2018-2019 4241' Magazine by Killington Resort

Complimentary

2018 / 2019

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ELIMINATE THE ELEMENTS

THE ULTIMATE ANTI-WEATHER PROTECTION SERIES. UAOUTDOOR.COM

Famous among friends.

A N EW VI EW F ROM 4,241’

Justin Cash

I think you’re going to like the new Killington.

y the time things start spinning for winter 2018-19 two fresh lifts will be in rotation—the new six-person bubble chair at Snowdon and the South Ridge chairlift—as well as a plush set of new cabins for the K-1 Express Gondola. The lifts are a significant component of Killington’s largest capital improvement plan in 20 years, which we announced in March 2018. Up to $25 million has been slated for a number of experience-enhancing projects, including building new bike trails and constructing tunnels (yes, tunnels!) at challenging trail intersections to improve the mountain’s flow for everyone.

The Snowdon and South Ridge lift projects were prioritized due to your feedback— for the last several years, they were numbers one and two on the “needs and wants” list when we reviewed our surveys. The lifts increase our carrying capacity and, maybe more importantly, will better disperse skiers and riders around the mountain on busy days as we look to ease congestion in high-traffic areas and improve the mountain’s overall flow. Paired with our version of “Tunnel Vision”—we are building actual tunnels that will act as conduits to help skiers and riders avoid tricky intersections—these on-mountain enhancements alone will both improve and refresh the top-to-bottom experience. We’ve also expanded the Adventure Center with the Woodward Wrecktangle Obstacle Course (which my kids love, see page 18) and built a walking/jogging trail around Snowshed Pond. When you look at the capital improvement plan from 4,241 feet, it’s all about creating a more dynamic and engaging four-season mountain experience for our guests and the community. Many of our best ideas come from you, and so I ask you to keep the ideas and feedback coming. It’s helping us craft a better Killington, season after season and year after year. It’s your mountain, after all. Email me anytime at msolimano@killington.com.

Mike Solimano President & General Manager, Killington Resort & Pico Mountain

killington.com

mike’s letter

High Fashion

p here at 4,241 feet, fashion trends a little toward functional but remains nearly as important as sliding down the mountain itself. These archival images by Bob Perry provide a glimpse into what was in…and what was out. And by out, we mean outta sight!

Impeccably sculpted beards you’d find in a bar in Brooklyn today? Check. Knit facemasks that make people look like they might hold up a bank? Check. Matching kits for kids and more LOVE? Check. There might be more to the mountains than looking good, but when we look good, we feel good. And feeling good is more than good enough. — 4,241’

6 throwback

killington.com

Homegrown H 7

CODY TOWNSEND YETI AMBASSADOR | PROFESSIONAL SKIER

Have Fun. Stay Hydrated. The Coca-Cola Company is proudly the official beverage partner of Killington Resort ©2018 The Coca-Cola Company. “POWERADE” are trademarks of the Coca-Cola Company. ©2018 glacéau. glacéau®, vitaminwater® smartwater® bottle designs and labels are registered trademark of glacéau.

“A Little of Austria,

a lot of Vermont” ®

Publisher Chandler Burgess / Killington Resort Creative Direction Editorial Director Mike Horn / Buttery Art Director Joe Polevy / Buttery Photo Editor Justin Cash / Buttery Editor at Large Tyler Cohen Contributing Editors Rob Megnin Dave Young Jordan Spear

Copy Editors Kristel Fillmore Amy Laramie Kaitlyn Beaule

Contributing Writers Tyler Cohen Kristel Fillmore Brooke Geery Martha Howe Jesse Huffman Kirk Kardashian Drew Pogge Peggy Shinn Dave Young

Contributing Photographers Chandler Burgess Justin Cash Brooks Curran Mike Dawson Eric Leone Bob Perry Garren Poirier Stuart Ruckman Dave Young

Killington Resort President Mike Solimano Killington Resort Director of Sales, Marketing & Reservations Rob Megnin ADVERTISING Resort Sales Team Rob Megnin, Jordan Spear, Chandler Burgess Killington Ad Creative Kim Williamson / Killington Resort To advertise in Killington 4241’ Magazine, Killington Pico Area Association members call (802) 422 4181. All other inquiries please email 4241magads@killington.com The views expressed in Killington 4241’ Magazine are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the staff or Killington/ Pico Ski Resort Partners, LLC. Copyright ©2019 by Killington/Pico Ski Resort Partners, LLC. All rights reserved. The content of this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express consent of the publisher. Printed in the USA. Killington 4241’ Magazine is printed annually. Killington Resort 4763 Killington Road / Killington, VT 05751 (800) 621 MTNS / www.killington.com

1-800-826-7000 1333 Luce Hill Road, Stowe, VT 05672 vontrappbrewing,com | trappfamily.com

10 welcome

A Development by

killington.com

VOLUME 8

2018 + 2019

F E AT U R E S

NEWS Mike’s Letter A new view from 4,241’ Tribute: the Goombay Smash Killington’s island flavor MTN Hacks An insider’s guide to Killington Snow Slang What’s your favorite word for “snow?” Youthful Perspectives Maximizing fun at Killington/Pico for the younger generation World Cup Foundation Funding the future of ski racing

It’s More than a Mountain New investments enhance Killington’s four-season experience

05 05 15 16 18 26 28

32 36 40 44 50 58 70 80 88 102

All Aboard A family of skiers learns to ride…together

108 118 132

Flavor Profiles Behind the scenes with Killington Beer, Whistlepig and Plymouth Cheese

Green Mountains Killington’s burgeoning environmental programs take root Interview: John D. Cumming POWDR perspectives on the World Cup and more Off the Clock From racing cars to SUP yoga, Killington’s staff makes the most of days off World Cup Legends Icons of ski racing descend on Killington History of Music The acts and events that put Killington’s music scene on the map US Open A new bike event opens up mountains of possibilities More Momentum Mountain biking events on a roll Four Season Photo Gallery A thousand words Profile: Maggie Leon A lifelong Killington snowboarder balances competitive riding with pursuing an engineering degree

Artists in Residence Shackleton Furniture, Farmhouse Pottery & Simon Pearce Basecamp: Woodstock Drop in on a bucolic haven just down the road from Killington

CONTENTS Climbing through the clouds. Photo by Justin Cash

ON THE COVER

welcome to killington

MORE than a mountain. 11 Illustration bywelcome James Cho

100 00 Club 2017/18

The 100-day club holds a special place in skiing and snowboarding here. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the territory of the hardcore, the dedicated few who spend more time in the mountains in one season than most people do in a lifetime.

Holmes, Paul Westburg, Rich Schirm, Rick Krevetski, Wayne Wysocki, Jennifer Lange, Tucker Keene, Sharon Fournier, Mark Schram, Nickolas Westburg, Patti Barrington, Bob Green, Jonathan Soderquist, Chuteman Soderquist, Poopsie Golonka, Peggy Weiss, Ronald Billings, Steven Tracey, John Peone, Matthew Agli, Dylan Hacker, Ron Pencak, Greg Lanahan, Charlotte Myers, Andrew Paquette, Mark Parker, Timothy Labella, Greg Crain, Nathan Brady PadďŹ eld, Paul Marshall, Barb Golonka, Larry Munsinger, Lynn Clark, Peter Schroeder, Derek Lewis, Charles Bergstrom, Cynthia Dore, Dennis Woods, Chuck Carter, Christopher Weart, David Wolford, Emily Crowell, Peter Tener, Kinley Fry, Amanda Grimm, Jim Crowell, Philip Marshall, Donald Reimer, Joel Celeste-Hahn, Elijah Dwyer, Christopher Pelletier, John Zuckerman, Jack Lombard, Alexander Palmer, Gary Paroline, Katie Plourde, Jim Mielcarek, Daniel Lindner, David Straus, Larry Krinsky, Michael Mulkern, Paul Taylor, Scott Montemurro, Joseph

Krause, Allan Lee, Gilbert Soriano, Tom Burritt, Colleen Warren, Robert Hinkle, Brennan Hilz, Gregory Castle, Matthew Bragg, Donald Courcelle, David Bloomer, John Daily, Rick Lash, Norman Svencer, Rick Nelson, Adam Hunt, Lynda Bussolini, Christopher Dunwoody, Philip Leabourne, Bradley Sharpe, John Palatine, John Lewis, Dave Lee, Jennifer Cahill, Michael Jr. Fraude, Jason Potter, Corey Shaw, Steve Isaacson, Alan Charles, Jonathan Sporbert, Richard Meierdiercks, Keryn Manning, Ted Nimal, Jackie Nimal, Jim Graessle, Calvin Norniella, Corsi Forest, Johnny Rice, Raymond Skalski, Ted Burke, Deborah Joseph, Gary Schneider, Lawrence Stanton, John Bergstrom, Mark Ruzicka, Robert Howell, Ryan Sullivan, Patrick Krause, Barbara Sardelli, Bob Goodwin, Carol Tretter, Cole Wysocki, Jon Goldberg, William Paroline, Jesse Delles, J Michael Schmitt, Bob Dalury, Karen Harris, Lindsey Kaplan, Richard Kaplan, Sandra Celauro, Jonathan Reimer, Susan Schmitt, Judy

Harris, Jim Hopkins, Keith Halliday, Michael Kogel, Michael Rogers, Clarke Bellefeuille, Michael Cocheo, M Root, Alan Brown, Daniel Kilbride, Timothy Nielsen, David Terjesen, Leif Anthony Porubiansky, Matthew Murphy, Paul Stolar, Paul Lanka, Maria Herrero, Manuel Lockhart, Bryon Robb, John Johnson, Brandon Poppleton, Brad Haffke, Gary Parnell, David Howard, Scott Cassidy, Andrew Chessia, Amy Guarino, Vito Stamp, Eric Aguilar, German Dixon, Dave Guggenberger, Josef DiMascio, Paul Smith, Tyler Atkinson, Scott Chimerane, Gary Mielcarek, Patti Wilkins, Steven Huntley, William Fillmore, Walter Heffermehl, Birger Martin, Pamela Zazzera, Robert Sylvia, Corey Aguilar, Charity Beaumont, Scott Soar, Thomas Baker, Forrest Gordon, Scott Parmley, Cindy Patrick, Lauren Sutcliffe, Michael Wiederkehr, Anna Aston, Chad Andersen, Ron Mcalpine, Jeremiah Cone, Kathleen Gallagher, Matthew Cummings, Robert Barrington, Susan Stem, Rachel Prendergast, Thomas Hackett, Richard Lewis, Amy

Sardelli, Cameron Bergen, Robert Eckler, Ann Marie Nelb, Sharon Rosenberg, William Gross, Bill Oakes, Daniel Everett, John Bartlett, Thomas Fieldhouse, Simone Claffey, Rebecca DiMattia, Warren Findeisen, Marc Jerome, David Levesque-Brant, Nicole Mabus, Doug McKinney, Matthew Salmon-Mabus, Tammy Montag, Christopher Mahoney, Michael Viers, Chris Hazlett, Mike Adams, Jennifer Rieszer, John Fallo, Philip Deitch, Sandra Cardozo, Jason Carine, Maxwell Eckler, Joshua Oswald, Peter Porter, Ken Kelly, Bruce Enman, Blair Zara, Harvey Cocheo, J Siart, Lisa Moriarty, Carol Hoffman, Rich Titzmann, Alicia Wood, Craig Wilkins, Zack Normand, Aaron Claffey, Spencer Hirschbuhl, Michael Laymon, Nathaniel Martin, Benjamin Sell, Bryan Mckenna, Andrew Adams, George Ballister, Jessica Baldino, Leonard Mcdonald, Bill Sardelli, Phoebe Rubenson, Marc Schaffner, Robert Villari, Phillip Claffey, Liam Campbell, George Ehmann, William Harvey, Patricia Maichen, Kevin Stoodley, Lael Van Herwarde, Kara

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› 2018 | 2019 ‹

K π NEWS

‹ GOOMBAY SM ASH ›

Tribute: GOOMBAY SMASH The tropics-inspired cocktail that brought the beach to Killington

ost mixed drinks made by the gallon are either illegal or might just make you go blind. The storied Goombay Smash is a rare exception. During The Smash’s heyday at Killington, the legend goes that the Grist Mill (now The Foundry) was the number-one seller of Bacardi east of the Mississippi. Bacardi neither confirmed nor denied the story’s accuracy.

Justin Cash

as local legends go, the Goombay’s story changes depending on with whom you speak. While some claim the Goombay was born in Killington, other research points to the Bahamas. Emily Cooper, proprietor at Miss Emily’s Blue Bee Bar in Green Turtle Cay, has been credited with creating the rum drink’s original top-secret recipe. The classic Bahamian Goombay is said to include a mixture of dark rum, coconut rum, apricot brandy and pineapple and orange juices, garnished with a pineapple wedge and an orange slice. chris karr has worked in Killington’s bar and restaurant business for 35-plus years. He owns The Foundry, previously the Grist Mill, where the Goombay left its mark locally. “The Goombay Smash…I will tell you everything I know about it,” Karr says. “It originated at a bar that is no longer up here, called the KVI. I was a bar back there, for a bartender named Paul Robbins, better known as ‘Pablo.’” “I have his original recipe,” Karr continues. “It was written down on Grist Mill stationery. If I remember correctly it’s written out in gallons [laughs]. That’s how they made it—gallons and gallons of Goombay. At one point the Grist Mill was the number-one seller of Bacardi in the eastern United States. That’s how much Goombay they went through.” As of press time, Bacardi had not responded to our inquiry about the quantity of Bacardi served in Killington during the Goombay’s hey› Mike Horn ‹ day. Let’s just assume it was a lot. killington.com

news 13

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› 2018 | 2019 ‹

K π NEWS

‹ MOUNTA IN H ACKS ›

Tips & Tricks :

Killington MTN Hacks

› by Martha Howe ‹

Whether you’re a first-timer or an old-timer, these mountain hacks will enhance your ski and ride experience. Or at least make you chuckle. We sourced these nuggets of wisdom from the Killington staff, our online community and friends from far and wide.

from the Killington Staff Take a Meet The Mountain Tour. Let an expert show you the best way to navigate the mountain rather than trying to find your way alone.

Chandler Burgess

Label your valuables: Yes, just like you are going to sleep-away camp again. Put your name on your GoPro, wallet, car keys, etc. If you happen to lose something, check with guest services in any of our lodges. Only carry what you need on the slopes. Just bring your phone, wallet and a snack, if needed. Or leave your wallet in the car and load some Beast Bucks onto your pass for an easy way to pay. Cold toes? Take your boots off during your lunch break. If those toe warmers have gone cold, it’s a good time to put in a fresh pack. “Cotton Kills,” as we say. Wear under layers made of materials like Spandex or wool that wick away moisture. Use our color code—to make getting back to where you started easier to remember, we’ve color coded all of the base lodge areas: K-1 is blue, Ramshead is purple, Snowshed is green, Bear Mountain is blue and Skyeship is orange. The on-mountain signs are color coded to match the base areas, as well. Your day ticket or Killington season pass is also valid just down the road at Pico Mountain. If you’re trying to escape the crowds on the weekend or just want to try some new terrain, give Pico a try. Just remember that their normal winter operating days are Thursday through Monday.

killington.com

hackers

K π NEWS

› 2018 | 2019 ‹

Snow Slang

››

A user’s guide to the innumerable types of snow

t’s widely considered that the Inuit have some 100 words for snow, but anthropologists are generally split on whether that’s an exaggerated urban myth or reality. Skiers and riders, on the other hand? The vocabulary can feel as limitless as the possible permutations of the flakes we’re describing and surfaces on which we slide.

Here’s 4,241’s take on the glossary you need to know.

› by Tyler Cohen ‹

blower / blow · er : ( 1 ) snow of improbably low density that defies logic and gravity, rising from the surface when turned through with cloud-like buoyancy to swirl, swoop and remain suspended in air like a floating, drifting dream of the deepest day ever ( 2) the guy in the lift line who won’t stop talking about how deep his last run was buddah / bud · dah : ( 1 ) a savory, cream-like product that’s solid when chilled, liquid when warmed and deliciously smooth and spreadable at temperatures in between ( 2) should not be confused with margarine, a synthetic substitute of imitation ( 3) also see : buttah bulletproof / bul · let · proof : ( 1 ) a surface with an improbable level of impenetrability, often caused by warming followed by a deep, unrelenting freeze chalk / chalk : ( 1 ) a nonporous surface of densely packed snow granules that, in spite of its hardened qualities, remains edgeable and, when planar, can often offer pleasant turns chatter / chat · ter : ( 1 ) frozen, ultra-hardened snow that invokes the eponymous term on skis, knees and, under the most dramatic circumstances, teeth

coral reef / cor·ral reef : ( 1 ) a refrozen, highly textured surface with an appearance similar to its oceanic counterpart, though often significantly less fragile or beautiful ( 2) also see : reef; frozen mank corduroy / cor·du·roy : ( 1 ) the pristine, parallel-lined byproduct of meticulous grooming best carved as early in the morning as possible in order to achieve top speeds, pure bliss and, possibly, enlightenment ( 2) also see : cord; fresh cord; porcelain corduroy; roy corn / corn : ( 1 ) a collection of water-lubricated, sun-cooked snow granules resulting from springtime’s regular and repeated cycle of warming and freezing ( 2) best sampled while wearing a Hawaiian shirt at either corn:30 or corn o’clock ( 3) also see : creamed corn; peel-away corn cream cheese / cream cheese : ( 1 ) a smooth, moist, fresh slathering that’s easily spread and whipped to perfection crème brûlée / crème brû·lée : ( 1 ) custard-like snow encrusted with a thin, breakable veneer as though delicately seared using a blowtorch ( 2) also see : hardshell candy; crust

chatteroy / chat · ter · roy : ( 1 ) super-cooled groomed snow (see: corduroy) that offers skiable characteristics similar to that of chatter

crust / crust : ( 1 ) a hardened, ice-like surface coating snow of soft texture ( 2) can be measured in varying degrees of thickness including breakable crust; zipper crust; sun crust; death crust ( 3) also see : dust on crust

chicken heads / chick · en heads : ( 1 ) a dramatically uneven plain of snow punctuated by raised, rigid features resembling the size and shape of poultry heads

death cookies / death cook·kies : ( 1 ) bowling ball- to microwave-sized amalgamations of ice, snow and detritus that offer no redeeming skiable qualities whatsoever

chowder / chow · der : ( 1 ) weighty, moistened snow of maritime quality ( 2) best served piping hot and in a bread bowl ( 3) also see: chowdah

diamond dust / di·a·mond dust : ( 1 ) ultra-fine ice and snow particulates that, in cold temperatures, remain suspended indefinitely in mid air, refracting, shimmering and shining sunlight like nature’s stained glass ( 2) also see : pixie dust

chunder / chun · der : ( 1 ) a powder day’s sloppy, heavy, cut-up leftovers, generally difficult to turn through and taxing on one’s legs chunder from down under / chun·der from down un·der : ( 1 ) groundup ice dusted in fresh snow ( 2) chunder (see above) of Australian heritage cold smoke / cold smoke : ( 1 ) powder snow’s coldest and smokiest known form ( 2) a byproduct of enormous snowflakes and/or snowfall at deeply cold temperatures ( 3) widely known to cause temporary respiratory distress when inhaled, as well as facial muscle spasms due to excess grinning cookie dough / cook·kie dough : ( 1 ) freshly fallen snow of excessive water content, partially but not fully baked ( 2) lacking chocolate chips and therefore not all that sweet 16 vocabulary 101

