Bill wrapping the flag pole in front of the Birch Ridge Inn with lights for the winter. 

As at the Resort, around the Birch Ridge Inn we have been working straight out to get the inn fully prepared for the winter season. We are just about done!

Yesterday I finished putting all of the outside lights in place for the winter. It is an annual ritual. We have a lighting company, "Christmas Decor", who put the lights on the restaurant and Great Room buildings. (They have all the right ladders and a team to do the work...they make it look so simple!) Mary and I take responsibility for the rest. Some years it is freezing cold and you wish you did the work in shorts in August. Other years, like this one, it has been quite pleasant to work outside making the job actually enjoyable in a John Cleese/Monty Python "and now for something completely different" sort of way.

Today Mary makes her annual foray into the farms of West Rutland looking for the inn's Christmas Tree. The Monday after Thanksgiving (is it really next Monday?) is Christmas Tree Monday at the inn. The team is already assembled to go out and get the inn's Christmas tree. Pick up trucks are identified, chain saws are sharpened. But it would be all for naught if we cannot find the perfect tree. Hence, Mary is out in the woods today. She likes to go out ahead of time before the team for reconnaissance; to scope out the landscape so to speak; to find just the right tree...

Rumor has it that tomorrow is a ski day for us. The Resort continues to make snow ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday. Today they have started to make snow on Skye Peak at the top of Superstar. Snow making operations are also continuing in the North Ridge area all the way down to the K1 Base Lodge. Chef Frizzie was out for a couple of hours this morning. In his usual brief and to the point fashion, he said "It was kinda fun skiing through the guns"! I know myself that I am ready to get back on skis and out on the mountain. It's time!

Let it snow!!!

Intricate ballet taking place at K1 Base Lodge 

On my visit to the K1 Base Lodge this noon time, I was struck by the intricate ballet that is taking place as the Killington resort readies for winter. Todays picture says it all in terms of how companies and people are juggling tasks in a post-Irene Vermont.

In the right of the frame you see skiers and riders coming down Lower Bunny Buster. The resort has been making snow when ever they could over the last couple of weeks. Late last week they made the connection to the K1 Base Lodge, opening up for top to bottom skiing and riding yesterday. In other words, the right side of the frame is fairly business as usual for the Killington Resort for the middle of November.

In the middle of the frame, it starts to get interesting. On the left of the K1 Base Lodge you can see plywood covering the doors leading out of the Mahogany Ridge bar. This is an indication that something is amiss. In front of the baselodge is a string of orange cones, with what looks like some new surepak on the road in front of the base lodge. You may or may not be able to put those two items together, but Hurricane Irene sure did. It turns out that the Roaring Brook runs right across that area. It took out a function room attached to Mahogany Ridge (hence the plywood covering on the doors) and ripped a chasm down the hill taking out half of the road in front of the K1 base lodge in the process (voila - new surpak!).

To the left of the frame, is Irene's lasting gift to skiers and riders at Killington, the new Umbrella Bar. Instead of replacing the function room at the K1 lodge that was destroyed with another boring appendage to the building, the Resort has decided to roll the dice and create a new space for people to enjoy. The Resort has built a pad in the old delivery parking lot beside the K1 Base Lodge facing the Superstar slope. On top of the pad sits the Umbrella Bar. It will be enclosed during the winter months. If the resort plays this new addition as many of us locals think they will, this will be the place to be in March, April and early May to enjoy watching skiers bumping down Superstar, reviving the old Killington Base Lodge deck of the 80's in the process.

In the front left of the frame, in front of the Umbrella Bar, you see a trench with all kinds of piping next to a control box of some kind. This is the construction that many of us have been watching intently. One of the secrets of Hurricane Irene is that all of the water rushing down the mountain took our quite a bit of infrastructure, in addition to buildings like the function room at K1. The Resort has been "busting their hump" working to rebuild and repair everything to get resort into operating shape for the winter season. Solid evidence of their progress has been the continued snow making activities that have taken place around Killington Peak, allowing the mountain to open for top to bottom skiing and riding on a fairly normal early season schedule.

And this is just the work that is going on in front of the K1 Base Lodge. Similar activities are taking place all across the resort and at virtually every private business in Killington. All of which is an intricate ballet that Killington is dancing to get the area in top shape for winter. And with the all important de-facto kickoff of the season taking place over the Thanksgiving Weekend (it's hard to believe that's next weekend), the pace has been quickening. It is all really impressive, especially when you consider that all the while skiers and riders have been enjoying the upper reaches of Killington Peak with traditional early season skiing and riding for weeks now. And this is only the start of the season!

Let it snow!!!

Snow guns running to Mouse Trap at Killington 

With favorable weather for snow making predicted for the next week, the Killington Resort has started the push to expand skiable terrain. Skiing and riding at Killington has been available on the upper mountain in the North Ridge area since late October, courtesy of Killington Snow Makers and the "Stairway to Heaven". But early in the ski season every year, there is a moment in time when the resort attempts to break out of the confines of the upper elevations to provide top to bottom skiing and riding. This year, that time appears to be now.

