2017-18 4241 Magazine by Killington Resort

Complimentary

2017 / 2018

MTB Hub/Spokes on the Wheel Grassroots to Global/ Park Events Go Off Get This Party Started/ Kings of The Road Shock & Awe/ Young Guns at the World Cup

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

LUNCH • DINNER • MUSIC • WEDDINGS • EVENTS

2017 / 2018

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

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PRACTICE

fill out surveys from companies all the time that are littered with statements like: “Your feedback is important to us!” and “Help us serve you better!” Sometimes I provide scathing feedback just to see if someone will get back to me.

I’ve never received more than an automated response. And some of these are big, international companies with whole staffs dedicated to customer service. It blows my mind. What good is asking for feedback if you don’t do anything with it? It also makes me feel good. That’s because at Killington Resort, we make it a point to respond to guest feedback in a timely fashion and be as accommodating as possible. It’s one of the biggest reasons our Net Promoter Score (an index ranging from -100 to 100 that measures the willingness of customers to recommend a company’s products or services to others) climbed from 45 five years ago to 75 this season, our highest ever.

Our guests love to communicate with us, whether through email or social media or even the occasional hand-written note. Sometimes people reach out to tell us about an experience that exceeded expectations: Hi Mike, I just wanted to thank you for the great job you are doing managing the mountain this season. We are having a great snow year, but it’s also been great to see a lot of snowmaking and huge piles on Superstar like the old days! I know many longtime passholders like myself, as well as regular dayticket customers, really appreciate the dedication you have brought to mountain operations. Thanks again and looking forward to the extended spring hours and spring skiing! —Chris

Justin Cash

Other times, people reach out to let us know how we could improve their experience:

WHAT YOU PREACH

hanks to you and our dedicated staff there’s a lot of buzz around Killington T these days, and not just because we installed beehives around the resort this summer to produce honey and pamper the mountain’s pollinators. The Bear Mountain Revitalization story on page 26 highlights a number of initiatives that will improve the on-mountain experience—and off-mountain amenities—for skiers and riders. Bear is where it begins, but it won’t end there as we look to improve the on-mountain experience resort-wide. Stay tuned for more news on that front.

Our guests want to know more about where their food comes from, so we’re working on partnerships that enable us to source locally whenever possible (see “So Fresh and So Green” on page 118). Our guests love the mountains and care about the environment, so we continue to develop and expand a solar-energy program that utilizes both offsite and new, onsite arrays to generate power from the sun. Meanwhile, we continue to foster the mountain culture and community that put us on the map by hosting global events like the World Cup, the local-yetlegendary Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge and the all-ages Bike Bum mountain bike race series. Fun remains at the forefront of everything we do. So please keep the comments and ideas coming. Your voices are heard, and you are shaping the future of Killington.

Mike, My husband and I are season passholders and have skied at Killington for over 25 years. Our favorite base lodge to park at is KBL. We get most of our skiing in between 8-11 a.m., so we were very disappointed with the change in lift opening times this past weekend. Opening only the K-1 gondola at 8 a.m. and no other lifts until 8:30 a.m. results in a very poor start to our day. After having to wait in a 15-minute line at the gondola, we can get only one run in before the other lifts open. We cannot bring ourselves to arrive at the base lodge later than 7:30 a.m., as we would have to park so far away. PLEASE open AT LEAST the Superstar chair at 8 a.m. also. Thank you. —Cathy & Dave The good, the bad, I want to hear about it because we always want you to come back. That’s why I include my email address attached to every letter I send to our community, including at the bottom of this page. Resort-wide, we are working to be more accessible and transparent, and those efforts are paying off. So keep sending me messages, and I’ll be timely and honest with my responses. If it’s possible, we’ll do our best to address it, and even if it’s not, we’ll at least entertain the idea. Often, people are surprised when I respond candidly in person, and even more so when they see improvements at the resort that their feedback influenced.

Mike Solimano President & General Manager, Killington Resort & Pico Mountain msolimano@killington.com

[Editor’s Note: Guest letters were edited for length for publishing purposes.] killington.com

mike’s letter

A NT IC I PAT ION .

6 H Homegrown

Snowmakers know that winter begins when the first flakes hit the ground, not when a date on the calendar tells them to flip the switch. Once they turn on the guns, the storms begin, and frozen crystals stick to grass and ground like a heavy frost. One by one and layer by layer they become the foundation for the Longest Season in the East.

killington.com

photos by Justin Cash

A NT IC I PAT ION .

killington.com

Homegrown Get Down HH 7

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

MAKE FIRST TRACKS LIVE SIX PEAKS

Parks Editor Mike Garceau / Killington Resort Contributing Editors Rob Megnin Dave Young Jordan Spear Kaitlyn Beaule Contributing Writers Tyler Cohen Jesse Huffman Kirk Kardashian Danielle Owczarski Drew Pogge Peggy Shinn Dave Young

Copy Editors Jane Bird Steve Fuchs Contributing Photographers Chandler Burgess Justin Cash Peter Cirilli Brooks Curran Mike Garceau Peter Miller Bob Perry Andrew Santoro Chris Williams Dave Young Tim Zimmerman

Killington Resort President Mike Solimano Killington Pico Area Association President Howard Smith Killington Resort Director of Sales, Marketing & Reservations Rob Megnin

LIVE KILLINGTON.COM

ADVERTISING Resort Sales Team Jeff Alexander, Lee Cohen, Mike Garceau, Amy Laramie, Rob Megnin Killington Pico Area Association Sales Team Alexis King, Kim Peters Killington Ad Creative Kaitlyn Beaule, 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 ©2017 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 Resort / Killington, VT 05751 (800) 621 MTNS / www.killington.com Killington Pico Area Association 2046 US Route 4 / PO Box 114 / Killington, VT 05751 (802) 773 4181 / www.killingtonpico.org

A Development by

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DROP IN

CONTENTS Above the fray @ Loaded Turkey by Dave Young

FEATURES

NEWS Mike’s Letter

The K-3000 A legendary snowgun Dan Egan Hall of famer Maximizing the MAX Pass Expand your skiing horizons Gnarly to Gneiss Geology of Killington Peak Bear Mountain Development The future is now Parting Shot

killington.com

32 36 40 44 05 50 13 54 15 60 16 72 18 80 26 84 150 92 104 106 118 128 136

A Day in the Life of Mike Solimano Killington’s president and general manager mixes business with humility

Between the Lines The science of grooming and why it matters

Raising a Ripper Passing on the passion for skiing

Work Here. Play Here. Love Here. Killington Women Shine in the Mountains

Mikaela Shiffrin A Vermont homecoming

World Cup Revisited As seen through the eyes of skiing’s next generation

Flashback: Who Started The Party? A history of the party lifestyle at Killington

Grassroots to Global Killington’s park events put the resort on the map

Rider Profile Jordan Newth rips

Mountain Biking for Everyone The Killington Valley’s burgeoning bike scene

Photo Gallery

COVER Local Superstar Rebecca Clark, forerunner at Killington’s 2016 Audi FIS Ski World Cup by Justin Cash

The Rhythm of Vermont Mother, teacher, entrepreneur Liz Patnode

Vermont-made Softgoods Behind the scenes with Skida, Johnson Woolen Mills and Darn Tough

From the Source Killington puts its honey where its mouth is

All About Autumn Fall events are filled with color

Basecamp: Rutland The ultimate itinerary

welcome 11

100 00 Club 2016/17

The 100-day season 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.

Designates members who have achieved ďŹ ve consecutive years of 100 Club status.

_ 2017 / 2018 _

Tribute: K-3000 Snowgun Like a fine wine, this workhorse just gets better with age

NEWS

_ k-3000 snowgun _

the K-3000 was in production, assembled from a stainless steel casting made in New Hampshire as well as other locally manufactured parts. In fact, some of the tripod stands fitted to K-3000s were fabricated on-site, over the summer, by the snowmakers who would go on to use them the following winter.

the K-3000’s success

illington’s Superstar was the lone trail on the continent to feature a World Cup ski race-worthy surface last November. That was a good thing, since the world’s top female alpine skiers depended on the resort’s reputation for making winter happen no matter what Mother Nature had in store.

eventually led Killington to develop a snowmaking technology unit known as Resort Technologies, which sold the snowgun to ski areas around the country. Many of Killington’s New England compet-

unseasonably warm temperatures leading up to the women’s World Cup Slalom and Giant Slalom events presented a serious challenge, but Killington’s Mountain Operations team had a plan in place and the right tools for the job. Surprisingly, the most important tool of them all was a slightly obscure piece of 1980s snowmaking technology known as the K-3000 snowgun. Few outside the tightly-knit community of professional snowmakers have heard of the K-3000, and fewer still know that it was developed right here at Killington Resort. But inside the offices and planning rooms of Killington’s mountain operations complex, the K-3000 is spoken of in reverential tones. Justin Cash

slavko stanchak is the mechanical engineer who developed the K-3000. He started working in Killington’s Research and Development department in 1978 and built the first K-3000 prototype in the department’s machine shop in 1983. The K-3000. Born in 1983.

According to Stanchak, the K-3000 had two characteristics that made it unique at the time. “It was designed to run at higher water pressure than its predecessors, about 350 PSI,” he says. “And it was the first snowgun designed with a field-

adjustable nozzle to accommodate temperature and humidity changes.”

With few moving parts and almost nothing that could wear out, the K-3000’s design is elegant and durable, both necessary attributes given the challenging conditions in which snowguns operate. Among Killington’s current inventory of roughly 200 K3000s, some are approaching 30 years in service, their longevity a testament to their rugged construction.

dave lacombe, Killington’s Snow Surfaces Manager, has worked with the K-3000 since its introduction. He says that it’s above 25° Fahrenheit where the K-3000 really shines. According to Lacombe, the K-3000’s warm-temperature capabilities are a function of its adjustability. “At higher temperatures, you can increase the ratio of air to water and keep making snow,” he says. “At the high end of its temperature range, a K-3000 might be converting water at 10 gallons per minute, but under ideal temperature and humidity conditions, it’s running at 80 gallons per minute.”

Stanchak continued to refine the 1983 prototype, eventually filing a patent application on November 20, 1986. By the time the patent was granted, on April 10, 1988,

itors purchased them, as did popular Western areas like Jackson Hole, Vail, Steamboat, Keystone and California’s Bear Mountain.

Stanchak says he has no intention of manufacturing any more of the snowguns, noting that the tooling for producing them has been retired for years. Fortunately for Killington skiers and snowboarders, most of the world’s remaining K-3000s reside right here, more than 30 years after their debut. _ by Dave Young _

killington.com

news 13

TED LIGETY

_ 2017 / 2018 _

From the Streets to the Summit Egan brothers inducted into US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame How do you want to be remembered? Where will you leave your indelible mark? Those are some of the questions Dan Egan reflected on during a recent interview about his induction into the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame on April 8, 2017. Of the previous 400-plus inductees, Dan and his brother John became the first pair to enter the Hall together, which speaks to the impact each has had upon the other’s life and career. After decades skiing and making films together, the brothers’ paths have diverged in recent years. John is Chief Recreation Officer at Sugarbush and is still a sponsored skier. Likewise, Dan still lives and breathes skiing and action sports, from filmmaking to instructing to getting in his own turns. During the winter, he teaches all-terrain skiing clinics at Killington Resort and other mountains around the world. The Hall of Fame induction in Stowe, Vt. brought the duo back together on snow for the first time in several years. “I don’t get to see John as much anymore—we hadn’t skied together in years, we hadn’t sat on a chairlift together in years,” Dan Egan says. “That piece of us reconnected, and the side conversations that we had with each other…it was cool to be presented as the Egan brothers again.

Chandler Burgess

“We’re the first people in the Hall of Fame as a pair, and that’s unique because you know what it said to me? ‘John and Dan Egan needed each other,’” Dan adds. “We are both very accomplished people, but together there was something special that couldn’t be duplicated.”

John had similar feelings about the induction. “What an honor to be inducted with my brother Dan,” he says. “We did so much and traveled so far, from Cape Horn to Greenland, Kamchatka to Romania. We climbed peaks that hadn’t been climbed or skied. We did all this as brothers with the typical family issues and are still friends. To be among so many other inductees that we admired growing up is a very heavy and humbling honor. I hope we are remembered for sharing our love of the sport.”

NEWS

_ hall of fame _

The Egans’ career has covered some serious vertical, from growing up skiing the streets of Boston to beginning to ski professionally in the mid ’80s to pioneering and popularizing the extreme-skiing movement alongside the likes of Glen Plake, Scot Schmidt, Mike Hattrup and others. The Egans produced their own films and appeared in many others, including a number of Warren Miller productions. They traveled the world during the ’80s and ’90s, skiing and filming in remote mountains around the globe amid political unrest—even jumping off the Berlin Wall. “If you look at Glen Plake, you look at Scot Schmidt, you look at the Egans, the guys that have done this for 30 years,” Dan Egan says, “we attached ourselves to things that were bigger than us. It wasn’t about John and Dan Egan, it was about John and Dan Egan going somewhere bigger than them, to a mountain bigger than us, to a worldwide event.” “Dan and I had a connection that allowed us to follow each other in so many crazy conditions and read each other’s moves to create a very exciting movie scene,” John says. “We were called the ‘Siamese Twins Attached at the Soul’ for this ability to safely ski so close to the edge. I believe our love for the sport and the adventure we were on showed through and connected with audiences across cultures and languages.”

And it all started back in Boston. “I think about when my mom used to kick us out of the house because we were jumping up and down on the couch with our skis on,” Dan reflects. “And then building a jump over our neighbor’s house and landing in their backyard…. All that energy got directed at the same time of the birth of the extreme sports industry. That’s what made it; it’s just one of those things in life, right? Sometimes things are meant to be, and you don’t even plan it. None of that stuff could’ve been planned. But it happened.” killington.com

Dan Egan in his element.

_ by Mike Horn _

news 15

_ the MAX pass _

NEWS

Maximizing the MAX Pass Eastern skiers & riders expand their horizons

One of the best things about being an Eastern skier or rider is having access to a slew of mountains within driving distance—they call Vermont’s Route 100 the Skiers’ Highway for a reason, after all. It goes without saying that Killington is our favorite, but there’s a lot to love about being surrounded by the densest concentration of ski resorts in the country.

That geographic advantage has led a growing number of skiers and riders to sign up for the M.A.X. Pass, either as an add-on to their home mountain season pass or on its own. The pass is good for five days at 44 different North American resorts, including Killington and 17 other resorts in the Northeast. Out West, iconic destinations like British Columbia’s Kicking Horse, Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor and Colorado’s Copper Mountain are just a small sample of the M.A.X. offerings. Longtime Killington skier Danielle Lussier, who calls Boston home, took the M.A.X. Pass for a test drive last winter along with a group of friends with whom she’s been skiing at Killington for a dozen years.

_ 2017 / 2018 _

“I’ve had the same group of friends that go up from Boston every year, and we’ve always said that we’d like to explore more than Killington, as much as we really love it,” Lussier says. “It made sense to get a Killington season pass because of the month we spent skiing there, but that doesn’t really allow us to ski anywhere else. Then this past year we all got the M.A.X. Pass and just chose weekends that worked for everyone to ski on mountains that were on the Pass.” “For the M.A.X. Pass to have so many New England mountains and all the options out West, is really the best of both worlds,” Lussier continues. “I skied 25 days on it last year. That’s the most I’ve ever skied in a season—even with my Killington season pass.” Fellow Mass. resident Ryan Davis got on the M.A.X. Pass program last season, as well. He says he used it more for solo missions and as a means to meet new people and experience new places. He also taught his girlfriend to ski on his M.A.X. Pass last winter, and they both plan to have the M.A.X. Pass for the upcoming season. “I skied 90-plus days this year,” says Davis, 31. “It brought back some of that ski-bum nostalgia. I think it’s a great way for the younger generation to get into skiing while also helping them get out and travel because they’re not stuck at one mountain. When you travel, you have a totally different experience on-mountain and in town.”

That was the allure for Danielle Lussier and friends,

“What’s nice about having a share house in Killington is you know where you’re going, you don’t have to plan anything, you just get on the road Friday after work and you’re there for the weekend,” Lussier says. “That’s really nice to have. So we looked at our calendars and everybody took a weekend. And because there were eight of us, we could do Airbnb. It worked out great because it wasn’t one person responsible for the whole season.

Lussier says the M.A.X. Pass is optimal for her and her crew. “We just have so much fun every weekend we ski together,” she adds. “It’s really enabled us to just continue doing that— I don’t want to say on a bigger scale, but more often and at a variety of places. We also learned that no matter where we go, we always want a hot tub.” _ 4241’ _

16 news

killington.com

Justin Cash

as well. For each weekend and different destination, one individual was responsible for booking lodging, and they’d alternate throughout the winter and spring.

Chandler Burgess

I skied 90-plus days this year. It brought back some of that ski-bum nostalgia. â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Ryan Davis

We also learned that no matter where we go, we always want a hot tub. killington.com

â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Danielle Lussier news 17

From Gnarly to Gneiss Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Geologic Layer Cake

18 news

killington.com

_ 2017 / 2018 _

NEWS

_ geology 101 _

Imagine traveling back in time one billion years, long before the existence of dinosaurs, when the first multicellular organisms were developing and oxygen in the atmosphere was sparse. The Earth hosted a shallow ocean and unrecognizable continents.

killington.com

news 19

_ geology 101 _

NEWS

t was during this period that bedrock was uplifted through a significant mountain-building event, called the Grenville Orogeny, leaving peaks rivaling Mt. Everest and forming the first iteration of the Appalachian Mountain chain. The ancient basement bedrock of these once towering mountains can be viewed at Killington Peak, at 4,241 feet, the second highest mountain in Vermont.

The 59-year lifespan of Killington Resort barely registers as a blip on the extensive geologic timeline. So how did we get to where we are now from the Himalayan-esque stature of the Grenvilles? Around the time when the first fish evolved and after 500 million years of eroding forces, the Grenville Mountains were ground down to little more than hills. Two mountain building events followed. Like the ebb and flow of a deep breath, the drifting and converging of continents led to an upheaval of bedrock and the earth’s crust, eventually forming the Green Mountains and the New England coast of North America. The last mountain-building breath was exhaled nearly 200 million years ago when dinosaurs dominated the planet.

_ 2017 / 2018 _

Many years after the extinction of the dinosaurs and in close proximity to the evolution of man, a large ice sheet had formed on much of the northern continent, including Vermont. This sheet, a mile or more thick, scraped the peaks of the Green Mountains like rough-grit sandpaper, grinding and polishing the mountain tops and depositing a mix of rock fragments of all sizes. Signs of glacial activity are visible on the exposed bedrock of Vermont’s peaks, including Killington—the

shallow, linear, northto-south channels scraped in the rock surface during the expansion and retreat of the glaciers are numerous and easy to spot.

