Blue skies provide a radiant glow over a freshly groomed Ovation. 

Once again a March storm just before St. Patrick's day has set up a great week of skiing and riding at Killington.

Today was a day for steep. Our first 2 "warm up" runs were straight down Superstar. Groomed from edge to edge, it was just beckoning to be done multiple times right from the get go this morning. On both runs, I ducked in on skiers left beside the lift on the lower headwall. With the speed I was carrying from the mid section, it felt like I was free-falling for the first hundred yards as I crested the lower headwall. I held the line as long as I dared prior to making a series of S turns to scrub off speed before traversing back to the lift. With the trail groomed impeccably, it was just the right thing to do.

Not to be left out of the action, we then turned our attention to Ovation. Middle Ovation was just like Superstar. Lower Ovation was not quite as kind. It was like skiing in the dark over the blade of a serrated steak knife. With our eyes being blinded by the sun shining off of middle Ovation, the traverse down the lower headwall at 9:30 am was into pure darkness. The darkness also held the cold on the trail, freezing the groomed corduroy into a saw toothed deck that chattered the base of the skis and erratically gripped the ski edges all the way from top to bottom. Ovation got the heart pumping, and added an adrenaline rush to match the feeling of accomplishment about arriving at the bottom still standing, but it was definitely not a do over at 9:30 am in the morning.

From Ovation, we entered a more normal pattern, heading to Bear Mountain for a run down Bear Claw. The Stash, Bear Claw, Wild Fire, Sky Burst, and Dream Maker were all a little mundane after our steep beginning. Each was groomed nicely. Minimum skier and rider traffic insured that they would all be high speed cruisers, which was ok give we were still a little amped up by Ovation.

We next headed to Cruise Control figuring we would do some laps in the Needles Eye pod. On the way back up the Skyship, we caught sight of Vertigo. It looked interesting so I "inspected" it on our next run down. Low and behold, the headwall was covered in super soft fluff. The run out to the bottom had been groomed on Sunday so it was relatively flat with some small features. It was a definite top to bottom do-over (how often does Vertigo become a do-over?). It was so nice, we even got Mary to take in on our next run down.

After another run down Superstar to carry enough velocity to ski to the K1 Gondola, we headed towards Cascade. I entered Cascade via FIS, hugging the the tree line on skiers right. The Canyon chair promptly brought us up again for a run down Rime; followed by a run down a bump ladened Ridge Run before a final run out down East Falls. By now we were out for over 3 hours skiing steeps lift to lift with out a break. Time for lunch (Fungus burger at the Lookout) before heading off to an afternoon of work. (Or as Mary says... napping at my keyboard)

Happy St Patricks Day! Let it snow!

Chuckles, Ruts, and the beautiful Miss Jane ponder our next move at the top of Bear Mountain. 

Broad boulevard trails, skinny narrow woods trails, lift lines, power lines, tree lines, steeps and deeps.... My legs are shot!

Check out Lower Superstar to the left of the lift. Check out Upper Wildfire. How about Northstar and Great Bear. Needles is wall to wall soft bumps. Pick your favorite woods trail... any woods trail for that matter. The ropes have even been dropped on the Fiddle. (We did not have enough gas left for the Fiddle today.)

With soft snow everywhere, this is the weekend to be at Killington.

Nap time...

Let it snow!

Ruts and Chuckles in the powdha on Needles Eye 

Those who made the trek to the Killington Resort this morning were rewarded with almost 2 feet of fresh powder. The mountains of Killington were nicely blanketed in a high density snow with a consistency midway between "Sierra Cement" and "Champagne Powder". The snow density was great for copious face shots this morning, but also will have some staying power as it mixes with Killington base.

We started on a trail this morning with only 1 track on it at 9:00 AM. (The track was made by the Liftie who was waiting for us at the bottom with a big grin on his face...) A consistent 2 feet of snow with drifts signifcantly higher got our legs working as we bounced down the trail. It was a precursor for the rest of the morning.

After our first run in untracked, we entered a more usual pattern. The Stash was awash in fresh snow everywhere. It was so deep in places that some of the norrmal terrain features were hidden from view. After the Stash, we did Dreammaker, which was excellent from top to bottom. Ruts augered into the middle of Dreammaker, doing a double eject in the process. After a short 5 minute search for his skis in the snow, we were back on our way bounding down the trail.