Chandler Burgess

‹ VOCABUL ARY 101 ›

Dave Young

facets / fac·ets : ( 1 ) angular snow grains of a sugar-like consistency formed by dry, cold spells ( 2) also see : sugar; sugar snow fair-to-bare / fair to bare : ( 1 ) better than not skiing ( 2) also see : fast grass; brown on down fluffernutter / fluff·er·nutt·er : ( 1 ) a marshmallow-like substance that’s tacky in a weird, unnatural kind of way frosting / frost·ing : ( 1 ) like fluffernutter, only not tacky and therefore not that weird ( 2) also see : Velveeta gazpacho / gaz·pach·o : ( 1 ) a tomato-centric, vegetable-based soup of Spanish origin that, while occasionally used to describe snow, has literally no connection aside from the fact that it’s best served cold glop / glop : ( 1 ) the mushiest of mush, generally super saturated beyond the point of low-friction gliding ( 2) also see : isothermal; mank; mush; schmoo granular / gran·u·lar : ( 1 ) individualized conglomerations of snow and/ or ice, each roughly the size and shape of a marble, that together form a rolling, low-friction surface ( 2) also see : frozen granular; deep granular; ball bearings graupel / graup·el : ( 1 ) round, soft pellets of rime formed when water droplets collect on falling snowflakes ( 2) occasionally causes thunder snow, the most badass-sounding weather phenomenon hardpack / hard·pack: ( 1 ) a compact, ultra-durable surface prized among racers and those who like to go fast ( 2) occasionally used in polite reference to ice ( 3) also see : New England packed powder hellscape / hell·scape: ( 1 ) not better than not skiing ( 2) also see : frozen hellscape killington.com

hero snow / he·ro snow: ( 1 ) powder snow of such low density and uniform consistency and depth that anyone skiing or riding through it will look good, even Jerry ( 2) also see : cowboy powder loud powder / loud pow·der: ( 1 ) powder snow overlaying a firm base that, while pleasurable to ride, is audibly less pleasurable mashed potatoes / mashed po·tat·oes: ( 1 ) best when buttery smooth powder / pow·der : ( 1 ) the most universally sought-after form of fresh snow enjoyable no matter the depth, density or consistency ( 2) known to cause incurable lust, occasional fever and lifelong quests ( 3) also see : fresh; white gold; loose; loose snow; plowder; puder; powdah; pow; hot pow; pow pow; pow-chica-pow-wow packed powder / packed pow·der : ( 1 ) definitely not the same as above sastrugi / sas·tru·gi : ( 1 ) a chalky, wind-scalloped surface that’s beautiful to look at but not beautiful to ride Sierra Cement / sie·erra ce·ment : ( 1 ) moist, maritime-like snow like that frequently found in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains sluff / sluff : ( 1 ) soft, loose snow that, once disturbed by tracks, tumbles and rolls down the fall line ( 2) also see : slough soft serve / soft serve : ( 1 ) fresh, pliable, ice-cream-like snow ( 2) the term improperly used outside of Vermont for a creemee variable / var·i·a·ble : ( 1 ) an often used yet thinly veiled misnomer for varying snows of inconsistent consistency and suboptimal quality wind buff / wind buff : ( 1 ) an unbroken, wind-stiffened plane typically edgeable and chalk-like ( 2) also see : wind board news 17

K π NEWS

› 2018 | 2019 ‹

Youthful Perspectives the inside line on youth culture at killington resort & pico mountain _ by Kristel Fillmore _

‹ YOUTH CULTURE ›

››

not too cold, sitting outside near the Waffle Cabin. Where do you find the best snacks on the mountain? H: The hot chocolate from the Peak Lodge is the best hot chocolate on the mountain and, on a chilly day, it’s a good way to warm up. I like mine with extra whipped cream. L: OK, Hannah, let’s get the hot chocolate and warm up, but I want to go to the Waffle Cabin. I ate so many last season that I had to take a break this winter. It’s going to be my first waffle of the entire winter.

hether they’re cradling lacrosse sticks or planting ski poles, Lauren and Hannah Solimano not only live Vermont’s outdoor lifestyle—they embody it. In winter, you can often find Lauren (13) ski racing at Pico and Hannah (15) skiing at Killington on Sundays with her dad, Mike, the resort’s president and general manager. Their love for the outdoors and all things Killington doesn’t end when the snow melts, either—it’s actually just the beginning.

What is your favorite Killington event? H+L: [Absolutely no hesitation] World Cup. There is nothing like the energy and roar of the crowd at the World Cup. We love watching the racers, and the excitement of the crowd is contagious. They get louder and louder with every racer.

I spent a Sunday in early April trying to keep up with Lauren and Hannah on the mountain, and we hit some of their favorite trails, sipped hot chocolate and chatted on the lift to learn what life is like for them at 4,241’.

After meeting up at the Snowdon Quad we talk about our favorite trails and decide to head over to the other side of the resort to take the longest run at Killington. Lauren: Great Eastern is my favorite trail because it’s so long and winds through the woods. I like hitting this trail with a bunch of my friends and skiing from the peak all the way down to the bottom. Hannah: I love the pitch and the view when skiing under the gondola on Cascade. My dad and I ski it together at least once a week all winter long.

There’s nothing like the energy and roar of the crowd at the WORLD CUP. We love watching the racers, and the excitement of the crowd is contagious.

OK, how about off-the-beaten-path suggestions? Do you two have any secret powder stashes on the mountain you can tell me about? H+L: [Looking at each other laughing] We can’t tell you that or it won’t be a secret anymore, but we like to go in the woods. Squeeze Play at Ramshead is fun, and the trees aren’t too close together…good place for your first time in the woods. All right, I won’t hold it against you that you’re keeping your powder stashes a secret. How about your favorite places to hang out, though? L: At Pico, we hang out at the Pico Ski Club when we are taking a break, but we’d rather be on the mountain having fun, laughing and being together doing something that we all love to do. H: At Killington, it’s getting food at the lodge and grabbing a table for a group of us or, if it’s 18 insiders

Does all this winter talk mean your favorite time of year in Vermont is winter? L: It does for me! I like winter because it’s when I get to ski race with my friends at Pico. We have races most weekends, and it’s just a fun time to be together on the mountain. I like spring though, too, because I still get to ski, but it’s warmer. H: Spring and summer. I like skiing in the spring because I don’t have to be as layered up. In the summer killington.com

Justin Cash

Speaking of getting warmed up, what are your favorite ways to stay comfortable on the mountain? H: Neck warmers with fun patterns. Skida is my favorite because they are made in Vermont and have bright colors and patterns. I like to mix and match them with whatever jacket I’m wearing. L: Yes, neck warmers and goggles. I like to change my goggles in different types of weather. Lighter lenses for when it’s dark and darker lenses when it’s sunny.

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› 2018 | 2019 ‹

‹ YOUTH CULTURE ›

K π NEWS

Chandler Burgess

The new WreckTangle is so fun; you can compete with your friends through the different obstacles.

H+L: Ski top to bottom on Killington’s longest trail, Great Eastern. Go to the Peak for the view, the food and the hot chocolate. The Ledgewood Yurt is fun because it’s tucked in the woods, and don’t miss the Beast Mountain Coaster while you’re already at Snowshed at the Yurt. If you are here in the summer, go to the Adventure Center and take a group hike. I enjoy going on hikes and spending time at the Adventure Center with my friends. Tell me the ins and outs of getting through the Adventure Center with your friends. H: The Soaring Eagle is fun because you think you know when the takeoff is going to be, but it takes me by surprise every single time. I like going on it with someone who’s never been on it before because they are even more surprised, and they usually end up screaming. L: The first thing I go for with a group of friends is the Beast Mountain Coaster. Maybe it’s the ski racers in us, but we like to see how fast we can make it to the bottom. The new WreckTangle is so fun; you can compete with your friends through the different obstacles.

One more question: What does your dad do at work? H+L: Plays ping pong and skis [laughter]. He also gives out cookies, cleans up trash, parks cars, goes to meetings and visits other mountains. L: His phone is full of pictures from other mountains he visits, including food, trash cans and bubble chairs. [Don’t worry, Mike. The girls also mentioned how hard you work, but these answers were more fun.]

Justin Cash

What advice do you have for girls your age coming to Killington for the first time?

How about down the Access Road? Where do you like to go and hang out with your friends? H+L: We love pizza, so we like meeting our friends at iPie for some slices. The ART Garage is a cool place for birthday parties or even just hanging out with a group of friends for a paint night, and you can even create your own sculpture or dreamcatcher.

killington.com

insiders 19

SHIFT MNC 13 At Salomon athletes and engineers work together to shape the future. For seven years Cody Townsend and Benoit Sublet worked hand-in-hand to create the S/LAB SHIFT MNC 13 binding. Through their collaboration they developed a revolutionary binding that blends the touring efficiency of a lightweight pin binding with the power and safety of a Salomon alpine binding.

BINDING BETA:

• 47mm of Elastic Travel • Multi Norm Certified (MNC) • 1.7 KG/Pair • DIN: 6-13 • Carbon infused PA construction • Climbing aid – 2° and 10°

Building partnerships one lift at a time

Proud sPonsor of the november 2018

Always Good Times

GLEN PLAKE

RIPSTICK BLACK EDITION

The award-winning Ripstick series is the best of both worlds: effortless in powder and rips the hard pack. When Elan’s state-of-the-art Black Edition carbon construction meets the Ripstick, it’s goes beyond both worlds. A prodigy in any condition, the Ripstick Black Edition generates even more reponse and power all over the mountain, in style.

LEITWOLF

A STEP AHEAD

WELCOME TO GROOMING 2.0 LEITWOLF breaks through with innovations like a muscular Tier 4 final compliant 523 HP (390 kW) engine that channels power efficiently & intelligently. Uncompromising in caliber, it also sports exceptional cabin comfort and superior climbing ability. From an ultra-wide 14.8 ft (4.5 m) track to unique parallel tiller offset, available optional AUTOMATIC winch, and much more, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s setting the benchmark others will work for years to even approach. And by then weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll have moved on. prinoth.com

›› MORE FUNDS › 2018 | 2019 ‹

_ by Peggy Shinn _

K π NEWS

Killington World Cup’s Lasting Impact

Justin Cash

FOR FUN

‹ WORLD CUP ›

his winter, the upper section of Pico’s B Slope is significantly wider, giving kids in Pico’s race program more training space. And the Woodstock Ski Runners aim to keep their Friday ski program affordable; it will remain at $85 for the next five years. The club is also offering a scholarship for one child who would like to join the club’s ski racing program.

It’s not resort funds or club dues that are paying for these improvements and similar ones at 14 other ski and outdoor programs in the East. Monies are coming from the Killington World Cup Committee (KWCC).

hill Gross hatched the idea for KWCC. A longtime advocate of youth and adaptive sports—and a longtime Killington skier—Gross saw the crowd at the first Killington World Cup in 2017 and wondered if the popularity of the event, and the great venue, could provide an opportunity to give back to the ski community. The VIP access tickets had sold so quickly that Gross thought extra money could be raised if these tickets were offered as VIP packages, and the additional money could provide funding to ski programs in the East. It’s a model Gross had seen used successfully at PGA Tour golf tournaments. “My idea was if we could put these VIP packages together and raise a little bit of money, then we could end up having the World Cup leave a positive impact on the ski community throughout the East,” said Gross, a co-founder and managing director of Adage Capital Management in Boston. He is also a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Foundation trustee, and he serves on the boards of several youth and adaptive sports organizations. KWCC offers three levels of World Cup premium VIP packages, ranging in price from $5,000 to $50,000. Among other benefits, each package includes tickets to the VIP tent at the base of Superstar, the World Cup slalom and giant slalom race trail, and tickets to the Peak Gala, which last year honored the 1968 Olympic alpine team. Killington Resort also donates the proceeds from reserved grandstand seats to KWCC. With these funds, KWCC pays athlete hospitality fees—to give back to the resort. The organization then accepts grant requests from organizations in the East to either improve access to outdoor sports or to improve program infrastructure.

26 world cup

“We go to a lot of places where we just show up and have the race and we depart, and truthfully the only lasting thing for the community is the fact that they got to experience a World Cup race,” said Mike Day, Mikaela Shiffrin’s coach. “The Killington World Cup Committee is going well beyond that to make sure that the impact is felt by many regional programs. It’s really special to have a group of people that want to give more in legacy to the region rather than just a ski race.” In March 2018, KWCC awarded 16 grants ranging from $3,000 to $25,000. The grants went as far south as North Carolina (the Appalachian Ski Education Foundation received funding for infrastructure improvements) and as far north as Maine (the Winterkids Education Foundation earned a grant to expand its Nordic program in Portland and to start programs in other communities). “We gave grants where we felt like we could make an impact,” said Lynn Boynton, KWCC’s director. In total, KWCC gave away $207,000 last year and favored grants with matching components. “You add all that up, and it’s a total impact of $350,000 to the ski racing community,” Gross said.

or the 2018 Killington World Cup, KWCC will honor the 1980 Olympic alpine team, which trained at Killington before heading to Lake Placid. Tickets to Friday night’s Peak Gala are part of the VIP packages and can only be purchased through KWCC’s website, kwccgivesback.org, beginning in September. “When the Killington World Cup continues in 2019,” Gross said, “we expect the KWCC to continue to make grants and have the same ticket opportunities.” killington.com

Photo by Judy Laliberte, Quechee, VT

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Put Your Money Where Your Pow Is

blue experience. It came out of our own assessment of our shortcomings. We can always open more blue terrain—but you can’t make a mountain steeper.” _ by Drew Pogge _

Killington invests $25 million in on-mountain improvements.

The most visible step toward this goal comes in the form of the new Snowdon Six Express lift: a six-seat, bubble-protected high-speed lift that replaces the existing Snowdon Quad. The new lift accesses mostly intermediate cruising terrain with an excellent fall line and will make skiing and riding that much more comfortable—particularly in inclement weather. The Snowdon lift will have a new storage barn, too. Bubble down, surf’s up, bro.

he old Snowdon quad was conveniently relocated to South Ridge—a hotly anticipated replacement that many have been crowing for since the old South Ridge triple removal in 2011. This new lift will provide vastly better access to a previously underused side of the mountain and help spread people out on busy weekends and holidays. Kaitlyn Hummel, a born-and-raised local, area realtor and 28-year Killington skier, says the buzz generated by the South Ridge lift, in particular, is exciting. “Having South Ridge open again will be awesome—it’s just something cool to look forward to,” she says. But it’s the refurbishment of the K-1 Express Gondola that has Hummel most excited.

t’s hard to accurately place a mountain on a balance sheet. Powder fever doesn’t translate well into statistics, and the exact value of a kid’s first day on skis is impossible to calculate. The “vibe” of a mountain isn’t quantifiable, and laughing with friends doesn’t graph. That’s part of the magic of skiing and riding—the act alone is enough.

That said, $25 million is a pile of moola and happens to be the amount POWDR Corp. plans to spend in on-mountain improvements—an enormous investment in the shared Killington ski and ride experience. This winter, the Killington loyal will have new lifts, new trails, shorter lines and better flow all over the mountain, following a summer of frenetic construction and re-imagining. In addition, mountain operations is getting four new groomers and replacing or adding 44,000 feet of snowmaking pipe.

“

olimano says the gondola facelift, which consists of brand new eight-passenger cabins and a cabin storage facility to improve reliability and de-icing time, will make K-1 “feel pretty dang new.” Notably, the lift will continue to run on “Cow Power” biogas, as part of POWDR’s Play Forever sustainability initiative. Finally, the Snowdon Poma is moving to Swirl, which will become a dedicated race-training venue. This will open additional top-to-bottom intermediate terrain for guests in the Snowdon area (previously dominated by racers) and provide Killington Mountain School and Ski Club racers the space and privacy they need to train hard. The joint goal of these new and reconfigured lifts (four in total for 2018/19) is to improve the flow of people up and down the mountain, spread out crowds and eliminate choke points. It all gets back to making the mountain feel better for skiers and

f you make the mountain feel better, everyone’s happy.” That’s what Mike Solimano, Killington Resort’s president and general manager, has to say about the improvements. And make no mistake; the on-mountain experience is Killington’s paramount concern. Armed with years of guest feedback and internal assessments, SoliWe wanted to improve the blue experience. It came mano and the rest of the Killington team identified the most important things that needed to happen to make the resort the out of our own assessment of our shortcomings. We best version of itself. First on that list? Making the mountain can always open more blue terrain—but you can’t more accessible to more skiers, while alleviating weekend skier congestion in several key areas.

make a mountain steeper.

“We have tons of steep terrain at Killington, but competitors have more blue terrain,” Solimano admits. “We wanted to improve the

28 improvements development

—Mike Solimano

››

› 2018 | 2019 ‹

NEWS

‹ KILLINGTON DEVELOPMENT ›

There are new tunnels and bridges at key intersections on Great Northern, and at the Snowshed Crossover at Skyeburst and The Stash. It’ll bring new meaning to the old game Chutes and Ladders.

riders of all abilities. “It gets busy on weekends,” Solimano says, “and there are runs where different levels of skiers are intersecting.” From the very first day of operations in 1958, Killington founder Pres Smith made it a goal to have a beginner run off every peak, so anyone could enjoy the entire mountain. It remains a noble and inclusive ideal, Solimano says, “but the downside is that there are lots of switchbacks on some runs.” Or rather, there were. Last summer, the mountain operations team fired up the heavy equipment and set to work, moving earth, building tunnels and raising bridges. Yup, that’s right—there are new tunnels at key intersections on Great Northern and at the old Snowshed Crossover and Skyeburst intersection. It’ll bring new meaning to the old game Chutes and Ladders and ensure more seamless skiing on runs that were once interrupted by traverses.

“It’s really going to open up a bunch of top-to-bottom runs and spread people out,” Solimano explains.

Boom: everyone wins. And that’s what Hummel says has her most excited about opening day: “It’s everybody—all generations, all abilities—that are excited to see what [Killington’s] done. And it’s just really neat to see.”

o keep the new and improved flow moving once skiers and riders hit the maze, lifts now use automatic RFID gates: no more digging out passes and getting manually scanned every run. Just pass through the RFID gate and load—you don’t even have to put down your latté. It’s just another investment in technology aimed solely at improving the on-mountain experience, and Hummel is optimistic. “I feel like Killington’s really rising to a new level,” she says. “They did so much with snowmaking and grooming, and now they’re doubling down this season.” But Solimano gives the credit to Killington’s legion of dedicated and deeply invested skiers and riders. They were the ones asking for a South Ridge lift; they were the ones who suggested more intermediate terrain. And Killington listened.

“We’ve got people who are so passionate about the resort,” Solimano explains. “They come up with stuff we’ve never thought of.”

The gondola facelift (which consists of brand new eight-passenger cabins and a cabin storage facility to improve reliability and de-icing time), will make K-1 “feel pretty dang new.”