Like a seasonal ocean tide, the ice sheet flowed in during the winter months and retreated during the summer. While mastadons still roamed Vermont, the climate warmed, and the ice sheet made its final trip north. During the drifting and converging of ancient oceans and landmasses, the rocks of Killington Peak were subjected to higher heat than the more common schist of the northern Green Mountains. On Killington’s exposed mountain peaks you will find a metamorphic rock called gneiss (pronounced “nice”), which dominates the bedrock underneath the resort’s forests, buildings and parking lots. On top of the gneiss is a shallow (in the uplands) to thick (in the valleys) layer of glacial till that was deposited during glaciation. The glacial till is comprised of rock fragments left over from the scraping of the glacier. In some areas, like some of Killington’s rocky mountain bike trails, this till is exposed on the surface. The soils that coat the glacial till are rather shallow, but still support plentiful montane vegetation. These hearty plants make up the frosting on the geologic layer cake, topping the layers of ancient bedrock, glacial till and loamy soils. In the resort area and surrounding mountains, yellow birch, red spruce and balsam fir grow well on the nutrientpoor slopes. Shrubs like witch hobble and striped maple provide shade for the mountain wood fern, common wood sorrel and twinflower. Wet areas at the bottom of slopes tend to collect nutrients from the eroding hillsides above, providing habitat for sugar maple, Vermont’s state tree and preferred producer of maple syrup. As we observe the seasonal shifts at the resort, it isn’t difficult relating how these changes shape our activities on the landscape. But remember that just under our feet is a strong, one-billion-year-old foundation for what we experience on the surface. _ by Danielle Owczarski _ _ photos by Justin Cash _

news

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ROCK STAR. Meet Jeff Temple, rock star. As Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Director of Mountain Operations, heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the winter maker behind the biggest show on snow. From World Cup ski races to the Longest Season in the East, there is no such thing as a down day for Temple and his team. killington.com/temple

Interested in our lifestyle? Go to killington.com/jobs for info.

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7/25/17

1:52 PM

Revitalizing Bear Mountain

placement. Maintenance projects don’t have the sex appeal of a brand-new base lodge or chairlift, but they are arguably more necessary for us to deliver the kind of on-mountain experience Killington is known for. Still, our guests expect us to always keep improving our facilities, and our job is to find ways to do that.” _ by Dave Young _

Killington Resort peers into the future with a new development partnership aimed at bringing luxury lodging, a new chairlift and a renovated base lodge to Bear Mountain.

n April 3, 2017, Killington Resort President and General Manager Mike Solimano delivered his annual spring presentation to the Killington community. For many, the most exciting news of the night was Solimano’s announcement of a development project known as the Bear Mountain Revitalization Plan. The project, a partnership between Killington Resort and independent developer Ottauquechee Realty Advisors LLC (ORA), is designed to bring $110 million in real estate and infrastructure improvements to the resort’s Bear Mountain and South Ridge areas, beginning as soon as summer of 2018.

Base Camp at Bear Mountain

hase one of the new development, called Base Camp at Bear Mountain, includes construction of six or seven new, multi-family condominium buildings, as well as about $8 million in on-slope amenities like a new fixed-grip quad chairlift on South Ridge, an extensive Bear Mountain Base Lodge renovation and a plan to enhance traffic flow in the Bear Mountain and Needle’s Eye areas.

According to Solimano, priority in the mountain resort business goes to maintaining existing resort infrastructure over building new amenities. When it comes to existing infrastructure, no Eastern resort has more than Killington. Combined, Killington and sister resort Pico Mountain count six base lodges and a summit lodge among their facilities. The two ski areas share an extensive snowmaking system that relies on more than 100 miles of buried and aboveground pipe. And it takes 28 lifts, including seven high-speed express quads and two gondolas, to serve the nearly 2,000 acres of skiable terrain within Killington and Pico’s boundaries. With that much equipment and terrain to take care of, keeping the facilities aesthetically up to date is a challenge, and adding new amenities is often financially out of reach. “Killington, along with its parent company Powdr, reinvests millions of dollars into the resort every year,” Solimano said. “Some of that investment goes to high-profile projects like the Peak Lodge or the recent Preston’s Restaurant renovation, but much of it is spent behind the scenes, on projects like lift upkeep and snowmaking-pipe re26 news

The need to balance upkeep of existing infrastructure with investment in modernization is a chief concern of mountain operators across the industry, and it’s a problem for which Killington and Powdr seem to have a solution. “Partnering with an independent developer is a good, mutual fit,” Solimano added. “Killington can tap into additional capital, and the developer gains access to the most attractive locations for a project. Our guests win, too, because the resort experience improves for everyone, whether they visit for the day, a week or every weekend, like our season passholders.”

Mike Solimano is most excited by the prospect of the new South Ridge lift. “Replacement of the South Ridge chair has been the number-one requested improvement by our core group of guests for the last several years,” he said. “The removal of the original South Ridge Triple, in 2011, decreased access to what some consider the best powder skiing on the mountain and made it more challenging for novice skiers and riders to enjoy Bear Mountain Base Area.” Built in 1977, the original South Ridge Triple ran from near the top of the Bear Mountain Quad to just below the summit of Killington Peak, accessing some of Killington’s best natural-snow terrain—trails like Breakaway, The Jug and Roundabout Glades, as well as gentle cruisers like Bear Trax and Pipe Dream. Long-time Killington skiers remember the South Ridge Triple as the lift with a left turn, its uphill line following an unusual path as it diverged from the downhill line and traveled around a midpoint bull wheel, catching unsuspecting riders off guard with a somewhat jarring swing to the left.

Return of the South Ridge Lift

he new South Ridge Quad will forego the left turn, a remnant of a long-forgotten midstation on the old lift, instead following the original lift’s downhill line over The Jug, where some of the old towers still stand. The new lift’s upper terminal will sit at roughly the same elevation as the original, slightly below the summit of Killington Peak, where wind is less likely to impact operation. The new quad will provide easy access to South Ridge terrain, as well as allowing skiers and snowboarders of all ability levels another access route from Bear Mountain to the resort’s north side. The new lift will also help to ease crowding on the Skye Peak Express Quad, which sees heavy use killington.com

_ 2017 / 2018 _

NEWS

_ bear mountain development _

moving skiers and riders from Bear Mountain to Skye Peak on busy days. The lift will be the first step in the phase-one build out, and installation is expected to begin during summer 2018.

Snowshed Crossover Revisited

ith the South Ridge Quad in place to efficiently ferry guests up the mountain, a second on-slope improvement, featuring a unique tunnel and bridge system, is planned to smooth the flow of skiers and snowboarders back down. The bridge and tunnel will eliminate several unwanted intersections between Snowshed Crossover, a connector trail, and two expert-level trails that it crosses. If it seems like you’ve heard the name Snowshed Crossover before, you probably have. For years, the trail traversed from the summit of Bear Mountain directly to the Snowshed area. It was closed in 2008, following construction of The Stash Terrain Park and the Skye Peak Express Quad to eliminate its intersection with The Stash and Skyeburst trails.

In the years since the crossover closed, skiers and riders descending Skyeburst or The Stash have enjoyed unimpeded, intersection-free runs, but traffic flow out of Bear Mountain has been more difficult, especially for beginner skiers and snowboarders. With a ski bridge to take crossover traffic over one of the intersections and a tunnel to direct traffic under another intersection, the new configuration will allow for the reopening of Snowshed Crossover. Terrain park enthusiasts will get an additional benefit—the ability to connect The Stash with the Dream Maker Park, creating a top-to-bottom, expert-level park run unparalleled in Eastern North America.

Bear Mountain Base Lodge 2.0 steve malone, managing partner of ORA, is understandably excited about his new lodging units, but as a passionate Killington skier and a Bear Mountain regular, he even grows more animated speaking about the Bear Mountain Base Lodge makeover. “Think about it,” he said. “Right now, if you’re in the bar at Bear Mountain, you’re sitting at the base of some of the most impressive ski and snowboard terrain in New England, and you can’t even see the slope. The current bar has a view of the parking lot.”

Scott Harrison, Killington Resort’s director of hospitality, is thrilled to offer an upgraded guest experience at Bear Mountain Base Lodge. “We’re going to completely change the layout and open up the slope side with glass so you can sit at the bar and view one of our signature trails, Outer Limits,” Harrison said. “We’ll also be upgrading the food offerings, with a larger selection of made-toorder options arranged in a food court, similar to the concepts at the Peak Lodge and Snowshed Base Lodge.”

We’re going to completely change the layout and open up the slope side with glass so you can sit at the bar and view one of our signature trails, Outer Limits.

killington.com

news 27

_ bear mountain development _

NEWS

_ 2017 / 2018 _

Slopeside Luxury Living

he phase-one design features multi-family buildings configured as “stacked flats,” in which each individual unit occupies part of a single floor, with 18 units per building. Landscaped courtyards separate the buildings, giving each unit access to shared amenities like outdoor hot tubs, fire pits and heated patios. Underground spaces provide enclosed parking for owners and guests. The project is sure to grab the attention of both prospective homeowners and guests looking to rent a top-tier vacation home.

The project is sure to grab the attention of both prospective homeowners and guests looking to rent a top-tier vacation home.

According to Solimano, “We know we have a shortage of lodging options during peak periods, and we also know that there is a demand for newer, more upscale offerings. This is a great opportunity to upgrade our lodging inventory.” Malone also points out that these will be the first new ski-on-ski-off condominiums to be built in Killington in many years. The $25-million second phase of the project consists of an additional 18 duplex units to be built at the base of Bear Mountain in an area bounded by the Spacewalk, Bear Cub, Outer Limits and Devil’s Fiddle trails. Construction of phase two is slated to begin in 2020. Malone cautions that there is still work to be done before he can break ground on phase one, not the least of which involves acquiring an Act 250 permit, which requires a stringent environmental assessment by the State of Vermont.

28 news

killington.com

_ 2017 / 2018 _

NEWS

_ bear mountain development _

alone has good reason to be optimistic, though. “I have a 100 percent [success rate] for receiving Act 250 approval on my projects,” he said, an impressive feat considering the large projects he has built in the past, including Top Ridge and The Lodges, two developments in Killington’s Sunrise area. If all goes according to plan, he hopes to be accepting non-binding reservations for phase-one units by late November 2017. mike solimano is optimistic, too, though his optimism is the kind tempered by long experience with resort projects. “The improvements in phase one of this project will have an immediate positive impact for our guests, and we’re anxious to get started,” he said. “Of course, we’ve been involved in enough building projects to know that unforeseen delays are always possible. That said, I’m still quite hopeful that we will be able to meet this timeline.” Only time will tell exactly when the phase-one build-out begins, but it certainly won’t be long before Killington powder seekers once again have lift access to their favorite South Ridge stashes. And prospective Killington homeowners will soon have a number of newly constructed slope-side options to choose from, too.

killington.com

For more information on the revitalization project, visit Ottauquechee Realty Advisors at ora-bearmtn.biz.

news 29

the human factor

t’s not two hours into my day spent shadowing Mike Solimano, and I’ve already lost track of Killington’s president and GM.

How Mike Solimano, Killington’s president and general manager of five years, mixes business management with humility rooted somewhere in his upbringing as the youngest of six brothers. And he’s employed them unconditionally during his five-year tenure as president and general manager, reenvisioning and reshaping Killington’s culture. H H H H H

SIXTEEN INCHES of wet snow unexpectedly fell upon central Vermont last night, and today, the first Saturday in April, feels as busy as any midwinter day. So when Solimano and I head to the K-1 Express Gondola to sample last night’s snow, the singles line is filled to the back of the maze. Solimano surveys the line, trades his Völkls for a spare ticket scanner and strides right into the crowd, where he disappears for 10 minutes. Scanning tickets hardly seems like a GM’s responsibility, I think as I stand idly beside a stream of guests piling into the gondola cars. Surely he’s got more important things to do and is just putting on a good face for me.

“ON A TYPICAL SATURDAY, HE’S EVERYWHERE,” says one of the ambassadors standing beside me. His name is Pete Duffy, a 10-year veteran of greeting Killington skiers and riders who recently began running the ambassador program. “I’ll run into him loading chairlifts. I’ll run into him busing tables. I’ll run into him helping to park cars,” Duffy says. “And it’s not just in one area of the mountain. He’s all over.” “I don’t interact with him as much as Pete does, but he’s perfectly correct,” another ambassador, Bob Kenyon, adds. “You don’t know where you’re going to see him. It’s welcome.” “I think he really sets the tone,” Duffy says. “He’s Mike. He’s as much of a team player as the rest of us.”

But, as I’ll learn throughout the day, Solimano’s humility, emphasis on teamwork and quest to connect with others aren’t just for show or some management tactics derived from a textbook. They’re core values that he holds deep down,

MOST OF THOSE TEAM MEMBERS around the company—or almost anybody in the ski industry, for that matter—grew up around the sport. But Solimano, 48, jokes that he’s probably the only guy running a ski resort who didn’t grow up around one.

by Tyler Cohen

photos by Justin Cash

32 mike

killington.com

On a typical Saturday, he’s everywhere. I’ll run into him loading chairlifts. I’ll run into him busing tables. I’ll run into him parking cars.

I think he really sets the tone. He’s Mike. He’s just a worker around the company like we are.

long with five older brothers, Solimano was raised in the suburban town of Chester, New Jersey on what he calls “sort of a farm, but not really.” They didn’t have livestock or grow produce, but there was always work to be done—on their big, old farmhouse, around their barns and in their greenhouses— plus cleaning, cooking or moving groceries for all eight Solimanos. “I never had a minute to do something on my own,” he says in an excited, wide-eyed way. In a family of that size, money was tight, and he and his brothers would kid that they were only allowed to play sports that required sneakers and nothing more. So skiing wasn’t part of Solimano’s life until he graduated Lewiston, N.Y.’s Niagara University in 1990 and began working in Boston as an audit manager with the financial firm Deloitte & Touche. That’s when he’d take occasional weekend trips with friends to Vermont. Before long, networking connections in the audit business led Solimano to Dynastar Skis, with its North American headquarters then based in Burlington, Vermont, where he landed the job of CFO.

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n 2002, American Skiing Company recruited Solimano as CFO of The Beast. Finances were so tight in his first week on the job that, he admits, they almost couldn’t make payroll. “I started in those tough times and it was pretty rough for a variety of reasons,” he says candidly. “It was just tough.” Powdr, the Park City, Utah-based adventure lifestyle company that today owns Killington, Colorado’s Copper Mountain and Eldora Mountain Resort and Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor, among several smaller resorts, purchased Killington in 2007. To many diehards, the transition was marked by the termination of the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, the shrinking of Killington’s dominantly long season and a reduction in snowmaking.

The mountain feels like a perpetual party from the November World Cup through the resurrected Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge and well into the spring.

olimano, the self-proclaimed “bean counter” at the time, admits to his complicities in those changes that were received unfavorably by many Killington skiers, employees and community members. So when Killington President and GM Chris Nyberg became Powdr’s Resort Division COO in Park City in 2012, Solimano filled his role at The Beast and, shortly after, released a statement to all passholders. “With tough economic times and our focus on efficiencies, at times we lost sight of what has made Killington great,” he wrote. “We need to regain that swagger that allowed us to have bragging rights in almost every measurable category of operation. Look for us to return to the roots and essence of whom and what we are.” Swagger means different things to different people. And while I don’t exactly know how Killington regulars define the term these days, the mountain feels like a perpetual party from the November World Cup through the resurrected Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge and well into the spring. That seems like swagger to me. “People are more friendly,” Pete Duffy says before I hop in the gondola. “I think it’s really changed, and I think people are having more fun.”

H H H H H

hen we arrive at the top of the Peak, the morning’s wet powder is piled into heavy moguls covering most trails from side to side. Solimano quickly slides through the skiers gathered near the lodge and winds through a series of switchbacks down Bear Trax and Launch Pad to the top of Superstar.

ike Solimano’s office is a visual representation of contrasts. Above three pairs of skis, a goggled helmet hangs beside two hard hats. Line vector development plans are carefully tacked to the corkboard walls beside photos of his wife, Cara, and their three kids—16-year-old Connor, 14-year-old Hannah and 12-year-old Lauren. Printouts of seven-minute workouts are stapled to the wall above an accounting calculator. Sorels sit beside Nordica Dobermans beneath a desk topped by binders of budgets dating back to 2014. And music lightly plays in the background while we talk, occasionally interrupted by muffled mountain-ops radio chatter. Those contrasts meet at the balance point between work and play, and

People love to hate big corporations, distant things they don’t know. We’ve tried to personalize it; get people to know we’re normal people across the whole management team. You have to be open and honest.

Solimano’s job is to find and keep steady equilibrium between the two, for both himself and Killington’s 1,800 wintertime employees. For that, he gives heaps of credit to the resort’s seven-person management team that’s focused on hearing guest feedback and offering transparency. As soon as he became GM, Solimano began blogging in order to connect with and hear from guests. “I’d put my email at the bottom, because if you want feedback, you have to ask for it,” he says. “The marketing team was like, ‘Um, you don’t want to do that!’ But what I’ve found is most people are just frickin’ amazed when I reply to them, and they may not totally agree with me, but at least they understand our theory.” “People love to hate big corporations, distant things they don’t know,” he continues. “We’ve tried to personalize it; get people to know we’re normal people across the whole management team. You have to be open and honest.”

H H H H H

hat’s where busing tables, scanning tickets, parking cars or helping set up rentals comes in. It gets him out there, interacting with passholders and day visitors alike, getting to know their needs, wants, likes and dislikes. It lets Solimano hear their stories or tell his, to help affirm his vision for Killington or adjust as necessary; it keeps him involved with Killington’s massive staff, making the boss relatable and accessible. But it’s not just Solimano. “It’s everyone on his team,” Pete Duffy told me earlier. “You could go around this resort right now, and I think you’d find every executive team member who’s working today helping at a lift or in a base lodge.”

There, he cuts quick and compact turns between the powder piles near the sides of the snow-made glacier that stands taller than Superstar’s lift towers. His style is athletic and powerful, and I can tell he likes to ski fast, letting his 6’1” frame carry speed across the fall line, even though these conditions don’t entirely allow it. But this is the one run we’ll get to take together today.

Indeed, Solimano says, he was just up at the Peak clearing tables alongside his Guest Experience Manager and the directors of human resources and finance, and he spoke with maybe 50 guests during those two hours. “People like to know that you’re working hard so that they can have a good time,” he says.

