Wow, what a week of crazy storm after storm. All said and done, Killington reported a handsome 59 inches of new snow over the course of last week, and conditions confirmed those totals. Now is the time to enjoy mid-winter turns, watch some talented racers, take in a show or two and then plan ahead for a return visit for some great events in the upcoming weeks.
Today, the best high school snowboarders in the state of Vermont will duke it out for a podium spot in the High School Snowboard State Championships. Slopestyle competition is in the Timberline Terrain Park at 9:30 a.m. Also today is the Giant Slalom competition at 1 p.m. although a trail location hadn’t been announced at press time.
The Wobbly Barn continues with its line up of entertainment on Friday and Saturday night this week with the return of local favorite Last Kid Picked. The band was originally put together from members of several other New England acts that were looking for a new dodgeball team and found that music was more fun and less dangerous. Its current line up includes four men who keep the dance floor filled with music all the way from classics to new. With lyric changes, medleys and a heavy dose of humor, Last Kid Picked is a good “pick” choice of entertainment this weekend. The nightclub offers free nachos during Happy Hour on Saturday from 3:30 – 8 p.m. Doors open for 21+ shows on Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and there is a cover charge at the door.
Next weekend, March 12-14, the Burton Super Demo Tour will make a stop at the Beast of the East and take part in Killington’s Burton Stash Gathering, an event that encompasses the spirit and attitude of snowboarding today. The event, just one of the ways to celebrate Burton’s contribution to snowboarding, encourages snowboarders of all ages and abilities to showcase their riding ability on the natural features of the Burton-designed Stash terrain park. Riders will be rewarded for picking the best lines and nailing the best tricks on rock jibs, log rides, rainbow trees, giant Shreddies and jibbable buildings.
As part of the Burton Super Demo Tour, guests will be able to ride the latest 2010 Burton snowboards, bindings and boots free of charge, including the new EST boards, which are designed to offer a closer connection between the rider’s movement and the snow. Riders will also enjoy Burton giveaways, sponsored after-parties, and the opportunity to speak with Burton experts to find the perfect board, stance, and gear for their style.
Registration for the Stash Gathering is only $30 and includes a free competitor bar-b-que lunch at the Sugar Shack. Divisions include men’s and women’s Open, and Groms (16 and under). Discounted competitor lift tickets will be available on event day. Day of event registration and bib pick up will take place at the Fuel TV Lounge at the Bear Mountain Lodge from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Competition takes place from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in and around the Sugar Shack area. Awards will be handed out at the post-event party at the Fuel TV Lounge at 4 p.m.
On March 26-28, in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of The Bud Light Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge, the Snoe.Down Ski and Music Festival, the all-ages winter music and sports festival hosted by moe, moves to its new home in central Vermont with performances at Killington Resort and Rutland’s Spartan Arena. In addition to multiple moe sets, Snoe.down 2010 will feature performances by funk/soul group Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, jam-grass favorites Railroad Earth and Hot Day at the Zoo, southern rockers the Bridge, up-and-coming jam-rockers the McLovins and the Heavy Pets plus, more to come. Performances by a variety of artists will take place throughout the weekend at Killington Resort’s K-1 Lodge, Bear Mountain Lodge and the Wobbly Barn. On Saturday afternoon moe. will perform a rare winter outdoor set at Bear Mountain for the mogul challenge. Festival tickets are required—either for one show or the entire festival—and can be purchased online at killington.com or for more information about the festival, visit www.snoedown.com.
Stay tuned for future information about pond skimming and Killington’s Sunshine Daydream Festival in upcoming editions of the Mountain Times.
For more information about Killington and its events, visit www.killington.com.
Home On The Mountain
by Tony Crespi
Ski a mountain often enough and it soon feels like home. In fact, skiers typically speak with strong loyalty of the mountain on which they are based. Ski frequently on any one mountain - whether as a season pass holder, frequent guest, or ski pro and that mountain becomes, truly, your home mountain. Walk into the K-1 Lodge at Killington, for example, where many season pass holders are “based” each winter weekend and the language is punctuated by a deep knowledge of the landscape. From tossing backpacks and boot bags on the same hooks week after week to favorite trails, skiers who frequent the slopes on a regular basis begin to see the mountain as a second home.
Truly, skiers – and we use the term generically to include riders and telemark folks as well - are linked to their home mountains. Ask a ski pro or pass holder based at Okemo to compare their resort with another you will quickly hear a strong, fierce, loyalty. In fact, crossing into Vermont from Southern New England, many of these skiers feel an easy sense of relaxation flow into their body. At that moment, it seems, our souls feel more peaceful. Booting up for a day on the mountain, the mountain becomes more than a place to ski. It’s more than a place to play. For skiers, no matter their legal address, the mountain can serve as a place of both incredible beauty, as well as a place for being peaceful and happy.