So, what’s next? It’s hard to say, but rest assured that the emphasis will continue to be on the mountain experience, that nebulous, intangible feeling that makes it all worthwhile. And if you need an excuse to visit Killington this season, there are plenty—about 25 million, to be exact.

improvements 29

Put Your Money Where Your Pow Is KILLINGTON PEAK

NEW SOUTHRIDGE QUAD LIFT

BEAR MOUNTAIN

SKYE PEAK

Grab NORTHBROOK CROSSOVER to NORTHBROOK QUAD to get back to north side of the resort

30 improvements

KING *

MA SNOW

› 2018 | 2019 ‹

NEWS

‹ KILLINGTON DEVELOPMENT ›

Some of the latest improvements to Killington Moutain include:

The K-1 Express Gondola will feature brand new eight-passenger cabins and a cabin storage facility to improve reliability and de-icing time

The new Snowdon Six Express lift is a six-seat, bubble-protected high-speed lift that replaces the existing Snowdon Quad

The old Snowdon quad was relocated to South Ridge, replacing the South Ridge Triple which was removed in 2011

The Snowdon Poma moves to Swirl, which becomes a dedicated race-training venue

Mountain Operations is replacing or adding 44,000 feet of snowmaking pipe

Three new tunnels, one at the intersection of Skyeburst and Snowshed Crossover, and two more at key intersections in the Snowdon area, will improve traffic flow while maintaining uninterrupted top-to-bottom skiing and riding

7 SNOWDON MOUNTAIN

Re-route of CHUTE trail

A fourth tunnel under Middle Great Bear, scheduled for completion in spring of 2019, will further enhance the flow of Snowdon skier and snowboarder traffic All lifts now use automatic RFID gates

RAMSHEAD MOUNTAIN

7 1 K-1 GONDOLA CABIN

Re-route of GREAT NORTHERN trail

POMA LIFT moved to RAMSHEAD 6-person BUBBLE & CABIN @ SNOWDON

improvements 31

When families learn to ski or ride together, the lessons extend beyond the slopes

by Kirk Kardashian

photos by Justin Cash

t’s a sunny afternoon in early April, the kind of day that calls you out into the warm light no matter what else is going on. I pick up my kids early from school in Woodstock, VT and point the car uphill to Killington, where the snow is plentiful and soft. Normally, we’d use a day this nice to rip around the mountain on our skis, but today Agnes (10) and Brian (7) are in for a surprise: we are going to learn how to snowboard—together.

If snowboarding were a country, it would be a place I visited a few times as a kid. It’s a foreign land, but I remember enough of the language to not embarrass myself. When I was nine years old, in 1987, my parents bought me a Burton Woody 145 with Hightop bindings for Christmas. I remember carrying it across the train tracks to my local sledding hill on a snowy day. As I tipped the nose down the steep lip of the hill, I got my first taste of surfing on snow. But by that time, I was already a skier, and my attachment to using two planks survived the brief interlude of snowboarding—I didn’t give myself much of a chance to get any good. So, by April 2018, I hadn’t touched a snowboard in maybe

“I hadn’t touched a snowboard in maybe 30 years. If there were any muscle memory left in my body, it was faint and hazy.” 32 all aboard

killington.com

30 years. If there was any muscle memory left in my body, it was faint and hazy. BEING A SKIER, I automatically taught my kids how to ski. Brian took to it with a fierce determination and strongly identified as a skier. Agnes was more ambivalent: most of the time, it felt like she skied with me just to not disappoint me. Brian used his love of the sport as a cudgel against Agnes, continuously claiming his superiority. Agnes didn’t want to care, but her pride often got the best of her, and they would trade vicious insults. It wasn’t what you’d call good chemistry.

“If I don’t try too hard and don’t think too much, I just relax and focus on where I’m going and feel in control.”

hen I break the news that we are going to learn to snowboard, the response is predictable. Agnes is open to trying something new. Brian refuses to get out of the car. I eventually cajole him to step out into the sunlit afternoon and strap a board to his feet. In the Snowshed lodge, we meet up with our instructor, Tyler Gugliotta. He’s been teaching these “group private” lessons ever since he arrived at Killington in 2004. Gugliotta is 39 and has two kids of his own, but he looks more like a 25-year-old. He was the head snowboard coach at the Killington Ski Club and is a AASI level IV instructor who teaches others how to teach. I feel like we’re in good hands. Gugliotta teaches group private lessons for all abilities, and sometimes a family will return to him for five or more years as they progress together. “I have one family of four where the dad is the highest level, learning different rotations on jumps,” Gugliotta says. “The two girls are also at the park level. And their mom is an Olympic silver-medalist diver, and she is actually the most risk-averse one in the family. So that’s a really cool dynamic.” SINCE WE ARE BEGINNERS, Gugliotta takes a different approach: it’s all about getting us comfortable on our boards. By “comfort” Gugliotta means we should be relaxed and unafraid. “It means, if I don’t try too hard and don’t think too much, I just relax and focus on where I’m going and feel in control,” he says. Becoming comfortable builds the foundation for everything else we might learn. And it will allow us to feel better about falling down, later on, when we need to take more risks to improve. “The beginner leskillington.com

son is where it’s my responsibility to get you hooked on the sport and feel in control,” he says. We walk out to the base of the Snowshed learning slope, where the temperature is 45 degrees and the snow is supple and forgiving. Gugliotta teaches us how to kneel down and put our boards on, and then we slide slowly over to the magic carpet on the left side of the hill, a wide and gentle decline that seems perfect for playing with gravity. It’s steep enough to draw us downhill, but not intimidating at all. AT THE TOP OF THE HILL, we get our first lesson on how to coexist peacefully with a snowboard. It’s called the “neutral stance,” and it represents the evolution of snowboard instruction to a more enlightened yoga-like practice. In snowboarding’s adolescent phase, instructors focused on teaching people how to steer, pivot, edge and twist: basically turning and stopping. Learning the neutral stance is more elemental. It’s about being able to stand still on your board with your heels flat in your boots while pressuring your toes—call it the “rock pose” because it’s very stable. all aboard 33

You want to be as proactive and prepared as you can be, which translates to your balance and skill.

“All the maneuvers we do stem from pressuring,” Gugliotta says, “but if you’re fighting your balance, you’ll be lifting up your heels and grabbing at the snow with your toes, just doing anything you can to stay in control.” Learning the neutral stance begins with facing uphill (“toe side”) and using foot pressure to slip downhill and stop in a series of short movements. You keep your head up and stay aware of your surroundings. We spend a few minutes practicing and then Gugliotta tells us to pick a landmark on the side of the trail to slide toward. Ideally, we’re pressuring our boots and looking to where we want to go, and the rest just sort of happens. “Snowboarding is so much about movement, where you’re going,” he says. “If you’re looking farther down the hill, you will be able to process a lot more than if you’re looking at the ground or your snowboard. You want to be as proactive and prepared as you can be, which translates to your balance and skill.”

34 all aboard

I give it a try, letting off the toe-side brake and allowing gravity to pull me down. I notice Agnes doing the same thing. Arms out for balance, heads up, we both seem to get it. We move slowly across the hill and then pressure our toes to stop before going too far. Brian, on the other hand, is not following along. I see him up the hill lying down in the snow. He came out here, but he’s not into it. Gugliotta sees that Agnes and I are making progress, and he goes over to Brian to offer some encouragement. Brian finally stands and grudgingly moves across the hill.

gnes and I do a few more laps on our toe side before switching to our heel side. We practice the same drill, pressuring our heels hard and soft to control the force of gravity. Brian waits at the bottom, using his snowboard as a sled (against the rules!) and waiting impatiently for us to finish. I’m having fun re-acquainting myself with these movements I did so long ago. But it’s even more fun to see Agnes find her balance and grace—the joy of a new skill—and flow down the mountain with a hint of the freedom that skiers and riders all hunger for. In the car on the way home, I’m just waiting for Agnes to needle Brian about her superior snowboarding skills. But she never does. Maybe those lessons on the neutral stance had something to do with it.

killington.com

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photos by Justin Cash

Killington implements sustainability initiatives across the resort

by Jesse Huffman

hat’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about winter in Killington? No doubt, it’s snow. Whether you’re chasing powder or freshly groomed corduroy, everything hinges on temperatures dropping low enough for Mother Nature and Killington’s snowmakers to coat the trails and parks in a white, wintry blanket.

Here’s the not-so-good news: climate change is real, and it’s already threatening the length and stability of our snowy season. But there’s good news: everyone from the mountain operations staff to the folks at POWDR Corp, Killington’s parent company, is working together to make sure winter doesn’t go anywhere.

You can trace this ethos back to POWDR’s founder, John Cumming. From a young age, Cumming was immersed in mountain environments as a skier and then a professional mountain guide. And he realized that the places he loved most needed protecting. He was first in

36 green is good

Justin Cash

green it like you mean it the ski industry to hire a dedicated sustainability director, and he pushed for the industry’s first major study on climate change’s impact on ski resorts. Across all of the company’s resorts, Play Forever initiatives represent POWDR’s commitment to defending these playgrounds, creating sustainable solutions and inspiring participation.

From investing in solar arrays and highly efficient Low-E guns, to implementing a broad recycling program and rolling out New England’s largest EV charging station, Killington is pursuing sustainability with a passion. These efforts are collaborative—innovations at Killington are shared and implemented at other POWDR resorts and vice versa. Here’s how it plays out on the ground.

JOHN CUMMING realized that the places he loved most needed protecting. He was first in the ski industry to hire a dedicated sustainability director, and he pushed for the industry’s first major study on climate change’s impact on ski resorts.

killington.com

Sunny Side Up

f you’ve driven up one of the interstates to Killington recently, you’ve likely noticed solar arrays spreading across Vermont’s green (or white, in winter) fields. These days, getting power from the sun has become as iconic and widespread as milking cows. The reason is simple: solar is the single biggest source of free energy available. Consider a few heady facts, courtesy of the U.S. Department of Energy. Every hour the sun hits us with 430-quintillion joules of energy—that’s 430 with 18 zeroes after it. In 2013, the average American home used 39-billion joules of energy. See the potential?

Back on earth, if you travel Route 100 to Killington’s Skyeship Base Lodge, you’ll see a solar tracker array, one of several installed around the resort. Together with four off-site solar farms, Killington’s commitment to solar energy now nets the resort 3,000,000 kWh of electricity per year, approximately 10 percent of the annual power usage at Killington and sister resort, Pico. “It starts in the spirit of stewardship—that’s where our values lie here at the resort,” explains Eric Vachon, Killington’s Purchasing & Sustainability Manager. “Running a resort is a very energy-intensive proposition.

We’ve come to know that because, before anyone else checked us, we did a self-check, and said, ‘Let’s do an energy audit.’”

Killington’s energy audit pointed toward what efficiency enthusiasts like to call the “low hanging” fruit—the parts of the system that are easiest to change and deliver the biggest energy savings. It started with simple measures like updating inefficient lighting and appliances and installing automatic, wireless temperature control gauges. Yet at every resort on the East Coast, the largest and highest hanging fruit is snowmaking. Opening on time and staying open into spring means turning on the snowmaking equipment at the earliest opportunity. It also means stockpiling snow when the weather is cooperative.

“We’re looking at solar power as a ski resort,” Vachon says. “As winters have changed, there’s now a huge dependency on snowmaking rather than Mother Nature, which takes a lot of power. We’ve come to the realization that we need to offset that in a sustainable manner, and solar is a big part of that push.” In the past, Killington and many other energy-intensive businesses have purchased “renewable energy credits,” or RECs, which amount to a stake in a sustainability project like a wind farm or tropical tree plantation to offset a portion of total energy consumption. But as Killington’s view of energy usage matured, the resort decided to invest in fewer RECs and purchase electricity directly from solar farms—energy that goes straight into operations.

“We wanted to make a direct connection with our sustainability initiatives and take on more responsibility for reducing our consumption,” Vachon says. “It goes back to our core values—resort-wide, we’re looking into every area where we can conserve our output or our intake of energy.”

Low Energy, High Output

or decades, the soundtrack to opening day at Killington has been the roar of snowmaking guns. From the chairlifts, spectators watch snowmaking teams drag hoses around and position guns to perform a magical, if deafening, alchemy—producing snow when none is falling from the sky. At night, snow cats spread the harvest around the trails to build up the base, the underlying snowpack that serves as winter’s bedrock.

Chandler Burgess

The strategy may be the same, but with the introduction of Low-E— low energy—snow guns, the sound of snowmaking is a decidedly different tune. Not only are Low-E guns nearly whisper-quiet, but according to Jeff Temple, Killington’s Director of Mountain Operations and Facilities Maintenance, in optimal conditions, you can run 40 of them on the same amount of compressed air as a single older snow gun. Vachon credits Efficiency Vermont’s snow-gun roundup program, which incentivized trading in older guns, as the catalyst for installing 1,400 LowE units. Now, those lower-energy guns account for 72 percent of Killington’s snowmaking hours. killington.com

“From an environmental standpoint, we’ve got global temperature change happening,” Vachon says. “More snowmaking requires us to use more natural resources. We’re taking the initiative now to get ahead of that—and if you have an efficient snow gun on the other end, you’re using both less power and less water.”

To put that in energy savings, Temple notes that Low-E guns have enabled the resort to save over a billion cubic feet of compressed air in one season. As the resort pushes toward further investments in low-energy technology, he also says they still keep a full “toolbox” of snow-gun types and styles that may be more applicable in certain times of the season or during certain types of weather conditions. The future is already here, and it’s pretty cool—the Low-E designs allow for quicker realtime adjustments and even remote control. The result is the snow coverage and quality that’s made Killington legendary, with energy savings that are starting to take a big bite out of the resort’s carbon footprint.

green is good 37

Trash Talk

“We’re of the mindset that any single-use plastic that comes from petroleum just sits in the waste stream and is bad for the environment,” Vachon says. “Looking at the full cycle, from the supply chain all the way down, these consumables cost extra money, take more resources and then go into the landfill after that. It’s a double negative, and we’re trying to reverse that equation here.”

At Killington, Vachon and teams across the resort are rolling out recycling initiatives to serve food exclusively in recycled paper bowls and plates, eliminate plastic straws and more. Compost is carted away by Grow Compost, a Killington-area partner. New signage points guests to the benefits of recycling wherever they can. It’s not just food services, either—recycling remains a cornerstone of waste management across the resort, from lodging to the administrative offices.

“We have a chance to showcase how a company can be sustainable and address conservation in every aspect.” — eric

vachon

Purchasing & Sustainability Manager Justin Cash

olar arrays and snow guns might be the splashy heroes of sustainability, out there in the public, looking shiny and saving electricity. But recycling can also add up to big savings, and Killington has been ramping up their program, diverting 160 tons of waste from the landfill in 2017, up from 109 tons in 2011.

According to a Brigham Young University study, recycling trash costs $30 per ton on average, versus $50 a ton to send it to the landfill and up to $75 a ton to incinerate. Of course, the United States as a whole is not recycling all that we could and, if we did, diverting all those recyclables could save upwards of $7 billion. Recycling also cuts down on the gasses that are driving climate change. According to Environmental Protection Agency statistics, 89-million tons of municipal solid waste were recycled and composted in 2014, equaling an annual reduction of more than 181-million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. That’s roughly the equivalent of saving the annual emissions from more than 38-million passenger cars. “Changing people’s minds makes a big difference,” says Matt Poli, Killington Financial Coordinator, Mountain Operations and Facilities Maintenance. “If we can get people thinking about the environment in all aspects of their life, that will help change the world in our own little way.” Vachon adds that with guests traveling from Boston, New York and beyond, Killington is positioned to make a unique statement about preserving the environments in which we all play.

“We feel strongly that recycling can create a big impact,” he says. “We have a chance to showcase how a company can be sustainable and address conservation in every aspect—we are trying to be stewards of our own area and demonstrate to the public what can and should be done.”

38 green is good

killington.com

John D. Cumming lights a match Interview by Mike Horn

john d cumming

killington.com

n an era when the ski resort industry is consolidating ownership at an unprecedented rate, independence takes on a deeper meaning. For POWDR, parent company of Killington Resort and Pico Mountain since 2007, remaining independent is as much about business operations as it is about executing a vision that fosters community and a healthy environment. ¶ POWDR chairman and founder John D. Cumming was seemingly born to lead, whether guiding clients in the mountains or companies like Mountain Hardwear and POWDR to impressive heights. Cumming cofounded iconic outerwear brand Mountain Hardwear in 1992 (it officially launched in 1993), and he was deeply involved with the company through 2003. ¶ Raised in Utah, Cumming still lives in Park City with his family. I spoke with him recently to learn about his lifelong passion for the mountains, the $25 million in new investments coming to Killington, why the World Cup was the right move and how sustainability is about execution and leading by example. ¶

Stuart Ruckman

Could you talk a little bit about your roots and family history in the mountains? Outside of his work, my father, who raised my brother and me, was an outdoorsman. He loved the mountains, and he took us skiing at Alta, and then at Snowbird when it opened. From age three or four and through my teens and young adulthood, the mountains were where our family had a healthy, wholesome, loving, supportive dynamic. My brother, I think, feels the same way, and my father, who recently died, I’m sure felt this way. We skied, we climbed, we explored the outdoors. That was what we did, the three of us together, and that established a deep love of the mountains which influenced my life’s course. From guiding on Mt. Rainier to being a founding shareholder of Mountain Hardwear and later founding POWDR, my whole life has been intertwined with sharing these places and outdoor adventures with people I love. Is it gratifying for you to facilitate these experiences and these same types of memories for other people? Yes. The answer is “YES.” All caps. I am so fortunate to be personally involved in an enduring company that can afford to sustain itself and compete in this weird world. And at the same time, we’re fortunate to be in a position where we can afford to look after these sports and these communities over a long period of time in a patient and thoughtful way. Given the current, we’ll call it “interesting,” state of the ski industry and all the acquisitions and consolidation going on, what makes POWDR unique as

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a company? How does it stand apart and how does that trickle down to Killington? POWDR is one of the last standing independents and this means we are in a position to take a wide view on protecting and preserving the communities we serve for the long haul. This includes Killington, where we feel good about our ability to continue to incrementally improve the mountain experience over time. Killington is a special place with an incredibly dedicated community of skiers. From the standpoint of weather alone, it can be five below zero while sleeting, then everything is covered in an inch of ice, and then it can pour two inches of rain, and after our guests drive through that, they ski in it. Despite these types of challenges, Killington is the best mountain in the East by far, so when the opportunity arose to dive into that, the answer was only “yes.” Killington is an amazing place to ski. It’s gigantic. It’s a good location. It’s got an amazing snowmaking system that is among the best in the industry. Not to mention, Mike [Solimano] and his team are some of the best managers in the business—forged by fire, if you will, or forged by rain and ice storms. Our goal at Killington is to maintain the legacy of Pres Smith [who founded Killington in 1958], who absolutely changed the world of skiing. Pres was passionate, smart, direct. He was a mountain guy. He was a leader. He created a community around this amazing place and when I met him years ago, I was inspired by him. We consider it our honor and responsibility to take a long view and maintain his legacy and the phenomenal Killington mountain experience.

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“My whole life has been intertwined with SHARING THESE PLACES and OUTDOOR ADVENTURES with people I love.”