We meandered all across the resort. Everything we were in was just great. For one of our last runs, we found ourselves at the top of Northstar. By now it was cut up into a mogul field... but we did it anyway. Lots of fun making our way through 2 to 3 foot bumps of soft snow.

Overnight I would expect that the resort will be doing a lot of grooming to stabilize the base. It should be a great weekend of skiing and riding in new soft snow.

Let it snow!

Heavy snow falling on the Birch Ridge Inn 

An intense, heavy, snowstorm is blanketing Killington in heavy snow. Snow is anticipated to be falling for the next 36 hours leaving snow measured in feet across the area.

Snow began in the Killington area around 6:00 AM this morning. By 10:00 AM, 3 inches of new snow had fallen at the Birch Ridge Inn snow stake. Heavy snow is continuing to build up with snow expected through mid-day tomorrow.

This snow storm should provide skiers and riders with great condition on the slopes through early spring. The initial snow is of the heavy, dense variety. Temperatures are expected to drop through out the day causing the snow volume to increase as it's density decreases. Anyway you look at it, tomorrow will be a "powdha" day in Killington.

Let it snow!

Building spring base on Superstar. 

Life sometimes get's in the way... and then there is...

Since I last wrote, Killington has had the pleasure of several mid winter storms. One, on Valentines Day, produced over 2 feet of beautiful powder. I did partake, as my friend Ruts will attest. But as it was just before the Presidents Day Weekend, when I returned to the inn time was not available for some writing.

During this period Mary and I at the inn have been blessed with many holiday visitors, both over the President's Weekend/Week period, and this week as well. Many of them are past guests, and you know who you are. We have been having a great time trading stories of skiing glory at the bar these last few evenings.

Skiing on the mountain the last two weeks has been a study in contrast. During Presidents Week we had several strong powder days accompanied by many other days of generally soft conditions.

Killington resort. Snow covered with more on the way.

Then... not so much. Late last week we had a proverbial ice storm. About 1/2 inch of ice coated the world of Killington knocking lifts out of action; impacting power networks; turning parking lots into skating rinks. Only in an Olympic year is it acceptable to do a 'Triple Lutz' in the parking lot on your way to the lifts.

Monday when we ventured out on the slopes saw conditions back to the rock hard days we experienced during parts of January. Albeit we were probably a foot higher off the ground. What ever the distance may be, the base all around Killington is set up for a long spring skiing season.

Currently we are experiencing off and on heavy snow squalls. Each one blasts through town dropping an inch or two of fresh white powder down on the landscape in a hectic 10 minutes of pure white-out. It's as if Mother Nature knew she made a mistake in giving us ice over the weekend, and is now trying to cover it up as fast as she can to atone for her ski resort sin.

What ever... the snow guns are out covering up for Mother Nature as well. Snow guns are also base building on Superstar for the spring. Inn guests are coming back from skiing today with broad grins from all the new powder. I predict pouring a few Long Trails and swapping more stories of skiing glory in my near future...

Let it snow!

Snow making operations taking place on lower Superstar. 

It does appear that Mother Nature's snow machine has finally decided to turn on at Killington. Light snow from a clipper system started falling in the area late last night. Snow totals at the inn are just a couple of inches of very light powder. Higher snow totals have fallen at the higher elevations.

We started our ski day with boots on in the Vale parking lot followed by a trip up the Ramshead Quad. As we were at Ramshead and there was new snow, we decided to take a first run down Swirl. Swirl was covered in 3 to 4 inches of light fluffy powder. Previous skiers and riders had chopped the surface up some what, but the snow was so light, that what looked like bumps when poof into the air when you skied across them. It was so much fun that we actually did it twice!

From Swirl we traversed through the ski tunnel at the base of Rams Head to the Snowshed Quad for a quick boost up to KBase level. A traverse over to Superstar and we were off on a more normal ski route.