Snow making operations are clearly visible from Killington Peak down Great Northern to Upper Mouse Trap. Basically, the resort has turned on it's snow making machine from the top of the mountain to about the 3000 foot level. Just below that, on Mouse Trap, the fan gun has been started and is making snow as I write this post. How long it will be able to continue to function today is anyones guess, as temperatures are predicted to rise out of the low 30's to the low 40's throughout the day, before returning to the 20's tonight.

Snow guns are set up from Mouse Trap down Lower Bunny Buster to finish the trail to the K1 Base Lodge. When the resort will begin making snow on the last trail segment to the K1 lodge is always one of the resorts closely held secrets. That being said, the all important Thanksgiving Weekend is just around the corner. I don't think there is any doubt that the resort will be firing up the snow guns on the last leg to provide top to bottom skiing and riding from Killington Peak very soon.

At the inn, Chef Frizzie has fired up the kitchen preparing to reopen the restaurant this weekend. The stock pots on the stove are filling the inn with wonderful smells making both Mary and I hungry. The cat and mouse game to sneak one of the chef's hand made rolls as they come fresh out of the oven is only hours away.

If you find yourself in Killington, stop bye.. Let it snow!!!

Repairing some water damage from Hurricane Irene 

Hurricane Irene is just the gift that keeps on giving... or should that phrase be re-written to be the gift that keeps on being re-gifted?

We have been working around the inn spiffing things up for several months now. We are in the home stretch heading towards the winter season. One of the oddities we have continued to notice are water marks on ceilings with south facing exposures.... if you are a friend of Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation is the multi-hour wind whipped torrential r@!n event that struck Vermont at the end of August known as Irene.

The spots are not a big deal. In one room a plaster tape seam took a hit. In another room, there was a little round spot on the ceiling. Room 10, shown in todays picture, did require me to cut through the plaster to investigate, but that was only because the attic above the spot in question is in a low clearance area on the roof that is also filled with insulation. In all the cases investigated, we have not discovered any roof damage that would provide a way for water to enter the building. And, since the spots are only appearing on south facing vistas, the most likely cause we can determine is moisture from the hurricane being blown up the side of the building into the roof eaves then onto the ceilings.

A little ceiling paint, and in some cases some plaster work, and the problem is solved... In the grand scheme of things, no big deal, just a curious artifact left over from the ultimate summer r@!nstorm.

Speaking of the weather...its almost time to get out your dancing shoes. Killington was blessed with an early season dump. Combined with snowmaking, the resort has been able to offer skiing and riding since the end of October. But it is time for Mother Nature to make a change...turn on the big freezer in the sky... and get the winter party in the Mountains started. The restaurant at the inn reopens for the winter season this Friday night. If you find yourself in Killington, stop bye..

Let it snow!!!

Killington Peak with snow on upper trails. 

After a brief respite from writing, we are back at the computer keyboard to bring news about life as an innkeeper in Killington.

Life at the inn has been amazingly busy the last 2 weeks. Not busy as in all 10 rooms occupied with guests busy. That generates revenue as the IRS would be fond to point out. No, it has been busy on the other side of the P and L (read expense) in terms of getting the inn (and our lives) ready for winter.

When I last composed a blog on the first of the month, I was in the throws of a major renovation to Room 8, the "English Gentlemen's Room" at the Birch Ridge Inn. Happily I can report that the work has been completed, the room is back together, and it looks great. I think that the ceiling molding we installed really makes the room pop in an elegant sort of way. But of course, I am biased. The proof will come later this winter as guests enjoy staying in the room.

Since completing Room 8, I have moved on the touch up maintenance on several other rooms at the inn. Nothing really major, just follow up on normal wear and tear items. But it is one of the things that we have to stay on top of if we want to keep the inn looking nice.

The other major project I have been working on, redesigning the inn's internet network, will be completed this week. Last week I completed the install of a new router, and a third wireless access point at the inn. This week, VTEL is going to be installing an additional DSL line at the inn. I have a little bit of programming to do to make sure that the configuration is correct, but assuming I have guessed right on the configuration, guests at the inn should see a nice improvement in their internet connections during their stays with us this winter.

In addition to work at the inn, Mary and I took trips down to Massachusetts to visit with parents prior to the start of winter. The logistics was quite comical for a while, with lots of trips up and down Route 89 through New Hampshire over the last 10 days, but it was nice to get away and see our families in the Boston area.

Skiing and riding is taking place at Killington on the upper trails of Killington Peak in the North Ridge Area. We have not ventured out as yet, but I am happy to report that we did have a ski boot sighting as Mary swapped closet space with them to store our golf shoes until next summer. Ah...such is the life!

Now that we are back in Killington, the march towards winter is well under way. And with that march, I will try to get some quality time in front of my keyboard to keep you updated and informed as you plan your trips this winter to the mountains.

Let it snow!!!

The "English Gentleman's Room" undergoing renovation. 

The Killington Resort opened for skiing and riding for the 2011-2012 season on Saturday morning. It's now Monday, and I have not been able to get near thinking about skiing... what the @#$%!