How and why did Killington come to have a World Cup ski race in the first place? Some said it was crazy to host the event, but I believe strongly in New England skiing. Despite it being arguably the most dedicated skier community in the world, and the largest skier market in the world, I found myself continually attempting to legitimize the experience relative to the global ski market. I knew that we needed to do something big that would further validate Killington and build awareness of all it offers: earlier and later access than anyone in the market, the best snowmaking around, outstanding terrain, big East Coast skiing and more. This, combined with the confidence that the community would absolutely appreciate an international skiing event, made hosting the World Cup a simple solution. I knew that all of this stuff brought together was a way for me to quit cursing the darkness and do something about it. The expression my dad used to always say is, “John, don’t curse the darkness. Light a match.” Idealistic as it sounds, that’s why we did it, and I think it has served its purpose. It’s put Killington on the map, and we’ve now extended our commitment to the event. If you haven’t been, check it out. It’s a great party, and it’s going to become even more like a festival over time. It’s good for New England skiing, which is good for Killington. It’s good for North American skiing. It’s good for the Women’s World Cup circuit. It’s everybody who competes’ favorite event of the year. When I learned of the $25 million in investments coming to Killington beginning summer 2018, the first thing that leapt out at me was the emphasis on improving the onmountain experience. Why was that the focus, rather than things that are less about the experience and more about other services? I mean, that’s how we roll, man. I don’t know how else to answer it. We’re not real estate developers—never have been, never will be. The highest leverage that we have on the community as a whole is by making our mountain experience the best version of itself it can be. We mean that, and we think the raw material at Killington is, as I said, already bar none, and for us it’s just been a matter of getting ourselves into a position where we could invest more in the mountain without having those investments destabilize the enduring aspects of the company. The trick is to be patient, and that’s something I learned climbing in the mountains. If there is one attribute that you need more than any other in the mountains, it’s patience. You’ve got to take your windows when they come, right? You can’t force the ascent. We’ve been improving Killington in a million ways for a really long time. There’ve been a lot of unseen spends just to keep up on operations, and that took a while, especially when you’re trying to create an enduring company that can look after the resort as a community asset for generations to come. Now, here we are, where the significant foundational work is well underway. The company is strong. It’s growing. And the moves we’ve made 42

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to make Killington the best version of itself are paying off, and it’s time to do what we’ve aspired to do from the beginning, which is make the onmountain experience better. The $25 million that we’re spending is hopefully the beginning of more good work to come. There’s a lot of momentum behind mountain biking at Killington—from trail building to events. Why is mountain biking a good fit for the resort? Supporting our mountain communities is one of the most important things we can do. We care for these places. And the people who come and live in central Vermont are into skiing, and they’re into mountain biking, and they’re into hiking, and maybe they’re into fishing, golf and rafting, too. We need to provide whatever aspects of that lifestyle we can, and the ski resort has some of the best mountain biking terrain you’re ever going to find, and we have the uphill transportation. Mountain biking is in an upcycle for sure, and it affords us an opportunity to keep people employed in the summer and keep the villages activated, keep the communities vibrant and support the lifestyle. It’s a no-brainer. It’s fun too, right? Was there a singular moment that really drove you to make sustainability a priority for POWDR and for your personal life, also? Or a tipping point, so to speak? I was freaking out about climate change in the mid-’90s, and I’m still freaking out about climate change, but I was lamenting the fact that this could really upset something very personally important to me—our ability to enjoy the outdoors for generations to come. I worried about it, and I spent sleepless nights thinking about it. After I talked to some people who helped and inspired me, it all kind of congealed into actions, which I felt like I could take as an individual and through POWDR to sort of, in some tiny way, address climate change. At POWDR, we started taxing ourselves one percent of our revenue for Play Forever sustainability projects. I started doing things personally, including starting a community supported agriculture (CSA) co-op farm (Copper Moose Farm) to deliver wholesome products into my community, and we did all kinds of little and big things. We did everything we could think of to express the kind of actions that I hoped to inspire the rest of the world to undertake. It’s a continuous effort though. We feel good about our progress, and I hope in some small, incremental way, it might influence others. What type of environmental legacy do you hope POWDR will leave behind? It’s all about being stewards of these communities. It really is. We are investing in our business, and we think we’re creating longterm franchise value by being good shepherds of our sport, being good shepherds of our community and being good shepherds of our environment. We’re doing the best we can to make ourselves and our environment enduring and sustainable in every element. killington.com

“We think we’re creating longterm franchise value by being good shepherds “If there is one attribute that you more than anycommunity other in the mounof our sport, being goodneed shepherds of our and being GOOD tains, it’s PATIENCE.” SHEPHERDS of our ENVIRONMENT.”

Justin Cash

“My dad always said, ‘John, don’t curse the darkness. LIGHT A MATCH.’”

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Randy McGuiness

Randy McGuiness is passionate about his winter job as team leader at Killington’s Bear Mountain. But there’s another love in his life that tugs on his heartstrings. Fly fishing. He’s been guiding

interviews by Mike Horn What’s your background at Killington? I started Killington in 1982, in high school, parking cars. So I’m gonna say by 1985 I was lift attendant over here at Bear Mountain and it grew on me. Now I’m the team leader in Lift Operations of the Bear Mountain area. I just never looked back. I love it over here. How long have you been a fly fishing guide? I’ve been an Orvis endorsed fly fishing guide since 1992. I run my own business, McGuiness Guide Service. After 28 years I’ve developed quite a clientele. I honestly don’t feel like I’ve gone to work one day in the summer for I don’t know how many years. I enjoy the company and the camaraderie and teaching people new things. Over the years, it’s been fun to teach folks to fish and have them call you again and want to go back out and learn more. I’ve had numbers of children that were eight, nine years old when I started guiding them with their father. Now they’re on Wall Street and they bring their buddies up and we go fishing. It’s just fun. And it doesn’t seem like a job though I’m getting paid.

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The Life Aquatic

for nearly three decades, and rarely misses a day on the water’ whether he’s working or not. And he loves to talk fishing.

photos by Justin Cash What’s it like putting somebody on their first fish? All of the sudden the line will go tight or they’ll see the fish actually rise and take the fly if we’re fishing dry flies. They set the hook and...if you’re not hooked on fly fishing at that point, I don’t think you ever will be. It’s fun to see the look on their face and watch them shaking when they finally land the fish. I’d rather be fishing. That’s pretty much how the whole thing got started as far as guide. What’s your favorite time of year to fish? I love the second week of September. People are gonna call me crazy, but I love that week. The ideal time to fish is obviously June for the normal person. But for me it’s the end of the second week of September. What is unique about Vermont fly fishing in general compared to other places? Well for starters, the fish are in the small-to medium-size range. An 18inch fish is a trophy. We’ll get that out of the way. And it’s the environ-

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“ Vermont’s a beautiful place to begin with. Put yourself in a trout stream in the middle of nowhere and it just makes it even prettier.”

ment. You’ve got the lush green hills. You can get lost on an old dirt road on a small mountain stream and never see a soul all day long, and be in a place that’s got tumbling water with boulders and canopy that’s nice and green and beautiful. And obviously as it changes seasons, you get your colors. Vermont’s a beautiful place to begin with. Put yourself in a trout stream in the middle of nowhere and it just makes it even prettier. Do you like the exploration part of it? Finding new places? That’s my ideal day. Matter of fact, 90 percent of my full-day trips, I’ll take

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them somewhere bigger in the morning, where they’ll have an opportunity to catch a large fish. And then usually we’ll break for lunch and then we’ll head to the mountains and “Get out of Dodge,” as I call it, and enjoy an afternoon in the peace and quiet with a bunch of willing, wild little fish that want to eat. Do you fish on your days off? Yes. I do. That’s my passion. I mean, fly fishing is my passion—fishing as a whole always has been. I didn’t miss a single day of ice fishing this winter until I fell through the ice the other day. I thought I’d better stop.

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Karen Dalury

A master of many disciplines, Karen Dalury spends much of her time sharing her knowledge and passion with others. During the ski season sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an alpine/telemark ski instructor. Off mountain,

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The Balancing Act

Dalury owns and operates Killington Yoga. She teaches Stand Up Paddleboard lessons in the summer, too. Dalury took a break between powder days this winter to teach us a lesson or three.

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“ I’m living the dream here in Vermont and doing what I love to do.”

Let’s talk about Killington Yoga and how it came to be. I’ve been teaching yoga for quite a while now and always worked at other places. When we put an addition on our house 12 years ago, we had some extra space and decided to try opening a studio here. It’s now in its 11th season and it’s going great. It’s a homey, small studio that fits about 15 people comfortably, and I do most of the work myself. I teach a class just about every day and lots of private lessons. It’s pretty awesome. I sit right here and drink my tea and when the students start pulling in, I go upstairs. What kind of atmosphere do you try to create in the space? I tell jokes all the way through class and try to get them to relax and be present and enjoy the experience of learning more about themselves. What originally attracted you to yoga? I was in college and it was the spiritual aspect that interested me first. Later on, with having children and experiencing back pain here and there, that’s when the physical part became so important. I think most people start with the physical and realize the mental benefits later. For me, it was opposite. You’re an instructor in several different realms, from alpine and telemark skiing to yoga and Stand Up Paddleboarding. Why do you like teaching others? I think it just really comes naturally. It’s been an opportunity to just really do what I love. I had the nine-to-five job there for about 20 years. It was OK, I liked my job, but what I do now is just fabulous. I get to turn people on to things that I love and see the smile on their face. How does yoga benefit other sports? Yoga helps you focus your mind. When you’re in the zone, things click.

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Mind, body, attention, focus, coordination, balance: they’re all connected no matter the sport. Do you get a lot of gratification out of seeing people have those “ahha” moments when they finally “get it”? Absolutely. That’s just wonderful. You see someone who’s feeling like they can’t handle moguls—maybe they’re even a little afraid. The next thing you know, two hours later, they’ve got a big smile on their face after skiing a long, blue bump run. It’s pretty awesome. I’m lucky to be able to share that. What do you value about the Vermont lifestyle and sense of community? It’s a great place to live. It’s small enough, so you pretty much know everyone who lives here full-time. Working for the mountain, it’s quite a family and community. I’m a part-timer at the mountain, but still I’ve been here long enough [15 years] that I do feel included and it’s wonderful. This community comes together in very interesting ways. One of the things I think I love about Vermont in general is that everyone has their privacy. We’re known for being a little avant-garde as far as rights and so forth go, so people tend to mind their own business. But when you need help, they come together. The outpouring of support for anybody who’s in trouble is just amazing around here. It all sounds like the makings for a pretty idyllic life…. I’m living the dream here in Vermont and doing what I love to do. I think anybody who knows me will probably say I’m an inspiration. I’m 62 years old and I’m still out there kicking it on the racecourse and skiing the bumps and having a good time.

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Jason Pelkey Jasen Pelkey’s hometown of Barre, VT also happens to be home to Thunder Road, Vermont’s premier racetrack. It’s an unlikely hotbed for auto racing, but racing has been part of Pelkey’s family for three

Mountain Horsepower generations. Racing cars is literally in his blood, and when he’s not working as a tech in Killington’s Sign Shop or snowboarding during lunch break, he’s getting ready for the next race.

“The feeling of being behind the wheel in front of a crowd…it’s hard to find the words for it.”

How long have you and your family been into racing? It started before I was even born. My dad and a lot of his brothers raced, and my grandfather was really into it along with a lot of other people in my family. When I turned 13, I started racing in a kids’ truck division in Woodstock, New Hampshire at White Mountain Motorsports Park. My cousin Chris and I both raced in the same division until we turned 16. He went on to race at our hometown track in Barre, called Thunder Road, and I took a leave of absence from racing and focused a little bit more on school. I got back into racing last year. It was my rookie season, and I got my first win, which was super exciting, and I got a handful of top tens and a couple top fives as well. It couldn’t be more fun…the feeling of being behind the wheel in front of a crowd…it’s hard to find the words for it. Can you describe the intensity? It’s obviously super exciting, especially right before you’re about to go out on the track. There’s anywhere between 500 to 2,000 people on any given week, especially on a weekend where there’s a big event. Just the thought that you’re gonna go out and perform with 12 to 25 other cars in front of that many people, it’s a really overwhelming feeling. It gives you the jitters, you know? What kind of car are you racing now? At Thunder Road, they call them the “Tiger Sportsmen.” They are built on early ‘80s Monte Carlo chassis, with 350 or 602 crate motors. 48

jason

It must be pretty cool to have it be something that’s part of your family’s legacy and to keep carrying on the tradition. Oh, definitely. If it wasn’t for my family, I wouldn’t be in this sport today. Do you have a crew to work on the car? Yeah, a lot of family members and friends help me work on the car. Usually, I’ll leave Killington and drive back to Barre, which is about an hour and 10-minute drive, just to go and work on the car. I’ll work on it with my dad and my uncle and my cousins and some friends for about four hours. I’ll get there around 6 pm and around 9 or 10 pm I’ll make the trip back to Killington for work for the next day. We race once a week, every week in the summer. I’ll run that routine three to four times a week. It’s definitely a lot of miles going back and forth between Barre and Killington. Where do you want to take your racing from here? I’m having a lot of fun doing what I’m doing. As far as moving up divisions and going forward racing, it’s a very expensive sport. It would be great to still be racing five years from now. The tricky part will be financing it. Do you see any parallels between snowboarding and racing? Definitely. I’m more of a glades rider, so finding lines through the trees is always fun. And when you’re out on the track, the best line is the fastest way to the finish. killington.com

“There is something about the mountain environment that I’ve always been drawn to.”

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The Xfinity Killington Cup Brings Olympic Gate Judges to the Races

ast November, as the sun kissed the snow on Superstar and cast shadows down the hill behind the World Cup giant slalom gate panels, EDIE THYS MORGAN thought, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a really great day to be a ski racer.â&#x20AC;?

Not that she was racing. The two-time Olympian was at Killington in a new role: to serve as a gate judge for the Audi FIS Ski World Cup slalom and giant slalom (GS) races. And she was not the only dignitary acting in this role. She joined seven other Olympians and alpine skiing celebrities, including Olympic gold medalist BARBARA ANN COCHRAN, along the racecourses on Superstar. Their job? To disqualify any of the World Cup skiers who miss or straddle a gate in the competition.

by Peggy Shinn

pecifically, a gate judge’s job is to make sure every racer’s boots and ski tips pass each pole in slalom or panel in the GS on the turn side of the gate. Gate judges were once referred to as gatekeepers. But that term implies maintenance, and at the World Cup, that job is left to the course crew.

“I don’t think I need to explain the concept of correct passage to you,” head gate judge Kim Brown noted wryly as he addressed the group before last year’s World Cup GS. Chief of Race CHUCK HUGHES hatched the idea for using Olympians as gate judges before the first Killington World Cup in 2016. He needed 10 to 12 gate judges for both the slalom and GS, so he thought, “OK, hmm. Who do I have here in Vermont?”

by Peggy Shinn killington.com

photos by Justin Cash world cup 51

The Cochran clan came to mind—Marilyn, Barbara Ann, Bobby and Lindy, known as the “Skiing Cochrans” in the late 1960s and early 1970s when they were winning World Cups and Olympic medals. MARILYN COCHRAN BROWN was happy to help. The first American skier to win a World Cup title— the giant slalom crown, which she clinched at New Hampshire’s Waterville Valley World Cup in 1969— Marilyn often works at ski races, usually as a start or finish referee. “When I did the Olympics, I said I am never going to go back to an Olympics unless I’m an athlete, coach or someone that can be inside the fence,” she said. Marilyn’s younger siblings had a different response when Hughes called. Despite her Olympic gold medal (slalom at the 1972 Olympic Winter Games) and many international wins, BARBARA ANN COCHRAN—the mother of 2018 Olympian Ryan Cochran-Siegle—was nervous that she would not be able to determine if someone straddled a gate because World Cup skiers are so fast. Bobby Cochran and Lindy Cochran Kelley, 1972 and 1976 Olympians, respectively, had a similar concern. “I told Chuck there’s no way I can be a gate judge at a World Cup,” Bobby said. “I’ll make all kinds of mistakes and be sworn out in about 12 different languages.” Hughes assured them that the job would be fairly easy. Skiers at this level usually know when they have made a mistake, and video would serve as a backup. Once he had the Cochrans, Hughes knew he had a theme. “Let’s stay with U.S. SKI TEAM alumni as much as I can,” he thought. Almost everyone he called was eager, if a bit nervous, to help.

“ I’ll make all kinds of mistakes and be sworn out in about 12 different languages.” “You can’t say no to that!” said Thys Morgan, who competed in the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Winter Games and then became a writer for SKI Magazine and Ski Racing. Hughes also invited LESLIE LEETE SMITH, whose father, Preston Leete Smith, founded Killington. She had always dreamed of bringing a World Cup to Killington and had already volunteered to help the race organizers. With her experience—five seasons racing for the U.S. Ski Team on the World Cup tour in the 1970s, plus the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria—Leete Smith was a shoo-in for a gate-judge job. She just needed “a little refresher course” to make sure she was up on any new rules. “The gates are a little different [than when I was racing],” she said, referring to the bamboo poles used prior to the invention of plastic “breakaway” gates, with a hinged joint at the base. “But it’s the same principle.” Hughes called on KIM BROWN to serve as head gate judge. From Stowe, Brown has officiated at other big alpine races, including NCAA Championships and other World Cups. Brown was excited to meet HARRY “REBEL” RYAN, whom Brown remembered racing at Stowe in the 1960s when Ryan was 18. In that race, Ryan beat everyone but newly minted Olympic medalist Billy Kidd. Ryan went on to make the 1968 Olympic Team. He also finished on the podium at such storied races as Italy’s Bormio downhill and Switzerland’s Adelboden GS.

Barbara Ann Cochran

Other skiing dignitaries at Killington included Joan Barthold (nee Crane), who competed for the U.S. Ski Team in the late 1970s and was named Masters Skier of the Year in 1988 and 1989; and Steve Kelley, Lindy’s husband and father of World Cup skiers Jessica, Tim and Robby Kelley. Despite their decades of racing, coaching and working at races (but usually in other roles besides gatekeeping), the all-star gate judges felt nervous. “We were all on pins and needles,” Brown acknowledged. “Am I going to have to disqualify Mikaela Shiffrin because she straddled?” Any remaining nerves were trumped by memories once the crew put on their green “gate judge” bibs and skied out to the racecourses. “Getting on the chairlift this morning, I was having butterflies thinking about, ‘Oh, I do miss this,’” Bobby Cochran said. Once the races started, the roaring crowd carried Bobby back to 1973 in Kitzbühel, Austria, often considered the center of the universe for alpine skiing. It’s home to the Hahnenkamm, the most famous men’s downhill in the world. Every year, tens of thousands of rabid ski-racing fans show up to cheer—and to drink. In 1973, Bobby won the combined title (downhill and slalom) at Kitzbühel.

Leslie Leete Smith

Marilyn Cochran Brown Edie Thys Morgan

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The spirit of the ski community and the event is encapsulated in this crew.â&#x20AC;?

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t Killington, Bobby could not only hear the thousands of cheering fans, but he could feel it. “It’s an unbelievable feeling,” he said. “And I only remember hearing and feeling that in Kitzbühel and in Switzerland, in the big European races. I hadn’t heard or felt that since then. It’s the coolest feeling.” The Killington World Cup took Leete Smith back four decades to a race in what was then Yugoslavia. She raced on a pitch much like the final headwall on Superstar, now called Preston’s Pitch in honor of her dad. The snow was firm—much like the snow blown on Superstar for the World Cup—and Leete Smith was the top American that day. It was the race

that put her on the 1976 Olympic team. “It was one of the toughest races I was in,” she said. Thys Morgan was impressed by the attitude of everyone at Killington. In her World Cup days, she remembered encountering surly officials. “There was always some Euro barking at you, intimidating you,” she remembered. “It’s a World Cup venue, and things were chop chop. But at Killington, everyone was very friendly.” When asked if her gate-judging role reminded her of any run-ins with officials during her ski-racing days, Barbara Ann Cochran had to think. With a sunny disposition, she is not the type to stir up controversy. But she remembered a junior race at Pico when she was about 15 or 16 years old. Back in the 1960s, ski races were hand timed, and Barbara Ann finished eight seconds ahead of her closest competitor in the first slalom run. But the timer thought he had read the time wrong and added 10 seconds to her first-run time. “I knew he was wrong,” she said. “So I said, ‘I guess I’ll have to make up 10 seconds on the second run.” AND SHE ALMOST DID, finishing second in the race and only a couple of seconds out of first place. Later, she started a conversation with a race referee and told him to keep an eye out for her grandson, Charlie Brown.

