The Umbrella Bars at K1 light up the fog at Killington 

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not trobled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet..." Matthew 24: 6-8

Today was a day filled with contrasts at Killington. From the weather at the resort, to the resort personnel, to the lifts, to the conditions of the trails, if you were a glass half empty person you had a terrible day...if you are a glass half full person, today had moments that were "glorious".

The weather today has sort of set the stage. In the space of the morning we had calm, 40 MPH winds... we had clear skies, we had fog, we had freezing R@!n, we had ice pellets, we had fluffy light snow, we had driving hard nasty wet snow....and as I look out my office window as I write this blog we have sunshine!

The weather, of course, translated into the resort in unpredictable fashion. Around the base lodges we had parking attendants that were just miserable trying to direct traffic. We had people shoveling and snow blowing heavy, wet, crusty snow. But then you go to bag check, and the guy taking the bags is bright and friendly... you go to the Bear Mountain Chair (more on that later) and you would think that the girl scanning the passes was at a party, she was so happy to see people coming through her line.

The lifts could not make up their mind... were they going to run, or were they going to stay home for the day. The K1 Gondola was moving before 9:00 AM, but in the wrong direction. All of the cars were being pulled off the cable and brought into the barn. In the early morning, the Sky Burst Quad and the Needles Eye Quad seemed to be suffering the same fate. They were moving, but they did not load until well after 10:00 AM. But never matter, between the Superstar Quad, the Bear Mountain Quad, and the Northbrook Quad (aka "The Chair to No Where") maneuvering around the mountain was achievable (if you overlook skiing under the tuna nets on the old Snow Shed Cross Over to get back from Bear Mountain. The nets had spots in the middle which were tied up, creating a hole to ski thru. Not sure if the holes are officially sanctioned, but they were there...And it was the only way from Bear Mountain to the rest of the resort when the Sky Burst Quad was not loading..).

The weather also created some interesting ski conditions. Visibility was always being challenged be it fog, ice, or wet. Groomed surfaces were initially quite loud, as the grooves created by the grooming machines glazed solid overnight. Un-groomed surfaces initially were a mish mash of chunky, crusty, soft bumps, slick booms. Skier traffic after the first hour or so took care of all of the surface flaws to reveal a nice, soft, generally compliant surface caused by yesterday snow mixed with the stuff coming out of the atmosphere today.

We spend the morning on the Sky Peak side of the resort. Upper Sky Burst was groomed flat and fast, with the aforementioned loud grooves. Lower Wild Fire was nice and soft, with some small bumps developing. Upper Wildfire was somewhere in the middle. It was groomed flat, but it did have some surface features which prevented mindless cruising. People were skiing Superstar. Not sure if the ropes were down or people were just poaching. It did not look fun. We won't talk about the Snow Shed Crossover....

Cruise Control was set up nicely. I did find a nice, soft, small bump line on skiers right on Lower Cruise Control in an area left untouched by last nights groomers. Out of necessity, we did several loops down High Road on the Chair to Nowhere. It was soft, but at times it was also choked with skier traffic.

Bittersweet was cum se cum sa. If you could see, you could find lines with small bumps and soft snow. On those times when skiing by braille was required, I found myself getting bounced around a lot going down Bittersweet. So it goes.

Skylark was generally very nice from top to bottom. I think because of the lift situation, not many people were using Skylark this morning. The upper part was a nice cruiser with some areas of small bumps (really turn spots) kicked up by skier traffic. Lower Skylark had good soft lines down both skiers right and left.

Superstar was not groomed and looked, shall we say...interesting. I think if it were a beautiful sunny day, we would have gone down Superstar, but as the picture of the Umbrella Bar taken from the Superstar Quad highlights, there was a lot of fog in the base area which kept visibility down.

Yesterdays storm at Killington saw 4-6 inches of snow fall over the area. The forecast for today calls for a similar amount, with the majority falling overnight. If you are planning on coming to Killington this weekend, have a safe drive. You will be rewarded with a mountain that is continuing to improve with every snowflake falling from the sky.

Let it snow!!!

Early morning snow covers the Birch Ridge Inn at Killington 

A long overdue winter snowstorm has swept over the Killington region blanketing the area in a carpet of bright white snow.

Snow started in the early morning hours. At 10AM at the inn, the snow stake showed 2 inches of new accumulation. Blowing and drifting snow was deeper in some areas (and of course wind blown bare in others).

Snow is continuing to fall in the area at a rapid rate and is expected for most of the day. In addition, another storm is due to hit the area late tomorrow, hopefully adding to the new snow totals.

Let it snow!!!

Snow making underway on Outer Limits 

Even though the cold front descending upon the area brought copious gray clouds, it was still a nice morning to ski at Killington. Temperatures started just below freezing, with a constant light snow falling across the resort.

We started our ski morning with a couple of runs through the North Ridge area, after boosting to Killington Peak on the K1 Gondola. With much more terrain open on the mountain, Rime, Reason and Upper East Fall have all had time to "rest". The light snow falling at the peak, combined with multiple grooming cycles, have left surfaces in North Ridge reasonably soft. The skid plate found in some of the other high traffic spots around the mountain has been replaced with a loose granular. Generally a couple of inches deep in most places, it had a nice consistency to practice turns at speed, without worrying about highly variable conditions down the trail.

From North Ridge, we traversed across the top of the resort on Bear Trax. It was a little strange passing the bump in the terrain where the old South Ridge Triple terminal called home. But change is inevitable, and the skiing across to Bear was a nice mid morning cruise.

At Bear Mountain, your choice was Upper to Lower Wildfire, or Upper Sky Burst to Lower Wildfire, as the resort continues their work on Dream Maker, and Lower Sky Burst to get ready for the Dew Tour. Upper Wildfire was really nice, although I did catch some unanticipated air off of a couple of unseen bumps in the dim morning light. Lower Wildfire early was well covered. The normal places (where the fall line goes compound for instance) were hard under foot, but there was plenty of nice snow for turning. Upper Skyburst was more of the same, although by 10 AM the middle was getting down to the hard pack in places.

Cruise Control was well covered. Snow making has covered most of the loose stones that were tilled to the surface last week. The resort was diverting people by the closed Vista Deck on Great Eastern, versus upper Cruise Control. There was a machine doing some excavating on Cruise Control at the Snow Shed Cross Over which they were trying to protect.

Bitter Sweet and Sky Lark were both nice, albeit flat and fast. The upper sections of both were reasonably soft, with the lower sections showing some hard pack down the middle. As long as you stayed on either skiers right or left on the lower section, you could find plenty of nice soft snow.

Superstar presented some challenges. The upper headwall was set up for some nice carving turns. Middle Superstar needed a re-groom. Baseball to softball sized death cookies were everywhere. It was not particularly fun. Lower Superstar was the site of the most carnage of the day. Wet snow guns were piling soft sticky snow onto the trail to be chewed up by skiers and riders. It was entertaining to watch from the lift, but not so much for those riding the trail.

The resort is continuing to stockpile snow at Bear Mountain for the Dew Tour. Snow Guns were appearing at random locations across the resort, however, as they begin their efforts to refresh surfaces for the coming MLK weekend. Hopefully, Mother Nature will help. Let it snow!!!

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!!!