The race is on at the inn to get everything ready for the arrival of large numbers of winter guests. In addition to snow blowing 8 inches of new snow on Sunday Morning, work has been going full bore at the inn. I am not sure why I feel like we are behind... maybe the hurricane at the end of August diverted time away from getting things done at the inn, but every day is a step closer to getting out for a few runs on the mountain.

Over the last week, a number of projects got started around the inn. Our main web site has begun it's seasonal transition to winter. A new photo gallery has been created for the index page, and the ski package calculator with winter rates for ski packages for this season has been reprogrammed. Work on web sites is never done, so expect to see more changes to birchridge.com in the coming weeks.

Major renovation work is also ongoing to some of the rooms around the inn. With the TV upgrade to HD completed, we have not switched gears to redoing some of the rooms. The big project is in Room 8, the English Gentleman's Room. New carved ceiling moulding was installed at the end of last week. My job this week is to completely repaint the room. Yesterday was dedicated to "spackling" the various imperfections in the walls and ceiling created over time. Today's efforts involve painting the ceiling. Later on in the day, I will begin cutting in the walls with an eye to getting them done tomorrow(hopefully).

Work is also taking place to redesign the internet network at the inn to be better able to serve our inn guests. I have been meeting with Vermont Telephone, the carrier which provides our access point into the internet to add in additional capacity. Next year VTEL will be dropping fiber into the inn as part of a wholesale change to their network. For this winter, we will be adding an addition DSL line for more bandwidth. Of course, it's not quite that simple. To get the 2 DSL lines working together, we will also be adding a load balancing router to be able to take advantage of the increased bandwidth. (Having come out of that businesses 14 years ago) I have the router spec'd and on order. With luck, we will have the network changes completed before Thanksgiving.

And, of course, just when we thought things were under control, we decided after some discussions of alternatives, that it was time to retire my 9 year old Subaru Forester and replace it before the start of winter. The Subaru had served me well, but 9 year old cars do need some maintenance. We decided the money that needed to be spent to get the Subaru ready for winter would be better spent towards a down payment on a new car. So late last week and through out the weekend, I was spending most of my time in Rutland visiting car dealers. After driving 5 different small and mid-sized SUV's (we decided that the new car needed to be All Wheel Drive as Mary's is just Front wheel Drive), we made the change from Subaru to Honda with the acquisition of a new Honda CRV. At least that is out of the way for now. But there is something about that new car smell.

Let it snow!!!

Killington peak under assault from snow guns. 

By the time your read this, I hope you find this as old news. The Killington Resort is set to open on Saturday October 29 2011 at 10:00 AM for the 2011-2012 winter sports season.

As I write this blog for Friday at 1:30 AM on Saturday, I am excited that the season will be getting underway. We have had a very short period of time between the end of Fall Foliage season (we still have fall guests this weekend) and they start of ski season. So short in fact, that most of the leaves from the trees around the property are still on the lawn, now nicely buried under 6 inches of snow. (And I hope the storm predicted for Saturday night puts them under until next May, the lawn be damned.)

I am usually very punctual and timely about announcing the opening of Killington to blog readers, but this morning I found myself way out of position to get to my computer to type out the story. The Resort did contact the inn early this morning with the news and a reasonable request to delay the story until they had a chance to let other people know. When that happened, however, I was already gone for the day to Rutland (more on that in subsequent blog posts). Mary texted me from her new iPhone 4S,(She is really starting to get used to her new phone) so I got the message very quickly...but without the ability to act on it.

Prior to heading out this morning, I did drive up to the resort to check out the scene. With the snow Thursday evening, and the announcement that the resort was blowing snow overnight, it was a pretty good bet that the resort would be opening for the weekend. Thursday when I went to the K1 Base Lodge, there was a lot of heavy equipment being moved around, still working to repair damage from Hurricane Irene. This morning, the equipment was parked out of harms way, and the work area was swathed in Killington Logo Snow Fence. All strong clues that the resort was getting ready.

In addition to the 6-10 inches of natural snow that fell on the Resort Thursday evening, snow making operations were actively blanketing Killington Peak. Great Northern and Rime were clearly under the gun with the clear intention of being the first trails open. The snow making cloud on Killington Peak was quite impressive, as todays blog picture highlights. It is all the more impressive, given some of the damage the resort sustained from Mother Nature in late August. Suffice to say, the art of making snow at Killington requires hundreds of miles of pipe for water and compressed air, not to mention some serious air compressors and water pumps. The resort clearly did a great job assembling the necessary equipment to get the job done to support a late October season opening.

If you do come to Killington for opening weekend, be aware that the resort is telling us that there will be skiing and riding on Rime only. The resort is rating the early season terrain as "Advanced" and "un-groomed". This is not the weekend to bring your novice friend out for a few runs on the snow. The resort will operate from 10 to 4 on Saturday and 9 to 4 on Sunday. The K-1 Gondola will provide uploading and downloading, while access from the top of the K-1 Gondola down and up from the skiing and riding terrain will be via a short walk on the Peak Walkway.

For those of you making early season turns this weekend, have fun! Let it snow!!!