When we return to the Peak, he wants to show off the new lodge I’ve yet to see. It’s just past noon, however, and the building is Martin Luther Kingweekend busy. Like in the gondola line earlier today, Solimano sees an opportunity to pitch in and literally get his hands dirty, swiftly swapping ski gloves for rubber gloves to bus tables and empty trash bins. We make plans to reconnect at his office at 3 p.m.—just after he’ll again join the K-1 liftees, this time to hand out cookies. I head out to take a few runs as he begins collecting errant coffee cups and lunch trays, chatting with skiers and riders at every turn.

His approach makes sense on so many levels, from customer service to marketing to personnel management. They’re fundamental human values that he’s employing, values like integrity and humility that you can’t really teach in business school or even learn from some sage management mentor. Solimano says he tries to treat everybody in business like he does in the real world, like he’d treat his siblings growing up or his family now. Because the ski business isn’t just about snow, budgets or bottom lines. It’s about people, too.

34 mike

killington.com

MIKE SOLIMANO’S

FAVORITES

Favorite Way to Start Each Day “At the Pico Sports Center. I’ve always been a morning gym person.” Favorite Place to Eat Sushi Yoshi Favorite Place to Grab a Beer The Lookout Favorite Vermont Beer Fiddlehead Second Fiddle Favorite Weekend Tradition Homemade family pizza night on Sundays Favorite Killington Event The Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge Favorite Day of the Week “Saturday. And I don’t even get to ski much on Saturday. I like going to the Peak, busing tables, and I might talk with 50 different passholders.”

FIND MORE WORLD CLASS SKIING, RIDING OR OUTDOOR RECREATION, AND START PLANNING YOUR NEXT TRIP AT

WWW.VERMONTVACATION.COM

killington.com

by Tyler Cohen

photos by Justin Cash

mike 35

The Nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Watch

Andrew Santoro

Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s groomers are ever vigilant

By Drew Pogge

36 well-groomed

Photos by Justin Cash

killington.com

dave lacombe is dreaming —having a nightmare, actually. In this dream, the mountain is a terrible mess: sofa-sized moguls on beginner runs, break-overs scraped down to dirt, lift mazes that slope backward, huge terrain-park features without transitions. There are dangerous berms on every sharp turn, double fall lines abound, and ski patrol can’t keep up with the number of people sliding wildly out of control down Killington’s signature steeps. Piles of snow sit uselessly next to snowmaking guns. Lift offload ramps are chaotic quagmires. Children are screaming; grown men have tears streaming down their cheeks; a hysterical teenager cries out, “For the love of God, where have the groomers gone?” Dave wakes with a start and looks at the time: 4 a.m. It was just a dream—all is well. Tonight, there is a fleet of up to 15 state-of-the-art grooming machines piloted by a dedicated crew of experienced operators buffing the slopes of Killington, as they do every night of the season. There will be no chaos, no tears or hysteria—just happy skiers and riders enjoying yet another morning of freshly tilled corduroy. Dave rolls over and goes back to sleep, dreaming this time of ripping fast, smooth turns down his favorite run.

t’s easy to take grooming for granted—the symmetrical, flowing rows of corduroy, the perfectly blended break-overs and transitions, the flat lift mazes and gently contoured offload ramps. But hundreds of man-hours of work go into shaping Killington’s slopes each and every night. It’s a logistical and technical challenge all season long—and with a season sometimes lasting from October until June, high skier volume, large events like the World Cup and Vermont’s notoriously fickle weather, the challenges are never static. That’s where Dave and his team of equipment operators come in.

dave lacombe is Killington’s snow surfaces manager. He’s responsible for keeping the mountain in the best shape possible, through snowmaking and grooming operations, and after 40 years at the resort, he may know the mountain better than anyone. He certainly knows how much work it can be to keep the mountain skiing well. “It takes an awful lot of effort and planning,” he explains. “When to be on the snow; when to move the snow around; what’s the weather doing? Sometimes you just need to stay off it for the longevity of the run—we can create longterm problems for ourselves. And that’s hard to explain to people, because they don’t understand, ‘Why is that trail not groomed?’ If they sat in our daily snow planning meeting, they’d say, ‘Wow, there’s a lot more to it.’” A huge part of “it” is having the right tools for the job. Killington has a fleet of 23 snow cats and aims to have up to 15 machines on the mountain each night grading, shaping and grooming. There are three new machines for 2017/18: two additional trail groomers and a specialized park groomer with greater agility for shaping and maintaining complicated features. These are huge, powerful machines: the new Prinoth Bison weighs nearly 22,000 pounds and can groom a swath more than 21 feet wide, and its 9.3-liter diesel Caterpillar engine produces almost 1,300 ft.-pounds of torque—more than four times that of an average half-ton pickup. All of the new machines are also Tier 4 engines, meaning they meet or exceed the most stringent efficiency and emissions standards. Three of Killington’s fleet are mounted with enormous, 4.5-ton turret winches, which are used to help pull groomers up the steepest slopes or plow large volumes of snow uphill. Inside the cockpits of these specialized machines, operators enjoy suspension seats, advanced climate controls and a stereo system. Joystick controls bristling with buttons make running a cat “like playing an Atari game,” according to Lacombe.

killington.com

well-groomed 37

“And with the park groomers, it’s like artwork,” Lacombe says. On social media, operators get relatively instant feedback, as well. “We can see everyone “It’s all about using every resource available to ensure talking about it the next day. the best possible conditions.” We get a lot of feedback and try — dave lacombe to promote that from within.” Snow Surfaces Manager

killington is fortunate to have some of the best operators in the industry. Coming mostly from industries like construction, farming and logging, they know how to operate heavy machinery in difficult environments and, Lacombe says, “They think it’s a cool job—it’s fun, they’re in a couple-hundred-thousand-dollar piece of equipment plowing snow, and they love it. Eight hours goes by pretty quick.” Then there are the spectacular on-mountain sunsets and sunrises: “Nobody stops appreciating those,” Lacombe says.

38 well-groomed

Oakley-Killingtons-AlexMod5-7.875x4.625.indd 1

Like any large operation, there are a lot of moving parts that must be considered. “Events, ski patrol, lift operations, lift maintenance, they all have input,” Lacombe says. “It’s always a balance; what’s the priority? And we plan that at 2:30 p.m. every single day.” There are routine utilities, like lift details for every one of Killington’s 21 lifts. The ramps need to flow left and right—an improper grade, and novices will get stuck. Mazes need to be flat. If snowmaking is underway, it may need to be redistributed. And then there are weather events like thaws and rain, when the mountain needs to be “reclaimed.” Lacombe says, “It’s tough, because stuff happens pretty quickly, and a trail can go from beautiful to not in a short period of time.”

killington.com

2017-09-06 12:52 PM

Dave Young

the operators have the final say in how a slope looks and skis, Lacombe notes, and “they’re pretty particular about the corduroy, that it’s all in line. They’ll plan their patterns— up one trail, down another, looping back to the first so it’s all nice, even lines with no turnaround marks. It’s a visual factor, and it’s pride in what they’re doing.” Groomers overlap their passes, like a mower on a golf course, with the goal of a seamless, ridgeless end product.

killington is a particularly challenging resort to maintain due to the amount of steep terrain and the high volume of skiers. “Skiers wear the snow out,” Lacombe says. “And every time we groom, we create some friction, and it can make [the snow] really hard.” The solution is getting the blade in the snow, redistributing it, pulling in the edges, windrowing it from side to side, turning it over and pushing air into it. “It’s just like farming,” he explains. “We’re farming the snow.”

the reward for groomers is the same as for any other skier: smooth, soft corduroy and a mountain that flows well from top to bottom. The whole idea is that once the groomers are sitting silently at the base and the lifts have started turning, no one thinks twice about what it took to create a quality ski experience. That’s Dave’s job—one he does well. And the nightmare scenario? Well, it’s not going to happen on his watch, he says. “It’s all about using every resource available to ensure the best possible conditions.”

by the numbers Number of snow cats in Killington’s fleet 23 Number of snow cats operating each night 15 Foot-pounds of torque produced by the Prinoth Bison 1,273 Number of groomed “corduroy” ridges per foot 11-16, depending on the comb

Number of terrain parks at Killington 6 Feet of cable on each winch cat up to 3,937 Number of lights mounted to each Prinoth Bison 16

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irvingenergy.com 2017-08-29 12:33 PM

well-groomed 39

Raising a Ripper

by Kirk Kardashian

photos by Justin Cash 40

generation

killington.com

I taught my son to ski at KILLINGTON and PICO, and it was the best season of our lives.

hen I was in high school, my English teacher asked our class to write our own shorter version of Walden, Henry David Thoreau’s account of decamping to a rustic cabin on Massachusetts’s Walden Pond. My essay was called “Rutland,” and I filled it with overly serious ruminations on living in the shadow of Killington Peak. That mountain, a four-hour drive from my home in New Jersey, meant a lot to me. My parents started taking me skiing there when I was seven or eight, and it’s where the act of sliding on snow grafted itself into my very own DNA. I was a skier, and Killington was my mountain. FAST-FORWARD about 25 years. I now live in Woodstock, Vt. with my wife and three kids. Killington, for me, is still that magical place it was when I was a teenager. So, in the fall of

killington.com

2016, when my six-year-old son, Brian, said he wanted to learn how to ski, I could think of no better place to introduce him to the sport. The terrain feels limitless—especially to a kid—and the snowmaking and grooming guarantee good conditions in virtually any weather. Plus, children under seven years old ski for free at Killington and Pico, making it affordable to get lots of time on the snow and make consistent progress. THE WINTER OF 2016-17 threw every kind of weather at the mountain, and we skied through it all. We logged 17 days together, and Brian is now completely infatuated with skiing. I kept a journal of our adventures. Here are the highlights from a season well spent.

next 41

BEAR MOUNTAIN is now Brian’s favorite place in the world, so we park there and just do laps on the super-fast SKYE PEAK EXPRESS. DAY ONE | December 10, Opening Day at Pico

DAY THREE | December 29, Killington

BRIAN’S EXCITEMENT IS PALPABLE. He’s talking nonstop, asking tons of questions. It’s a cold day with blue skies and plenty of snow, and the Bonanza Double Chair is spinning slowly, ferrying kids and adults to the top of the small hill. The lift operator is listening to reggae and dancing a bit to keep warm.

IT’S BRIAN’S FIRST DAY AT KILLINGTON, and he’s really looking forward to riding in a gondola, so we park at the Skyeship Base Lodge. We start the day with a few laps on Great Eastern, a long, easy run down to Skyeship. It twists and turns, and I can tell he’s surprised by how much time it’s taking us to get to the bottom. He’s loving the chance to ski for 10 minutes at a spell, and he doesn’t want to stop.

We shuffle out to the loading zone and there’s plenty of time to prepare for the chair coming behind us. I tell Brian what someone told me a long time ago: look over your outside shoulder and grab onto the chair as you sit down. He does it perfectly and away we go, into the air. He’s beaming. ON THE FIRST RUN, I hold him between my legs and show him the snowplow, which he remembers from cross-country skiing in Woodstock. About halfway down, I let him go, hoping he avoids disaster. He’s bending at the waist and sticking his arms out at odd angles for balance, but he drifts to the bottom without falling. Success! ON THE THIRD RUN, he is skiing the whole slope by himself. He’s not turning yet, but controlling his speed in a straight snowplow and nearly locked legs. At this point, I’m careful not to give him too much to think about. I just want him to feel it out. 42

generation

WE DECIDE TO VENTURE farther away and ski over to Ramshead via the Snowshed tunnel underneath the Killington Access Road. He grabs onto my poles, and I tow him up the small hill to the quad. He’s been begging for something steeper, and Ramshead fits the bill. The runs here are wide, with a lot of room to traverse. But he doesn’t need it, because he’s still skiing straight down the hill. WE STOP FOR A HOT CHOCOLATE and a waffle at the Ramshead lodge, and then head back over to Snowshed. On the last run down to our car, he’s doing these little edging maneuvers with each foot, pushing from side to side quickly. He’s figuring out how to turn.

killington.com

It’s Brian’s first day at KILLINGTON, and he’s really looking forward to riding in a gondola.

DAY SIX | January 22, Killington THE FOG IS HANGING THICK around Killington today, and I think it’s time to introduce Brian to Bear Mountain. We take a warm-up run down Great Eastern to Skyeship, then ski over to Bear. As we’re about to pass The Stash terrain park, I hear him yell, “Dad! What’s that?” I’m not sure he’s ready for jumps, but by the time I answer, he’s already skiing over the first feature. This kid has no fear.

friends during my 20s, and I want to share that with Brian. We pop in and it’s immediately steep and technical, with large rocks and little drop-offs. I look back, and Brian is sliding backward on his back. But he stops himself quickly, gets up and skis on by me. I’m shocked that he’s not freaked out. He skis the rest of the run nonstop, rolling over every feature like he’s done it a million times. My heart fills with pride.

I lead him down to Superpipe, which he sees as just another playground. He goes up and down the sides of the halfpipe, his many lift tickets fluttering in the wind. I feel like I’ve unleashed a beast. We take 10 more runs down The Stash and Superpipe. I can’t convince him to ski anything else for the rest of the day.

THE REST OF THE DAY GOES LIKE THAT. I offer up something wicked, and he dives in. We ski Double Dipper (twice, no stopping) and East Fall. To cap off the day, I tell Brian he’s ready to ski Outer Limits. The run has been staring him in the face for weeks, and he is excited to take it on. The bumps, as usual, are big and kind of scary. Most of them are taller than he is. Still, he stays calm and takes his time. He doesn’t ski it perfectly, and that’s OK. We do it again, and this time he nails it. At the bottom, with Outer Limits behind him, he smiles widely and poses for a photograph, arms pumped like a body builder.

DAY SEVEN | January 29, Killington THE SNOW HAS BEEN PILING UP on the trails and in the woods, expanding our possibilities. Bear Mountain is now Brian’s favorite place in the world, so we park there and just do laps on the super-fast Skye Peak Express. Toward the end of the day, I propose we check out Roundabout, a narrow black diamond trail that skis like a mini-halfpipe through the woods. Brian is game (he’s had his fill of The Stash for the day), so we duck into the trail. He’s making wedge turns and having a ball on the wave-like undulations. When we exit Roundabout onto Bear Cub, he’s eager to explore others’ tracks through the woods. He loves cruising between trees, and I’m having just as much fun watching him. DAY TEN | February 24, Killington A BREAKTHROUGH DAY! The snow is soft and the summits are in and out of the sun and rain. I sense that this is the day to push Brian’s boundaries. Thus far, he’s skied a few black diamonds and is turning with control. I want to see how far we can go. We take a few warm-up runs down The Stash and then make tracks for Killington Peak. On the way, we hit Superstar and I’m drawn skier’s right, to the well-spaced glades next to the trail. I have great memories of ripping these trees with killington.com

DAY FOURTEEN | April 3, Killington BRIAN’S BEEN ASKING me to take him out of school for a day of skiing. This is it. It’s 50° and the mountain is nearly 100 percent open due to the 16-inch storm on April 1. We pull up to the Bear Mountain parking lot and see Outer Limits shining in the morning sun and freshly groomed. We slash turns down it, in perfect corn snow. THIS IS GOING TO BE A DAY FOR THE RECORD BOOKS. We tick off new runs for Brian all day: Catwalk, Big Dipper, Cascade, Superstar Headwall. Everything is so eminently skiable and effortless, we rip from open to close. I can’t believe I’m having this much fun skiing with a first-grader. DAY SEVENTEEN | April 9, Pico Closing Day OUR LAST DAY OF SKIING THIS SEASON is bluebird and warm, with a deep, carvable base. Now we are a group of three. Agnes, Brian’s older sister, has ditched hockey for skiing. The freedom and creativity of this sport suits her personality, and Brian has loved playing the role of the wiser one in their relationship. This has been an enchanting winter, truly transformational for our family. We can’t wait for next year. next 43

or anything. If the brake pads are worn down we always change those out.

¶ I actually love checking the bikes because I’m a hands-on person. That’s

Courtney Mayer

Job(s): Bike Rental Tech, Ticket Checking Team Leader

actually one of my favorite parts—finding stuff that’s wrong with it and learning how to fix it. ¶ In the wintertime I am a ticket checking team leader. I get to ski around the entire mountain to check in and help our ticket checkers who are placed all over at areas like Bear, Skyeship, Snowshed, Ramshead and the K-1 Gondola. What are your responsibilities as a team leader? As a team leader I have a group of ticket checkers who look to me to provide training and support. The ticket checkers greet guests at the base of each lift and scan their tickets, making sure each person has a valid lift ticket or season pass. I go around to each lift and make sure that they’re OK and help them with any problems they may be having. ¶ It’s important that they have a good spirit among themselves. It’s really nice to put somebody at a specific lift when they really like it, so I’m just going to keep that person there because they make really good connections with the guests who come through and the guests are used to those ticket checkers being at those lifts. Do you ever see any goofy things happen in the lift line? A lot of guests wear costumes and stuff like that. I had one guy, he wore a Pikachu onesie. There were three girls who wore penguin onesies. I think there was a guy that had a whole all-American outfit on with a hat and everything; that was cool. Especially during the pond skim—everyone is always wearing crazy outfits and whatnot or barely wearing anything sometimes….

ike that of many Killington employees, Courtney Mayer’s job shifts with the seasons. This has allowed her to experience things she never thought she was interested in, only to find new passions that drive her to excel at her jobs while having as much fun as possible.

PLAY HERE When did you first start skiing? I picked up skiing back in 2010. My uncle, it was his birthday, and he said that we’re going on a family ski trip. We went to a local mountain, and he just threw me out on the hill. I learned from that, and I kept going. Is that how you discovered Killington? I had never been to Killington until I started working here. I chose this place because there was a lot of activity going on here. We have so many events you can always stay busy. How do you spend your free time outside of work? I’m more of a house-party type of person or I just like staying home and having a bonfire, having a couple people come over versus going out to the bars. I’m big into craft beer so I do hit up some breweries. Especially Long Trail, obviously. It’s only 15 minutes away from our place. ¶ I like to do a lot of swimming, and the water is awesome out here. It is so clear and clean. We go to a place with a rope swing, and the sun hits it just right so you have light until 8 or 8:30 at night. It’s such a good time.

