Looking down to the Roaring Brook Umbrella Bars at the K1 Base Lodge from the top of East Falls 

Keeping her streak alive, once again today Mary skied at Killington without having to worry about sunscreen.

With a brief respite from the mountain to attend to weekend inn guests, Mary and I headed back out to ski this morning right at 9:00. Temperatures were in the low 20's. Winds were blowing towards 20 MPH. To cap it off, for most of the time this morning, the resort was capped with a moist, cold, cloud that created a soft gauze like patina of ice crystals on our goggles. Ah... skiing in New England! But the snow surfaces were GREAT and gravity leads you down hill... so what's a little visibility issue between friends. In the words of our friend, Billy Mac... "Point em down hill you chicken sh..!"

The Welcome Moose at the front door to the Birch Ridge Inn buried in snow.

We started our day in the K1 Gondola headed towards Killington Peak. The cabin was thick with french accents, as it is school break week in Montreal. Many of our canadian friends are making their annual ski trek to Killington with a good mix of adults and children of all sizes.

At Killington Peak we observed the crowd. Most headed down Great Northern towards Cascade, North Ridge, and parts north on the resort. Seeing that, we headed south on Blue Heaven to Bear Trax across the top of the resort to Bear Mountain. Trees at the peak were thick with rime ice, the product of the moisture in the cold cloud condensing on the tree branches. At the end of our traverse, we made our descent down Bear Claw to lower Wild Fire. Snow surfaces were for the most part soft, although due to the cold temperatures they were a little firmer than last week. A quick boost up the Skye Peak Quad set up our next run down the Stash. Light fluff covered the surface, as there had been minimum skier and rider traffic when we entered the area at 9:20. We exited via the Viper Pit and lower Skye Burst, both of which were groomed flat and once again reasonably soft.

For the rest of the time on the south side of the resort we did loops on Cruise Control, Needles Eye, Bitter Sweet, Sky Lark and Superstar. Lower Sky Lark was probably in the best shape it's been in all season, with nary a hint of hard pack down it's fall line. Superstar was soft rollers. The lower headwall was trying to develop a few bumps, but as there was light skier traffic the bumps were failing to organize.

Our last few runs of the day were off the Snowdon and Rams Head Quads. We hit Snowdon at around 11:45 after being on the south side of the resort for 2 1/2 hours. I lead Mary down Frolic to Timberline on Rams Head, taking a peak at North Star and Vagabond along the way. (Vagabond had nice regular bumps on it on Friday when I was skiing with Ruts. But bumps are not Mary's friends, so I could only look upon it in anticipation of another day.) Timberline is set up with a terrain park with numerous features. Most are rollers caped in a ramp, or some kind of rail. It was a nice, though exhilarating, break from the steeper terrain to the south.

After a quick boost up Rams Head, we finished with a simple run down Caper to Great Northern ending up at the Bay 1 parking lot about 20 feet from the car. On the ride home we had the quintessential Northeast skier conversation... Is it better to have a warmer February and a colder March? February, as the record books will show, was warmer than average, though still plenty cold to support copious amounts of snow. It's all up to March to stay cold (and give us a little more snow) to keep the snow surfaces nice through Killington's long spring skiing season. We voted for a colder March!

Speaking of voting... tomorrow is Town Meeting day in Vermont. In Killington we are having a Town Informational Meeting tonight. Voting is to take place tomorrow from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM at the Killington Town Offices. If you live in Killington....Go Vote!

Let it snow!

Bumpalicious Lower Superstar Headwall 

Bumpalicious - not sure it is a word... but it is my word of the day.

Over a half a foot of beautifully soft snow covered the Killington Resort in the last 24 hours. And the skiing is just fantastic! I had the utmost pleasure to be on the mountain today for 4 hours. If I did not have other commitments, I might still be there.

I started my day off the Rams Head quad due to where I parked my car. After a quick run down Caper and a boost up on the Snowdon Quad and North Ridge Triple, I caught up with some friends. The Skye Peak Quad was down, so we did loops through Snowdon and Ram Head, playing in the soft and supple snow. The last vestiges of corduroy were quickly obliterated, replaced by mound after mound of soft bumps on every trail we skied. Temperatures were in the upper 20's and low 30's. The snow flowed with every turn like very thick molasses. Not melting and turning to slush; but keeping a firm yet pliable consistency that responded beautifully to each carving turn.

After the boyz took off for Lunch around 11:30, I stayed out and did some steeps. To get over to Superstar, I took East Falls and the run-out to the K1 base lodge. East Falls had not seen a huge amount of traffic, as the Canyon Quad was not running. But it was developing nice, regular, bump lines down either side and in the middle. It was a beautiful spring skiing warmup!

On the Skye Peak side of the mountain, Superstar, Skylark, Bittersweet, Needles Eye, and Cruise Control were all nice little bumps. Upper Skye Burst was virtually untracked. I should have ventured all the way to Bear as the Bear Quad at Outer Limits was running, but I decided to stay on the northern side of the resort.

Just before 1:00 I headed back to my car to meet Mary at Sushi Yoshi for a very satisfying chinese lunch. What a great ski day!

We hope you get a chance to get up to Killington and enjoy the great snow!

Let it snow!

Heavy snow falling at Killington and the Birch Ridge Inn 

It's doing it again!

Just so we remember February, Killington is getting blanketed once again with heavy snow today.

With a couple of fresh inches on the ground, and total accumulations predicted to be 10 inches, the snow base on the Killington Resort is continuing to build. And we still have almost another month left officially of winter.