For THYS MORGAN, who now writes a well-read blog, Racer eX, for young ski racers and their parents, her fond memories of ski racing faded when the sun disappeared before the second run of last year’s GS. With each racer, the clouds grew darker and darker, and rain began to spit from the sky. “The course was getting torn up a little bit, and I was thinking of the racers up there [waiting] for their second run,” she said. “That part came back to me. That was not fun.” She was impressed when Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, the last skier during the second run, still had the fastest time, even with the challenging conditions. The German took the GS win, 0.67 seconds ahead of Shiffrin.

“He said, ‘I only do women’s races,’” Marilyn said with a laugh. “His nose was pretty much up in the air.”

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Edie Thys Morgan

The spirit of the ski community and the event is encapsulated in this crew. killington.com

“That was impressive because it definitely got harder and harder,” Thys Morgan said. “Every moment that went by it got darker and harder and wetter.” But mostly, Thys Morgan was impressed with her fellow gate judges for their enthusiasm and commitment to ski racing. “The spirit of the ski community and the event is encapsulated in this crew,” said Thys Morgan, who wore a Killington World Cup temporary tattoo on her cheek. “These people just love to be out there and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else on race day but right on the side of the course.”

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Mountains of Rock

From hair bands to house bands, Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s music history is speckled with stars and soul

Chandler Burgess

by Mike Horn

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What do Ray Charles, Snoop Dogg, The Allman Brothers, Jewel, Blue Oyster Cult, Phish, Neil Young, Bret Michaels, Eddie Money and Cake have in common? Give up? They’ve all played in Killington at one time or another, some more than once. The lineup of national acts that have played Killington ranges from surprising to downright shocking. An impromptu late-night set played by James Taylor and Carly Simon at the Mountain Inn? Yeah, that happened. Hordes of female fans fighting to get on Bret Michaels’ tour bus outside the Pickle Barrel? That happened, too. The list of legendary (and unspeakable) acts is long and colorful. Given Killington’s raucous reputation, none of it should come as a surprise. Resort founder Pres Smith made music and entertainment a priority from the beginning, and that legacy remains one of the key pillars of the Killington experience. Our research into Killington’s music history and culture led us down another rabbit hole where we learned about the musicians who post up in Killington for months or even years at a time. Here they found a community, steady work and a built-in audience of people who come to the mountains to escape the rat race and party like it’s 1999. These acts—from Frank Chase to Duane Carleton to Joey Leone—could play anywhere, but at one time or another they’ve called Killington home. They’ve been accompanied by many others who’ve set the tone for decades of happy hours and nights that carried on long after last call. They’ve also become integral to the community, creating the soundtrack for the best of times and the tough times, too. Between the musicians and the bartenders working behind the scenes, we heard enough stories to fill a book. Here are some of the highlights from six decades of live music in Killington.

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The Human Jukebox | Duane Carleton

how long have you been playing around killington? My first official Killington gig was The Inn at Long Trail in 1980. Over the years I’ve played pretty much every place that has live music in Killington at one time or another. Over the course of my entire playing career, I gotta be somewhere in the realm of 7,000 lifetime gigs. how has being born and raised in vermont, and living there to this day, influenced your style? In my original music, I’ve written a lot about the struggles of farmers, because I had personal knowledge of people that were having hard times. And I’ve written about what it’s like growing up in a small town…pretty much everywhere in Vermont is a small town.

Chandler Burgess

A Killington fixture since 1980, Duane Carleton lives and breathes live music. His shows in Killington and around the region keep him on the move. During our interview he admitted to being a little foggy after getting home at 4 a.m. from a gig in New York. Despite being a little road weary, Carleton offered plenty of insights on a life built around music.

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n a different note, when trouble occurs, Rutland and Killington are really strong communities that come together in those kinds of situations, and the music scene always is connected with that. One of the great gigs that happened in Killington is when Donny Gray, a drummer who used to play with Frank Chase, had an embolism, kind of like a stroke. This was a guy who was a professional musician, and all of the sudden he couldn’t play for a while. They did a benefit up at Mother Shapiro’s that was phenomenal. It was literally non-stop music all day long, and they raised a ton of money for Donny. It was just one of those super cool days where everybody felt good about doing something for this guy. The other gig that really sticks out for me was when Hurricane Irene hit Killington and cut it off from the rest of the world, made it like an island. You couldn’t really get in or out of Killington or Pittsfield. At the time, I’d played this place in Pittsfield for like 20 years, so I ended up coordinating with a buddy of mine that lived up there, and I hiked over from Chittenden to get to Pittsfield. I played there that night and made my way to Killington. My brother had a hiking store, so he loaned me this pack that my guitar could slide into. I had this huge pack with a guitar up over my head that I hiked over with. It was really cool to go in and play when people’s lives had been so completely disrupted and to try to bring some kind of sense of normalcy. I can’t drive a backhoe, but I figured if I could go in and play some tunes for a few hours, people could try to forget that all their possessions went down the river.

Bob Perry

after 7,000 gigs, what keeps it fresh? what keeps you coming back? I love playing music. It’s really all I’ve ever had a passion for. As far as playing in Killington, what’s not to love? There’s work for a working musician. You’re playing in front of lots of people; you’re meeting lots of different people. I’ve kind of gained this nickname, “The Human Jukebox.” I encourage people to make requests, so it always keeps it interesting and fresh. interacting with the crowd like that must help build your following. does it keep people coming back? You know how bartenders know what a regular customer drinks as soon as they walk in the door? Same thing. I’ll remember that I saw a person a year ago at a happy hour at the K-1 Base Lodge, and they came up and requested the Rolling Stones. A bunch of years ago when I was at The Outback, there was this guy Dave who would come in two or three times a year. The bartender I was working with at the time, he’d have Dave’s beer sliding across the bar right when he walked in the door. During one of his visits, Dave asked me for an older tune that nobody had ever asked me to play, and it stuck in my head. At some point, I knew when he was going to be coming back around. So I learned the tune, and when he walked in the bar, I said, “Hey, Dave, I got something for you,” and I played the song. The guy wrote me a letter afterward. To him, it really meant something. what are some of your most memorable killington shows? I’ve opened for Robert Randolph, Eddie Money, The Fixx, The Smithereens, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Wailers and Toots and the Maytals. I opened for Cake at The Outback. It was right when their music video for “Going the Distance” was coming out. I remember they came out with a big, giant sheet cake and gave everybody a piece.

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When Frank Chase responded to our interview request, he did so from homeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Room 3 on a riverPiano Del Fuego | boat in Oregon. He plays for a couple hundred people a night, which he prefers to the bigger rooms on large cruise lines. After 50 years of playing piano bars around the world, from countries across Europe to New Orleans to cruise boats to Killington, Chase plans to get off the road and the water. And he still reflects fondly on his memorable run at Killington from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

Bob Perry

Frank Chase

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Is there one moment during your time in Killington that rises above the rest? I got the guys at the Mountain Inn to do an album for me; they financed it. So I came up with the idea of putting an old upright piano in the middle of the Killington parking lot with a view of the mountain, and I said, “OK, I’m going to act like I’m playing this piano,” and we doused it with fuel and lit it on fire. That was the cover of the album. No one touched the piano for about a year. It just sat in the middle of the parking lot. I was surprised someone in town didn’t mention that maybe we should get rid of this burnt piano. That was kind of the attitude though. How would you describe the music you were playing back then? I was playing a lot of blues and honky-tonk style in New Orleans, because I was coming out of the French Quarter. I used to play down there quite a bit. Yeah, as I was going along that was all I really played, and I was doing a lot of parodies, you know, just rewrites of songs. It got to be the hangout and then it kind of mushroomed out. I was kind of a stickler then, too, as far as what I was gonna play, but I’ve loosened up quite a bit. I was just banging out blues and boogie and honky-tonk and New Orleans stuff because that’s what I knew.

Bob Perry

Who was coming to see you play? I think my success was due to the Red Clover Ski Club, mostly. There were about three top ski clubs at the time, and the Clover was the elite one, and for some reason they decided that the Mountain Inn was gonna be their new hangout be-

cause it was different. I was not a guitar player—there was a lot of that John Denver and James Taylor-style stuff going on, and I was neither. The first years I played solo, and when I decided I wanted to work with a drummer, I was lucky enough to find Donny Gray. From that third year on he was the only one I worked with up there.

Did the music and party scene go hand in hand? FC: In those days it really ramped up quite a bit. It went from happy hour until close, and then on weekends a lot of people would go to the Kings Four for the breakfast that started around 2 a.m., and you could see some really weird locals or skiers come by trying to make it through that breakfast.

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t was so wide open that there wasn’t a chance that you were going to get in trouble for having too many in those days. For a non-skier I certainly enjoyed it. I always had this fear of falling and cracking a thumb or a wrist and not being able to play, so I just enjoyed the après. I would go out for happy hours, play at night, stay up most of the night and hang out. I would go to other places all the time when I could. My room stayed open right until close, though.

How would you describe Killington when you arrived in the late 1970s? The ski area…I didn’t even know it existed. I looked on the map, and there was no Killington. It was called Sherburne. So I got up there and it was pretty much just Charity’s, Wobbly Barn, Pickle Barrel and the Mountain Inn...oh and Kings Four, of course. And Bilbo’s. It definitely was a latenight place, and we had a tough time getting people out at one and two in the morning sometimes. I just remember every night was something different, and things could be quite off the wall. We had some Scottish guy; he drank so much he thought he was working in his own bar. I mean, he just started clearing and cleaning the bar. He was going to count the till. Somehow he got it into his head that it was his bar. That kind of stuff went on every night, though. How did your shows change over the years? Some of my later years were at the Summit Lodge; it wasn’t the best room to play, but I enjoyed it. I had my two St. Bernards. They weren’t my dogs, but they were the house dogs, and they were my companions during the day because I didn’t ski. So they’d hang out with me, and they were just amazing. They’d be part of the show. They’d come downstairs and sit next to the piano while I was playing. Their timing was incredible.

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It really has a ring to it when paired with Joey Leone’s Brooklyn accent. Fortunately, Joey took our interview request. Joey Leone has played at Killington for 20-plus years, and he’s learned a lot about making music in the mountains along the way. When we connected he’d just arrived in Nebraska as part of his summer tour.

No Requests | Joey Leone

How do the mountains influence your style or what you’re playing? One of the things people always say about me is I play loud. To me, as a rock and roll musician, loudness was part of it. You didn’t want to be loud where you were driving people out, so I had to learn that skiing is a pretty quiet experience. Understanding the mechanics of the ear and how it works, when there’s not a lot of loud noise, your ear opens up, and when there is loud noise you kind of shut down. So a lot of times, at the beginning of my show I would play quietly and then start to build up as it went on and by 5 p.m., when the gig was finishing up by 5:30, we were pretty much cranking and people were much more open to it. It took me a little while to figure that out. I’ve never skied, but I’ve seen people skiing now for 20-something years, and I’ve spoken to them constantly about their approach to skiing, which is very much like my approach to music. I think they go for it, and I think the people that come back every year, they’re trying to get a little better. They’re improving their equipment. They’re trying to improve their skills, and I relate to that and I think they relate to me that way, too, because every year they come back and I’m adding some new material, adding different members of the band. I think that there is a great kind of invisible communication between the musicians that play in the ski resorts and the skiers themselves. How many times have you heard someone in the crowd request “Freebird!” or similar songs? “Joey don’t take requests,” and it’s become kind of a joke with most of my fans. But the truth of it is, I’m not looking to please one person in the crowd who’s gonna yell, “Play ‘Brown Eyed Girl.’” I enjoy that kind of repartee with my fans because they know I’m a city kid from Brooklyn. They expect a little bit of attitude from me, but it’s good. It’s funny. I’m not trying to put anybody down, but nobody’s gonna control my show. Nobody’s gonna go to a Frank Sinatra show and yell out, “Hey, could you do ‘My Way’?” Believe me, I’m not Frank Sinatra, but I’m the only guy in the room with a guitar and a microphone. Do you play a different set list at Killington versus when you’re on tour around the country? I’ve never worked with a set list. I never do because it’s always fluid. I mean, the weather at a lodge is really important. You know, when it’s really great and there’s great powder out there, I deliberately make my set based on the mood that people are gonna be in. But if they paid all this money and it’s raining and they’re in the lodge, it’s up to me to keep them there, keep them happy and enhance their experience.

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Chandler Burgess

“Joey don’t take requests.”

Do you remember the first time you played at Killington? I certainly do. It was a benefit for Donny Gray, who was instrumental in bringing me to Killington. Donny was a musician, and he’d had a stroke. Donny became a dear, dear friend of mine. So I played the benefit. I met Jay Shapiro, who owned Mother Shapiro’s, who was the first guy ever to really pay me to play in Killington. Killington is such a small town, but I really was kind of like the best-kept secret in Killington for those years. And then I got a gig at the Wobbly Barn playing Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’ve had a 20-something-year run there, and I have a good following. What I discovered early on was that skiers in general wanted to hear something they recognized, but not necessarily a youthful, happy hour playlist. We weren’t in Key West. But they really related to the energy. They’re adrenaline freaks, and I’m an adrenaline freak, so I think that was at least part of the success that I’ve had there, because I just played very hard, especially the bluegrass stuff. People seemed to relate to it.

Garren Poirier

You make the crowd think it’s all about you, but it’s really not. It’s all about them, and you know it’s all about them. But you never let them know that, and that’s the key to the seduction of a performer. What other performers influenced your perspective? Frank Chase and Donny Gray were the guys who were instrumental. When Frank Chase puts his arm on your shoulder in Killington and says, “I endorse this guy,” it’s a big, big thing, bigger than I realized at the time because Frank is an accomplished musician. He’s a great comedian and one of the most gracious guys you’ll ever meet. His following in Killington was very inspirational. You gotta remember that I came kind of late. I came in the mid-to-late ’90s. I mean, the stuff that went on there in the ’70s and ’80s, and even the early ’90s, was legendary. It was like Bourbon Street. And it still is to a certain degree. “Bourbon Street North.” Frank Chase was the first person I ever heard say that. Not long before Donny Gray passed away, I asked him, “What can I do for you? Can I help you get your medication? Can I take you to the hospital for your treatment? Anything you want.” When Donny got real sick he called me up one day and said, “I’d like a New Orleans funeral.” And I was like, “What?!” He said, “I’d like a New Orleans funeral.” So I put together a New Orleans funeral for Donny in Killington. We started at the Summit Lodge and 150 people marched up the Mountain Road; people were playing clarinets and tubas.... That was one of the greatest moments for me in Killington. That and when I helped to organize the Hurricane Irene benefit. When it comes down to it, the community pulls together, whether it’s musicians, bartenders, mechanics, people that run the lifts. The community comes together. There’s something really special about this place that, as a musician, you never really find. You could play anywhere, anytime. Why Killington? People would always say to me, “What are you doing in Killington?” I’m here making a living. As long as there are people that want to hear the music, I have no reason to go anywhere else. I feel like I’m part of something. Musicians don’t ever have that. When I’m on the road I have a good following in different places around the country. But in Killington, I walk into the lodge with my guitar and people say, “Hey, there’s Joey. You gotta hear this guy.” If you’re a musician who aspires to make millions of dollars and be known by millions of people, you’re probably not gonna want to play Killington. If you’re a guy like me who doesn’t have that kind of aspiration and just wants to make a living and develop a big fan base and have people like you and support you and get to know you...there’s no place I’d rather be.

Happy Hour Hero | Matt Bigelow Matt Bigelow is the proverbial wizard behind the curtain when it comes to booking bands for Killington’s plentiful on-mountain venues. On any given weekend there might be six shows happening at the resort simultaneously, and he’s got a hand in all of them. When he’s not booking acts and coordinating their schedules, Bigelow is behind the bar at K-1 Lodge, serving up good vibes and good times. What’s it like working in such a lively atmosphere? I love it. I have the conversation all the time that some people just go to work hating their job. I truly, truly love my job, and I never regret going to work on any day. I enjoy the people, I enjoy the music, the lifestyle, the happy hour. It’s all great to me. What makes Killington such a hub for live music? Obviously the number of venues we have up here is fantastic. It’s all in one strip—if one spot isn’t your cup of tea you jump to the next. There are so many great spots down the road, too. That type of showcase goes along well with the happy hour up here. How many different acts do you have coming through on any given weekend? On Saturday I have an act at every lodge and at our hotel, so we’d have Skyeship, Bear Mountain, Snowshed, Grand Hotel, K-1 and Pico: six acts total. Sunday there are three places that have music—Pico, Snowshed and K-1. And then during the week we have music seven days a week at K-1 Lodge. That’s a lot of people to keep coordinated. It’s a lot of babysitting, I’m not gonna lie. What kind of music do you try to bring in that works well with the ski and snowboard crowd? The K-1 scene is definitely a classic rock spot; it’s all covers. Every now and then we have some musicians that do some originals and stuff, but it’s all mixed in with covers. You certainly wanna have people know the words and dance in their seat or sing along a little, if you know what I mean. Bear Mountain often has a younger crowd, so a younger musician works better there. Snowshed’s a little more family-oriented, so you have to keep that in mind, too. Not that any of the acts are vulgar or too loud, but some of the heavier stuff might not work there. Which acts have really staked a claim at Killington over the years? Joey Leone’s always been a staple; he’s played here for many years. He’s like a brother to me. Duane Carleton is another local legend—we call him a “human jukebox.” He just plays up there for three or four hours straight. People try to stump him with requests, and he knows all the music. It’s great. One of my local kids and probably my favorite act right now is Chris Pallutto. He’s got a real soulful voice; very eager kid, professional, shows up and does any gig you ask him. He plays like four days a week for me. There’s a lot of great local talent around here; you don’t have to try to bring in bands from other states. It’s nice to give the locals work, too. I have certain spots for everybody during the week, and you see a lot of the same faces that come religiously and watch these acts, which is nice to see.

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Unspeakable Energy | Amanda Wheeler Bartenders witness more live music and debauchery than just about anyone at Killington. During Amanda Wheeler’s 10-plus years at the Pickle Barrel, she has seen the impactful, the unspeakable and every note in between. what’s it like tending bar when you’ve got live music playing, compared to times when you don’t? I would say it just creates more energy, more energy with your customers. The customers are singing along; it’s a fun environment. I don’t think now I’d really wanna bartend anywhere else. It’s like we’re a part of the party even though we’re sober behind the bar. You just get to have your cake and eat it, too, a little bit, you know? Enjoy the atmosphere, but take home money and also not have the hangover the following day. When you have someone playing live music on stage, it’s a completely different atmosphere than if you’ve got someone in the booth just playing tunes. You know, there’s this charismatic energy that gets created when you’ve got someone upstairs on the drums or someone’s stroking the guitar. And I think it creates a good energy with the customer, too. They’re dancing and jumping up and down as they watch the band on the stage doing the same thing. It creates an unspeakable energy…hard to describe unless you’ve experienced it. 66 mountain

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do you get to interact with the bands at all? We’ve built relationships with a lot of them. Actually, one of the bands that we get out of Philly is called Lost in Paris. I was out in Las Vegas, and all the sudden I get in an elevator, and the lead singer of the band was there. And we were like, “Oh my God. This is so crazy.” They were out there for a show and, you know, we end up getting to know these guys. That band in particular has played at the Pickle Barrel for all 10 years that I’ve worked there

Garren Poirier

what are some of the more prolific acts that you’ve seen come through in your time? Well, I’ve been witness to three Snoop Dogg shows. Bret Michaels, Wu Tang, the Wailers...we had a show featuring a couple of the guys from the Dave Matthews Band. That was pretty awesome. Guster...and Twiddle. Twiddle’s an interesting one, because the band started at Castleton State College, now Castleton University. And that’s 20 minutes from Killington. To watch that band take our stage every year and then almost get too big to play our venue because they’re out playing huge festivals…it’s been really interesting to watch their progression and how far they’ve come as musicians. have you been witness to any kind of outrageous acts or rock-star drama? The first one that pops into my head is when Bret Michaels played. First of all, I don’t think we’ve ever seen that many women in the Pickle Barrel before— ever. It was right after his TV series, “Rock of Love,” and he was on a bus touring. And the girls that were lined up outside of his tour bus to try and get on were fighting each other for a spot. It was the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen...I can’t even describe it. I mean, high heels aren’t really something that goes along with the Pickle Barrel, and I guarantee you there were 400 girls in there that night in stilettos and short skirts.

