First golf swing of the 2013 season 

A 3:05 yesterday afternoon, at the behest of Mary, I took my first golf swing of the 2013 season in front of the Great Room at the inn. Golf season is approaching at Killington. Mary, as one would expect, was concerned that my left knee would give me trouble in it's knee brace during my golf swing. She wanted me to try it out. Never one to miss an opportunity to hit a few golf balls, I was only too happy to oblige. The start of golf season in Killington is imminent. Getting the body "swing ready" is "important".

Saturday night was the last day that the restaurant at the inn was open to the public for dinner service this season. (It will re-open on Friday June 21st for the 2013-2014 season.) To wind the season down, we had a "clean the fridge" staff party last night at the inn. Around 4PM yesterday, after hitting a few balls in the back of the inn, Mary and I moved into the Great Room to set it up for the party. We snapped on the TV to catch up on the Boston Marathon results. In Vermont, I may be a flat lander, but in Boston, I am a Bostonian, having been born in the Brighton neighborhood at St E's. Patriots Day and the Marathon are a tradition that a Bostonian takes with them through life. I wish we did not turn that TV on at 4:00. Make it go away.....

Instead of watching a baseball game on TV last night at the staff party (the group has some dyed in the wool Yankee's fanatics to balance out our beloved Red Sox) we decided that ski movies would fill the void in the wall occupied by the TV. Pandora was playing tunes across the internet. The beer tap was flowing just right. The wine accumulated in Bin X went down too easy. Make it go away.....

Around 8:00 last night, my son Jay called. To my horror, I found out he was too close. He was working doing rehab construction in a building on Newbury Street, one block from the finish line of the Marathon. He had finished up and was walking down Boylston Street. He had passed through the finish line area several minutes before and was near the Public Library, heading towards the Boston Common to pick up the MBTA when chaos struck. UGH.. Make it go away.....

In his first successful science fiction novel, Childhood's End, published in 1953 (the year I was born), Arthur C. Clark spoke of benevolent overlords taking position around the earth in alien spaceships. He spoke of a world that was on the verge of annihilating itself in the cold war global nuclear competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. In their innocence, the people of earth in the 1950's needed alien overlords to prevent them from destroying everything.

And so we watch ski movies instead of the TV news. We watch ski movies instead of watching the horror in Boston played out over and over. Instead of seeing the missiles of North Korea constantly rolling down the street in some far off surreal parade. Instead of hearing about IED's in Afganistan, or the latest rants from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.

In Vermont, we are somewhat insulated from the world around us; but we can't escape it. At best, we can only trick ourselves into making it go away, if only briefly.

Growing up in the Boston area, I have great faith that humanity will prevail. That the good wrought by the many will far out weigh the bad perpetrated by the few. ....it is not time for the Overlords!

Golf season is fast approaching. I hope you have your clubs out...

A sure sign of spring at Killington. 

Double Dipper from the Canyon Quad at Killington on a beautiful sunny spring day.

Freezing R@!n;
Driving Sleet;
Oh for the sunny days of spring.

Failing sump pump;
Bailing wet feet;
Oh for the sunny days of spring.

Ice crust outdoors;
Shuffle and penguin walk;
Oh for the sunny days of spring.

Ice Melt... Goodro;
Plumbing parts...Home Depot;
Oh for the sunny days of spring.

Ski, golf, outdoor fun;
My plan for the next day we see the spring sun!

The Birch Ridge Inn in Killington, covered in sleet and freezing r@!n on a nasty spring day.

In the immortal words of Christie McVie and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac:
"Don't stop thinking about tomorrow.... Don't stop. it'll soon be here!"

Have your sun screen ready for when spring returns!

100% sunshine brightens day on Killington 

After yesterdays retreat to winter, today was a refreshing breath of spring across the Killington Resort. Even though temperatures early this morning were still in the mid 20's, the lack of wind and 100% bright sunshine allowed us to venture out on the mountain with significantly fewer layers under our shells. And as the morning progressed, temperatures appropriately rose with the sun, given south facing slopes the ability to soften and corn up, just the way they should in the spring.

All of the usual runs were in great shape. With a huge amount of snow on the resort, cold temperatures, and light skier traffic, the ski season at Killington still has a long way to go. At the start, it was just one high speed cruiser after another doing laps off the Skye Burst quad.

As we moved across the resort, I started to sneak in a few easy bumps while Mary stayed on the groomers. Old Superstar had some potential. At 10:30 AM it was still surprisingly firm. I dove right into it, and had a pretty good line going till just before the cutoff to Superstar. I was going so fast, I think I got airborne on the last 4 bumps before making a hard braking maneuver to head to Superstar. The brace on my left leg let me know it was there, but so it goes...thats why I wear it!