WORK HERE 4241’: You wear a couple different hats at Killington. Tell us about your two positions. During the summer season I am a bike rental technician. ¶ The first time that I ever went downhill mountain biking, it was my first day on the job, my first time ever working as a rental technician. It was super slow, and one of the instructors wanted us to go out and see what it’s all about. Early on in the ride I grabbed a buttload of front brake and flipped over the handlebars! ¶ I have to check waivers of the renters that are coming in and get them set up with the proper protective gear. Then I size them up for a good fitting bike, as well. I need to ask multiple questions, see how tall they are, how much they weigh, if they have any experience previously downhilling. ¶ Then, at the end of the day, once the guest returns the bike to us, we have to do a basic check. That entails checking if there’s any damage to the bike, checking the spokes, checking the shifting, seeing if the rim is dented

LOVE HERE What have you learned while working at Killington? And what’s rewarding about it? Before I came to Killington I was a waitress for five years. I was afraid of change. Then, when I came up here, I just started dabbling into a couple different things, and I found two things that I really enjoy doing. Apparently I like learning different things, and I didn’t realize that when I was waitressing at the same restaurant for five years. ¶ Mainly for me, it’s the people whom I work with. They really make everything worthwhile. ¶ One of the most rewarding places to work is at Snowshed where all the families are. All the kids come through, and I always give them high-fives and whatnot. This one girl specifically, she kept coming back to my lift because she just wanted to give me a high-five or just see me as she was going through. Then, at the end of the day, she specifically came to me and said, “I’m leaving. I just wanted to say goodbye and I had a great time here.”

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photos by Justin Cash

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Before I came to Killington, I was afraid of change.â&#x20AC;?

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“There are days that we’re non-stop on the phone ’cause you never know what kind of issue could come up. Just about anything can happen.”

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ost of Brenna Wright’s days at work in the mountains are bookended by natural beauty. During the winter months, Killington’s dispatcher extraordinaire typically rises each day with the sun and heads home as the sun sets. In between, Brenna handles communications from departments all over the resort, quite literally serving as the conduit that keeps everyone connected. Still, she finds time to take advantage of the recreational opportunities right outside her office door.

WORK HERE 4241’: Where did you get your start? Well I started in ’96 working at Central Reservations, and it was in Rutland at the time, which is about 25 minutes from here. A mutual friend of mine worked there and suggested I get a job there, so I did that. ¶ I worked in retail, accounting, and then started working with Jeff Temple here in Mountain Operations in 2001, and I’ve been at it ever since. What’s it like working with the mountain ops team? They’re a fun crew. It’s a really great group to work with. One of the things that I really enjoy about working here is the people. It’s family, for sure. I’ve made a lot of really awesome friends. Everybody supports each other, keeps an eye out for each other, and it’s just really great. We have fun. How does your job change day to day and season to season? Every day is definitely different based on weather factors, holiday factors. ¶ In the winter I dispatch, which consists of communicating with ski patrol, lift maintenance, lift electrical, lift operations, resort maintenance, parking and ambassadors. There are about five channels that we monitor in here. Ski school is also on the airwaves, but we only work with them a little bit. ¶ On a typical winter day I come in and help the group get the mountain open, and make announcements if something is gonna be on hold or delayed due to weather. We then dispatch lift maintenance if there’s an issue that they’ve gotta go check on. ¶ There are days that we’re non-stop on the phone ’cause you never know what kind of issue could come up. Just about anything can happen. And most of the calls are routed through here. ¶ I think that’s one of the challenges—just really making sure you get all the details and get information out as quickly as possible. ¶ I enjoy my job in the winter but I’m inside a lot more, and it’s just a little more relaxed for me in the summer. ¶ It’s a lot quieter, although summer is picking up for sure with all the additional mountain biking and attractions and the lifts being open. During summer, dispatch is not centralized in one office because there’s just not the volume of calls that you get in the winter. ¶ I love being outside in the summer. And it’s great to be in here in the winter, you know, not out in the cold every day. ¶ In the summer I do administrative work here in the office and help out with the bike races as a course marshal, the Spartan Race, work the top of a lift…whatever they need outside, which is great. ¶ And then, by October, once we open for skiing, it all comes back in here. PLAY HERE Does working in the mountains have its advantages? I’ve learned a lot about the mountain by hiking around. For a while I didn’t hike here, and I wasn’t skiing, so I didn’t get outside a lot. The last few years I’ve been getting out more and hiking around the resort, and learning so much more about the different aspects of the mountain. ¶ Now I love hiking up here in the summer. I look forward to taking the gondola up before last chair and then hiking down. Sometimes I’ll go out during my breaks, too. Even on my days off I come up here and hike a bunch. ¶ I don’t ski or snowboard in the winter, but I snowshoe a lot. Sometimes up here, and I jump over to Pico, too. I’ll hike the lower half of Pico or killington.com

Brenna Wright

Job(s): Dispatcher, Administrator, Course Marshal

snowshoe over there. ¶ I also help out part-time with a local horse rescue. I was doing that full-time, but it was too much to do both jobs, so I stepped back a little bit. LOVE HERE What inspires you to come to work every day? Early in the morning when you’re coming in, and you’re driving up and you see the sunrise or a full moon…the mist coming off the mountains… it’s just beautiful. ¶ And then at night, by the time you get out of the office, you’re seeing the sun set behind the mountains on your way home. wright 47

Maegan Dillman Job: Human Resources Recruiter

rom her past experiences ski instructing at Mammoth Mountain to working in the Alaskan fishing industry, Maegan Dillman brings a unique perspective and skill set to her job in human resources and recruiting. She is often on the front lines of engaging new and potential employees, and introducing them to the Killington lifestyle.

WORK HERE 4241’: Where did you live and work before coming to Killington? After college, I moved out West and worked at Mammoth Mountain as a ski instructor. In the summertime I’d go to Alaska and work up there in the fishing industry. ¶ When I was living out West my goal was to become a mountaineering instructor. Along with my personal climbing experiences, I took a two-week mountaineering course in the Alaska Range learning a full mountaineering curriculum: rope team travel, navigating crevassed terrain and avalanche safety. There is something about the mountain environment that I’ve always been drawn to—being in hard-to-access places and finding comfort in extreme elements. What type of job and lifestyle were you looking for when you decided to move back East? I’m close with my family so I wanted to move back East to be closer to them. I knew I wanted to stay in the outdoor industry. I had some criteria—a big resort, and I wanted to find a ski resort with a long season. I also wanted to have some rock climbing nearby. When I was doing my job search I found myself on the Killington website and applied for a job in human resources and wound up getting hired as an HR Generalist. I now oversee recruiting efforts for the resort. How would you describe the Killington lifestyle to someone who has never been there before? If you like to play outside, this area will keep you busy all year long. People work hard and play hard. Summer has a more relaxed pace than winter. Compared to other small towns I’ve lived in, I think the live music scene here has a lot to offer! During winter, the nightlife is really fun. What are some of the challenges you encounter as a recruiter? There are a lot of positions to fill here at the resort. Some of the challenges include working with different departments that require different skill sets 48

maegan

for different jobs and really getting all the positions filled. Some departments hire a lot of people, and you want to have all those positions filled before the holidays. How often do you interact with different departments across the resort? There’s a lot of diversity here in terms of positions that need to be filled. I get to work with managers from all different departments. I talk with them and try to figure out how to help them fill their positions. We figure out a strategy and find the best way to fill their positions with qualified candidates. ¶ It’s kind of neat to see that whole process work. It’s also really rewarding to see somebody who’s already working at the resort apply for a position and get hired here and grow within the company. Do you ever have a “typical” day where everything goes as planned? Every day, throughout the day, I’m communicating with managers, talking with them about their open jobs and forwarding applications, and working on strategies to help them fill their positions. Then, at the same time, I’ll jump to another project and work on that. It always seems like there are at least five different things going on at the same time. There really doesn’t seem to be a typical day or anything that happens repetitively every day. ¶ I get really absorbed in what I’m doing, but again, it’s not that I just start out doing this and then move to that. I get to work and I’m working on five things at once and going back and forth. Then, all of the sudden, it’s time to go. What’s the wildest experience you’ve had at Killington, on the job or off? Tropical Storm Irene was pretty wild. I’d really have to go looking for adventure to beat that one. PLAY HERE How do you spend your time outside of work? I spend most of my free time doing something outside. During the winter, I mostly ski. In the summertime I try to climb when I can. There are some local rocks up behind the Inn at Long Trail and a climbing gym in Rutland. I also help some friends out with an organic garden, and I really enjoy working with food and cooking. Can you talk a little bit about the access to the outdoors that working at Killington provides? The mountain bike trails are awesome! You can access beautiful treed areas on your bike that you can’t access on skis. You get to know the mountain from a much different perspective. On days off, the option to ski is right in our backyard. I love, love, love how long our ski season is—I think spring skiing is my favorite…well, powder is nice, too. LOVE HERE What do you love about working in the mountains? It’s a fun place to work because you get to meet people from all over. The resort culture is really focused around recreation. Just being in the area, there is a lot to do outside. There are a ton of events. You really have the option to do a variety of things throughout the summer and winter. It’s kind of a small, tight-knit community, so when you’re out doing these things that you really enjoy, you see familiar faces all around. Name your five favorite things about working at Killington. Leaving the office for an hour to ski Superstar on June 1, 2017. ¶ Access to all of the fun stuff: skiing, mountain biking, golf, live music, on-mountain events and competitions. ¶ Meeting coworkers at the Roaring Brook Umbrella Bar after work. ¶ On days that I get out of the office, I love to visit with the guests. They’re here to have a good time and I like the positive energy they bring. I always wind up meeting interesting people! ¶ I don’t do the same work all year round. In the late summer through fall we work to staff the resort for winter. Winter work is much different than the spring or summer. There is a lot of variety in what I do throughout the year. killington.com

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

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Mikaela Shiffrin

HomecomingQueen is on Top of the World (Cup)

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Interview by Mike Horn

ou wouldn’t expect one of the world’s best skiers to be overwhelmed by racing at Killington in front of her family and friends. After all, 22-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin is fresh off winning the World Cup overall title. At the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Shiffrin became the youngest Olympic slalom champion at age 18. She’s no stranger to intense pressure and competition.

As usual, Shiffrin channeled those nerves into unparalleled intensity and won her sixth straight World Cup slalom. And with this spring’s announcement that Killington will host the women’s World Cup Slalom and Giant Slalom for at least two more years, she’ll have the chance to do it all over again.

Despite all that time in the spotlight on the world’s biggest stage, Shiffrin felt a different kind of pressure coming into Killington’s World Cup races in November 2016. She attended Burke Mountain Academy in northern Vermont, and many of her family and friends would be attending the race. A raucous New England fan base swallowed up all the tickets for non-free viewing areas in less than a day to witness the first World Cup ski races held in Vermont in 38 years. And then there was the expectation that an American—namely Shiffrin—might stand atop the podium when the snow settled.

MIKAELA SHIFFRIN: Generally speaking it’s a really tight community. The people in each town are really tight with each other, and then also all of New England. There’s this East Coast pride that comes with being a New Englander. For me, when I moved there, it was sort of hard to break into the scene, but once I did, I felt like it was just a giant family, and that’s how I feel about the ski culture there, as well. There are legacy ski families that go back generations, and families where the grandmothers and mothers and fathers and sons have an Olympic medal or are an amazing Olympian.

4241’ : How would you describe the ski culture in New England?

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Skiing often just runs in their blood, and it’s more specific to even ski racing actually, because there’s not a ton of all-mountain powder skiing on the East Coast. It can be “grit your teeth and rip down an icy trail” kind of skiing. If you have an avid skier in the East, first of all, they love the sport. Second of all, they’re probably fairly proficient in the sport; it’s how I’ve always felt about it. These diehard, loyal ski fans…it’s really cool to bring World Cup ski racing back to them because I think that’s a huge part of the sport that people almost forgot about in a way. 4241’ : Were you surprised that Killington World Cup tickets sold out in less than a day? I was a little bit surprised. I want to say I wasn’t, but it felt like a risk to have us ski race that early in the year in the East, because I’ve been there enough to know that there are plenty of years where there’s no snow in November. However, they kept saying, “Killington, we have the snowmaking. We’re going to be going, going, going for it and we’ll be ready.” And they were. They really were. They were more than ready with the amount of snow they had. When they announced that they were going to have a World Cup at Killington, people got so excited. I mean, there are a lot of ski fans on the East Coast. Like I said, they’re loyal. They’re diehard ski fans. I was surprised to see that all the tickets sold out, but then, when I thought about it, I was like, “Well that does make sense.” I mean, these guys have been waiting for this day to come for a while, and it makes sense that they would want to actually be there when the World Cup returns. 4241’ : What made this event unique compared to the countless races you’ve been involved with?

They kept saying, “Wow. We didn’t know it was so big here. The crowd is huge. This is so cool.” I was like, “Yeah, for sure. These people love this sport, and they couldn’t wait to have this World Cup here.” That was also unique because it wasn’t just like, “Oh, we’re having a race.” It really felt like people were psyched that we were there, and that was really cool. 4241’ : What did you take away from the experience of competing and winning at Killington? I was feeling a lot of pressure there specifically, because we had talked so much about how the World Cup was returning to the East Coast for the first time in so long. I kept answering interview questions about that, and I was promoting it, of course, but then, when the day finally came to race, I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Obviously it’s great that the race is coming back, but people want to see an American on top, and I’m their chance at that.” All of a sudden I started feeling that pressure, and it was pretty difficult to deal with. Especially with the slalom, everything worked out really well. To be honest, the best thing about winning there was to be able to share that with all of my family. My best friend was able

Justin photos Cash by Justin Cash

It was really unique because my entire family was able to come, and family’s really important to me. Most of my family lives on the East Coast. Actually, all of my family lives on the East Coast besides my mom, dad and brother. My 95-year-old Nana was able to come and actually came out onto the podium with me at the award ceremony for the slalom. It was absolutely incredible. I never thought she’d live to see me compete live, and that was a very special moment for me, to be able to share that with her. That was a huge reason why Killington was so unique.

To be honest, the best thing about winning there was to be able to share that with all of my family.

And, of course, the fans…everybody who came out…the crowds. I mean, they really brought that East Coast spirit, that ski racing spirit. All the Europeans were, honestly, I think they were surprised.

We’re going to be going, going, going for it and we’ll be ready. 52 mikaela

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Justin Cash

4241’ : What was your reaction when you heard Killington is hosting at least two more years of World Cup events? After how it went last year, I’m psyched. I’m hoping that we have the same kind of weather pattern or even better so they can have the snow, have the perfect preparation. To have races returning to Killington these next two years, it keeps that dream going, I guess you could say. It just keeps the excitement level high, and that’s going to be really cool.

Dave Young

to watch one of my World Cup races for the first time in person, as well. I got to give her a hug. I mean, being able to compete so close to family, so close to home, is always a gift because you have a personal tie to that place. I’ve spent enough time on the East Coast that it really feels like home.

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The Killington World Cup leaves an indelible mark on Vermont’s aspiring racers and

by Peggy Shinn

hen Ava Mattsson first learned that she was going to forerun the giant slalom at the 2016 Killington World Cup, her legs went numb. Not only would the 18-year-old Killington Mountain School (KMS) student be sharing a course with Mikaela Shiffrin, Lara Gut and her other World Cup idols, but she would also be skiing in front of thousands of people, many of whom she knows.

impressionable youth

photos by Justin Cash

“I don’t think I can do it!” was Ava’s first thought. “But I got my head wrapped around it,” she said.

From Bridgewater, Ava was one of a handful of local teens invited to forerun the World Cup races. Her KMS teammate, Rebecca Clark, from nearby Mendon, was the first forerunner on the GS course and, like Ava, was nervous at the start. Both girls, plus Hannah Utter from the Green Mountain Valley School in Fayston, Vermont, were so nervous that Norwegian skier Nina Loeseth, wearing bib 1, came up to them in the start area and reminded them to breathe.

Little did she know that more than 16,000 people would show up to watch—one of the largest crowds in history to watch a women’s World Cup, said Tom Kelly, vice president of communications for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.

But once carving from gate to gate, Becca—wearing a KMS speedsuit that she had designed—was fine. Thousands of people might have been watching, including everyone she had ever known in ski racing, but a racecourse is a racecourse. This one was just like the hundreds of other GS courses

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“I had a lot of adrenaline. It was a crazy experience.” — Becca Clark

that she had raced all over Vermont. She crossed the finish line, smiled and raised her ski poles in relief. The crowd took it as a sign to cheer, and 16,000 people let out a deafening roar. Becca looked up in awe. “I had a lot of adrenaline,” she said, wide-eyed after her run. “It was a crazy experience.” And the race was only part of the young forerunners’ World Cup experience. They also were invited to train with some of the World Cup athletes in the days before the event. “I would have just taken that,” said Ava, referring to the training session. “But then we got to forerun, too. It was amazing to be around them at the start and see their pre-race routines and see what it’s like to be there, being on the big stage. It was awesome.” Ava and Becca were just two of the thousands of kids on hand when Killington hosted its first-ever alpine World Cup races last November. It was the first alpine World Cup to stop on the East Coast in 25 years—and the first in Vermont in 38 years. It’s an experience that many of them will remember forever and, for a few, it could leave an indelible mark. The World Cup kicked off with a parade of Vermont Alpine Racing Association (VARA) clubs. About 1,000 kids from ski clubs around the state—from killington.com

Jay Peak up north to Magic Mountain down south—arrived at Killington shortly after dawn, lined up with their teammates behind their club banners and paraded into the stadium below Superstar. Each wore a green and white Swix VARA hat made specifically for the Killington World Cup. They lined the fence alongside the bottom of the course and could see “in real life,” as one VARA racer put it, “right in front of our eyes,” said another, the women whom they have watched compete on TV for years. On TV, it’s difficult to get a sense of the speed that World Cup racers achieve in the gates. But watching their skis bite into the hard snow, seeing the consistency of the surface and the developing ruts and hearing the occasional grunt can give a sense of how remarkable the best skiers in the world really are.

“That was amazing!” exclaimed my teenage daughter with her eyes wide. “That was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. They were so fast!” “We’ve been watching them on TV forever and to finally see them in person like this is a pretty cool experience that not a lot of people get to do, so it’s pretty awesome,” said Mary Bovaconti, a coach who accompanied the KMS students in the parade into the stadium. Edie Thys Morgan, a U.S. Ski Team alum and 1988 Olympian, was gateeyed 55

“It was amazing to be around them at the start and see their pre-race routines and see what it’s like to be there, being on the big stage.” — Ava Mattsson

keeping on the Killington World Cup courses. It brought back memories of watching the East Coast World Cups when she was still a young ski racer. The first World Cup race she ever saw was at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire in 1982.