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I mean, high heels aren’t really something that goes along with the Pickle Barrel, and I guarantee you there were 400 girls in there that night in stilettos and short skirts. why do you think live music pairs so well with the mountain lifestyle? Killington’s got that younger edge. We’re into the extreme sports, whether it’s mountain biking in the summer or hosting the World Cup. And I think that just creates a different clientele. Like, we get a lot of the young professionals coming out of Boston and New York and Connecticut for the weekends who just want to kick back and relax. And their form of relaxing is skiing all day and then coming and partying all night. We are the conduit to make that happen. killington.com

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From professional racers to five-year-old kids, the US Open expands Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s riding to the masses

words by Tyler Cohen 70 OPEN Season

photos by Brooks Curran killington.com

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“Mazie likes to take her time during her practice runs,”

Mazie Hayden

Jason Hayden said from beside the finish arch of the FOX US Open of Mountain Biking’s downhill track. “I think she does it to make her dad worry.” The 17-year-old downhiller’s father and one-man pit crew stood just uphill from the K-1 Base Lodge and below the Killington Ski Club. Above him, winding in and out of Chop Chop woods onto Highline like a slalom course, white tape confining the steep track fluttered in the morning breeze. Just as Hayden started talking about riding Killington’s trails on a rigid bike in the early ’90s, his daughter emerged from the woods, wearing a purple downhilling kit darkened a few shades by fresh mud. “Looking good, Maze,” Hayden bellowed as she sidehilled smoothly across the slope, turned back into the woods, then reappeared before curving down and beneath the red Clif Bar arch. At the end of the finish chute, Mazie, who graduated from Killington Mountain School (KMS) last spring, caught her breath from beneath her mud-caked full-face helmet. She passed her bike to her father to wash and told him she’d need tear-away goggles for the afternoon’s race—it had rained a few inches the night before, and the fresh-cut track from Killington’s peak was swampy in places. Hayden, from Pittsfield, VT, was one of just four Killington locals to qualify for Saturday’s finals, and even the copious mud couldn’t dampen her excitement. The U.S. Open, after all, is arguably one of the biggest gravity-focused mountain-bike event happening right now in the United States, with nearly 300 professional and amateur racers from 11 countries competing for big payouts in several races that aim to include all types of riders. And the August event was happening right in her backyard, where the biking opportunities have never been so vast.

s Dad washed Mazie’s bike, she appeared clearly focused on her race a few hours later. But her eyes also glowed with excitement over everything happening around her. “We’ve had ESC [Eastern States Cup] races here. We’ve had Pro GRTs [Mountain Bike Gravity Tour], but this is even more exciting than both of those events,” Hayden gushed while still breathing heavily. “You can tell by the people that came here, people from Norway, Canada, New Zealand, all over. That wouldn’t happen at any other race.” Hayden has only been downhilling for three years—since she discovered the sport while training at KMS for ski-cross, her first passion— but she already knows what makes for a good downhill-race vibe. Earlier this year, she placed second in her pro-division debut at a Pro GRT at Mountain Creek, New Jersey, and she recently returned from World Cup races at Andorra’s Vallnord and Italy’s Val d’Sol. “I think the fact that MSA [Mont Sainte-Anne, Québec] is next weekend has brought a lot of people to Killington who normally wouldn’t have come to the Open, which is really good for exposure to our bike park,” said Hayden, who would go on to place third in the junior women’s division of the following weekend’s Mont Sainte-Anne World Cup Downhill behind Austrian Valentina Höll and current U.S. National Champion Samantha Soriano. “I think people are starting to realize we have a really good network of trails, which is awesome.” Mazie Hayden is hardly the only one excited to showcase Killington’s bike park. Pro downhill and enduro racer Jordan Newth, who grew up in West Rutland, has long been hoping that an event of the US Open’s magnitude would land at Killington.

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I’ve been lapping this chairlift for the better part of 20 years, and to see an event like this is really a dream come true. — Jordan Newth

“It’s amazing. It’s pretty unreal,” said Newth, 29, from the tailgate of his Honda Element a few hours before his downhill run. “I’ve been lapping this chairlift for the better part of 20 years, and to see an event like this is really a dream come true.” “The US Open has been famous for a long time, and it attracts the world’s best, and to have it so close to Mont Sainte-Anne, a lot of them are already in the area,” Newth continued. “I can sit here and preach, ‘Killington is the best area,’ all day long, but how many people is that really going to reach? When you get those [top-level] guys coming here and having a good time and posting about it, the world starts to notice.”

he US Open of Mountain Biking has been attracting top athletes for more than a decade. In 2003, Clay Harper, who’d recently taken a break from racing the NORBA (National Off-Road Biking Association) circuit with Iron Horse bikes, partnered with former pro snowboarder Shawn Orecchio to co found a downhill event at Mountain Creek, New Jersey’s Diablo Bike Park. Their vision was simple, yet different from other races at the time, many of which were part of a larger series, welcomed only pros or felt too strict and rigid. Harper and Orecchio wanted their format to be open to professionals and amateurs alike; they hoped to be a single, marquee event with a large cash purse; and they wanted a fun, relaxed atmosphere that would be accessible to everyone, a mountain-bike party, so to speak, that would eventually morph into the hashtag #partyrace. “The Open started back in 2003 as an alternative to the other calendar races around the country,” Harper said. “Occasionally, we’ll see a World Cup stop here, but those aren’t U.S.-based events. We didn’t have something that we could hang our hat on, but this is a U.S. event.” For just shy of a decade, the US Open flourished at Diablo Bike Park, with standout races like Australian Sam Hill’s three-peat victories, two wins by France’s two-time World Champion Sabrina Jonnier and a 2008 win by young-gun legend Stevie “Chainsaw” Smith. During that time, Harper sold his half of the business to pursue other interests, and the Open hit the brakes and went dormant following Aaron Gwin and Jill Kitner’s 2011 wins.

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We wanted to be at Killington for Vermont’s push to create a regionalized mountain-bike hotspot. — Clay Harper

Then Clay Harper and his business bought the US Open back and brought it back—in 2017 at Mountain Creek Bike Park and then, this summer, to Killington, where he’d been helping the resort organize events like the 2016 and ’17 Pro GRT races and the Vermont Bike & Brew Festival.

“We had our eye on Killington for a couple years. When we moved the US Open here, it became a very natural move because my team had worked with their team already,” Harper said. “Another reason that we wanted to be at Killington is the state of Vermont and the push for mountain-bike business to create a regionalized hotspot. From the outside you can feel it, and we wanted to be part of that.” “Vermont’s becoming just a mountain-biking mecca; different trail networks all over the place are popping up,” said Justin Pill, Killington’s Event and Sponsorship Manager. “Vermont’s brand and Vermont’s dedication to the sport is just blowing up.” After July 2017’s Pro GRT, Harper set to work with Jay “Rosey” Rosenbaum, Killington’s Terrain Park Supervisor, to envision a track unlike anything previously raced at Killington: they planned to drop 1,741 vertical feet off Vermont’s second-tallest summit to the K-1 base area. “Working with Clay,” Rosey said, “he specifically wanted a top-to-bottom run off the gondola, something that would have that Europeantrack feel: you take the gondola up, you’re at the highest possible point you could be, and you race right down to the bottom.” “We have the elevation here that is hard to come by on the East Coast,” added Jordan Newth, who worked with Rosey and Harper and other athletes like Neko Mulally and Dakota Norton to envision the track. “It’s just too spectacular of a start area to not use, with the 360-degree view. It has that European vibe to it; you’re just on top of mountains. That was the big attraction—we wanted to use what the mountain had. In the past, we’ve had amazing race tracks here, but people look at the mountain and say, ‘Why aren’t we racing from up there?’ We have all wanted to do that forever.” After innumerable track walks and flagging the largely new route last fall, Rosey and his park crew were all-hands-on-deck come spring. They dedicated a full month to cutting the course that dives down Cascade’s headwall at an improbable pitch before a hard left berm into the woods off Downdraft. Some five minutes and 1.65 miles later, at an average grade of 21 percent, racers arrive at the K-1 base. US Open 73

You can see they really put a lot of effort into making a new track and bringing something new to the mountain. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Max Morgan

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“It’s pretty long,” Rosey said. “It would be one of the longer World Cup courses. It’s probably in the realm of Mont Sainte-Anne, Fort William [Scotland] and Vallnord. We’re probably just a whisper shy on that.” Racers were pleased with the fresh-cut track, Rosey continued: “Everyone was exceptionally excited about it. A lot of the racecourses on the World Cup circuit are the same year after year, so there’s never any real fresh loam. Everyone was really pumped on that” Max Morgan agreed that Killington’s new downhill track can stand with some of the best in the world. Morgan, who placed fourth at July’s US National Downhill Championships in Snowshoe, W.V., has competed three times in the U.S. Open, placed third in Killington’s 2016 Pro GRT and, this year, is competing on the complete Downhill World Cup circuit. The 26-year-old most recently raced in Vallnord, Andorra before coming to Killington. “It feels good to be back in Vermont, and this type of riding is so typical for Vermont: everything is out and green, and the dirt is soft and new, so it’s just getting churned up, and every run is different,” said Morgan, a 2015 graduate of the University of Vermont. “You can really see they put a lot of effort into making a new track and bringing something new to the mountain, which is fun. Especially with how the conditions are right now, it’s plenty technical. And that makes it fun when it’s a challenge for everybody. I think everyone is enjoying it—I certainly am.” Foiled by a muddy, mid-race crash, Morgan went on to place 47th in Saturday’s downhill, which Neko Mulally won for his second year in a row, this time by six seconds. Jordan Newth placed 25th. Canadian Vaea Verbeeck topped an international podium in the woman’s race, and Mazie Hayden placed sixth. Based on Newth’s pre-race chatter, his place hardly mattered. “I’m enjoying this event way too much to be worried about it,” he’d said. “I’m having a blast out there, so I’m going to go out there, try hard, stay upright and whatever happens, happens.” f Saturday’s racing was measured in mud and positive outlooks, Sunday’s events tipped the scales with inclusiveness. Six adaptive athletes competed on Ramshead’s Sideshow Bob in a downhill hosted by Vermont Adaptive; 62 kids between ages five and 15 raced down Snowshed’s Rabbit Hole in the Grom Bomb; killington.com

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and the US Open held its first-ever enduro, welcoming nearly half of the entire weekend’s 269 total racers to ride five stages covering nearly almost eight miles of trail all across Killington. For Clay Harper, adding enduro—the format where racers’ times are totaled across multiple downhill stages with non-timed, uphill transfers—is a

fitting way to grow the US Open. And Killington, with its ample lift-served riding across three chairlifts, is a natural venue for such a race. “We are always looking at ways to expand our event, Harper said. Adding enduro this year made sense because of the growing popularity of enduro racing around the world and industry support behind this discipline.”

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“Enduro for us is nice because it does showcase a bunch of parts of the mountain that you might not ever find,” added Rosey, who mentioned his goal of simply developing a fun enduro track. That element of fun, diverse terrain is becoming a cornerstone of Killington’s summer trails. Thanks to the varied trails, regular gatherings pepper the events calendar in addition to standouts like the US Open and Bike & Brew Festival. Each Wednesday afternoon from June through August the Bike Bum Series offers a friendly downhill-race environment modeled after the Ski Bum Series. And every other Friday from July through September downhillers Amy Alton and Ali Zimmer host Divas of Dirt group rides for women of all abilities with a happy hour afterward.

Gabrielle would probably agree, though her voice was hardly audible from beneath her blue and lime-green full-face helmet, topped with purple goggles turned backward. She’s been racing for about a year and has competed in kids’ downhills at New York’s Plattekill Bike Park and Massachusetts’s Thunder Mountain. Her eyes were affixed on the race ahead, and her goal for that race? “Having fun,” she murmured quietly.

Ronny Sterckx has seen Killington’s bike scene grow firsthand, traveling south to the Green Mountains six or seven times a summer over the last several years from his home of Prévost, Québec, an hour north of Montréal. “For sure there’s Whistler out West and other crazy places to ride, but here, from all the tracks we rode, this is pretty much the best in the East,” said Sterckx while sitting on the Snowshed chairlift with his 10-year-old daughter, Gabrielle, en route to the start of the Grom Bomb. “They’ve developed so much, and every year we come and there’s new stuff coming down the pipe. It’s awesome.” Sterckx raced the Sunday-morning enduro with his 16-year-old son, Nathan, with whom he’d recently traveled to La Thiule, Italy to compete in the fifth stop of the Enduro World Series. At Killington, both podiumed in their respective divisions. “This is the kind of terrain we ride a lot; we like it here,” he continued. “The gradient is pretty good. You have some steep stuff, some fast rolling stuff, deep woods, there’s a good variety of trail riding. I mean that’s what makes it so fun.”

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Killington has been known as a winter vacation destination for nearly 60 years, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only been over the last few that the resort and its surrounding community have garnered a reputation as a go-to summer vacation spot. The resort owes much of its newfound momentum to Killington Bike Park. After five years of steady capital investment, Killington Bike Park has emerged as the premier destination for lift-served mountain biking on the East Coast.

Three high-speed lifts accessing 30 miles of terrain for all ability levels make Killington the biggest bike park in the East, and the Park draws riders from across the region with innovative Learn to Mountain Bike lessons, freeride flow trails designed by Whistler, B.C.-based developer Gravity Logic and world-class downhill racing. In order to keep the stoke elevated for such a diverse group of riders the resort is now hosting a season-long series of events that offers something for everyone.

by Dave Young

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Killington Mountain Bike Club Bike Bum Race Series

Chandler Burgess

long with his Killington bike shop duties, Ben Colona is also the president of Killington Mountain Bike Club, the area chapter of the Vermont Mountain Bike Association, established in 2015 to build trails around Killington, introduce new riders to the sport and promote all of the region’s riding. The club also recently spearheaded construction of the Sherburne Trails, a 4.5-mile network north of Killington Resort on Route 100. In 2016, while seeking a way to generate the revenue needed to build and maintain the trail network, club members looked for inspiration from Killington’s Ski Bum Race Series, which has been taking place on winter Wednesdays for decades. Like the ski event, the new Killington Bike Bum Race Series features a fun, timed race, followed by an after-party at an area establishment, complete with gear raffles and prizes. One key difference, however, is that where the ski bum race is limited to participants 21 years of age and older, the Bike Bum Race is open to everyone. “We really wanted to have an event that was family friendly, where kids and parents felt welcome,” Colona says. “Our goal is to build the local mountain bike community and grow the sport, and bringing families into the sport accomplishes that.”

Vermont Bike & Brew

Chandler Burgess

Justin Cash

hile mountain-bike season officially opens at Killington Resort on Memorial Day Weekend, the real kickoff for many Northeastern riders and craft-beer fans comes a few weeks later when Killington hosts Vermont Bike & Brew. It’s an annual celebration of all things mountain bike— and all things craft beer. The event is a collaboration between Killington Resort and Mountain Bike Vermont (MTBVT), an organization dedicated to getting the word out that Vermont is the destination for mountain biking in the Northeast. The weekend-long 2018 event kicked off on Friday evening with registration and a night ride at the Green Mountain Trails complex in nearby Pittsfield. Saturday hosted much of the action, with a critical mass group ride down Killington’s stoutest jump trail, Black Magic, and tasting sessions that showcased 16 brewers and nearly 40 beers. A whipoff competition brought out an afternoon crowd, followed by a skinny-bridge pond-crossing challenge, live music and a bonfire to take the revelry deep into the night. The Beast of a Bike Swap ran all weekend, and Sunday featured more riding and a timed downhill race. “Vermont Bike and Brew has been a great way to get the season started,” says Ben Colona, Bike Shop Manager. “It’s nice to see a bunch of familiar faces after the long winter, and we think this event has a lot of potential in the coming years.”

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“Our youngest rider was four years old, and our oldest was 70.” — Ben Colona President, Killington Mountain Bike Club

t seems to be working. In 2018, 250 riders registered to race at least one of the weekday events, and the season’s busiest race drew 147 riders. “We had 71 riders under the age of 18 this year,” Colona says, “and 35 were under the age of 11. Our youngest rider was four years old, and our oldest was 70.” The races take place nearly every Wednesday afternoon throughout the summer, and racers can sign up for a single race or the whole season, as part of a team or solo. Held on one of Killington’s downhill bike trails, the races are suitable for riders of intermediate ability or above, and the only requirement other than a lift ticket is a helmet—although a properly maintained full-suspension bike, full-face helmet and protective pads are strongly recommended. Following their race runs, most participants adjourn to the after-party—held at a different location each week—for appetizers, drink specials and the always-popular weekly raffle. The parties tend to be raucous affairs, with adults rehashing their race-day heroics as little ones weave in and out of the crowd, filling up on free finger food and riding bikes in the parking lot. “Seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, or anyone’s face really, is the most gratifying thing,” Colona says. “It could be an adult who maybe never imagined they’d be racing downhill on a mountain bike or somebody improving their time from last week or moving up in their agegroup standings. It’s a really special thing to be a part of.”

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“You’ll be riding with other women who can help guide you along the way.” — Amy Alton Divas of Dirt

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Divas of Dirt

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ince 2016, professional downhill and enduro racer Amy Alton has hosted a biweekly group ride and party exclusively for female mountain bikers. The rides, which take place every other Friday evening, are free for those with a bike and Bike Park lift ticket or pass. Discounted lift tickets and bike or protective-gear rentals are available, too. Alton’s enthusiasm for the sport is palpable—she grows more animated as she speaks about riding in general and especially women’s mountain biking. “Divas of Dirt is a gathering of women who want to ride bikes together and have a really good time doing it,” she says. “When women have an opportunity to come together, they can overcome fears in the group or community that they struggle with if they’re riding alone or with a boyfriend or husband.” Everything about Divas of Dirt is designed to break through the intimidation that Alton says many women feel when approaching mountain biking. The sessions are short and the commitment level is low—there’s no formal registration process; just show up at the scheduled time and join the group; riders are free to duck in and out at any time. Word of Alton’s unique approach is reaching far and wide. She’s had women travel from as far away as Maine and Maryland to attend her sessions, and she’s seen as many as 30 women show up for a ride. Divas of Dirt has been so successful that she’s started enlisting other female pros to help lead the rides. “If you’re interested in getting into the sport of mountain biking, especially downhill mountain biking, this is a great foray into it, in a bike park that offers true beginner progression trails,” she says. “Risk of injury is low, because you’ll stay within terrain that’s at your level, and you’ll be

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riding with other women who can help guide you along the way.” Alton requires each rider wear a full-face helmet (discounted rentals are available), and she stresses that participants should have the basics down—an understanding of how to use the brakes is a must. For riders who have never ridden a mountain bike, she suggests a Learn to Mountain Bike lesson. After that, come join Divas of Dirt. “It’s a celebration of women and mountain biking,” she says.

