The ring leader 

It happens every year.

The Christmas Season officially comes to an end. The decorations, which Mary spends hours on each fall to perfect, get taken down, boxed for future use, and stored away. And this is the week.

When I woke up this morning, I heard a kerfuffle going on over my head. Mary was in the attic, sorting boxes to be used to store the holiday decorations currently distributed throughout the inn. Tens of boxes and storage tubs were being queued by the attic stairs to be brought down to the inn proper. The deconstruction of the Christmas Holidays had begun.

As the boxes were being hauled down stairs, it started. One by one, snow men started to appear intermixed with the empty boxes. Driven by some unseen force (Mary was up in the dark attic handing them down to our assistant Mickalyn) they started to make their way into the inn. Sometime by themselves... sometimes in pairs.... sometimes by the box full. The snowmen have arrived to take the place of Father Christmas around the inn.

This years 15 1/2 foot Christmas tree is going to take a few days to deconstruct. While that is being done, ever so slowly, the snowmen will take over. By the Martin Luther King Birthday Weekend (can you believe it is next weekend!), Christmas 2011 will be but a memory, and the snowmen will have completed their coup to claim hegemony as the decorating decor at the inn for the next few weeks. All we need now is for Mother Nature to dump some white stuff around the mountains of Killington, and the snowmen's take over of the resort will be complete....

Let it snow!!!

Snow guns in overdrive on Cascade at Killington 

3 days in a row... not quite a trend, but has been nice to get out on the slopes of Killington this week.

Today, conditions at the resort were vastly improved from the last couple of days. Not great mid winter conditions, mind you, but the light snow that fell to earth yesterday afternoon and early last night really made a difference on the slopes. Many of the "blemishes" Mother Nature has created the last couple of weeks were at least covered up for the day.

The resort is continuing to make copious amounts of snow on Skyburst to support the upcoming Dew Tour. Lower Wildfire was opened today as the major trail into the Bear Mountain Base area. Groomers were clearly hard at work last evening moving the snow piles around, filling in water bars, and creating a skiable surface. In general, Wildfire was soft with a few residual chunks left over from grooming. The main difficulty on the trail was the fog created by all of the Low-E snow guns in operation on Skyburst beside Wildfire. Several hundred yards of the trail were basically a fog white out. The vertigo challenged should be on the lookout for conditions like that near snowmaking operations.

Snow guns were also operating on Cruise Control, working to cover some of the loose rocks turned over earlier in the week by grooming operations. Needles Eye is still waiting for some work, so we took a bunch of loops on Bittersweet, Skylark and Superstar, all of which were firm in spots, but with generally good snow down the edges.

Over on Killington Peak, Cascades lived up to it's diamond rating today as aggressive ongoing snowmaking is carpeting the trail in large, soft, irregular bumps. East Falls was a skid plate in places. Rime and Reason had nice snow, a product of a closed North Ridge Triple.

On Snowdon, the Chute was in really good shape. Mousetrap continues to be carpeted with snow from the continuously operating Fan Gun. Lower Bunny Buster also had nice snow and skied very well given all of the traffic it sees.

Overall, conditions were much improved. It just goes to show what a little snow can do. If only we could have a fresh 3 or 4 inches every night! Let it snow!!!

Sign on Lower Great Northern at the entrance to the Vale parking lot. 

Sometimes you see things on the mountain that make you shake your head. Sometimes they make you laugh....sometimes they make you cry....But today, it was just a laugh.

College week is in full swing at Killington. There are lots of newbys on the slopes (and that is a great thing for the snow-sports and skiing industries!) You could not get into a lift line without someone dancing to tunes on their ipod. Every where you looked, it seemed like 1970 all over again...except this time it was not Japanese tourists with Canon cameras, but college students (and older) taking the advice of Annie Leibovitz and snapping pictures with their Iphones. Being at least 10 degrees warmer today than yesterday, and with light snow falling to brighten everyones mood, you got the feeling that people had planed to go skiing but a party broke out instead.

Which was a good thing!

Conditions today at Killington were similar to yesterday, with the possible exception that there were more people on the trails. And since terrain is still not near 100% open, the crowds were noticeable.

Surface conditions across the mountain, except where the snow guns were continuing to operate at Bear Mountain, were firm at best. In many areas, trail grooming has turned up some dark surprises, which in heavy skier traffic make collision avoidance an interesting proposition. The resort has done a good job with "Thin Cover" stakes in spots, but the random piece of loose granite in the middle of some trails presents an interesting and unexpected slalom gate for one to practice their turns with.

We did a quick traverse around the mountain today, skiing from the car at the Vale parking lot. In addition to what we skied yesterday, we added the traverse to Bear Mountain on Bearly, and Skylark to the list. Bearly was filled with snow boarders heading to Bear Mountain while avoiding the snow guns on Skyburst. Why they were going to Bear Mountain is clearly validating the marketing message of the upcoming Dew Tour, as there are really no facilities set up for beginner and average boarders at Bear. Snow making is continuing to pound lower Skyburst and Wildfire. Bumps are random and huge. Waterbars on Wildfire have created huge obstacles to overcome. Not a great place for experienced skiers let alone snowboarders trying out their new Christmas gifts.