A second grader at Woodstock Elementary School, Lucia noticed the international flags waving above the crowd and the different languages being spoken around her. “I like to see people from Sweden and Japan and Canada,” she said.

Like at Killington, “Every Eastern ski racer was there, too, most of them scrambling up outside the fence in their zero-tread Bean boots,” she wrote in her blog, racerex.com, after the Killington World Cup. “Many of them were watching classmates forerun or even race in their first World Cup races. I assure you that seeing peers on a World Cup course in any capacity causes a profound shift that can bring a very loose vision into focus.”

“It’s different than what you normally see in little Vermont,” added her dad, who’s the golf and snow sports director for Killington.

After watching those early World Cup races, Edie went on to compete in the Waterville Valley World Cup in 1991—a race that American Julie Parisien won. A month earlier, Edie had finished on her first World Cup podium.

But not all the kids watching the World Cup are hardcore race fans. Lucia Beckwith, 7, watched the giant slalom from her dad, Dave’s, arms. 56 wide

anging out in the VIP tent, Lucia was struck with how sad Swiss skier Lara Gut was after she got off balance in the giant slalom and skied out of the course. Lara was in second place in the overall World Cup standings coming to Killington. But she fell to eighth after failing to finish the GS. Lucia noticed Lara’s distress and felt sorry for her. She had traveled so far to ski for only 25 seconds, Lucia told her dad. Lucia’s favorite moment was when Mikaela won the slalom on Sunday. At the Killington World Cup with her whole family—her mom, two sisters and her grandmother—Lucia watched the second slalom run from atop a trashcan inside the VIP tent, ringing a cow bell that her grandmother had killington.com

given her and waving a green KMS baton every time a skier finished. When Mikaela crossed the finish line after her second run and held the lead, Lucia jumped off the trashcan and ran over to her mom to give her a big hug. Outside, Dave was holding Lucia’s older sister, 11-year-old Lila, in his arms so she could see over the huge crowd that had gathered around the finish corral to watch Mikaela’s second run. As the crowd chanted U-S-A, Dave looked around and noticed tears welling up in peoples’ eyes.

“There was such a sense of elation that ripped through the crowd,” he said. “It was a proud moment.” under her pillow. Dave realized it was “one of the lifetime moments,” and his girls talked about it that night. “The kids are awestruck,” he said. “Having an experience like that is pretty overwhelming and emotional.” Later, Lucia and her older sister got Mikaela’s autograph—on a handkerchief and World Cup program. Lila wore her Killington World Cup hat and hoodie to school the next day. And Lucia slept with the handkerchief

With Lucia and Lila back at school on Monday, Dave took his youngest daughter, five-year-old Liv, skiing at Killington after the World Cup left town. They made turns on the Magic Carpet at Ramshead before heading inside for hot chocolate. When Dave’s coworkers asked Liv how the skiing was, her smile grew wide and she declared, “I’m skiing like Mikaela Shiffrin!” Editor’s Note: The same World Cup races will be held at Killington for at least two more years.

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Who Started the Party?

by Mike Horn

Deep tracks from Killington’s legendary party scene It’s half past midnight, witching hour at the Pickle Barrel in Killington. I’ve been out snowboarding with my friends from Boston all day, and after a ripping après and a nap, we hit the Pickle with plans to party until last call. A ’90s cover band is on stage, playing their take on Skid Row’s power ballad “18 & Life.” The front rows of the sweaty crowd shine under the stage lights, eyes closed and shaking their fists in the air as they sing along and play air guitar. A GoPro is attached to the lead singer’s microphone, pointed in the direction of the crowd. He high-fives a couple of people in the front row with the camera looking on, then circles back to center stage before arching his back and tilting his head backward for one final, shrieking “18 and Life, To Goooooooo!” The crowd erupts and then filters back to the bar for refills. u

Nights like this earned Killington its reputation as one of the great party spots in the history of skiing, but it all began way back in the 1960s with the vision of Killington Resort’s founder, Pres Smith. There’s general consensus that from the 1970s into the mid-’90s the party scene was going off at Killington. Over and over the people we interviewed referenced antics that “you could never get away with now.” Then there are the many stories that are best left to the imagination. Without baring all, the following four party kingpins shared a number of hilarious and insightful stories that will make you say, “Wow!” 60 Party!

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Ted Bridges at the Wobbly Barn. Photo by Peter Miller killington.com

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Outta Sight! Johnny O They call him Johnny O. That’s all you need to know. Johnny O landed in Killington in the early 1970s. He joined the party as a ski instructor and eventually became the director of Killington’s ski school. His hot tub was legendary. Like so many who came to the mountains for “just a couple seasons,” Johnny never left. Today, he manages the Killington Ski Club from a slopeside office. While Johnny and his hot tub might not be at the center of the party scene nowadays, he’s all smiles as he reflects on the good old days. 4241’: What was the scene like when you arrived in the early ’70s? It was already a great mountain to ski, there’s no doubt about it. I had visited many ski areas, and this was the place. It had a great feel to it, and I never left. The people were always great, friendly...I absolutely love the place. Within the ski school itself, there was a very big party scene. The midweek business here was very, very good. And the weekend business was outta sight and kept getting better through the ’70s and ’80s. It was a lot of fun, and there was a lot of partying going on. People had ski houses. They still do, but they aren’t as big as they were before. They all had different names to them. There were big parties there every weekend and, of course, midweek at times. And the hot tubs…I won’t even get into the hot tubs. Like the stuff you see in the movies. Hot tubs were a big part of the after-skiing scene. After we’d finish skiing it was, “All right, who’s hot tub are we going to?” And fortunately or unfortunately, it was mine quite a few times. And I will not discuss anything that happened there (laughs). I still get the biggest smile on my face thinking about it.

It was a seven-day-a-week party. There were some classic nightspots here, and the Last

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When you hang out at these nightspots, you’re always basically seeing the same people or friends of those people, and it gets to be almost like a Killington club where everybody knows your name. It’s the same thing now, but I think it was a lot tighter then.

Was it a total dude-fest in those days? Getting ladies here was difficult. And one of the programs they ran was “Flight Attendants Ski Free.” I spent many days going to Lebanon Airport. No comment (laughs). Was the vibe different back then? It was much more relaxed. You used to be able to go 50 miles-perhour down the Access Road, and now you can’t. Instead of somebody driving you home, now they’ll drive you to jail. I think people were a little more laid back, no doubt about it. But to relate to those days and the activities that we had in the ski school and outside the ski school, the different bars that were here...it was a lot of fun…it was the good old days. What else can I say?

Why was Killington at the forefront of skiing’s party scene? Way back when, we were the only show in town. We were the ski area that had the snowmaking, and that brought the people in. The skiing crowd is a fun crowd. They want to party, and they sure knew how. You could never ever get away with it now. I’d be alone in the ski school if the same rules applied now as they did back then. It would be pretty tough to have the job, because, boy, we got away with a lot. I mean this wasn’t the Wild West, but it was a lot of fun. I could tell you more stories, but I would only get myself and other people in trouble. Being politically correct didn’t exist way back when. But everything changes, and sometimes for the better. When you look back, you just smile and say, “Wow.”

killington.com

Bob Perry

During one annual Halloween party, which still is very big at the Wobbly Barn, there were four ladies that came dressed up as “Johnny O’s hot tub.”

Chance Saloon was a hangout for a lot of people, a lot of ski instructors. You stopped in for a beer after skiing, and you ended up closing the place.

Bob Perry

During one annual Halloween party, which is still very big at the Wobbly Barn, there were four ladies that came dressed up as “Johnny O’s hot tub.” killington.com

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Pass the Champagne Chris Karr Chris Karr has had his finger on the pulse of the Killington party scene for more than three decades. He started as a bar back at the Wobbly Barn and today is the owner of several Killington-area businesses, including the iconic Pickle Barrel, the Foundry (formerly the Grist Mill) and Jax Food & Games. He has a unique perspective on who started the party and why Killington remains a hub for partying and entertainment.

When I was working for him in the ’80s, he owned the Wobbly Barn, Pickle Barrel and Charity’s, and various other things on the road.

Who were some of the other key players during that era? There was a group of them that really got this road started. It was Jack Giguere, Bob Evans, Kenny Budzyna, Ted Bridges and Jeff Gehris. Those were the guys that made it happen up here. Kenny operated Summit Lodge and built the Grist Mill. At one point, the Grist Mill was the largest seller of Bacardi east of the Mississippi because they had this cocktail called the Goombay Smash there. They sold that much Bacardi. It’s insane.

Why was Jack so influential? When Killington first opened, there was no entertainment up here to speak of. Pres Smith hired Jack to do entertainment. After a couple years, Jack actually created and built the Wobbly Barn—that’s where it really started back in the day. I was fortunate enough to work for the guy for 16-plus years and learned a tremendous amount from him. He knew how to serve alcohol and throw a party and have a great time. Then, in 1972, he decided to go grab a cocktail.... He was supposed to be going to the store to get milk and decided to do something else and, as we kiddingly say, he missed the turn in front of the Pickle Barrel (there isn’t one) and plowed into this place called Showcase East. Rather than repair it, he bought it and created the Pickle Barrel.

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It was always good-natured fun. Nobody thought anything about staying up all night and getting up early and hitting the slopes.

How long before Killington was recognized for its party scene? I really feel we were noted for that early on. There was nothing else here so we made our own entertainment and our own party. There was another party my first year here, the Easter parade. We were still doing that in the ’80s. Every other Easter before that, I had gone to church, and all of a sudden now here I am in a marching band at 10 a.m., banging pots and pans and marching up the Access Road. The party ended up at the Basin Ski Shop, and all the bars came together and threw in their leftover booze. Easter was the wind down of the ski season, so that was kind of our closing party. Literally, people were drunk for days. In the ’80s, a guy named Carl Lorenzo started the Killington Mini Skirt Party. It was a cocktail party at his house and he said, “I want all the women to wear mini skirts.” The second or third year, he was like, “Yeah, this is kind of getting popular. Let’s have a pre-party at the Pickle Barrel.” And I said, “Works for me.” We had hundreds of people show up.

killington.com

Bob Perry

How did you become embedded in the Killington community? I first came up here in the ’70s. My parents brought me up here for a ski vacation, and I just fell in love with the area. I graduated high school and decided to take a year off from college and came up here and just had at it. I actually worked for the resort for a little bit and ended up working at the Wobbly Barn as a bar back, and so much for school…. I ended up meeting up with Jack Giguere and taking off from there.

How would you describe the scene in the ’80s? It was Champagne. I’ll leave it at Champagne, OK? The reality was, it was such a party up here. You would be out every night of the week. You had two nightclubs going full tilt: the Wobbly Barn and Pickle Barrel. Drinking age was 18, mind you, so that definitely helped some. You would be out drinking and at 1:50 a.m., wherever you were, you would phone in last call at Mother Shapiro’s. The bartender took the phone call and wrote down your order. You would get there just before 2 a.m., pay for it, and you would have two drinks so you could keep going. At 2:30 a.m. they had to take the drinks.

Bob Perry

Nobody thought anything about staying up all night and getting up early and hitting the slopes.

After that, he says, “My house got trashed. I’m over it. From now on the Mini Skirt Party is at your property.” So we hosted the party here for 30 years. It’s a springtime party and literally everyone—guys included—have to wear mini skirts. Over the years, we raised thousands of dollars for charity and had a lot of fun with it. Pres Smith showed up at one of the earliest Mini Skirt Parties, but he didn’t have a skirt so he took a trash bag and wrapped it around himself. He didn’t care; he just wanted to come to the party. End of the night comes along and all of a sudden, someone says, “Hey, I found a wallet.” Turns out it’s Pres’s wallet with every credit card to the corporation, just laying on the floor….

enough to buy the Pickle Barrel, and I took it to a different level, but the original concept was Jack Giguere’s. The same thing holds true with Killington Resort and the Wobbly Barn. They didn’t create that place; somebody else did. They bought it and they’ve done some nice things to it over the years, but the truth is, you’ve got to go back to the forefathers of the road. They were the ones that really put it together and made it happen.

Was there any buzz in the summer? In that particular time period in the ’80s, everyone was partying. You literally walked away from your business. You closed the door, and you would think about it in the fall. You didn’t mow your lawn. We were a true ski town. But in the summertime we had the Trike Race. In the middle of July, for no rhyme or reason, we would literally have over 5,000 people on the Killington Access Road watching people race on homemade tricycles. It was a three-day weekend. It started with a Great Gatsby party and then they had the Funky Formal and then it concluded with the Trike Race on Sunday. It was three days of total chaos.

So when we talk about “Who Started the Party” at Killington, it seems like a lot of folks deserve credit. Without those guys I mentioned—Jack, Kenny, Jeff and Ted—if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here right now. I was fortunate killington.com

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Holy Cannoli! Marguerite Imperato When Marguerite came to Killington for the first time in November 1980, she hardly knew how to ski. But after a weekend at a shared ski house, the Revere, Mass. resident knew she wanted in. She’s now been in the same ski house for 25 years, and says visiting Killington that first weekend was one of the most important and impactful decisions of her life.

How did you first learn about Killington’s ski house scene? I work for Massport, which is a transportation agency. Some people I worked with decided they were gonna get a ski house and they said to me: “Even though you don’t ski, you should still come up. It’s so much fun. You’re gonna love it there.” So, I went up as a guest, and I ended up joining the house after that weekend because it was like being a kid in a candy store. I was like, “Oh my God, this is unbelievable!” There was so much to do. People were so friendly and I decided, “I gotta do this.”

What was your strategy for getting up there each weekend? I’d work extra hours during the week so that I could leave early on Friday to get there, because it was a three-hour drive, plus the traffic. So, I’d leave around 2 p.m. and get there around five or six o’clock. I’d drop my stuff off at the house, make my bed and then head out and meet people that were either living up there or had already arrived for the weekend. Every time I went out, everybody was so interested in knowing where you’re from and what you’re doing. It became a big family. Killington’s Ski House parties are legendary. Any stories? We would always celebrate Elvis’s birthday the first weekend in January at this house called “Disgraceland.” They had a huge bust of Elvis, and they would put together these concoctions. As you walked in the door they were throwing shots down your throat. Stair diving was a thing, too. A lot of the ski houses had long flights of stairs, and people would fly down them on their stomachs.

Chris Karr & Marguerite Imperato

We would always celebrate Elvis’s birthday the first weekend in January at this house called “Disgraceland.” 66 who started

Of course, there was the Mini Skirt Party. It started in Carl Lorenzo’s house. He was sick and tired of seeing girls not showing off their legs. The guys had to wear mini skirts, too. They had a Legs Contest. I was a judge for the guys for a number of years—I wouldn’t put them in the line-up unless they had underwear on. I had to make sure they had underwear on, so I took a drumstick, and I would just check. Ya know, take a little peek underneath their skirts (laughs).

What made Killington such a party hub during that era? It had everything on one road. You had people coming from New York and Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island…all over the world. You just got to meet all kinds of different people. On St. Patrick’s Day, we would always do the St. Patrick’s tour. We’d have to do a shot or a drink at each lodge. So, we would start from the K-base and killington.com

go to Snowshed, go to Ramshead and then we would end at Bear Mountain. You were really drunk by the time you made all those stops.

What were your go-to bars during the ’80s and ’90s? In the ’80s, we would go to Kings Four and the Wobbly Barn where Rockin’ Rod was playing live music. They were like the kings of happy hour.

Bob Perry

In the ’90s, we would meet at Powder Hounds every Friday night. That was our starting point. It’s now called “The Garlic.” Then we’d go to the next bar and dance after that. We’d get up the next morning and drag ourselves to the mountain, ski for a while and then start all over again. You used to wait in a lot of lines to get in places. We’d bribe the doormen with food so we could get in. I’d bring up cannolis and give them out so we could get a spot and get into the club. It was worth it, you know? We’d skip the line and skip the cover charge.

Was it tough to go back to the “real world” after the weekend? After leaving Killington, I didn’t feel good until Wednesday cause I was just drinking my head off. We were just going place to place and having a blast. We saw a lot of good bands. The camaraderie…it was like an escape. Do you still spend a lot of time at Killington? I’m 60 years old and still going. Coming up to Killington that first time, in 1980, was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. I’ve made so many friends, seen so many things. I love Killington, you know? It’s my favorite place to be.

We’d bribe the doormen with food so we could get in. I’d bring up cannolis and give them out so we could get a spot and get into the club.

killington.com

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Relax IN THE MOUNTAINS

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Double the Debauchery Marc Adami From his early days as a ski bum in the late ’70s to becoming a family man and a local business owner, Marc Adami has seen a lot of good times in Killington.

It was all about hot tubs and waterbeds. When did you break into the Killington scene? So, 1978 was my first year, and I won the Snowshed Super Bowl pool. They told me: “The only way you’re gonna get the money from us is if you throw a party at your house.” So, I throw a party at my house, and at least 100 people showed up.

Located in the Killington Grand Hotel Call for reservations 802.422.1050

We had diving contests off the top railing onto the couch below…the whole thing was just absurd; it was ridiculous. They broke the floor, they broke the couch, everything in the house. And the debauchery really just continued from there.

How did you become friends with Killington founder Pres Smith? Pres Smith and I got to be good friends back in like 1980, ’81. I was dating a bartender who worked at the Pickle Barrel. And Pres, who was recently divorced, 68 who started

killington.com

They broke the floor, they broke the couch, everything in the house. was dating her roommate. We’d all be in the hot tub together. Oh God, that was fun. I had dinner with Pres probably three nights a week. He loved the party scene. And he was a great businessman. Pres Smith, he’s an icon. I always thought of him as the visionary for this place.

Bob Bob Perry Perry

Where else was the party happening? This is gonna sound so funny...hot tubs. Hot tubs were just kind of coming into play in the late ’70s. It was all about hot tubs and waterbeds.

MORE Memories. The place you love with the people you love most.

The Red Rob was a local lodging place run by Jack Butler. He was a wild man, and he put in a hot tub at the Red Rob. And, oh my God, if I wasn’t in that hot tub at least three nights a week.... You’d sneak in, because you weren’t supposed to be in there unless you were a guest. You were always trying to get in that hot tub somehow.

Did live music play a role in the mayhem? There was a band called “Almost Home” that would play at the Pickle Barrel. They had the brooding bass player, and then the lead guitar guy was kind of a douche, the way I remember it. And something happened between him and the bass player...I think there was a girl involved. They got into a fistfight right on stage in the middle of the set. The bartender jumped over the bar and had to break it up. It was this big scene. It was like, “Holy sh!t, these two guys in the band just got in a fight.” They calmed down. And now they’ve got to resume the set, so they’re still playing, but one guy’s got a black eye.