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Chandler Burgess

n August 2018, a new event—the Fox US Open of Mountain Biking— came to Killington. Taking place over five days, the US Open featured downhill racing across many categories, including kids and adaptive races, an enduro race and a Best Whip contest. A village packed with vendors, live music, cookouts, a bonfire and on-site camping offered a festival atmosphere for racers, families and fans alike. Clay Harper, co-founder and event director of the Fox US Open, staged the first iteration of the event at Diablo Bike Park (now Mountain Creek Bike Park) in New Jersey in 2003. He created the US Open as a more fun and inclusive way to host a world-class downhill race—more of a festival of downhill mountain-bike culture than a traditional competition. And the US Open’s fun-first format, combined with its impressive $40,000 cash purse, certainly seems to bring out the sport’s best riders. The inaugural Killington event drew professional riders from New Zealand, Australia and Norway. “With the growth of the US Open, we initially looked at Killington to host the 2018 event because it’s a bigger mountain, a bigger venue, and the area has plenty of lodging available,” Harper says. “Killington was also willing and able to invest in the event, building a new top-to-bottom trail for the downhill, which was very important to us. And the community was supportive, too, from the local Killington community right up to the state of Vermont, which partnered with us to help get the word out.” Word certainly got out: nearly 300 competitors gathered at Killington, along with 5,500 spectators. The event kicked off on Wednesday, August 1, with three days of course inspection and training for the athletes, leading up to Saturday’s GT Bicycles Downhill, the Fox US Open’s flagship event. Rowdy and raucous spectators lined up along nearly every inch of the steep, 3 km course, which dropped more than 1,700 vertical feet from the top of Killington’s K-1 Express Gondola to the Festival Village at K-1 Base Lodge. The fun continued after the race ended, with the Best Whip contest, a twilight outdoor concert and a late-night bonfire. Sunday welcomed more racing, with the Adaptive Downhill, GT Bicycles Enduro and

Grom Bomb Kids Downhill, which saw 62 future stars cheered on by elite racers like Men’s Downhill Champion Neko Mulally. As vendors broke down the festival village and racers and fans filed out of the venue on Sunday afternoon, everyone was buzzing with the endorphin high of a successful event. Jay Rosenbaum, Killington’s chief Bike Park trail builder, was proud of the work his crew had done on the GT Bicycles Downhill Course and was already looking ahead to next year. “I have a couple tweaks I want to make ahead of next year’s race,” he said, “minor things to increase the speed a bit here and there.” Clay Harper was taking notes, too: “This was a tremendous success for a first-year event. I think we can come back and have an even bigger, smoother-running event next year.”

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WORK WHERE YOU PLAY.

Working at Killington is more than just a job—it’s a lifestyle. We’re all about having a good time and experiencing all these mountains have to offer, while providing the best possible experience for our guests. Check out killington.com/jobs

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P H O T O

G A L L E R Y

Skier: Randy Elles photo: Justin Cash

Shadow surfing. photo: Justin Cash

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Wil Klinkenberger punches through the pow. photo: Justin Cash

All eyes on Alexandra Tilley, World Cup Slalom racer from Great Britain. photo: Dave Young. 92

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Bump and roll. Rider: Mike Garceau photo: Chandler Burgess killington.com

Above: Jordan Newth @ US Open. photo: Justin Cash

Below: Spring session at Bear Mountain. Rider: Tucker Zink photo: Dave Young

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Up in the air, down in the dirt. photo: Brooks Curran 95

(OR NEXT PAGE) 96 World Cup skier Adriana Jelinkova photo: Chandler Burgess

Rider: Felix Laroche photo: Dave Young

World Cup skier Jessica Hilzinger competes in the GS. photo: Justin Cash

NoTown Music Festival in Stockbridge, Vt. photo: Chandler Burgess

High Fives athlete Max Elles hammers a heelside. photo:killington.com Justin Cash

Bonfire of the vanities. photo: Chandler Burgess

The spirit of spring. Skier: Jeff Leone photo: Eric Leone

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MaggieLeon The 21-year-old college student studies mechanical engineering and will school just about any snowboarder on the mountain words by Brooke Geery OVER THE YEARS, Killington has been home to its share of talented female snowboarders. In the ’90s, the likes of Kathy Byrne, Kyla Duffy and Jamie MacLeod led the charge. These days, one name rises above the rest: Maggie Leon. Off the hill, 21-year-old Maggie is pretty tame—she has a pet bunny named Charlie and pulls all-nighters while studying mechanical engineering at the University of Vermont. But get her on the mountain, and she rips on a snowboard. “Growing up at Ski Sundown in Connecticut, it was all guys,” explains Joey Leon, Maggie’s brother. “But Maggie was riding with all of us and keeping killington.com

photos by Mike Dawson up and killing it. She was always pushing herself, even after breaking a bone every year for I think four years straight. To sum it up, she’s a badass.” MAGGIE INITIALLY CUT HER TEETH on the golf course near her childhood home of Simsbury, Conn., where she and Joey would borrow junker boards from other kids. Their father, Joseph, an avid skier, was not a fan of snowboarding and hoped his kids would stick to two planks. But Mom managed to surprise them with their own Walmart board (just one, which they had to share), and their passion continued to grow. Eventually Joseph came around, and he bought a real snowboard for each of them. “Once my dad realized we were getting super into it, he started buying us leon

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Mr. Leon had enrolled the kids in the Killington Weekend program. It was there that they really caught the bug.

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actual snowboard gear,” Maggie recalls. “Even then they were used rentals. Joey and I were actually talking about this last night, how we’d always be jealous of our friends who would have all the new shit. And we were like, ‘We’re never going to be able to own that in our whole lives.’”

AT KILLINGTON, the Leons began meeting more people and becoming immersed in the scene. They would hang out at Darkside Snowboard Shop, skate the mini ramp and shred Dark Park at night. Though they’re technically on the Darkside Team, Maggie shrugs at the achievement: “It’s kind of like we’re all just the local kids there. Just kind of a squad.”

The Leons had passes to nearby Ski Sundown, where Maggie and Joey would ride every night until the lifts closed. Despite a few injuries, Maggie’s passion was not swayed.

Although Maggie loves snowboarding, she didn’t intend to plan her life around it—she actually wanted to go to college in Wisconsin. During senior year, how-

“In fifth grade, I was riding with a broken wrist and I broke my humerus. My mom was just really annoyed that we were still snowboarding every day super beat up,” Maggie says. “I think I needed contacts because my vision was really bad, and I just kept denying it. Then I finally got contacts, and I didn’t break anything for awhile, so that might have had something to do with it.”

N WEEKENDS, the whole family would head to Vermont, where they had a house; Joseph enrolled his kids in the Killington learn-to-ride program. It was there that they really caught the bug. “We got super close with one of our coaches, Jillian, who is a tattoo artist now,” Maggie says. “We used to hang out with her a lot, and she did some tattoos on me and Joey at Darkside once. We hired her privately after that. She was kind of like a life coach. She’s the shit.”

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“ To sum it up, she’s a badass.”

ever, that all changed when tragedy struck the Leon family. Maggie’s father passed away, and Maggie decided to stay closer to home. She ended up choosing the University of Vermont, where she’d received several academic scholarships. “I was like, I’ll stick around. My mom and my brother need me,” she says. “So I came [to UVM], made all these really cool friends. I love it here. It’s so much fun. I convinced Joey, because he’d come visit me every other weekend, so now he’s here, too. So we can just go back and visit my mom killington.com

in Killington. It worked out perfectly. UVM is the best.” WHILE MOST SNOWBOARDERS AT UVM choose to ride nearby Stowe, Sugarbush and other closer resorts, the Leon siblings head to Killington nearly every weekend. Maggie rides Sugarbush often during the week, but enjoys her weekend trips to Killington thanks to its vast array of terrain. “It’s just a big mountain,” she says. “When I ride the ’Bush, I literally only leon

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Joey sort of forces me to learn stuff; I totally push myself way more when I’m with him.

lap the Mt. Ellen chair. It’s just like you sit at the bottom, drink beers, film stuff, do whatever. Killington’s not like that. You’re actually snowboarding. You have to ride down to the parks you wanna ride; there are a lot of side hits. Jillian was able to show us a bunch of nice places to go and the longest trails, and stuff like

that. I feel like I’m actually going snowboarding, not just going out to hit rails. That’s mad different.” As sponsored riders, the Leons have finally gotten that new gear they dreamed of. Maggie rides for White Flag Sales, which manages Burton

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No matter where she ends up, Killington will remain her home base.

and Skullcandy, among other brands. This past season, her interest in filming grew, too. “Before this year I was just kind of scared of [riding and filming street] spots, and I wasn’t really that hyped on it,” she admits. “This was actually a huge year for me. Joey sort of forces me to learn stuff; I totally push myself way more when I’m with him. Coming back to school I was like, ‘Jeez, now I see why people just wanna keep filming and not go back to school.’” Of course, Maggie has no plans to quit school. In fact, she’ll often pass up a chance to travel if she has to miss class or a lab. “The only times I travel for events during the school year is if UVM is paying for it,” she says. “Honestly, for me, it’s really hard to miss school. If I miss labs and I’m not there with my groups it makes it really difficult.” With only one year of school left, she has her eyes on the prize. She says she’d love a job with Burton and recently met their head engineer. “That’s my dream job,” she continues. “The facility is insane; they do so much there.” No matter where she ends up, Killington will remain her home base. Her mother now lives full time in the family’s Killington house, and Maggie plans to spend her summer there until school is back in session.

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What’s a WhistlePig? They grow the most rye grain in the northeast right on the 500-acre farm and source their own water from a well on-site.

Vermont white oak barrels—have turned the whiskey world upside down. Or, if you ask WhistlePig, right side up.

A Vermont whiskey distiller worth its weight in rye

histlePig is what you get when you cross a 150-yearold Vermont dairy farm with one of the most heralded rye whiskey distillers in North America. Far off the traditional whiskey trail, WhistlePig’s location in Shoreham, Vt. allows it to create inimitable whiskeys with character and culture all their own. Limited releases like the Farmstock Rye Crop 002—whiskey distilled from rye grain grown on the farm, proofed with their water and aged in custom

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Chief Blender Pete Lynch is the alchemist. Blending whiskey, finding that balance between flavors, begins like a very simple science experiment. Take a graduated cylinder and add 50 percent of one whiskey, 30 percent of another and 20 percent of a third. Taste. From here, Lynch adjusts the percentages of different whiskeys, tasting throughout, until he believes he’s reached the best blend possible. “My life is all about flavor,” Lynch says. “I’ve probably been in love with whiskey since before I could legally drink. I still remember when I had this glass of whiskey on ice, and I had this ‘aha’ moment. I started smelling it, and I was like, ‘This is amazing!’ And from that moment on I was hooked. It’s been all downhill from there in the best way.” Back on the farm, WhistlePig distills its whiskey from a copper still handmade by Dave Pickerell— “the Mick Jagger of the spirits world,” according to Lynch. Pickerell is a revered master distiller who worked for Maker’s Mark and then aided WhistlePig founder Raj Bhakta in acquiring his first barrels of coveted 10-year-old premium rye whiskey. The blending began from there and hasn’t stopped since.

WhistlePig’s farm-to-bottle projects showcase what they call their “Triple Terroir,” as it’s known in the wine world. They grow the most rye grain in the northeast right on the 500-acre farm and source their own water from a well on-site. The third element of their Triple Terroir is something other distillers can’t touch—WhistlePig crafts its own barrels from Vermont white oak.

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WhistlePig distills its whiskey from a copper still handmade by Dave Pickerell—“the Mick Jagger of the spirits world.”

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Small-batch brews, blends & cheeses are the taste of Vermont

Killington Beer Company or all the hype around craft beer in Vermont, home to more breweries per capita than any other state, it’s hard to believe a craft brewery didn’t set up shop on the Killington Access Road before Killington Beer Company (KBC) opened its doors in January 2018.

Just ask KBC brewmaster Mike Philbrick, who also owns Port Jeff Brewing Company in Long Island, New York. He was raised in Connecticut and has skied Killington since his youth, returning periodically over the years. During one such trip, he was amazed that there wasn’t a brewery closer than 25 to 30 minutes from Killington’s base area. “I was like, ‘This really doesn’t make sense!’” Philbrick says. “We’re in the beer capital of the East and the skiing capital of the East, and there’s no frickin’ brewery here? You’ve got to be kidding me! The demographic goes together like peanut butter and jelly. If you ski or board, there’s a solid chance you’re into good beer. It was a no-brainer [opening KBC] in that regard.” KBC IS A SMALL-BATCH OPERATION in the truest sense—their maximum capacity is 500 barrels per year, and their relatively small brewing system al-

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KBC brews small batches for the mountain masses

“Process is paramount.”

lows for a lot of experimentation without a lot of waste. Each brew produces up to 16 kegs or 250 gallons, which goes quicker than you’d think. “We are able to take chances because if we make something and it doesn’t necessarily come out the way we want it to, we have 16 kegs to deal with— not 150 or 200 like a larger brewer,” Philbrick says. Fortunately, bad batches are few and far between. That’s where process comes in. “Process is paramount,” Philbrick says. “We have a system where attention to detail is the key. I think a refined palate can find that pretty quickly in a brewery. The smallest thing of how you sanitize, or maybe the way that you carbonate a beer, can change the flavor greatly. Sometimes it’s not even the flavor; it’s just the longevity of the beer. Beer might taste great for a week, but then after a week, it doesn’t taste good. It’s just like being a chef. You want the end user to have that ‘blown off their feet’ experience. And the way you get that is to obviously use great ingredients, but also to have a process. If the baker overcooked the brownies every time, sooner or later people are going to stop buying the brownies.”

killington.com

Mike Philbrick | KILLINGTON BEER COMPANY

“The demographic goes together like peanut butter and jelly. If you ski or board, there’s a solid chance you’re into good beer.”

While the juicy and hazy New Englandstyle IPA has taken the country by storm, K BC isn’t trying to compete with the established players in that niche. Yes, they brew a darn good IPA—like the easy-drinking KWon and a few other juicy beers—but they also make a rich brown ale brewed with maple syrup from Mendon, Vt., a stout and the requisite pilsners and lagers for summer and the lighter beer crowd. Philbrick says they use local ingredients whenever possible, though he pines for the day when more hops, malt and other ingredients are produced in Vermont. In the meantime, Philbrick is just happy to be brewing in an environment where people appreciate good beer and craft culture. Located in a four-season destination, KBC has a built-in clientele coming from near and far— all they have to do is Google “Killington Brewery,” like any beer aficionado does when he or she travels, and voilà. But as Philbrick knows, getting people to the brewery is just the first step. “You have to deliver when they’re there, or else they’re only coming to see you once,” he says. “We want them to look us up, come see us and bring a friend. To do that we need to stay on top of our beer game and offer things that are good and unique, but at the same time we need to have options for everyone.” KBC is based in The Woods complex on the Access Road and features a rotating tap list and regular entertainment. Philbrick is excited to see what the future holds. “With KILLINGTON BEER COMPANY— it’s so young and new—we can do whatever we want, and that’s a breath of fresh air,” he says. “The sky’s the limit.” killington.com

“With Killington Beer Company—it’s so young and new—we can do whatever we want, and that’s a breath of fresh air. The sky’s the limit.” The demographic goes together like peanut butter and jelly. If you ski or board, there’s a solid chance you’re made in vt 111

Plymouth Artisan Cheese 125 years later, Plymouth Cheese is still supporting Vermont farms & producing some of the world’s best cheese

ll cheese is made with the same four ingredients—milk, culture, rennet and salt. Which begs the question: why are some cheeses out-of-this-world delicious, while others leave you wondering if they’re even cheese?

Like any premium craft product, it comes down to process, passion and ingredients. And with cheese, the margin for error is perilously thin. One glitch in the process might create a different end product than anticipated or may leave you starting over. But that’s what it takes to produce some of the world’s best cheese.

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lymouth Cheese Factory’s roots run deep in Vermont. The factory occupies the same site and building as it did when built in 1890 in Plymouth, VT by Col. John Coolidge, father of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States. It’s a state historical site and the second oldest cheese factory in the U.S.

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The latest adaptation in Plymouth Cheese’s life cycle began in 2009 when Jesse Werner signed a long-term lease at the historic location. Today Werner employs a staff of eight, plus his wife Sarit. While Jesse handles more of the day-to-day operations, Sarit is the art director behind Plymouth’s marketing, packaging and other aesthetic elements. Jesse was raised in northern Vermont in an agricultural community. “My parents had a farm in Franklin County,” he says. “They were kind of ‘back-to-the-landers’—we raised all our own food, had big gardens, chickens, sheep, horses. Our main activity was maple syrup production.” After studying at Brandeis University outside of Boston, Werner eventually went on to study artisan cheesemaking at the University of Vermont. Serendipitously, the State of Vermont was looking for a long-term tenant for the Plymouth factory around the same time Werner was looking for a production space. And as if the cheese itself wasn’t enough to draw, the factory already had a steady stream of visitors coming to tour the historical site. Werner revived the original Coolidge recipe and the traditional way they dipped cheese in wax. Plymouth Cheese is the closest thing consumers can find to the cheeses America’s first farmers produced in the 1600s. And Werner has continued the Coolidge legacy of working with small farms to source ingredients Plymouth Cheese is the closest thing consumers for the 100,000 pounds of cheese can find to the cheeses America’s first farmers Plymouth produces annually.

produced in the 1600s.

“We get the milk from a singlesource farm that we work with, because they produce really good quality milk—milk that’s high in fat and protein makes really nice cheese,” Werner says. “It’s important for us, because we make raw milk cheese, so we need really good ingredients to start with. It’s better for cheesemaking if the cows are fed non-fermented feed

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Pete Lynch | WHISTLEPIG

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“My life is all about flavor.” “The vast majority of all barrels in the U.S. come from Independent Stave Cooperage, which has locations in Kentucky and Missouri,” Lynch says.

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“Spirits deserve to and need to be looked at in the same way as the finest vintage wine that’s ever been produced,” he continues. “There’s so much going on when it comes to flavor, when it comes to quality and all the care that goes into production. The biggest misconception is that spirits aren’t made to be enjoyed, that they are made to get you drunk. If you just take that whiskey and choke on it because you threw it down the back of your throat, then you’re doing the world a disservice.”

“I still remember when I had this glass of whiskey on ice, and I had this ‘aha’ moment. I started smelling it, and I was like, ‘This is amazing!’”

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There are a lot of misconceptions about whiskey— and rye in particular. When it comes to aging and quality, older isn’t necessarily better. And you don’t have to drink whiskey neat or on the rocks—ryebased cocktails are all the rage in the spirits world. “I’ll let you do whatever you want with your whiskey,” Lynch says. “If you mix 10-Year with Coke, I might turn around while you do it. But you paid for it and you’re keeping me in a job, so thank you.” Given the nature of distilling and aging, Lynch relishes the idea that his passion for whiskey will inevitably have a lasting impact. “There’s a great quote from a legendary American brandy producer,” he says. ‘We make brown spirits for our sons and daughters to drink, and we drink the brown spirits our fathers made for us.’ And that’s kind of what I’m doing…. Sure, some of the stuff I’m putting down now will be consumed in the next 10 years, absolutely, but a lot of it’s gonna sit for a long time. We could be looking at 30-plus-year-old whiskey up here, given the climate.”

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Jesse Werner | PLYMOUTH CHEESE or less fermented feed and that they get to go outside. We identified a farm years ago that we were going to work with by just testing the milk from all the local farms in our area. We found one that was really good for cheesemaking and made a deal with them to buy their milk.”

