were riding the Skyburst Chair.

Killington Peak was covered in a combination of manmade cloud and marauding snow squalls being blown in from the west. The Snowdon Quad, probably because of the tree line and prevailing winds, was actually warm to ride. The North Ridge Triple quickly froze us to the bone with the cold northwest wind. That was unfortunate, because the snow at North Ridge was quite nice.

Today, unfortunately, (or fortunately if you look at the thermometer) is an office day. In addition to skiing taking a back seat during the holidays, paperwork also tends to fall behind. But so it goes. There is a lot of winter left for skiing...

Let it snow!