Is There a Hunter in Your Future?

by Albert Neubert

The very cold but short weather window last week allowed Killington to “officially” start the ski season in the East.  Killington, near Rutland in central Vermont, also known as the “Beast” of the East, opened the Rime and Reason trails near the summit of the ski resort and both are served by the North Ridge quad chairlift that has nearly a 600 foot vertical drop.  The only hiccup to their early start is that you have to take the Killington Gondola to the summit and then traverse the summit, going down the Peak Walkway, a mountain staircase, to reach the skiable terrain.  When your ski day is finished, you have to repeat the process, except now you are going up the Walkway.

Killington also blasted its Superstar trail with tons of snow in preparation for the Audi FIS Women’s World Cup Slalom and Giant Slalom races which will be held there on November 24-26, which is also the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.  Given a very serious cold blast this week, Superstar might get snow control clearance to hold the races as early as this weekend.  Also expect the Killington snowmakers to expand terrain open to the public to include top-to-bottom skiing and riding from Killington Peak to the K1 Gondola base.  That will eliminate the need to use the Peak Walkway.

The very chilly weather in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, as well as the Adirondacks of New York will allow snowmaking operations to start at a number of resorts this week.  In Vermont, Stratton, Okemo, Mount Snow and Stowe started making snow last week and some might even be able to open after this week’s snowmaking efforts.  In New Hampshire, Waterville Valley, Bretton Woods and Loon cranked up the guns last week and should open by this weekend.  The same holds for Sunday River and Sugarloaf, both in Maine.  Gore and Whiteface, in northern New York, will be making snow this week but are likely to hold off opening until the next round of good snowmaking weather returns to the…