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“Dairy and Vermont go hand in hand.”

Asking Jesse which cheese is his favorite is like asking a parent to name his or her favorite child. But he obliges. “The Original Plymouth cheddar is really good; it’s our namesake cheese,” he says. “The blue cheeses are really nice. We started making blue cheese a couple years ago. We put a room in the basement. It’s like a cave environment so we can do naturalrind cheeses. Another natural rind we have is called Grace’s Choice, after Grace Coolidge, Calvin’s wife. It comes in a 10-pound wheel.” At its most basic level, cheesemaking is simply the process of taking milk and separating out the solids. For Plymouth Artisan Cheese, it’s also about honoring the Coolidge legacy, supporting Vermont agriculture and craft culture and of course making some of the best cheese on the planet. “It’s really neat that there is such a small circle here in Vermont, from sourcing all the ingredients to making a finished product,” Werner says. “It’s such a small circle from the farm to us, to turning that milk into cheese, and then again selling it locally. Dairy and Vermont go hand in hand.”

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Spanning a 13-mile stretch of Vermont’s Route 4, beginning just 15 minutes east of Killington right on the Bridgewater/Woodstock line, lies a unique collection of entrepreneurs. They’re driving tourism to the area, creating scores of jobs and considered innovators and thought leaders in their respective fields. But many wouldn’t foremost consider themselves entrepreneurs. 118 made in vt

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words by Tyler Cohen

photos by Justin Cash

Rather theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re artisans, designers and shapers, telling their stories not in words and images but in form, texture, smooth curves and straight lines. While many began as basement hobbyists working in clay, wood and glass, today these individuals and their businesses represent a thriving, globallyknown scene of rich artistry. And their workspaces and showrooms are all tucked between Killington and the New Hampshire border. killington.com

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How Zoe and James Zilian built the U.S.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest studio pottery operation in just 10 years 120 made in vt

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Farmhouse Pottery

Something to know about handmade pottery is that a lot of it isn’t actually handmade. That is to say it’s not entirely made by hand, as in it becomes mechanized at some step in the process, from turning to glazing to firing in the kiln. Studio pottery is different. STUDIO POTTERY is worked by an artist from beginning to end—at no point does a machine replace the human hand. It’s an increasingly uncommon practice in today’s mechanized world, with larger-scale production obviously demanding lots of labor. But the authenticity of handmade is what Zoe and James Zilian founded their pottery upon, first in their Woodstock basement and now in a bible-bindery-turnedshowroom and workshop on the edge of town.

“We don’t really call ourselves a manufacturer,” says James, half the husband-and-wife team behind Farmhouse Pottery. “We have what we call a studio that’s run off artists making things. And we have stuck to the purity.” Call them a manufacturer or not, one term befitting the Zilians’ FARMHOUSE POTTERY is near-overnight success. While they officially founded Farmhouse in 2008, launching a website and selling their wares at area farmers’ markets and through some wholesale businesses, their 2014 opening in Woodstock’s former Lewis Bible Bindery catapulted them from basement makers to artists of national influence. Indeed, their line of pottery tops 200 offerings from simple, sturdy mugs to white-and-tan farmer’s pitchers perfectly befitting a Vermont farm table to vases and crocks that have earned recognition from Oprah and in magazines like Yankee and Better Homes and Gardens. And that’s not to mention the other wares sold under the Farmhouse Pottery name, be it maple syrup, Vermont-crafted furniture, jewelry, flatware or candles, all designed in Woodstock and handmade.

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about people following their dream upon retirement, only to then drop dead. “I thought, I’m not going to be one of those people,” says Charlie, now 60. “I’m going to try to do what I love during the day and not when I’m tired in the evening or worn out when I’m retired.” SIMON PEARCE BEGAN SELLING Shackleton’s elegant dining tables, dressers and seating, the contemporary interpretations of traditional designs he observed while growing up in a Georgian household and vacationing in rural western Ireland.

CHARLIE SHACKLETON began woodworking as a child, but when he migrated to the U.S. in 1981 to become an artist, it wasn’t to work in wood. Rather he left his Dublin, Ireland home at age 23 to join a friend of his brother, who was setting up a hand-blown glass workshop in Quechee, Vermont. Infatuated with functional, beautiful handmade objects, Shackleton wanted to learn about glass and how this acquaintance, Simon Pearce, did it. Within two months, Pearce, Shackleton and three other 20-something artists were blowing glass. Within two years, Miranda Thomas, whom Shackleton had met at Farnham, England’s West Surrey College of Art and Design, joined Pearce’s team to set up his pottery. And before the decade closed, the pair married and struck out to pursue a joint venture in form, beauty and function.

IN 1987, the first year of Charlie and Miranda’s ShackletonThomas, Charlie designed and built 500 benches for the Chicago Botanic Garden. His six-foot-long, teakwood classic remains popular today, and the Botanic Garden has since ordered many more. That initial contract helped launch Shackleton’s wholesale business, which steadily rose to employ 27 furniture makers and 50 employees, producing his and Miranda’s designs and based in the Bridgewater Mill for the past 20 years. (Miranda’s pottery studio lies just p 128

ShackletonThomas

MIRANDA, who’s bowls, platters, pots, lamps and more are delicately carved in natural motifs and decorated in calming blues and light browns, says their relationship is built on respect, fun and give and take. “We have a blast,” she says. “It’s a wonder how it works, but it does.” For his part, Charlie knew early on that he wanted to devote his full-time work to his passion, woodworking. He jokes that, by his late 20s, he’d heard

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For Charlie Shackleton and Miranda Thomas, art should be sophisticated, handmade and functional killington.com

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From Ireland to Vermont, Simon Pearce has crafted some of Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most iconic glassware 124 made in vt

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Simon Pearce the 1973 oil crisis, resulting from an oil embargo levied throughout the Middle East, led to his closure. So Simon and Pia uprooted and began looking for a new home in the northeastern U.S. After touring a dozen sites in New York, the pair found themselves in the village of Quechee, Vermont.

Simon Pearce founded his glassware company on ideals that were ahead of their time. When he moved from his home in County Kilkenny, Ireland to Quechee, Vermont with his wife, Pia, Pearce aimed to start a business founded on handcrafted excellence, renewable energy and, slightly later, farm-to-table food—all values now becoming more and more en vogue. But this was January 1981. Pearce, who first learned to blow glass at LONDON’S ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART and later honed his craft while working at factories in the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, opened his first glassmaking studio in Bennettsbridge, Ireland in 1971. And while he gained early popularity, opening successful stores in Dublin and the west-coast town of Clifden,

“When we arrived and saw the old brick building, the majestic river and the water falling over the dam, we knew it was right,” says Simon, now 71. “It had everything we were looking for: a beautiful setting to live and work in, a fantastic workspace with enough room for a retail store, and the potential for harnessing natural energy and converting the power of the river to electricity to fuel our glass furnace.” SIMON SAYS he’d thought considerably about hydropower and wished to be as energy independent as possible, especially given his previous woes related to powering his 2,400°F glass-melting furnace. The Ottauquechee River, which snaked by a 200-year-old woolen mill, seemed promising. The Pearces bought the mill without even knowing if they could get water rights, however, a move Simon called “the gamble of my life” in a 1982 New York Times article. But he successfully purchased the dam and water rights from the State of Vermont and secured financing to develop the million-dollar hydroelectric operation. Then came a restaurant. In the early ’80s, there wasn’t much else to do in Quechee for those who increasingly began traveling to the area to watch glass being blown. So Pia, in 1983 using family recipes for soups and salads, began their glassblowers’ café to serve lunch in the 30,000-square-foot mill where they’d also been living in a two-bedroom loft until that point. At the time, it made both financial sense and fit their identity to source the café’s ingredients from central Vermont p 129

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Farmhouse Pottery (continued)

“We really have a whole arsenal of products that represent the textures of this lifestyle here in Vermont,” James says. “It’s somewhat Nordic, with clean lines. And though Zoe has some Scandinavian heritage, she was raised in Camden, Maine, while James grew up in a military family that moved frequently before settling in Rhode Island while he was in high school. The pair met in the late ’90s while attending New Hampshire’s Colby Sawyer College, where Zoe was focusing on communications with minors in photography and marketing. James would go on to study studio art with a focus on pottery at Maine College of Art in Portland. After dating in college, they went their separate ways—Zoe to New York City where she worked with marketing agencies, interior designers and architects; James to a jewelry studio in Newport, R.I. “It couldn’t have been more than a couple years out of school, though, when we met in New York City in a park,” James says. “We were holding hands by the time we were leaving the park. We always had this magnetic thing.”

hey got engaged, then married, then settled in Massachusetts—first West Roxbury, later Wellesley—where they began developing high-end, ceramic-based lighting, which rapidly gained attention thanks to the couple’s eye for clean, striking designs and their capacity to market their work. While showcasing their lighting at Georgia’s Atlanta Gift Show, a wholesale gift and home-furnishings market, James met Simon Pearce, the Quechee, Vermont-based glassblower. Simon later offered James a job as his head of design and product development, sending the couple north to Woodstock, VT. “We were truly drawn to the agrarian landscape of Vermont and the quiet and artistic-based culture,” Zoe says. “We both grew up in small, New England towns so it was a familiar-yet-novel place to grow our business and our family.

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“Not that there’s anything wrong with the other towns around here, but it was key to our formula of evolution that we didn’t move to Hanover or Windsor,” James adds. “Fourteen years later, it’s provided a tremendous amount of inspiration that’s been a lot of the ideation and push behind Farmhouse Pottery, whether you see it or not.” James worked for Simon Pearce for nine years while Zoe, always entrepreneurial, began planting the seeds of Farmhouse Pottery. She started making candles ensconced in her husband’s ceramic vessels, and the couple began selling the pitchers and bowls James initially made for their home at the Woodstock Farmers’ Market, then the Norwich Market, then at the Woodstock Inn. “For four hours on the weekends, I’d throw some pots when she had a few orders,” James says. “Then it became evening after evening. It was exciting for me. It just started evolving really fast.”

hree years after the initial founding of Farmhouse Pottery, James left Simon Pearce. Shortly thereafter, they moved out of their basement and into the Lewis Bible Bindery and, within a month, knew it was going to be a home run. Just four years later, it continues to be. “We’ve stayed true to growing and investing in artists rather than machinery, and we’ve had a really exciting response from the market to our values and the story behind our pieces,” Zoe says. “As simple as it sounds, the growth has really been driven by our hard work and dedication to our values.”

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ShackletonThomas (continued)

across the parking lot.) But that size and scope of the business didn’t quite feel right. “I spent most of my days staring at the fax machine waiting for another order to come in,” says Charlie, who now works with six furniture makers, all in various stages of part-time and full-time work, several of whom have planed and joined wood at the Bridgewater Mill for more than 20 years. “Now I get to pay more attention to artistry. For the first time in 30 years, I’m making furniture pretty much the whole time, and it’s taken me all that time to reach the dream I had.”

harlie and Miranda don’t solely see their art as objects to admire, however. By creating items that are meant to be used, touched, opened and filled each day, both are intertwining their customers’ lives with art. “People understand that form of art more than going into a museum,” Charlie says. “It’s a way of getting art to people. By using it every day, they become exposed to art.”

PLAYGROUND The Killington Adventure Center is a playground for all ages. Test your skills in the Woodward WreckTangle, and try over 15 family-friendly attractions. Our playground has MORE. killington.com

Miranda, who was born in New York City, raised throughout Europe and apprenticed and worked alongside some of the world’s most famous potters, calls her and Charlie’s synergy extraordinary. Her work has ascended to fame, too, as diplomatic gifts given by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, among numerous other dignitaries. Today, the family aspect of ShackletonThomas has grown beyond just the husband-and-wife team. Their 28-year-old son, Hugh, recently joined their ranks after a seven-year apprenticeship with an area builder, and he now manages the woodworking shop. Charlie calls him an incredibly creative thinker who’s full of ideas and has the management chops to run a productive shop. And he says the opportunity to work with his son is a pleasure he won’t ever forget. “Your kids will go all directions and very often don’t want to work with their parents,” Charlie says. “So if you have a kid who comes back and wants to essentially do what you do, that is a gift beyond all hope.”

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HIGH FIVES Ah ha moments last a lifetime. Our passionate instructors and dedicated learning terrain make learning more fun. killington.com/lessons

Simon Pearce (continued)

farms. Today, that concept is almost ubiquitous in the Green Mountain State. SIMON PEARCE is now nearly synonymous with Vermont, too. The signature shapes are internationally known and highly regarded, shining with the clean, bright luster of fine art, yet remaining sturdy, durable and meant to be used. And in a world where production of nearly everything is becoming increasingly mechanized, Simon Pearce glassware represents a tiny fraction of commercially available glass that’s still made by hand. (Even the tooling required to craft their glassware is handmade.)

hese days, smaller items—like bud vases and stemware—are produced in the original Quechee flagship location, which still encompasses a vibrant restaurant deeply enriched by local foods. In 1993, Simon Pearce opened an additional facility 18-miles south in Windsor, Vt., with two kilns and a full pottery studio, and later opened a similar operation in western Maryland. Between those three spaces—plus nine retail stores—Simon Pearce employs 320 individuals, the large majority of whom work in Vermont, the place that, these days, greatly informs the company’s direction. “There isn’t any one thing in particular that forms Vermont’s influence on the brand but instead, it is a collective sense of place—all of it that affected and influenced me,” Pearce says. “I believe simplicity, quality and artisanship are tenets of a better way of life.”

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2708 Killington Road, Killington, Vt. 802.422.5671 â&#x20AC;¢ killingtonmountainschool.org

Where small-town charm blends with natural beauty

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rive 20 miles east of Killington on Route 4 and you’ll hit Woodstock, a community of about 3,000 year-round residents that national magazines have called the “prettiest small town in America.” When you see the neatly manicured town green surrounded by kempt Georgian and Federal-style homes, the main street where cars actually stop for pedestrians and the forests and open fields above town in every direction, it’s hard to disagree with that judgment. People live here for the unrushed quality of life and easy access to open space. After one visit, you’ll understand.

Get your bearings

Snowshoe to south peak at mt tom

Mt. Tom is the prominent geographical feature on the north side of Woodstock, and it’s part of the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, where 20 miles of carriage trails wind through stands of Norway spruce, red pine, oak and maple. For a commanding view of Woodstock, snowshoe to Mt. Tom’s south peak. To get there, drive west on Route 4 and turn right onto Prosper Road. Look for the parking lot on the right, about 1.5 miles ahead. Take the carriage trails McKenzie Road and Mt. Tom Road to South Peak. Plan for a two-hour outing, round trip. killington.com

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Stroll woodstock

Shopping & sights on central street oodstock was settled in 1768 and soon became the â&#x20AC;&#x153;shire,â&#x20AC;? or the county seat, of Windsor County. It grew fast during the Industrial Revolution, and much of the imprint of that era remains today, with a streetscape that has a human scale and is easy to navigate on foot. Just a few of the places to visit in town are the Norman Williams Public Library (1883), the Woodstock Inn (1892), F.H. Gillingham & Sons General Store (1886) and Billings Farm & Museum (circa 1890s).

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See them swoop | Vermont institute of natural science (vins)

n most places, birds are a part of our daily life—we hear them chirp and sing and see them flit from tree to tree. Not the birds at VINS. These are large, majestic birds of prey: think American eagles, peregrine falcons and great horned owls. Most of the birds at VINS have been rescued from harm and are being nurtured before being released again to the wild. Attend a raptor feeding session, learn about reptiles and take a walk on the nature path— everything here is fun for kids and adults alike.

A LITTLE LOVE GOES A LONG WAY

The place you love with the people you love most. Begin your next chapter at Killington and ski for the season on us. killington.com/weddings

888-644-7263 weddings@killington.com From Woodstock, drive 7.4 miles east on Route 4. VINS is on the left. If you go over the Quechee Gorge bridge, you’ve gone too far.

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Refuel

| Woodstock farmers’ market

Passion, pride, and a love for all things outdoors. Our team works, lives, and plays in outdoor gear. From instore purchases to online orders, get the best gear and advice at Killington Sports. Located in every base lodge and at the corner of Killington Road and Route 4.

www.killingtonsports.com here’s no better place in town to grab a specialty sandwich, homemade baked goods, highquality coffee, fine cheese, fresh produce or whatever else you’re craving. Take some time to browse the tightly spaced aisles and taste free samples of cheese and crackers.

From Woodstock, drive west 1.5 miles on Route 4S. The market is on the left, a few doors down from the White Cottage Snack Bar.

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A I B M

W H

PRESENTS A SKI & SNOWBOARD FILM BY E

K R

W E

P W O

R L

F A

O U

COMING TO KILLINGTON WINTER 2018-19 Y

T E T O N G R AV I T Y.C O M/FA R O U T

BONUS WOODSTOCK HOT SPOTS T E

U L

N K

Woodstock Inn Nordic Adventure Center woodstockinn.com

PLAY Union Arena Community Center unionarena.org

N I

O W T

EAT Worthy Kitchen worthyvermont.com Mangalitsa mangalitsa.com Mountain Creamery mountaincreameryvt.com LEARN Norman Williams Public Library normanwilliams.org Woodstock History Center woodstockhistorycenter.org

FUN FACTS Population of 3,048 (2010 census). The Vermont General Assembly met in Woodstock in 1807, before naming Montpelier the state capital. Woodstock has free Wi-Fi service in the business district, named Wireless Woodstock. Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, in Woodstock, is the only unit of the National Park System in Vermont. Woodstock has three covered bridges.

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TO VERMONT. HAVE AN IPA!

COME FOR THE SKI TRAILS, STAY FOR THE LONG TRAILS... NO GREAT DAY IS COMPLETE WITHOUT A REFRESHING, WELL-EARNED BEER AT THE END, SO CRACK OPEN A VT IPA AND LET THE CITRUS AND TROPICAL FRUIT FLAVORS TRANSPORT YOU BACK TO YOUR MOST EPIC RUNS AND SICKEST DAYS ON THE SLOPES.

CALL THE

(802) 422-RIDE

FREE RIDES WITHIN A SIX-MILE RADIUS

Work hard.

Play hard.

Earn your bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in

years.

Check us out at resortmanagement.greenmtn.edu

DECEMBER 7 & 8 |

vtholidayfestival.com

MUST SEE KILLINGTON 2018 2019

EVENTS JULY 19, 20 & 21 |

killingtonwinefestival.com

Bob Perry Bob Perry

the song remains the same

150 ! parting

killington.com

Eric Leone Eric Leone

There’s timelessness to the Longest Season in the East, even if that phrase reads like an oxymoron. The spirit that guides us to the mountains to chase the first and last turns of the season remains the same today as it did when people first started sliding on snow. The energy that drives us to cherish these flawless, fleeting moments— from a skiff of unexpected snow on late summer’s fading green to a sunsoaked chairlift ride to velvety corn snow caught in perfect transition— remains the same. We milk every last turn, every run with friends and family and strangers alike, as if it may be our last. A little more goes a long way. —4241’ killington.com

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FARM TO NIGHTCLUB For 55 years this Killington icon has served up more fresh food and good times than we can count. From local ingredients to craft beer and cocktails, the Wobbly serves up the best of Killington and MORE.

Killington.com/wobbly

Steakhouse & Nightclub

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”

LUNCH • DINNER • MUSIC • WEDDINGS • EVENTS

6 3 S U M M I T PAT H , K I L L I N G T O N , V T • 8 0 2 - 4 2 2 - 5 3 3 5 •

W W W . F O U N D RY K I L L I N G T O N . C O M