Upper Dreammaker 

After a 7 day hiatus, I was able to venture out onto the slopes of Killington this morning. And it was great to be back on skis again.

The temperatures warmed up slightly over night, hitting the mid teens early this morning. A fairly steady 20 mph wind with gusts to ??? was blowing most of the morning from the west. With that in mind, we spent the morning enjoying the trails on Bear Mountain and Sky Peak, leaving the other peaks of Killington for another day.

We started doing loops off the Skye Peak Quad. Bear Claw to Sky Burst, Sky Burst top to bottom, Sky Burst to lower Wild Fire, Wild Fire from top to bottom, Dream Maker....you get the drift. Everything was essentially soft packed powder with the exception of Upper Wildfire, which was firm bumps. We were working our way over to Outer Limits, but after the bumps on Upper Wildfire we decided to pass.

After about 2 hours at Bear, we moved on to Needles Eye. Needles Eye was perfect with a combination of little skier made bumps and soft snow. Just enough bumps to make you turn...snow soft enough you wanted to turn. A nice combination.

From Needles it was on to the Superstar pod. Bitter Sweet, Skylark and Superstar were all in great shape. Old Superstar was nice little soft bumps, as was Low Road. Ovation was being assaulted by snow guns. The boyz did middle Ovation. I took a pass in deference to my knee.

One thing is obvious since my last mountain excursion... Killington has gotten a lot of snow. Hopefully it keeps coming down.

Let it snow!

The Snow Stake in the field behind the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington 

With the new year firmly in place, work around the inn has focused on the tasks that were abandoned in anticipation of the Mayan Apocalypse.

Well... not really.... Actually, Mary and I have been catching up on the many small things that come up after a period of high occupancy at the inn. One of the things your mother never told you is that things break when people use them.... and that is a good thing.

Most of my time, when not in front of the computer, has been outdoors. Not skiing down the snow covered slopes of the Killington Resort, but "playing" in the snow none the less. The last week saw a record 7 tanks of gas used in the snow blower...(I am really not sure if it is a record.. but my aging memory does not remember such a concentrated period of snow blowing over such a short period in the 16 years we have owned the inn.)

Today I had my snow shoes on. I can say quite proudly that I broke a trail all around the inn. Of course, it was not a recreational stroll in the woods. With a snow rake in one hand, and a bucket of roof melt in the other, I walked around the inn dealing with several ice dams that have been created due to the volume of snow we have received. It has been at least 3 to 4 winters since tending to ice dams. Once again, thats a good thing, because it means we have a lot of snow on the ground (and on the roofs of the inn).

Mary has been up to similar tasks, though mostly related to getting the rooms back in shape for future guests. We had gone though all of the rooms before the holidays to make sure that they were ready for guests. But 14 days of near 100% occupancy leaves little dings, scratches, spots, and stains which need to be fixed, so Mary and her house keeping team have their hands full (as is usual for this time of year.)

With some luck, tomorrow may be a ski day; my first day out since the storm just before Christmas. I am looking forward to getting back on the Mountain. It's time...

Let it snow!

Happy New Year 

2013...

Its a New Year!

No more presidential election politics...for a few months please! No more talk of a Mayan Apocalypse...at least until November when Comet Ison is due to approach the sun. No more Fiscal Cliff debacles...wait the House of Representatives in Washington DC could still make a mess of this one..

2012 had its share of good and bad. The elder members of our family are still hanging in there...albeit a little more fragile than the year before. My golf handicap dropped...until my knee gave out. But a fall of physical therapy has me prepared for a winter of skiing so we will see how it goes. On a trip to Burlington VT in the spring, we discovered a wonderful Vermont made rye called Whistlepig.. That definitely goes into the good column. We have a great team of people who work for us at the inn. And then there are all of the guests who keep returning to visit with us in Killington year in and year out who give Mary and I great encouragement.

New Years at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington.

The chapter in life we call 2012 is closing. A new chapter called 2013 is before us. May the new year bring you much happiness.

Let it snow!

Ceremonial removal of the Vacancy sign at the Birch Ridge Inn 

Boom!

Sometimes you miss... sometimes you score. Killington scored big the last couple of days with a big snow storm to bring holiday cheer to skiers and riders alike.

A foot of fresh snow fell at the inn, with 19 inches being reported from the top of Killington Peak. Snow shoes were required footwear today as we took down our vacancy sign for the inn to align with all of our rooms being sold out for the weekend.

Even though it is a holiday week, I ventured out into the storm yesterday for a few runs at 8:00 AM, meeting up with Ruts and "The Bagel" at the K1 base lodge. In the early morning, wind gusts to 50 MPH had the K1 Gondola on wind hold. The tried and true fixed grip Snowdon Quad got us up for the first run of the day, down Upper Royal Flush to Highline. Conditions were, shall we say, life threatening for those who were unprepared to deal with the wind and the blowing and drifting snow. But in our all terrain gear we were more than warm and toasty as we negotiated the wind blown whales littering the headwall on Highline.