Home, I think, is more than a legal address. It’s place where we truly live.
Well-known novelist Joyce Carol Oates has resided for more than 30 years in New Jersey. Yet, the home which haunts her novels is, actually, most similar to the small town where she lived as a youngster in upstate New York. As she once wrote, home is the place you find yourself in your most haunting dreams. For many skiers, no matter the street address, Killington is a place where their thoughts reside. Picture the haunting beauty of a fresh “dump” on Killington Peak. Surrender yourself to the memory of slicing fresh powder on Skyelark. It’s more than haunting. It’s home.
Writers, I think, are often associated with the regions which characterize their writing. My wife Cheryl, who lived briefly in London, tells me Charles Dickens is London. She’s right. The late Vermont resident Dr. Charles Houston, whose “home” was on Lake Champlain, is most often associated with some of the highest mountaineering peaks in the world, such as K2. A highly respected physician who studied high altitude medicine, he became more associated, I think, with those peaks than with Vermont. It’s a thing, I think worth considering. Recently, for example, over Valentine’s Day Weekend, I watched my wife Cheryl happily wander the beach on Martha’s Vineyard off the Cape Cod Coast. Walking in a rare island snow on the shore, I realized she often seems most peaceful when gathering shells on the water. Understand, while we have no home on the island, nor near any islands, it seems, well, a place she is most at home. And as we easily winged our way back “home”, catching a magnificent sunset at five thousand feet over Long Island Sound, it seemed clear that wherever our legal residences lies, we each have a place where we are most at home. It’s a place where we truly live.
Sitting in the K-1 Lodge over lunch some weeks past, watching skiers come to and fro, it seemed odd to hear so many ask where each called home. In today’s world, afterall, people can and often do move frequently. Several young racers from Castelton State College, sitting nearby, spoke of a various towns and cities where their parents still lived, ranging from Washington DC to nearby Rutland. Understand, looking at two skiers in the group, I saw large smiles, and a glow which reflected the beginnings of a well-lived life. This young couple had just come in from skiing Skyelark under snow guns. Thousands of melting snow crystals marked their faces. Their skin glowed. Their walk reflected an inner excitement. Their enjoyment of the day was almost a shimmer of inner light. Clearly, they were more than happy. More than living, they were deeply alive. They were, well, at home on the mountain.
Don’t you just dream of skiing fresh, light, powder? Don’t you just smile at the thought of slicing turns on your favorite run? Can’t you picture your favorite chair and corner in the base or summit lodge? Is it any less poignant than picturing a dinner in your home?
Mind you, I sometimes wonder if somehow, from my birthplace in Plattsburgh, New York – across from Burlington on Lake Champlain – if my genetic code was not adjusted for spending a life on and about mountains. You see, wherever I have travelled – particularly as part of my work crafting articles for various mountain publications - I always seem less comfortable away from mountains, and most at home, well, on the mountain. The intrepid couple I saw walking in the K-1 Lodge, with fresh snow melting on their cheeks, also seemed most at home. They laughed easily over lunch, They relaxed as they rebooted for the afternoon. And, yes, they jut looked at home with our mountain sport: It looked, well, right. Killington, at that moment, seemed their home. A place they were at home. And very much alive.
Now, when you listen to the conversations of so many weekend and weekday skiers in the K-1 Lodge, you hear many speak with almost reverence of their weekly escapes to ski. It’s a time, clearly, they too feel most alive. Though many are not, well, at home. Interesting. And that’s the point. Where do you truly, well, live! Where are you ,most peaceful. Watching folks come and go in the lodge, from Killington Pro and veteran PSIA Examiner the like of Keith Hopkins to the students from Castleton State College, it was clear that Killington draws a large smorgasbord of skiers who “live” locally, as well as far away. I heard two students speak of driving up from Virginia. I heard a family chatting who had travelled from North Carolina. And I heard folks talking who had come from locales from White River Junction to Providence, Rhode Island. Still, on the mountain, some – not all – looked – happy. Peaceful. Home.
As you travel in the weeks and months ahead, take a moment to consider where in life you feel most at home. Do not necessarily feel home must be that place you keep your belongings or even where you work or attend school. That may be one kind of home. But you may have another. Some of us feel at home on the mountain. Others – such as my wife Cheryl – are most at home walking a beach. For many many skiers, I know, they most feel at home on the mountain. In the lodges. And in Vermont. It’s where we live. From that first run. To the last run.
Carpe Diem.
Columnist Tony Crespi has served as both a Ski School Supervisor and Development Team Coach. A frequent contributor to publications throughout snow country, his column is published weekly throughout the season.