What was the general attitude like? It was just fun and games. You worked hard, but you partied all the time. When I met my wife, she owned a little ski rental store. I would call her from the place I was living across the street, and she’d answer the phone. I could see her through the window of the ski rental place. I’d just be hanging out drinking my coffee, and I’d have nothing on. She’d look over, and I’d make sure I was conveniently behind a plant. I was living right across the street from the Wobbly Barn at the time. I’d wake up, and look at the marquee. If it had been a particularly good night, my buddies had gotten drunk and changed the marquee. They would change the lettering, and it would say things like, “You Suck Adami!” or whatever they could make up. It was hilarious.

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It was just stupid and immature, which is what you were supposed to be doing at that age. killington.com

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K I L L I N G T O N M O U N TA I N S C H O O L

2708 Killington Road, Killington, Vt. 802.422.5671 â&#x20AC;˘ killlingtonmountainschool.org

#KMStakesyouplaces

Grassrootsg tog Globalg ˘

KILLINGTON’S park events put the resort on the map

by Jesse Huffman

nowboarding counts a complex history with organized competition. On one hand, the sport was birthed as a rebuke to anything organized, whether that was the staid ski culture of the early 1980s or the hierarchical structures of competition. On the other hand, it didn’t take long for savvy pioneers like Jake Burton and Tom Sims to initiate the now-time-honored structure of a World Halfpipe Championship.

Burton saw the 1983 event at Soda Springs, California as a chance to showcase the best of a nascent sport derided as a passing fad. Sims saw a chance to settle a West Coast versus East Coast beef about who was the best on a board. But that inaugural event became even more important than either could have imagined. The World Halfpipe Championship was the first major gathering for riders in need of community and a venue to push their sport.

Three decades later, the X Games and Winter Olympics have transformed the stakes of competitive snowboarding. But massive growth in grassroots events proves that the original vision of celebrating skiing and riding’s pure fun is alive and well. Killington has been a regional anchor for freestyle events and culture since the Spring Loaded event debuted in 1993. And Killington park competitions have grown into high-level events, all while embracing the communal vibe essential to freestyle skiing and riding’s fabric.

Chandler Burgess

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Tim Zimmerman

SPRING LOADED In the mid and late ’90s, Killington was already legendary for its ability to create a rideable, earlyseason run. That’s when it became known for its Spring Loaded contest, too. I didn’t enter Spring Loaded the first time I attended the competition as a sponsored high-school rider with pro aspirations. Instead, I opted to poach the jump setup, just one example of how open and improvised the event was. It blew my mind to show up at Killington and watch riders launch and land tricks off dedicated, resort-built jumps, tricks I had only seen in movies. Spring Loaded became a seasonal showcase for the most innovative East Coast riding. And for the price of a competition entry, anybody could get in the mix. “For most of the competitors, it was a chance to ride a top quality park or pipe for the day,” recalls Jay “Rosey” Rosenbaum, Killington Terrain Park Supervisor. “Those early Spring Loaded events weren’t about how well you did; they were just one last chance to ride with all your friends before summer.” One year, I arrived to find a large swath of the terrain park melted down to dirt. But instead of canceling the event or redirecting the run, crews built a gap jump over the muddy patch, and it became the main feature of the day. Another year I unexpectedly podiumed, placing behind Pat Bridges, who’s now creative director at Snowboarder Magazine. Bridges took the opportunity to print up a run of stickers that read, “I beat Jesse Huffman at Spring Loaded.” Whatever the outcome, Spring Loaded was a celebration and culmination of the season. It was an opportunity to try tricks you’d been working on all year more than an effort to stand atop a podium. Driving away in my parents’ Honda Civic, I always felt like I’d taken part in something big.

Justin Cash

“The smaller events were all of our local New England park- and pipe-riding family,” Rosenbaum says. “The vibe was always going to be fun and mellow because we just wanted to have fun, session together and get stoked by each other’s riding—and progress our own riding at the same time.”

ENTER the DEW The sport has grown up in so many ways since Spring Loaded’s debut with higher stakes tricks and larger, more refined park setups. Skiing has developed alongside park snowboarding, too, becoming an equal player in the X Games and other broadcast-level competitions. Killington earned its turn in the spotlight when it hosted the Grand Prix series in 2008 and 2009 followed by the Dew Tour in 2011 and 2012. “The Dew Tour was a completely different event than anything we had ever done,” Rosenbaum says. “It was invite-only pro athletes—and the highest caliber at that. It was fun to build for world-class athletes, but there was an intense pressure to make everything perfect, since the Dew Tour showcased our park program and the resort to the world on network TV.”

Judy Storch

Broadcast-level attention on freestyle snowboarding and skiing brought massive prize purses. And with the prestige of the Olympics in the mix, local-level contests became more heated, with USASA (the United States of America Snowboarding and Freeski Association) turning into an aspirational pipeline to the major leagues. “The same feeling of riding together with your friends was still there as we all rooted and cheered each other on,” Rosenbaum says of the shift brought on by the Dew Tour. “But when a brand-new truck is up for grabs, or $50,000 for first place, the stakes for the riders are higher. The vibe will always be different when the difference between a stomped trick is a high five and a mortgage payment.”

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Chris Williams

“Next thing you know, we’ve got a $25,000 cash purse on a three-rail, one-day event. By 2015 we’ve got competitors coming in from more than five countries.” — Mike Garceau

Chris Williams

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RAILS to RICHES The Dew Tour brought attention and prestige to Killington, and proved it could host a world-class event. But in 2012, Dew downsized their tour to just one winter location. A year later, the U.S. Open of Snowboarding left Stratton for Vail, Colo., which left a massive gap on the East Coast for major events, says Mike Garceau, Killington Youth Marketing & Action Sports Manager. “Dew Tour put us on the map,” Garceau says. “We had athletes flying in from around the world. It was like the circus was in town, and when they left, everyone sort of said, ‘Now what.’ Fortunately, we had Rails 2 Riches.” Killington had started Rails 2 Riches, their own invite-only rail jam, in 2005. And shortly after the Dew Tour left, the Killington parks staff had a realization: this was the last big event left in the East. “Next thing you know,” Garceau says, “we’ve got a $25,000 cash purse on a three-rail, one-day event. Young, regional kids are getting a chance to ride against top pros, and by 2015 we’ve got competitors coming in from more than five countries.”

Chandler Burgess

Loaded Turkey, which began as a small, holiday-themed rail jam, became an opportunity to win an entry to the invite-only R2R showdown, and it immediately drew more than 100 entrants. “It’s crazy to see how, after being connected with R2R, something that really just started as a way to kick off the season now fills out every year,” Garceau says. “And it’s not part of the USASA or any of that.”

ails 2 Riches was never imagined to have the draw of the Dew Tour—it was a regional-level competition for dedicated rippers to test their skills. But like the 1983 World Halfpipe Championship, it became a conduit for something bigger.

Zach Masi, a Stowe-based skier who rode Killington for the first time at a Loaded Turkey Rail Jam, has done well enough to earn three separate Rails 2 Riches invites. Last winter, Masi took second at Rails 2 Riches, taking the podium beside former Dew Tour winner Sandy Boville. “It’s one of the only times of the year that you get to ski against all the skiers that kill it on the East Coast and around the world,” Masi says. “Making the podium gave me some ideas on what else I might be able to achieve. It paid for my trip out to Superunknown [a park event at Sierra-at-Tahoe], which was one of the craziest experiences of my life.”

PAST is PROLOGUE Olympic-level snowboarding and skiing have progressed to heights that would drop the jaws of early pioneers. At the same time, there’s a whole new generation that wants to pursue riding and skiing on their own terms—something a lot closer to the DIY past shared by both sports. Where does Killington go from here? In a post-Dew Tour world, success means continuing a legacy of events that celebrate the riding and skiing community. killington.com

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ake a quick look at Killington’s winter events calendar, and the roster is filled with rail-jam competitions and gatherings that carry on these events’ original inspiration of camaraderie and shared fun. “Tell a Friend Tour, Slash and Berm, Hibernation, Mini Shred Madness…these events are more inclusive and less structured,” Garceau says. “No one telling you when to drop, or in what order, and you’re not there to compete for points. You’re out with your friends—we tell the kids what the judges are looking for and to just have fun.” Mini Shred Madness, for example, engages the youngest generation of skiers and snowboarders who are still exploring all parts of the mountain experience. Not only does the event create interest in the terrain parks, but it educates kids on the safest way to enjoy the parks. It attracts more than 100-plus grom competitors each season.

ostering youth aspirations is an approach that builds on Killington’s history and helps set the path for the future. And it’s working pretty well. Garceau recalls when Killington partnered with NEFF on a signature park, and how the outerwear and accessory brand later wanted to create an event. “The event was super casual,” Garceau says. “But boom, on one Saturday when we wouldn’t have had 80 kids combined skiing and snowboarding at a Ktown Throwdown series event, we had 80 snowboarders alone showing up for the NEFF contest.”

Chris Williams

The NEFF contest is just one example of Killington’s success with these gatherings. Slash and Berm, Killington’s spring banked slalom, attracts high-level pros as well as locals. The custom-built course features a unique setup that pinballs through The Stash’s wooden features. Then there’s Newschooler’s Tell A Friend tour, where local kids get to ride with the pros. After the

“Competitors can always count on something wild and new that will challenge them and raise everyone’s game up.” — Rosey

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Chandler Burgess Justin Cash

season wrapped up, the feedback was clear: Killington had been the best stop on the nationwide Tell A Friend tour. “Why is it that a tour event like Tell A Friend comes to Killington for the first time and we blow it out of the water?” muses Garceau. “It’s an X factor, man, something you can’t put your finger on.” Rosey has a few ideas. For him it’s a commitment to offering the community a creative and progressive park setup. It’s an ethos that’s been part of killington.com

the parks program since the original Spring Loaded event. “Competitors can always count on something wild and new that will challenge them and raise everyone’s game up,” says Rosey. “All while having a great time doing it with their friends.” From poaching early Spring Loaded events to riding experimental board shapes, writer Jesse Huffman has had his finger on the pulse of snowboarding for a long time. global 77

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Legendary No trip to Killington is complete without a visit to the legendary Wobbly Barn, Killington’s destination for craft steak and seafood dishes, exceptional bar offerings, and live music. Killington.com/wobbly

It’s MORE than a job. We’re all about having a good time and experiencing all these mountains have to offer.

jobs@killington.com 800-300-9095

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Jordan Newth Racing the Clock In most sports, and in life in general, 28 years old is considered your prime. For professional downhill mountain biker Jordan Newth, being 28 means achieving his goal of racing at the World Cup level is a long shot. But heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s still making waves nationally.

by Mike Horn

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Justin Cash killington.com

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obody’s breaking onto the World Cup circuit at 28 years old,” Newth admits. “I think I’ll keep progressing on a national level, but at this point, maybe that’s as far as I’ll take it. I’m just having fun riding my bike and getting faster, and it’s cool to see it growing all at the same time.”

But don’t mistake that humble attitude for complacency. The competitive downhiller continues to polish his skills and improve upon his race results each year. Killington is his home mountain, and despite an honest take on his fading World Cup aspirations, he could still achieve the unexpected and race at the international level. We caught up with Jordan Newth as he returned to Killington for bike season, and he shared some thoughts on his competitive nature and the evolution of Killington’s bike scene and terrain. Jordan Newth: I love the riding in Vermont. I think it’s a little bit more “natural” than a lot of the riding out West. You know, you’re out in the woods…. Growing up, I was always riding mud, riding wet terrain, and ever since then it has been my favorite. I’ve been racing bikes since I was eight years

old. I started out racing BMX, and I traveled the country racing BMX when growing up. Once Killington started building mountain bike trails, I started riding mountain bikes and instantly wanted to race. Now it seems like every ski resort on the East Coast has a race at some point in the year. We always joke that we have too many races here, and the numbers are just growing and growing. If you wanted to, you could race just about every weekend from May to October. Enduro is starting to grow here as well, so that’s cool. It’s bringing a whole new group of riders into a similar sport. At this point my main focus is the downhill series. I’ve been a competitive person my whole life. I grew up playing team sports: basketball, soccer, baseball, as well as racing BMX. I don’t know that I would know what to do if I weren’t racing. You have a good race; you just want to do it again. You have a bad race; you wanna go back and kill it the next weekend. For me, yeah, it’s been my life. I don’t know what I would do without it. It doesn’t mean I don’t love to go out and do other things, because I do, but, as far as competitive nature, mountain biking has been taking it all at the moment. We just have amazing terrain here; we’ve been saying that they [Killington]

Just the fact that you can get a 15-minute, full-blown downhill run…you just can’t get that anywhere else out here.

Andrew Santoro

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Brooks Curran

I’m just having fun riding my bike and getting faster, and it’s cool to see it growing all at the same time. Justin Cash

have potential for years and years and years, and they’re really starting to tap into that potential now. Nowhere else in the East, with the exception of maybe Whiteface in New York, do you have anywhere near as much vertical as we have to offer. There’s a lot of unique terrain, and the trails are amazing. A lot of people ride for the views, but I think it’s really cool to be completely surrounded by the woods. It’s just a different feeling. It makes you feel like you’re going faster, like you’re really out in the middle of nowhere, even if you’re in the city park in Rutland. I typically ride at Killington four or five days a week in the summer. Just the fact that you can get a 15-minute, full-blown downhill run…you just can’t get that anywhere else out here. It helps with fitness. It helps with a lot of different things. You know, there’s some pretty technical riding here, too, so you’re riding steep, wet, rocky, gnarly terrain and now they’re building some amazing jump trails, too. The mountain bike scene is growing rapidly in the Killington/Rutland area. Just five, 10 years ago you’d go to Killington and there were a handful of riders doing laps on the weekend, and you’d go to Pine Hill Park in Rutland and never run into another rider, and now, it’s growing so quickly that the parking lot’s full at Pine Hill after work. Like I said before, there was always the potential for this to be a world-class riding destination, and I think the word is out. Even people who live here are starting to realize what they have right out their back door. Everybody’s getting after it and it’s growing every year, and I don’t think it’s gonna stop any time soon. killington.com

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While Killington Resort develops its gravity-fed mountain-bike offerings, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a new trail network in town for everyone

by Tyler Cohen | photos by Justin Cash

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our seasons into Killington Resort’s fiveyear Bike Park build out, the mountain offers more than 30 miles of gravity-fed trails. Twenty minutes north of Killington, Pittsfield’s Green Mountain Trails wind expansively for 25 intermediate and advanced miles over a steep, wooded hillside. And a half hour west, over the Green Mountain corridor, Rutland’s Pine Hill Park squeezes 16 miles of swooping singletrack into a 325-acre network. Needless to say, the greater Killington area has an extensive and broad mountain-bike offering. But area riders have begun to see that something’s missing.

“Most of the pre-existing cross-country trails on the resort have been integrated into our system of gravity-fed downhill trails,” says Ben Colona, Killington Resort’s Bike Shop Manager. “That’s great for what we’re trying to do, but it didn’t necessarily solve the problem of not having any cross-country trails.” And, Colona adds, a nearby, easy-access trail network with a low barrier to entry seemed necessary to complete the Killington area’s offerings. So, in February 2015, he and a crew of riders formed the nonprofit Killington Mountain Bike Club (KMBC) to establish such a network on the heels of a town select-board initiative launched a year earlier.

TODAY,

KMBC and the town of Killington have raised tens of thousands of dollars through private, local and state grants and fundraising, gained permission to develop trails in the Green Mountain National Forest and begun working through the first phases of a 16-mile network that’s just minutes from the Killington Access Road. In early July, the first two miles of the KMBC trails—six miles from the resort and north of Kent Pond on Route 100’s east side—celebrated their grand opening with a ride day and BBQ. And while that beginner- and intermediate-focused loop represents two years of permitting, fundraising and inthe-dirt labor from professionals and dozens of volunteers, it’s also just the start of what’s to come. Following the July opening, Brooke Scatchard, the designer, builder and owner of Morrisville, Vt.-based Sinuosity Flowing Trails set to work on phase two of the KMBC network, cutting 2.6 miles of intermediate-level trail that will wind through a forest dotted with mature hemlock and cherry trees, up and around a gradual knoll and to the height of land with views north along the rolling and abundantly green Route 100 corridor. “We’re getting to the top of two ledgy areas, so it will feel like you’re riding near the edge of a little cliff,” Scatchard says. “It’s going to feel pretty remote, especially at the overlook areas. You’ll have been riding for around two miles at that point, and you’re a little ways out there without any other trails around.”

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Along with two other trail builders and a small fleet of volunteers during dedicated, midweek workdays, Scatchard, who’s been building trails for two decades, worked for a month-and-a-half (in summer 2016) to complete the first KMBC loop. It averages four feet wide, he says, and is designed to ride in either direction with lots of rollers, big bermed corners and a swooping downhill at either end. “I think the Killington [Resort] downhill trails are awesome for the downhill riders, but this will be cool for the rider who’s not ready for that yet,” he says. This, after all, was his charge: to complete the picture of diverse trail offerings in the area. “This is how we get more people into the sport,” says Colona, who’s now president of the Killington Mountain Bike Club in addition to his full-time resort role. “What we’re trying to do is start with beginner trails to get people on bikes. You can’t do that if you only have technical riding…you just can’t.”

THAT ALL-ACCESS FOCUS,

aimed at improving recreational opportunities for everyone, is ultimately what’s allowed the project to move forward so successfully. KMBC is developing these trails within the Green Mountain National Forest, and while developing federal land comes with permitting and oversight hurdles, these plans, Colona says, have progressed quickly and smoothly. “We’re really excited about this project because it’s really accessible for all levels of riders,” says Holly Knox, Recreation Program Coordinator for the Rochester and Middlebury Ranger Districts of the Green Mountain National Forest. Knox is ultimately the conduit for gaining approval and funding of such projects at the federal level: working with a partner (KMBC in this case), reviewing the site with forest service employees, environmental assessments, gathering public feedback, developing grant proposals and later working with trail builders and volunteers to execute the vision. “In Vermont, there are a lot of mountain biking opportunities, but there’s somewhat limited beginner and intermediate terrain, so that’s something we’re always keeping an eye out for,” Knox says. “From a recreation perspective, this is a great opportunity to have some varied trails in the area.”