Upper Royal Flush was a little softer than Old Superstar. The upper flush still has loads of snow all across it. Skier traffic has developed nice little bumps for your enjoyment. By 11 they were softening up ever so slightly. I am sure they will be great later in the day.

FIS across the top from the K1 Gondola had 5 of 6 monster bumps on it. They were quick work as we headed down to the North Ridge triple. West Glade, er Ridge Run, also had a nice bump set on it. As is usually the case, the bumps on the upper section were bigger with sharp troughs. The middle and lower sections, being not as steep, had nice regular features.

Without question, the run of the day was Highline at noon time. It was a total do-over. The morning sun had baked the surface into a delightful texture somewhere between creme brulee and vanilla soft service ice cream. Surprisingly little skier traffic had been on it by noon, allow us to do wide sweeping turns down Highline's face. This is what spring skiing should be (if there were a BBQ and a cold beer strategically placed just beneath the trail).

As I write this, I noticed that my nose is a little red, my cheeks have a glow, and there are the early vestiges of a goggle line forming on my face. Now where did that tube of sun screen go again???

Let it snow! (at least on the mountain for a few more weeks)... and don't forget your sun screen!

It's still winter on Killington Peak! 

After our journey across the resort this morning, I needed to rush home and check the calendar on my computer. While we were on the mountain, it seemed like we were sucked into some strange time anomaly, like the residents of K-Val in the neo-cult classic ski-movie "Hot Tub Time Machine". (Notice the name of the ski resort in that movie...coincidence???) Even though the calendar was supposed to read April, it seemed more like early January at K-Town this morning. With a high pressure system from Canada settling into place, temperatures in the teens (yes...teens!) and a wind gusting to 30, the calendar could have easily read January 3rd versus April 3rd. But, when I got home, the computer confirmed it. The government wonks at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), the maintainers of the "Official Time" for the United States, did in fact confirm that today is April 3rd, 2013.

We started the day on the K1 Gondola. The bucket ride to Killington Peak was a little bumpy as the car was being buffeted by wind gusts. Cascades under the K1 was not especially inviting. It looked like some mad creation from Dr. Freeze. The Canyon Quad was running, but there was nary a soul in sight. When we emerged from the cabin at the peak it was easy to understand. 13 degrees with a 30 MPH wind is not April skiing, no matter what the calendar says, nor how sunny it is. So off we headed towards Bear Mountain.

Conditions across the top of the resort were groomed firm corduroy. Very low energy skiing, as long as you kept your ski tips aligned with your desired trajectory. We found ourselves at the top of Bear Claw in no time. Good thing our skis were recently tuned.

Everything at Bear was groomed flat and fast. With the exception of the bumps course being constructed on Outer Limits for this weekends Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, some bumps on Upper Wildfire, and the terrain features in the Stash and on Dream Maker, Bear Mountain was a straight high speed cruiser.

With the bright, early morning, sunshine, I did pack light for todays ski excursion. By my 4th lift up the Skye Peak Quad, I was reaching for my neck gator that I keep in my ski-shell. I never thought I would need that today, but this is Killington and you always need to keep prepared.

As we moved back to the north side of the resort, we journeyed down Needles Eye, Cruise Control, Bitter Sweet, High Road, and Sky Lark. With mid-winter conditions prevailing, we decided to do one run and done on each trail. We had to get enough runs in to get the muscles in our legs firing, but, at the same time, we are ready for a little spring skiing versus the cold shiver of this morning.

Even though it is cold today at Killington, there is a huge upside to all of this. Cold conditions have basically stopped any surface melting in it's tracks. A slow warm up through the rest of the week will just about guarantee great ski conditions for visitors to Killington this weekend. And, it also means that the season will have loads of staying power to reach right into May.

Let it snow! (at least on the mountain for a few more weeks)

Killington Peak - covered in snow, crowned in sunshine. 

In what I hope will be the first of many spring skiing days this season, the mountains, the snow, and the sun all combined for a great morning on the slopes.

High, puffy, clouds dominated a beautiful blue sky as we skied all around the Killington Resort this morning. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 30's, all but guaranteeing that snow surfaces touched by the copious sunshine would delightfully soften up. With the exception of the lower Superstar headwall this morning, every trail we skied on delivered loads of soft snow just perfect for sweeping carving turns.

We visited every mountain area around the resort this morning. Each mountain delivered the goods. Smooth groomers were turning soft and creamy. Bump runs were tons of fun, with very little hard pack in the bump troughs on most trails. I enjoyed the bumps on Needles Eye under the Skyship, Old Superstar, Royal Flush, and Great Bear, just to name a few trails which got my attention today. And trails that were not groomed overnight, like Cascade, while not "bumped up" had nice little bumps all over the place calling out for a turn of two. Just a beautiful morning to be in Killington.

Let it snow!