Coming out of Bear Mountain, Bittersweet was taking a beating as the "easy way" back to the K1 Base Lodge. Upper Bittersweet was soft in most places, but the steeper pitch of lower Bittersweet was really scraped off. Skylark, on the other hand, was much nicer. I think the fact that it is listed as a black diamond worked well to keep the skier and rider traffic down, resulting in a much more reliable and friendly snow surface.

Todays picture is from the trail side of the walkway across the road to the Vale parking lot. It is hard to get a road confused with a ski trail, but clearly the resort felt that making that distinction to people was in order. Darwin would be so proud!

It has been snowing all day at Killington. Before we left, we had picked up an inch of new snow at the inn. On the mountain, I am sure that they will see 3-5 inches of new snow before the day is done. It's a wonderful thing!. Let it snow!!!

Snow guns burying Lower Skyburst in man-made blizzard 

It only took 4 days but now I can officially say that I skied in 2012. The end of the world as we know it may occur this year, at least as predicted by 2012 doomsday wonks, or not... but I can proudly say that I buckled up my boots, clicked on my skis, and once again enjoyed throwing myself down a mountain verifying the law of gravity and validating Newtonian Physics along the way. And we call this FUN!

Today started a little late, the product of the bone chilling cold and a warm blanket. By 10:00 AM, I was up at Killington's K1 base lodge, waiting for some friends who were also skiing for the day. A fairly large line of college students were queuing for the K1 Gondola, so we decided to go the southern route via the Superstar Quad and head towards Bear Mountain.

In a season bereft of copious natural snow, the resort has been spending their snow making resources covering Skyburst. It's a smart strategy as it gives the resort access to the Bear Mountain base area and the high speed Skyburst Quad. It also plays into the hands of the Dew Tour, which is scheduled to visit Killington in 3 weeks. Upper Skyburst was flat and fast. Lower Skyburst, in the snow guns, was soft and bumpy. Huge mounds of snow are everywhere, the product of multiple days of continuous snow making. Snow making was also occurring on Lower Wildfire, but that was still closed off to skiers and riders.

From Skyburst, we then headed into the Needles Eye area with a run down Cruise Control. Upper Cruise was well covered but thing, with many rocks churned up by snow groomers littering the trail. Lower Cruise Control was the proverbial flat and fast run. Snow coverage across the trail was good, with the trail being significantly firmer in the middle, versus down the sides. Ominously, on the ride up the Needles Eye Quad after Cruise Control, we noted that the resort has not made any attempts as yet to make snow along Needles Eye. Hard to say exactly why (all those guns going at Bear?), but it will be a while before we are skiing and riding down Needles Eye unless Mother Nature delivers a monster dump in the near future.

From the Needles Eye Quad, after another loop on Cruise Control, we headed down Bittersweet. Upper Bitter was scratchy in multiple places, with a lot of hard pack on skier left and down the middle. Skiers right had a thin coating of loose snow, the product of skiers and riders sliding down the middle of the trail, but it was only covering more hardback underneath. Lower Bittersweet on the other had had nice snow all the way down skiers right to the junction with Skylark. Because of the cold, we decided to skip another ride up the Superstar Quad for a few runs over on Snowdon.

At Snowdon, we took a traverse from the top of the Snowdon Quad over to North Ridge. Rime and Reason were both skiing well, as was Great Northern. Mouse Trap was seeing constant snow making from the tower mountain fan gun, leaving the surface soft and creamy. Lower Bunny Buster was also soft, but there were a few places that were skied off, creating some skid zones in heavy skier traffic.

Overall, it was a nice day to be out on the mountain... But getting your snow dancing shoes out is in order.

Let it snow!!!

K-Cloud drapes Killigton Peak 

Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

We at the Birch Ridge Inn wish you a very happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year in 2012.

Let it snow!!!

Heavy snow falling around the K1 Base Lodge at Killington 

It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature...but for the second time in as many weeks, Killington has dodged a bad weather bullet when the heavy r@!n that was predicted to fall across the region late yesterday and last night failed to materialize. While the area did see an extended period of freezing r@!n in the early evening, followed by intermittent showers, cold air on the back side of the weather system infiltrated the area ahead of schedule preserving snow surfaces in its wake.

The cold air is now in the process of squeezing moisture out of the atmosphere in the form of heavy snow falling across Killington. Wind driven snow is being pushed into the Green Mountains from the west, depositing the white gold onto Killington in its path. Temperatures are due to get colder through out the day, setting up a situation where the Killington Cloud can continue to drop white across the region. It's about time!

Let it snow!

Mary walking the Killington Golf Course with Skye Peak in the background 

Late night dinner guests at our restaurant on Christmas were greeted with light snow as they made their way home last night. Atmospheric instability dropped anywhere from a dusting to a couple of inches of light fluffy snow across the area. At the inn, the snow stake recorded about 1/2 inch of new snow, which is helping to keep the area nice and white for holiday visitors.

Snow making operations on the mountain are continuing today to improve on the paucity of snow provided by Mother Nature. Snow guns were clearly operating on the Rams Head Mountain, allowing the resort to open more beginner and easy intermediate terrain for the Christmas week.

Let it snow!