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Knox

adds that this network wouldn’t be possible without collaboration, which has been ongoing, supportive and smooth between KMBC, the Vermont Mountain Bike Association, the town of Killington, Killington Parks and Recreation, and the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation. In 2015, the latter organization awarded the KMBC project a $50,000 Recreational Trails Program grant, which the state distrib-

utes annually for trail maintenance, upgrades and development. The town has financially matched KMBC’s fundraising and labor dollars to help make this network happen, and the project received another such Recreational Trails Program grant in 2017. “We’ve got great momentum going forward,” Colona says. “Brooke is completely on board, the town is completely on board, so we’re really excited about it. The town and the resort are all working toward the same goal, and we’re all helping each other out.”

“We’ve got great momentum going forward. The town and the resort are all working toward the same goal, and we’re all helping each other out.” — Ben Colona

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And while that level of enthusiasm

and collaboration in moving the KMBC network forward has surprised Colona, Ryan Thibault, a co-owner of the bike advocacy and events organization MTBVT, has seen it happen elsewhere firsthand. Thibault lives in Stowe and grew up in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, two regions that have seen explosive mountain-bike growth in recent years with concurrent trail development and town support. Based on the numbers, it’s easy to see why: a study of East Burke, Vt. found that 40,000 annual visitors flock to its Kingdom Trails network, each year invigorating the region’s economy with roughly $4 million. Thibault recently helped kick off Killington’s first-annual Vermont Bike & Brew festival, an early June celebration of downhill riding and craft beer that drew a whopping 600 riders, a standout number for a first-year event. And the level of energy in the region’s bike scene blew him away. “I think the biggest thing I noticed from an outside perspective is there’s definitely a codified local community,” Thibault says. “There’s this level of awareness of what people are doing that doesn’t exist in other communities. There’s probably a higher level of engagement among mountain bikers and, when you go there, you get a really strong sense that the locals are really bonded around the idea of building a mountain bike epicenter.”

olona agrees. And with the addition of this 16-mile network, which he hopes to see completed over the next four years, the Killington region’s mountain bike picture will be large and diverse with offerings for all ambitions and ability levels.

“The whole mindset is to have a one-stop shop, to have your downhill and now your beginner cross-country riding and your more advanced cross-country riding in Pittsfield or at Pine Hill Park,” he says. “We want people to come and stay in Killington, for this area to be the hub for people to go out to other activities.” Eventually, he hopes to see the resort’s network connected into the burgeoning KMBC system and, ultimately all the way north to Pittsfield’s Green Mountain Trails. For Thibault, who once pedaled all the way from Killington’s 4,241-foot peak northward to his home in Hyde Park on as much singletrack as possible, that interconnection would represent something incomparably special. “The corridor up to Pittsfield is mind-numbingly beautiful,” he says. “In my mind, that’s one of the most exciting development opportunities in the state of Vermont.” And with inclusiveness and trail access for everyone as one of KMBC’s major priorities, such an offering seems entirely within reach.

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INFLUENCER. Where Maggie Leon goes, her friends follow. A junior at the University of Vermont, Leon shows her crew around Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s parks and powder stashes like sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been riding there most of her life. Because she has. A devoted mountain school alumni and sponsored athlete, Leon has only begun to realize her potential. killington.com/maggie

Buy one get one free lift ticket killington.com/skimag Offer valid through 12/17/17

NEVER SUMMER

SEASON 3 Premiering January 4th

Mikaela Shiffrin

2016-2017 World Cup Overall Champion

An in-depth look at the U.S. Men's and Women's ski teams and the daily sacriďŹ ces they endure to remain at the pinnacle of the World Cup season, including competing at Killington, VT!

Available on

top: Front row seat. bottom: Death from below. Rider unknown. photos: Chandler Burgess

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top: Talk to the hand. Rider: Mike Garceau photo: Peter Cirilli bottom: Gate check. World Cup Slalom Skier Ragnhild Mowinckel photo: Dave Young

top left: An unknown rider competes in the Bike and Brew Tail Whip contest. photo: Dave Young

top right: Tim Major gets his hand dirty. photo: Justin Cash

Racing the clock during the Pro GRT Downhill. Rider unknown. photo: Chandler Burgess

Brad Leabourne puts his “powder skirt” to good use. photo: Dave Young

All eyes on Alexandra Tilley, World Cup Slalom racer from Great Britain. photo: Dave Young 96

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top: Jeff Alexander photo: Chandler Burgess bottom: Justin Guth photo: Dave Young

Jamie Trayer dusts off The Stash. photo: Mike Garceau

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top: Lost in the clouds. photo: Justin Cash bottom: Kent Pond blues. photo: Chandler Burgess

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

Spartan Race cloudburst. photo: Chandler Burgess

2018 Summer Camps in Killington

June 18th â&#x20AC;&#x201C; August 24th, 8:30-4:00 PM: 10 Weeks of Awesome Adventure Town of Killington Johnson Recreation Facility Âť 2706 River Road, Killington, VT LITTLE EXPLORERS Ages 4-6

JUNIOR EXPLORERS Ages 7-10

Daily activities with crafts, games, art, yoga, swim lessons, and the outdoors!

Summer Early Bird Special Rates: 10 Weeks

Early Bird Special ends April 30th Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $899

Non Residents: $1399

Non Residents: $1299

Early Bird Special ends April 30th Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $999

Summer Rates: 10 Weeks Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $1199

Non Residents: $1499

Summer Rates: 10 Weeks Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $1,199

Non Residents: $1599

Weekly Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $119

Non Residents: $179

Weekly Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $119

Non Residents: $179

Daily Drop in Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $39

Non Residents: $55

Daily Drop in Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $39

Non Residents: $55

REK & TREK ADVENTURE CAMP Ages 11-14 Travel 3-4 times a week for unique experiences in Vermont: Hiking, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Tubing, & much more!

Summer Early Bird Special Rates: 10 Weeks Early Bird Special ends April 30th Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $1499

Non Residents: $1899

Summer Rates: 10 Weeks Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $1599

Non Residents: $1999

Weekly Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $179

Non Residents: $225

Daily Drop in Rates: Killington Residents/ KPAA & KES Members: $69

Non Residents: $79

Before-and After-Care Hours Available

Registration begins March 1st at www.KillingtonRec.com!

MORE SUMMER

TOWN OF

Learn more at KillingtonTown.com, or contact Kim Peters, Recreation Director at kim@killingtontown.com

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Liz Patnode Life can be a juggling act, and Liz Patnode has more balls in the air than most. A self-described wellness entrepreneur, Patnode owns and operates Bikram Yoga Mendon, as well as a burgeoning fresh-pressed juice company, True North Juice, all while parenting two kids and finding time for herself. Here, Patnode talks about life at full sprint, while also surrendering to the rhythm of Vermont and feeling its embrace.

As told to 4241â&#x20AC;&#x2122; Magazine

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When I sit down and really think about the resources that are in Vermont—the lifestyle, the quality of life—you just can’t find it anywhere else. H H H H H

every day is different. I’m an entrepreneur,

we ski with the kids every thursday. It’s an intentional shutdown. You’re on a chairlift. There are no electronics. There’s no nothing. You’re having a real conversation, and you’re just really enjoying the environment. You’re enjoying the kids and doing something active.

When I do that, I can pretty much accomplish anything from taking the kids to school, making all the lunches; running to the yoga studio, back to the juice business and up to the mountain; planning the retreats that are happening in six months; back to pick up kids, run around, sports…. It goes on and on and on, and I think every parent can say it’s nonstop. It’s a full sprint, but so long as I take that half hour to sit in the morning, no biggie.

being outdoors is huge. The nice part here in Vermont is you have clear-cut seasons. We have fall. We have winter. We have summer. We have spring. It’s very clear when it’s here and when it’s happening. The nice thing is there’s a new activity for every season.

so you’re running a couple of businesses, you’re running a couple of kids, but one thing that is always consistent with my day is I get up and sit. I meditate every morning. Usually it means I’m up at 4:30 a.m., and that’s my time to sit and organize and breathe.

As we know the timeline in vermont is not like that of the rest of the world. It moves on its own pace, and it moves on its own rhythm and you have to kind of give into that, the rhythm of Vermont.

raising kids in vermont is…I don’t think there’s any place better. You open the door and there’s 500 acres of running and hiking and mountain biking, and the public schools are the highest ranked anywhere. They see that everything is handcrafted or it’s grown on the farm right next door. They are growing up with that value system, which is awesome.

my kids are skiers.

They’ve been skiing since they could walk. When you do it that young, you don’t know any different and then it’s just in your bones and in your blood. When they ski it’s the same as putting on a pair of tennis shoes.

i own a yoga studio. The Bikram studio serves as a spot for people to check in and find their community, find people, network. They find their health there. They do their workout there. We have not only Bikram yoga, but we do power yoga. We also have hot Pilates, so you can do your strength training and your stretching.

do i practice every day? I try. I have it in me. It’s one of those things where, yeah, we get busy. I’m just like a normal person. But there is a time in the week where it’s not an option. It’s time to go to yoga. You get there. You decompress. You clear out. You reset the clock, mentally and physically, and then you’re able to move forward again in a better place.

true north juice is a branch off the yoga studio. The yoga studio, the juice company, the retreats that we do, it’s all about the transfer of energy, and it’s the light that goes on when they start to feel healthy. I just threw [the juice company] out there to my yoga students. Like, “Hey, I do this. I do it when we go out on retreat. I just have never really opened the idea up to Vermont. Is anyone interested?”

everyone got really excited about it. Before I knew it, I was doing 500 juices in my little machine in my kitchen and was just up to my eyeballs in vegetables. Literally.

Once a Vermonter embraces you, it’s done. You basically have a golden ticket. You have that bond where they trust you, they believe in you, and a Vermonter will come at the drop of the hat. It’s like an old neighborhood that I’m not sure exists in many places anymore, but Vermont has that. When I sit down and really think about the resources that are in Vermont—the lifestyle, the quality of life—you just can’t find it anywhere else.

killington.com

Bikram Yoga Mendon www.bikramyogamendon.com

True North Retreats www.tnorth.org

True North Juice www.truenorthjuice.com

Made Right Here Vermont is best known for its skiing and syrup, but there’s a small-yet-proud tradition of Vermont-made clothing, too by Tyler Cohen

THROUGHOUT the country, there’s a perception that made-in-Vermont is synonymous with quality. But those who’ve enjoyed the state’s beer or produce know it’s not just façade— things made in the Green Mountain State are the real deal. They’re backed up with integrity and richness, made by trustworthy, hardworking people with care and attention to detail, crafted with creativity and passion. AND while most textiles are synonymous with made-in-Asia, there’s a small tradition of outdoor clothing proudly made in Vermont: cut, sewn, knit or woven with all the state’s values. Here are a few of those brands’ stories.

photos by Justin Cash

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SKIDA Corinne Prevot started Skida as a rainy-day hobby. Now it’s Vermont’s most iconic headwear.

ver just nine years, Corinne Prevot has gone from a highschool student crafting hats with her mother at the kitchen table to an entrepreneur running an iconic Vermont brand with eye-catching style. But at the outset, she didn’t even plan on her rainy-day hobby becoming a business.

In 2008, Prevot, a Pennsylvania native attending East Burke, Vt.’s Burke Mountain Academy, had just switched from Alpine to Nordic racing, and the 17-year-old was looking to inject some color and creativity into her team’s kit. She’d seen some lightweight, brightly patterned ski hats crafted by a Québec brand, and her mother suggested the two could easily make such a hat. So that Christmas break, a rainy week in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the crafty duo bought a ream of colored, two-way-stretch Lycra from a Lyndonville hardware store and sewed the very first Skida hats. “We went to this race in Maine, and some girls from Stratton Mountain School were like, ‘Hey, can you make us some of those? Can we buy them?’” Prevot, now 26, says from her Burlington, Vt. showroom and office, through which more than 60,000 hats, headbands and neck gaiters move annually. “I think I had a couple extra in the car and sold them. The next weekend we brought more, and parents bought them, too.”

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That became her routine: seek out Lycra in fun, standout patterns; sew a few bins full of simple yet comfortable beanies; sell them each weekend at her Nordic races at the Burke Mountain Academy tent. “A lot of times we were leaving with the bins empty,” Prevot says. “It was super casual for a long time; it was very fun.” Applying for college marked a transitional shift for the hat hobbyist. As a non-graded school, Burke encourages its students to bolster their college applications with extracurriculars in place of number grades. For Prevot, that meant formally thinking of Skida as a business, and one that demonstrated her creativity, drive and sales savvy through its modest success. “That was my first time encapsulating this thing that was previously just making hats for people,” she says. And the pitch helped earn her acceptance into Middlebury College.

continued on p112

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Out of necessity, Ric and Marc Cabot have built a sock empire.

DARN TOUGH

round the clock for five days a week, there’s a buzz of highpaced movement and color coming from a Green Mountain hillside overlooking the quiet town of Northfield, Vt. But it isn’t the energy of 3,500 cadets studying and working through military exercises at Norwich University, the country’s oldest military college and arguably Northfield’s most notable landmark.

The activity comes from a building just north of downtown, where more than 200 Italian-made Lonati knitting machines stitch fine-gauge wool into as many as 20,000 socks per day. It’s within this 56,000-squarefoot facility where everything from ideation to shipping happens for Darn Tough, the fast-growing and iconic sock brand whose name reflects not just its product quality but also its roots. Darn Tough grew out of necessity, says president and CEO Ric Cabot. Ric co-owns the business with his father, Marc, who started Cabot Hosiery Mills in 1978 when there was still a significant textile manufacturing presence throughout New England. The business flourished, making private-

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label socks for big brands like Gap and Banana Republic. But when that market began sourcing cheap labor offshore, business took a sharp downward turn and, in the early 2000s, the Cabots found themselves in a difficult spot. “We were down to 35 employees; we were down to three days [of production] a week; it was all we could do to not go bankrupt,” Ric says. “It was under those harsh circumstances that we came up with Darn Tough. I had to. There was really no other opportunity for us to save this.” Darn Tough, which Ric devised in 2003, would draw upon Cabot Hosiery’s 25-year expertise but would be an outdoor brand, specializing in the highest quality wool socks with enough durability to boast a lifetime guarantee. The first Darn Tough was a running sock, and they gave 3,500 pair away at the Vermont City Marathon in their first year to introduce the quality and the brand.

continued on p114

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JOHNSON WOOLEN MILLS

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On the banks of Lamoille County’s Gihon River, Stacy Barrows Manosh celebrates 175 years.

“Let me introduce you to my family,”

Stacy Barrows Manosh says immediately upon entering the Johnson Woolen Mills factory beside Route 15 in the tiny village of Johnson, Vermont. Alongside several news clippings profiling the business, five framed photos hang on the wall beside the factory’s lunchroom: black-and-white portraits of Stacy’s father, grandfather and great grandfather, the lineage of her family’s 175-year history crafting woolen wear in the shadow of Stowe and Smugglers’ Notch. The other two photos are of Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge, our nation’s 26th and 30th presidents, who wore garments dyed, cut and sewn on the banks of Lamoille County’s Gihon River. And while Johnson’s wool is no longer processed in Vermont (they stopped in 1955 because of environmental concerns), Stacy carries on her family heritage with a modern twist.

“Our history has always been in making America’s pants and wool [clothing] for men, but we’re branching out,” the animated, fourth-generation owner says. Under her leadership—Stacy bought the company in 1998— Johnson Woolen Mills has expanded into international markets, added a women’s line and launched a cotton flannel company, Green Mountain Flannel. But those efforts—or a fourth-generation owner—weren’t even a blip on the radar when the company was founded. Johnson Woolen Mills got its start even before the American Civil War when Andrew Dow began making ultra-durable, woolen work wear in Johnson in 1842. At the time, the factory where they cleaned, dyed, spun, wove, cut and sewed Vermont wool was the first building in town with electricity.

continued on p116

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Corinne Prevot | SKIDA

“My best friends are flakes.”

Play Hard.. SleeP For leSS GreaT Value! BreakFasT included clean, modern rooms

a Four season inn locaTed on killinGTon road

he startup grew quickly from there. During her freshman year, Prevot enrolled in an intensive, month-long entrepreneurship course to develop a business plan for Skida. “I think everyone thought I was projecting a lot of growth, but it was really based on how things had been going,” she says. Then, during her junior year, Middlebury’s public relations department connected Prevot with Forbes Magazine, which was profiling and hosting a conference for student entrepreneurs who’d started and grown six-figure businesses while in college. Prevot jokes about closely crunching numbers with her mother to see if they really were netting six figures in hat sales—they were. At the conference, held in Austin, Texas that summer, Prevot joined eight individuals, most of whom were recent graduates and working in the tech sector, to learn about business structure, margins, channels

FREE WIFI Toll Free 1-888-422-3315 112 made in vt

mounTainsporTsinn.com killington.com

“Here I was going into my junior year; I was from Vermont, working on a business with my mom. It was pretty wild.”

of distribution, growth, forecasting and more. “It was a really eye-opening look into startup culture,” she says. “Here I was going into my junior year; I was from Vermont, working on a business with my mom. It was pretty wild.” But, she adds, it established the framework for her business and helped her understand how it would grow, and she returned to Middlebury with the knowledge and skill to take Skida to the next level, a game plan she’d implement upon graduation.

oday, Skida sells nearly 30,000 hats annually. The business has expanded from the original, lightweight-style Nordic hat to fleece-lined options, headbands, neck warmers and men’s accessories, all with signature fun and creative styles, plus a line of Nepalisourced cashmere goods introduced in 2014. Prevot doesn’t make the hats with her mother anymore— the company now contracts seamstresses across the Northeast Kingdom. And it’s no longer just the two Prevots—Corinne has six employees at her eclectic and colorful 2,400-square-foot showroom and office off Burlington’s Pine Street, a burgeoning portion of the city known for its vibrant art scene. When Prevot contemplates where she sees Skida in a half-dozen years, she reflects on the past and can’t believe how far she’s come since her days at Burke.

join us

March 24, 2018

for the

Vermont Brewers Festival at Killington Resort This year, Vermont Brewers Association will be bringing a second brewers festival focused on collaboration brews made only for this event. Celebrate the culture of craft beer with our Vermont brewers, local food trucks, music and fire pits. Embrace the beauty of Vermont with a glass of world class craft beer in hand.

One Day, Two Sessions $42 Ticket or $111 Combo Lift Pass and Festival Ticket tickets on sale at vtbrewfest.com

“I’m just catching up to now,” she says. “It’s crazy to think what can happen in that amount of time.” killington.com

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“People try to create a brand before they have a product. We did it the hard way; we did it the authentic way.”