Watercolorist Peter Huntoon will be at the Birch Ridge Inn on Thursday March 28th 

On Thursday March 28, the Birch Ridge Inn, in conjunction with the Killington Arts Guild, will be host a "Meet the Artist" night with renowned Rutland watercolorist Peter Huntoon.

The "Meet the Artist" night will feature a water color demonstration by Mr Huntoon. The event begins at 6:00 PM in the Great Room of the Birch Ridge Inn and is scheduled to run through 8:00 PM.

Light hors d'oeuvres will be served during the demonstration. If you plan to attend the event and would like dinner reservations at the inn at it's conclusion, please call the Birch Ridge Inn at 802-422-4293. If you would like additional information about the demonstration, you may call Sally Curtis from the Killington Arts Guild at 802-422-3852.

Let it snow!

Mary in the little bumps on Upper Wildfire. 

For the first time in weeks, Mary saw her shadow today on the ski slopes of Killington. With the remnants of this weeks snow storm moving east, a cold arctic air mass has descended over Killington, bring with it partly cloudy skies filled with puffy white clouds and copious amounts of sunshine....just the perfect combination to match the powder that has layered the resort in a nice soft covering of snow.

For years before becoming innkeepers, Mary and I used to take our spring vacation to Killington on the week of St Patrick's day. Historically, this week offers some of the best, most reliable, most fun, skiing and riding at Killington. And with a few spectacularly noticeable exceptions, last year for instance, St Patrick's week still delivers.

We started from the bay 1 parking lot on the K1 Gondola just at 9. Unlike the last couple of days, the powder hounds had withdrawn from Killington to search our stashes at Pico which re-opened today after being closed on it's normal Tuesday Wednesday schedule this week. With the powder hounds absent, Killington was virtually empty. And what we saw from the K1 gondola on our first boost just sucked us in.

Everything in the Canyon area looked superfine, so we decided to start on the Killington side on the resort with a warm up run down Cascade. With it's steep compound fall line, it is not usually a first run... but it was just beckoning with a full pitch of soft, groomed, packed powder. While it was a touch firmer than we had expected (it did get very cold last night approaching single digits) Cascade was just a beautiful steep cruiser to get the juices flowing for more interesting runs to come.

Sky Peak gleaming in the morning sunshine from Dreammaker.

Looking north up the spine of the Green Mountains with Snowdon, Ram Head, Pico, and Little Pico all standing tall in the snow as seen from Sky Lark.

Killington Peak as seen from Superstar Quad.

After Cascade we traversed in front of the K1 base lodge and headed to the Superstar quad. Superstar looked like a great high speed cruiser as well, but we decided to head to the Stash and play on the features. While Mary went around, I ventured into the woods around the Stash House. Several nice bump lines were clearly visible, which I negotiated rather quickly. We exited down lower Sky Burst. It was basically flat and fast, with the exception that it was not hard as a rock, but covered with a nice soft carpet of snow. With no one on the trail, I was able to basically travel at warp speed making sweeping carving edge to edge turns all the way to the Sky Burst lift area. It was a lot of fun!

On the Sky Burst quad, we saw that Upper Wildfire had some nice soft bumps, so off we went. The soft snow of the last couple of days, combined with a decent cadre of skiers and riders, laid down row after row of soft, pliable, bumps on Upper Wildfire from the Outer Limits entrance right down to Bear Claw. While being a minor work out, they were so good Mary declared them a do over... In over 20 years of skiing together, I don't think I have ever heard Mary declare a bump run a do over. They were just exceptional.

We continued to play around off the Sky Burst lift, taking the obligatory top to bottom Sky Burst, Sky Burst to Wild Fire, and Sky Burst to Dream Maker runs. They were all good.

We then headed into the Needles area. Cruise Control was filled with soft, ephemeral, powder puff bumps that vanished into a cloud of dust whenever you hit them. Needles Eye was superb. The trail proper was groomed with powder puff bumps. Skier right was left "au natural". Just a perfect combination... Mary was able to cruise down the groomed; I dabbled in the bumps; we met up back at the bottom..Oh... and did I say the sun was shining brightly!

After a few runs off the Skyship, we called it a day with a couple of runs of the Superstar Quad. Bittersweet was lovely. Upper Skylark was soft and pliable. Lower Skylark was surprisingly firm, but very edgeable. Middle Superstar had tons of soft powder between the rope line and the snow making whale on skiers left. A few people had played in it, but it was far from cut up. (it was like people did not see this today and by now it was already noon???) Lower Superstar was a mixed bag; some parts soft and chewy, other parts like hard tack. But it was still a nice run to end todays ski session on in the bright noon day sun.

Overall this week has yielded some of the best skiing of the year. Today was clearly in the top 10. And we still have the weekend to come!

Let it snow!