With the Superstar Quad opening while we were coming down Highline, we decided to go further south to Bear Mountain. Our first runs were on nominally tracked fresh powder down Sky Burst. Even in the height of the storm, the resort was making snow on Wild Fire. We did a couple of loops, including one interesting run through the Viper Pit, before I needed to leave the boyz to get back to the inn and a days worth of snow removal. I finished with a run down Skylark. Except for extremely poor visibility in blowing and drifting snow, the run was still relatively pure, with ski tracks from previous skiers and riders being filled in quickly by the blowing snow.

Yesterday was not a picture day, as the conditions in the early morning hours were not good for camera work.(I am sure some people got some nice shots in the afternoon as the wind started to die down). But to show you what conditions were like, I did shoot one short video clip which I have posted on Youtube. You can click the box below to see it.

Where ever you are, Mary and I hope that you are having a nice holiday week.

Let it snow!

Snow Stake from December 18 to December 25 

Winters slow start appears to have been broken. For the last 7 days the Killington region has been blessed with snow from Mother Nature....the perfect gift to celebrate the holiday season.

Snow had not started falling across the region in any meaningful amounts till December 16th. Everything has changed since that time. This morning, there was over 8 inches of snow covering the grounds around the inn, with many more inches at higher elevations covering the ski slopes of the Killington Resort.

And, if you have your Christmas to New Years trip to Killington already planned, check out the National Weather Services forecast for the area on Wednesday night and Thursday. (eh em.. bring your powder skis)

White Christmas at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington.

Where ever you are, Mary and I hope that you are having a very Merry Christmas.

Let it snow!

Beautiful snow on Upper Chute as seen from Snowdon Quad. 

Not bad... Not bad at all....

As far as ski days go, today was ok. Not a bluebird powder day... not the day after the mountain has been slimed by freezing r@!n. Today was more of a testament to the people who work at the resort. To the snow makers who have worked many long hours to make snow, and remake snow, and remake snow during this early season. Today was a working mans ski day. You had to make your turns, you had to skid a little, you had to put up with "la poussi�re sur la crožte"..."Staub auf Kruste"....and you also got to play in some nice soft snow. And it was many places to be found....

We started off the K1 Gondola for a few runs through Rime and Reason. Great Northern to Upper East Fall was well covered. There were a couple of skid patches where there were significant pitch changes, probably the result of people checking their speed on the terrain. But other than those few places, the early runs were nice cruises.

Great Northern back to Lower Bunny Buster was in excellent shape. There was a little "Dodgem Car" feeling in a few places, as there were many representatives of PSIA on the mountain doing their ski training at Killington this week. But, even then, the crowd was no more so than on a normal early season weekend.

We did the traverse over to Superstar off of Killington Peak down Launch Pad. It is nice to see the resort opening up the interconnect trails between Killington Peak and Sky Peak, as this makes it really easy to move around the mountain without getting on a lift.

From Launch Pad with picked up Upper Sky Lark to Lower Bittersweet. Upper Skylark was covered with relatively soft snow and small bumps, making one pay attention and make turns. Lower Bittersweet was more "dust on crust" with significant loose granular "beach sand" accumulating at the bottom; the result of many hard grooming sessions breaking up Mother Natures handiwork.

Superstar was "interesting" I went down the upper headwall and made a turn right into an ice trough. It was like riding in a r@!n gutter...not turning.. just along for the ride. I literally traversed from the Top Right to the Mid Right, before coming to rest, still standing, by the rope underneath the Superstar Quad. Such a nube... The end of the trough was a nice hump of loose granular.. A simple hop turn and I was on my way.

Once off the headwall, Middle Superstar was quite nice. Lower Superstar, as observed from the lift, was rock solid bumps, so I bailed at High Road to Lower Sky Lark, which was also quite nice.

All in all, a nice day to ski, on Killington's magnificent peaks.

Let it snow!

Covered Carriageway draped in new snow. 

Mother Nature can be a pretty fickle lady. But for the 3rd day in a row the ground is covered in white at the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington. Does that make it a trend?

Wintry mix has blanketed Killington the few days covering the country side in a sugar white coating. For the 36 hours prior to last night, light snow fell across the region. Over 3 inches were recorded at the snowstake at the inn on Monday morning. Last night, with a forecast that was awful at best, I went to bed thinking we would be back to a lush green around the inn. But at 2AM when I retired for the evening, the precipitation falling from the sky was a mix of little white styrofoam ball style snow capsules to a light freezing r@!n.

Cleaning up the mess this morning was, of course, a blessed event. While the moisture content was very high, the ground was still nicely covered in snow. The measurement at the snow stake only fell a 3rd of an inch to 3 inches. And, assuming it gets cold behind the storm, with any luck a good base has been laid to build a foundation for future storms. The resort, while it has been working valiantly to remake snow over existing trails, has to love the mix that has fallen from the sky because it will form a perfect base to allow terrain expansion for the holidays, once the humidity goes down and the wet bulb measurements allow for snow making operations to resume.

Birch Ridge Inn dressed up for the holidays in snow.

With any luck, twig season is now a thing of the past. And with more white precipitation forecasted for this weekend, it looks like good ski conditions will prevail for next weeks Christmas Holidays.

Let it snow!