“The next fall, before we really had any traction, one of my friends skied in the running sock, and he said, ‘This running sock is the best ski sock I’ve ever had,’” Ric says. “When I heard this, I knew there was something there.” A decade and a half later, Darn Tough makes dozens of varieties of running socks, plus numerous dedicated socks for skiing, hiking, cycling, hunting and lifestyle wear. The Northfield business employs more than 230 individuals, a workforce that two years ago doubled within just 12 months to meet the demand of 1,900 dealers across the country. And while that growth has been undeniably explosive, Ric speaks modestly of the success. “It’s been one day at a time,” he says. “People try to create a brand before they have a product. We did it the hard way; we did it the authentic way; we did it with a few really good products, and our story, our commitment, is real. There is no Wall Street; there is no parent company. We did it product first. And we’re fortunate that we could turn a product into a brand. I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

“I see myself and the brand in these values,” Ric says. “We’re very direct. We’re very straightforward. The name Darn Tough is very straightforward. We put Vermont right on the labels and marketing—we’re very proud of where we’re from.”

nd while Ric deeply understands the value of his brand’s Vermont connection, he doesn’t want people to buy his socks just because they’re made in America or in the Green Mountain State. While buying local is en vogue, he wants consumers to buy the best, no matter where it comes from. That’s why he aims to make Darn Tough the best. “There’s product and then there’s process, and what we bring to the table is a transparent, open process that produces the best product,” he says. When it comes to socks, he believes, strength and toughness produce the best product available. And when it comes to business, those traits are undeniable keys to success.

Darn Tough’s mission hinges on a few core values, traits that closely echo the characteristics of any of the hardworking Vermonters employed there—tough, independent, straightforward and honest. 114 made in vt

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D. A. Barrows, Stacy’s great grandfather, became involved with the company at the turn of the century before purchasing the entire business in 1905. He passed the business along to his son, Robert, who later passed it along to Stacy’s father, Delmer.

s a child, Stacy grew up working the sewing-room floor, located above what’s now a bustling factory outlet packed with their garments and walls of other Vermont products. The Singer sewing machines she stitched with during summer breaks in high school now sit idle, however, with today’s cutting and sewing humming in a new factory built next door in 1987. Four years earlier, Stacy graduated from the University of Vermont and later joined the family business as a sales rep, working with retailers throughout New England and building relationships that, she says, enable her success today. “It was fun being on the road,” she says, “and that was a great experience for me because today, a phone rings and it’s Roy from Roy’s Army and Navy in Presque Isle, Maine or it’s John in St. Francis, Maine. You know them, you know their kids, you know their dog. Our business is a relationship.” That relationship is one that’s founded on quality. More specifically, it’s the quality of their garments and their wool, which is made to Johnson Woolen Mills’ exact specifications in the U.S. “Our majority is 85 percent wool, 15 percent nylon because we feel that nylon gives it extra strength and extra durability,” Stacy says. “That’s kind of our magic formula, if you will. Our wool just doesn’t wear out. People leave it in their will—it just lasts forever.”

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“It’s all rooted in the mill’s rich tradition of reliable, long-lasting goods crafted by a trustworthy Vermont business.”

hat woolen formula takes shape in more than 100 patterns cut and sewn into innumerable combinations to make their signature, button-down Jac shirt; lined wool vests; ultra-warm pants or countless other garments and accessories. Before circulating across New England and beyond, everything is stacked on row upon row of ceiling-high shelves beneath the sewing room “so tight you can’t change your mind,” Stacy says. These days, Johnson Woolen Mills employs 29 individuals from seamstresses to bookkeepers, many of whom have long worked for the company, including 92-year-old Yvonne Allen, who’s sewn garments in Johnson since 1946. Stacy’s new direction for the business adds women’s, children’s and even dog clothing to their heritage goods, focusing fresh attention toward collaborative projects, outdoor sports and international sales—they’re well known in parts of Japan. But it’s all rooted in the mill’s rich tradition of reliable, long-lasting goods crafted by a trustworthy Vermont business. “At the end of the day, it’s a friendship, it’s a relationship,” she says. “You treat others the way you want to be treated. It’s what we do.”

Vermont’s rst lodge for skiers! Enjoy the rustic splendor of our country inn, candlelit dining, award winning chef, hot tub, replace suites, whirlpool rooms. McGrath’s Irish Pub with Guinness on tap and live Irish music weekends.

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so fresh and so green

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Locally sourced food is all the buzz at Killington words by Jesse Huffman

photos by Justin Cash

It’s early summer, and the trails leading down to Killington’s Skyeship Gondola are ribbons of green grass punctuated by the bright colors of wildflowers. I’m here to check out the new beehives that local beekeeper Matt Meservey has set up in partnership with Killington Resort’s Grand Hotel Executive Chef Greg Lang. killington.com

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“I’m a local—I knew these hills were full of wildflowers and that we’d make some really good honey and have some really healthy bees.” — Matt Meservey, Vermont Beekeeper’s Association

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fter hoofing it up the short but steep hike from the parking lot, Meservey brings me to what’s formally known as an apiary. Behind an electric fence to ward off hungry bears, the pair of beehives is quite literally buzzing with activity. One of three apiaries around the resort, this colony of bees is feeding on the mountain’s abundant wildflowers, producing honey that will be used at Preston’s Restaurant and sold in Killington Sports stores.

This is just the latest of Lang’s efforts to take Killington’s farm-totable ethos to the next level. Out front of the Killington Grand Hotel, Lang has planted an herb garden that provides the garnishes for several of his dishes. By spring 2018, Lang hopes to have an exclusive partnership with the farm right across the street from the Skyeship Gondola to grow many of the vegetables he’ll use at Preston’s. And Killington’s new bee population will pollinate the farm’s food. Lang doesn’t take this level of partnership between a ski resort and local agriculture for granted. In fact, he became inspired years before he took a job with Killington after reading a Stratton newspaper article declaring that the best option for local, healthy food at a ski resort was to bring it yourself. Lang wasn’t satisfied with that solution and, 12 years later, his appetite for locally sourced ingredients has only grown. The Lyndonville, Vt. native traces his passion for food to a Vermont upbringing in a family that traveled extensively. Lang’s father worked internationally, moving the family around the world, from Spain to Newfoundland to Malaysia, exposing Lang to a global breadth of culture.

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“I’ve always been fascinated by food,” Lang says. “When I felt that culinary school was a good fit, I chose New England Culinary Institute (NECI) in Montpelier. There were other schools around, but I wanted to do it in Vermont.” When he attended NECI in the late 1980s, there was already talk about Vermont being a top agricultural name in the country, a status it’s widely embraced over the decades since. Lang’s internship at The Trellis, a Williamsburg, Virginia restaurant run by James Beard Award-winning chef Marcel Desaulniers, was a formative experience. “Desaulniers believed in regional cuisine and supporting local agriculture,” he recalls. “He was sourcing local, and the plates we were putting out there were fantastic. It was what people wanted.” After working at hotel restaurants in Tennessee and New York, Lang returned to his Green Mountain roots at the Equinox Resort in Manchester, Vt., and rediscovered the rich bounty that his home state had to offer. The lessons learned from Chef Desaulniers came into play when he got the opportunity to source his ingredients locally. Lang then brought that mindset with him to Killington. “Why use cheese from another state when I have so much award-winning cheese available to me right here?” he asks. “Vermont farming is not about mass production and how quickly can you make your money. It’s about nurturing the crops and animals, because they believe in it. And that shows in the quality of their products.”

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“As the executive chef at the hotel, I feel it’s my responsibility to take that a step further and make sure when guests come into Preston’s, they have the same options.” — Greg Lang

t this point, Lang has been working with the Vermont Fresh Network, Black River Produce and the Vermont Cheese Council for more than a decade, with the goal of showcasing the state’s best. So while the list of farms from which Lang sources runs three pages long, the Vermont Fresh Network can connect him with the farmers with the freshest products. Take one look at Preston’s menu, and it’s easy to find these locally sourced ingredients in dishes like the Vermont Artisan Cheese board, the Vermont Angus burger and the Chicken Paillard.

Lang’s zeal for farm-to-table cuisine has now raised the bar even higher. Over the past year, he’s begun pushing to make Preston’s Restaurant even more locally focused by building agricultural resources right in town—a process that’s all about making sure the food he’s serving isn’t just from Vermont, but is a direct result of collaborating with the surrounding community. “When we support our local farmers, we are supporting

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the local economy,” Lang says. “If Killington the town is doing better, if our guests are doing better by eating healthier and enjoying the food, and if more people come to Killington, then our local community gets even better and stronger.”

Evidence of Lang’s efforts is right out the front door. First there’s the herb garden at the entrance of the Killington Grand Hotel. When the parsley garnishing your dish is harvested a few steps out the front door, that’s about as local as it gets. Then there are the bees. As a member of the Sustainability Team at Killington, Lang helped plant wildflowers on the ski slopes several years ago with a goal to help feed the local bee population and mitigate erosion. Bees’ work as pollinators is crucial to Vermont’s agriculture, and growers around the state have been impacted by the recent downturn in the bee population due to habitat loss, climate change and disease. “Having done this for 10 years, I was surprised when I was contacted by Greg [Lang], but I jumped at the opportunity,” says Matt Meservey, the beekeeper. “I’m a local—I knew these hills were full of wildflowers and that we’d make some really good honey and have some really healthy bees.”

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Meservey continues: “They are vital in respect to the quality of the produce they help make—a bee has to visit a cucumber upwards of 20 times a day to get a nice, well-developed vegetable for harvesting.” The keystone to Lang’s master plan is establishing a direct farm-to-restaurant partnership, and the farm right across Route 100 from the Skyeship Gondola is the killington.com

best candidate. By next spring, Lang hopes the bees will also pollinate the produce at the farm and, in return, the farm will produce crops specifically for Killington. “I’ll tell the farmer what I am going to use this year— let’s say romaine lettuce, a Boston bib lettuce, a nice beefsteak tomato, broccolini and Swiss chard—and if they grow these for me I’ll use all their product.”

It’s a win-win for both parties. Lang gets to source produce from just down the road, and the farmer locks in a year’s worth of business. For the farmer, this is a massive advantage over finding a buyer for his or her produce. “As far as what we are doing for sustainability,” Lang says, “it can’t get much better than that.” The keystone to Lang’s master plan is establishing a direct farm-to-restaurant partnership, and the farm right across Route 100 from the Skyeship Gondola is the best candidate.

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He’s seen a big shift in the way ski resorts deal with food since he read that newspaper article years ago. From his perspective, the Killington mindset starts with a love for the outdoors and a passion for providing guests with opportunities for healthy recreation—whether it’s skiing and snowboarding in the winter, or hiking, biking or kayaking in the summer. “As the executive chef at the hotel, I feel it’s my responsibility to take that a step further,” he says, “and make sure when guests come into Preston’s, they have the same options.”

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Experience winter as it was meant to be! The Birch Ridge Inn, where hospitality, service, and location merge for a great Killington experience. Après ski by a roaring fire. Dine at the inn’s acclaimed restaurant. Stay in one of the inns beautiful guest rooms. All part of your perfect getaway to Killington.

And it’s not just any outdoor experience that draws in visitors from around the region and the country. The Green Mountain State has so much to offer, and Lang aims to parlay that into the culinary experience, too.

“They want Vermont,” he says, “and that is what I try to deliver in the restaurant.” Being able to tell his customers that his ingredients come from Vermont and, soon, from just down the road means following through on a lifetime’s love for local food. It’s a healthier approach that’s also proving to be more creative and abundant than ever. And it’s building a following that’s growing. “The beliefs that Vermont farmers have about their produce, their animals, their bees, are now being felt at the restaurant,” Lang says. “Since we took the step to turn Preston’s into what it is today, we’ve seen such a remarkable turn. It’s coming full circle where the guests are enjoying it, supporting it and making the restaurant successful. That’s what’s putting the passion into what we’re doing.” killington.com

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Fresh green underfoot framed by the full array of fall colors.

As if mountain biking wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fun enough already: just add foliage for it to become an otherworldly experience. Rider: Jordan Newth

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Going up: take a ride on the K-1 Express Gondola for an elevated point of view.

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The only thing prettier than the fish youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll catch are the vibrant colors overhead. Fisherwoman: RenĂŠe Cook killington.com

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The Best of Both Worlds + Killington and Okemo combine for

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SIGNATURE

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EVENTS

Cooler in the Mountains The outdoor concert series features top acts and carries over from summer into early fall. • Eastern States Cup Enduro Championship The country’s top mountain bikers race at Killington’s Bike Park. • Spartan Race The Spartan Beast returns with a vengeance. Come to compete, or watch as these super athletes test their limits. • Golf Tournament Close out the season with a last day Par-Tee. • Killington Brewfest Featuring 100-plus craft beers, tasting sessions, a brewinspired golf tournament and more. • Killington Witchcraft Hayrides, a haunted house, pumpkin launch, and craft beer—what’s not to love? • Rutland Halloween Parade A Rutland tradition since 1960, the parade is legendary for its superhero theme. It has been featured as the setting for a number of comic books published by DC Comics and Marvel Comics. • Audi FIS Ski World Cup The world’s best female alpine skiers will be back at Killington on Thanksgiving Weekend 2017. • See killington.com/events for more details

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My dad always believed in working hard and following your dream. His name was Josh and he was my hero. I made this wine in his honor. It’s big and vibrant but always approachable, like him. —Joseph Carr, Napa Valley Vintner & Son

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Not all hidden gems are small in size.

Basecamp : Rutland by 4241â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

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ust 15 miles from Killingtonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Grand Resort Hotel, Rutland, Vermontâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s third largest city, is blessed with a vibrant, historic downtown surrounded by a stunning natural environment. With a population of approximately 16,495 people (per the 2010 Census), Rutland is home to a number of Killington Resort employees and other savvy locals who find it offers the best of both the outdoor and urban environments. During summer, fun seekers in the know take in the weekly farmerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s market, swimming holes, hikes and more.

Go Fish Mendon Brook Mendon Brook offers prime fly-fishing right outside city limits. From Killington Resort, go west on Route 4 past Pico Mountain. Descend toward Rutland, and Wheelerville Rd. will be on the left. Wheelerville Rd. follows Mendon Brook for a little more than two miles and there are multiple pull-offs on the left and right. The fishing is best early morning and late afternoon into early evening; Mendon Brook holds both native brook trout and stocked brown trout.

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Look Out Below! Clarendon Gorge Take a hike, soak in the sights and drop in for a dip. Head out of Rutland on Route 7 South, take a left on Route 103 South, travel 2.3 miles and look for the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail parking lot on your right. It is a oneminute walk to the suspension bridge, and swimming is just below. The 30-foot-long bridge crosses the gorge for a birdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s-eye view of the waterfalls and potholes below. newenglandwaterfalls.com/vt-clarendongorge-upperfalls

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Chase the Sun Deer Leap Hike From Clarendon Gorge, retrace your steps back toward Killington. Once you pass Pico, look for the Inn at Long Trail on your left. There will be parking at the far right side of the building. The trailhead, where youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll find maps and directions, is to the right of the Inn at Long Trail building. The 1.9-mile trail is rooty and rocky in sections, and takes about 45 minutes to climb at a moderate pace. The views of Pico and Rutland are second to none. Give yourself a good 30 minutes to get down before dark.

MORE Swing. Enjoy Killington’s 18-hole Championship Golf Course all summer and fall with a season pass starting at just $289.

Farm Fresh Rutland Farmer’s Market

Given Vermont’s reputation for fresh food and craft goods, it’s no surprise that the Rutland Farmer’s Market makes our list of top stops. You’ll find everything from farm-fresh veggies and fruits to artisan cheeses, handcrafted breads, maple syrup and Vermont crafts.

Price valid through June 6, 2018. killington.com 800.621.6700

Located at Rutland’s Depot Park, the Farmer’s Market takes place on Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m. vtfarmersmarket.org/markets/summer/

WINTER CARNIVALS  TORCHLIGHT PARADES  WEDDINGS PRIVATE PARTIES  CORPORATE EVENTS  AND MORE!

Alternate Route The Paramount

There’s something magical about the way fireworks fill the

If you’ve had enough outdoor activity for the day, consider taking in a show at the historic Paramount Theatre. The Paramount opened on January 16, 1914 and hosts opera, plays, concerts and even sports on the big screen, including the Audi FIS Ski World Cup at Killington and select NFL games.

sky with exploding shapes, luminous colors and triumphant finales full of

crackles, booms and whistles.

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Fireworks are surprisingly more affordable than you think! BONUS RUTLAND HOT SPOTS PLAY Green Mountain Rock Climbing Center vermontclimbing.com Pine Hill Park pinehillpark.org EAT Speakeasy Café speakeasycafe.net

Table 24 table24.net

LEARN Phoenix Books phoenixbooks.biz

The Co Op rutlandcoop.com

Wonderfeet Kids’ Museum wonderfeetkidsmuseum.org

FUN FACTS The city of Rutland was incorporated in 1892 as the third city of Vermont.

The Mountain Times is a community newspaper covering news and events in Central Vermont. It has a weekly readership of approx. 20,000 in print plus 10,000 digitally and is distributed to over 400 locations and mailed to 17 states.

Population 16,495 (2010 Census) Downtown Rutland is listed as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. Rutland is Vermont’s third largest City Rutland is home to “The Bus,” run by Marble Valley Regional Transit District. The bus serving Killington is called the Diamond Express and runs year round.

5465 Route 4, Killington, Vt. 05751 mountaintimes.info 802-422-2399

(802) 229-9690 WWW.NORTHSTARFIREWORKS.COM P.O. BOX 65, EAST MONTPELIER, VT

1 warehouse 7 stores 1,000 orders shipped 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

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Bottom - Burton Society pant - best-in-class

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Gloves - Gordini Baby Baby Mitt Goggle - Giro Grade

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Gloves - Hestra Heli glove

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Grab-and-go sandwiches and snacks, draft beer, wine and specialty cocktails. Learn more at killington.com/jerk.

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Always Good Times

Good times is what Elan is all about, and the best times are those spent with friends and family in the mountains. Whether it’s a family weekend road trip to your favorite local destination or a backcountry adventure with your best buddies, it’s always good times when you surround yourself with the ones you’re closest to.

July 20-22, 2018 Three Days of Mountain Wine Events

More information & tickets available at www.KillingtonWineFestival.Com or (802) 773-4181

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Wine & Nine Golf Outing

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O N LY T H E S U P E R S T A R S M A K E I T T H R O U G H T H E E A ST â&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LONG E S T S E A SON . After 201 days of lift-served skiing and riding, the 2016-17 season concluded on June 1 with free skiing for everyone. It was the first time we skied into June in 15 years, putting an exclamation point on a season weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll never forget.

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

LUNCH • DINNER • MUSIC • WEDDINGS • EVENTS

2017 / 2018

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

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“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