Once again the inn is draped in new snow. It is a wonderful thing!

New snow covers the Birch Ridge Inn

And it is supposed to snow all day and well into tonight at Killington.

Let it snow!

Needles Eye today at Killington... soft and chewy down the middle with sweet bumps on the side! 

I know I have been running open loop when I unload pictures on my ski camera and the first picture in the memory card dates back 11 days to February 15th. But oh... what an 11 days it has been!

Back on February 15th, while the Valentines Day Roses were still fresh, we had 14 inches of snow on the ground outside the inn. Today the stake stands at just under 21 inches, with 5 to 8 more inches predicted by the National Weather Service for tonight and tomorrow. That 7 inches of new snow over the last week at the inn represents probably twice as much (due to altitude multiplication) on the mountain. And it is all now down on the trails as a carpet of creamy goodness waiting to be carved, or draping the sides of the trails in broad necklaces of soft bumps beaming like jewels in the nascent spring sunshine.

We have had the good fortune of being able to ski at the resort the last couple of days. Yesterday we were skiing in the clouds. One run down Superstar featured less than 2 feet of visibility with bumps that seemed 6 feet high. It was like running into a wall with the lights out (and we call this fun!). Today, for the most part, we had good visibility with traces of sunshine guiding our paths though beautiful small soft bumps dotting the trails at Killington. Both days lived up to the adage that a day of skiing is better than a day working (at least for a couple of hours before we returned to the inn to do our work).

The next few days, if the weather service is to be believed, are supposed to bring more sweet creamy snow to the mountains of Killington. Just perfect to set up some great skiing and riding as the days grow longer in March.

We hope you get a chance to get up to Killington and enjoy the great snow!

Let it snow!

4 1/2 inches of new snow fell on Killington last night 

It barely showed up on the weather radar. You won't hear much about it on the Weather Channel. If you listen to NECN (New England Cable News) there was a brief mention of it.

It, of course, is a snow storm that would have cleared grocery shelves of all milk and bread in both Boston and New York... but 4 1/2 inches of fresh powder at Killington.... Did they even plow today?

In all jest, and seriousness, a clipper system combined with lake effect snow has been blanketing the Green Mountains with light powder for the last 24 hours. On and off snow has been falling at Killington. Road crews and private plowing services are out clearing roads and parking lots so Presidents Week visitors can comfortably move around the area. Those who are vacationing in Killington mid-week, have gotten a great score...fresh powder to play in on their skiing/riding trip to Killington.

The inn and the surrounding area are all draped in a beautiful white mantle. Light to moderate winds are blowing and drifting the snow in places, but it is all good!

Fresh snow drapes the Covered Carriageway at the Birch Ridge Inn.

The conditions that have brought fresh powder to Killington are supposed to be with us at least through Thursday. Local weather forecasts have called for 3 to 6 inches total from the "storm"... Since we already have 4 1/2, it will be interesting to see the final total.

Let it snow!

Upper Ovation looking towards Snowdon, Rams Head, and Pico Peaks 

First Valentines Day, then Presidents Weekend, now Presidents Week...it has been a glorious run at Killington!

Friday was the last day I had a chance to make some turns; skiing with the Bagel and Ruts on our usual Friday journey around the mountain. From what I remember of it in the blur of a holiday week at Killington, it was pretty good. I stayed out from 9 till just after Noon, which is a worthy attempt at conquering the mountain when you "work for a living". Since then it has been full out at the inn, which is great.

Guests are reporting good conditions on the mountain. The very cold temperatures over the weekend, combined with winds hitting 20MPH continued to firm up the base. However, over the last couple of days temperatures have moderated just a bit, softening up ski surfaces in the process. Todays temps have just cracked 30 degrees, which, when combined with very little wind, should make for a nice ski day on the mountain.

Light snow is forecasted in the area through Thursday night. Not much mind you...in the 3 to 6 territory, but it will help refresh surfaces. Everything contributes to the cause, not the least of which is the massive amount of snow making the resort has been doing every chance they get.

With luck, I will get out for a few runs in the next few days..

Let it snow!

Mary on the upper headwall of Superstar on Wednesday 

Was it the chocolate truffles, the dozen red roses, the great card, or was it the boot heaters and a nice morning of skiing...

With Valentines Day and Presidents weekend on us, we have been busy getting the inn ready for a full complement of guests for lodging and dining. But we did get a chance to get out on the slopes together yesterday in a pre-celebration of Valentines Day.

The resort is in great shape going into Presidents week. We skied multiple trails on Bear Mountain, Skye Peak, Killington Peak, and Snowdon Peak on our 3 hour jaunt around the resort. All were covered edge to edge in a beautiful machine groomed granular snow, which is a really comfortable alternative to ski on when you don't have a bunch of champagne powder under foot.

There were some consistent trends on the mountain. The shallower terrain, like Cruise Control, have seen multiple grooming passes over the last few days, resulting in any hardpack being chewed up into fine grain crystals. Slightly steeper terrain, like Needles Eye and Middle Superstar, were very receptive to ski edges and great for side to side carving speed runs. Steep terrain, like the Superstar Headwalls, Cascade, DownDraft, East Falls, Panic Button and Lower Skylark were showing their fall lines with small undulations forming due to skier traffic. The undulations were not yet outright bumps, as temperatures on the mountain have stayed cold. But you did want to pay a little attention and pick good lines if you wanted to traverse the trails at normal speed.

Light snow is in the forecast continually the next few days. Just Mother Nature's way of giving Killington some Valentines Day Love.

Let it snow!