Bear Mountain was in pretty good shape. The Stash with the new snow was fun. With the exception of the Stash, it looked like minimal grooming had taken place overnight, as there were areas of scraped off surfaces from the busy weekend. Never matter, there were plenty of good places to plant and turn our skis as we continued our descent to Bear Mountain base.

Killington resort in bright sunshine on Sunday February 9, 2014.

At Bear Mountain, Bear Claw, Skye Burst, and Wildfire were covered in small bumps. Not the kind that you see at the Olympics mind you, but enough that you needed to keep the cruising speed in check and make some turns. Panic Button and Lower Wildfire were slick in spots. The surfaces had been scraped down to the hardpack. Undoubtedly this was left over from the weekend, as there were not enough people on the mountain early Monday morning to scrape any trail down. There was a snow making pipe problem at the junction of the Stash and Skye Burst, resulting in a small brown river down the trail towards Wildfire. The area had been cordoned off by Ski Patrol, but I would expect that in the next day or so an excavator will appear on the trail to dig down to the problem. There was plenty of room to negotiate a nice skiing line around the pipe break, so the problem is more of a curiosity than anything else at this point.

Moving to the northern side of the resort, Bitter Sweet and Skye Lark were in nice shape. I hugged the tree line down the left side of Bitter Sweet to avoid some skier traffic and was rewarded with shin deep powder. Superstar was freshly snow covered. It did not appear to have been groomed overnight. Snow making operations were being restarted around 11L00 AM this morning. I am not sure if this is the beginning of the assault on Superstar to build base for the spring, or if this is just touch up to get ready for Presidents week. Either way, the resort is working to make sure the snow product on Superstar remains fresh.

Conditions on Killington Peak seemed 5-10 degrees colder than either Bear Mountain of Skye Peak. I began our traverse back to the car on Great Northern by dropping down FIS. It was nicely snow covered, and a great way to avoid the crowds. Great Northern down to the Chute was nice and soft. Lower Chute between the junction of Great Northern and Mousetrap had beautiful powder high and tight to the trees on skiers right. Lower Chute continued the small bump paradigm leading back to Great Northern for the run back to the Vale lot.

With our morning jog completed it's back to the inn for some work (like writing this blog) before we hit the slopes again tomorrow.

Let it snow!

Mary looks on as KMS student sticks a jump on Dream Maker 

17 runs. 2 hours 35 minutes. Bright sunshine. Temperatures in the mid teens. Machine groomed packed powder or little 2 foot bumps. Wow!

I had Mary in the lift line at Superstar this morning at 8:50AM. There were about 15 people in front of us. It had all the makings of a great ski day. It did not disappoint.

We started, as we often do on cruising days, in the Stash. Nicely groomed with a slight coating of fresh powder made for a good warm up. After that it was multiple loops on the Skye Burst Quad, the Bear Chair at Outer Limits, the Needles Eye Quad, and the Superstar Express. Even though there were more people than previous Fridays, we barely spent more than 30 seconds waiting for a chair; many times being able to ski right to the lift after all of the group assembled from the previous run.

The choice today for us was primarily between machine groomed packed powder trails, or little soft bumps.

The trails at Bear Mountain were the former. 3-5 inches of packed powder covering a firm base allowed Skye Burst, Bear Claw, Stash, Dream Maker, and Lower Wild Fire to become a series of high speed cruisers. Upper Wildfire featured some large bumps which we choose to ignore. In todays conditions, large bumps meant 3-5 foot mounds with hardpack skid plate between them. Very navigable if you found yourself in the middle of such a bump field, but with so many trails to choose from today you did not need to subject your knees to that kind of torture.

On the Skye Peak side of the resort, Needles Eye was just a beautiful little bump field. 1 to 2 food powder bumps with plenty of soft snow in between. It was a welcomed change from the high speed loops at Bear Mountain. You had to think about your line, execute turns, get into a rhythm. Give me more!

Bitter Sweet, Skylark, Superstar, Ovation, and Vertigo offered much of the same. Each featured stretches of packed powder interspersed with stretches of small bump fields, the product of skier and rider traffic.

After 17 runs, we were "cooked". The 1 hour ski nap back at the inn was, to quote members of the Klingon empire, "Glorious". It should be a great weekend to ski at Killington.

Let it snow!