I Voted!

I Voted!

I went skiing. I went to vote. Now I am at work.... What is your excuse! It's town meeting day in Vermont. Get out and vote!

Vermont is characterized by small towns. Killington is more the rule, with less than 1000 voters, than the exception. And in a small town, every vote counts.

With the change to an Australian Ballot format several years ago, voters in Killington now go to the polls at the Killington Town Hall to cast their ballots on town meeting issues. The town holds an informational meeting to review the articles up for vote. It occurred last night at the Killington Elementary School. Today is the day to cast ballots. The polling place at the Killington Town Hall is open from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM.

This years Town Meeting in Killington is not very controversial. In addition to the election of local office holders, the only other item of consequence on the ballot is the town budget. This year the town budget will stretch for 18 months as Killington makes the switch to a fiscal period of July to June, versus the current annual budget period. There are many reasons for the switch, the most cogent being the advantages of coming in sync with the overal State of Vermont budgetting process. The switch is not on the ballot, as it was approved by Killington voters at last years town meeting. Only the budget for the transation period is on the ballot this year.

For local office holders, the only contentious election is for the 3 year term for Selectman. Chris Bianchi, the incumbent, is seeking election to his third term. Jim Haff, who was a selectman previously defeated by current selectboard member Patty McGrath, is seeking to recapture his seat. Jim has run a campaign of FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) calling into question the selectboards handling of the town budget, while Chris has tried to take the high road and present his case calmly and positively to the voters. It will be interesting later this evening to see which approach prevails with the voters of Killington, as each candidate has their group of supporters.

Highline bathed in sunshine.

Before going to vote, I did take a couple of hours and "throw myself down the mountain". This morning started with brillant sunshine. After sauntering over to the K1 Gondola from putting my boots on in the car, there was only 1 run to start on....Highline. Gleaming brightly in the morning sunshine; groomed edge to edge with soft corduroy; there was just no doubt which run to start on. And it was glorious.

From Highline, I sped over to the Superstar Quad for a trip off the backside to Bear Mountain. I hit a few features in the Stash before crusing down lower Wildfire. The trails were empty at the early hour I was out this morning, so edge to edge radius turns at high speed were the easy choice as I cruised towards the Skye Peak Express quad. The next run was pretty simple....Skyeburst to Lower Dream Maker beside the Bear Mountain Half pipe. Lower Dream Maker was soft snow left over from last nights nor-incher. Just the right thing to get the legs firing for a few bumps to come.

Next on the docket was Wildfire from top to bottom. Upper Wildfire was filled with wind blown snow over soft bumps. Skier traffic by this time was increasing, with some herbage hogging the line down skiers left. But not to matter... Skiers right was untracked. Score one for the good guy after all.

With the legs warmed up, I headed off to the Superstar pod. Upper Ovation on skiers left was just beautiful with loads of soft snow. The middle of the trail was fairly scraped off... but why would you ski there if you have all this soft snow off to the side? Old Superstar was a study in contrasts. I hit the entrance really hard. Based upon earlier trails, I was travelling at warp speed for the first dozen or so bumps before a big slowdown was in order. Windblown snow clogged the bumps just as the trail makes a slight left turn. The slowdown was probably a very good thing, as a little further down, the top of the exit towards Superstar was polished smooth. So much so that a little bush wacking was in order to make a safe entrance to the Superstar exit trail.

Superstar, Skye Lark and Bittersweet were all good. The resort has made so much snow on these trails that it would be hard for them to be bad. There was a few polished spots on the lower sections of Skye Lark. But in comparison to Old Superstar they were nothing. And since you could still make carving turns into them, I guess they were really not that polished after all.

I finished with a boost up the Snowdon Quad (boy is it slow after a morning riding high speed lifts) which saw me taking a run down Upper Royal Flush to Highline. Upper Royal Flush was beautiful soft snow. Highline had not changed a bit since I had seen it 2 hours previously.

My legs were still in great shape, so I hopped the single's line a couple of times at the K1 Gondola for final runs down Cascade and Highline before heading to the Killington Town Hall to vote. Both still had groomed corduroy on them at 11:30. It was that kind of ski day.

If you are a Killington or Vermont resident... go out and vote today at Town Meeting. If not, get outside and enjoy a beautiful winter day.

Let it snow!