Killington Resort — A Personal Perspectve

If you've read the SkierNet.com listing for Killington on our general Vermont page, you probably noticed some snarky comments and a propensity to paint K-Mart as too big, and getting bigger.

Permit me to explain.

My first experience with Killington was during the summer of 1966. My parents rented a chalet along the still-young Access Road. The neighborhood was up a side road; these are modest chalets that most people today never notice. The only other thing on that portion of the road was a small fire station. Beyond that, the road narrowed. It was a mountain experience.

One afternoon during our stay we headed for what is now the K1 base lodge, and enjoyed a scenic ride on the original yellow double chair. It looked exactly like this:

In fact, the lead chair could've easily been me with my mom. (It wasn't)

The summit was a wild, rugged place. After a few minutes on a small viewing platform, we rode back down where my dad was given a brief sales pitch about buying property at Killington. They had a large 3D cardboard model of a magnificent mountain complex, somehow built with topographical tiers, little strings representing lifts, that sort of thing.

Being interested in maps even at a very young age, I inquired as to what I was seeing. The adults hushed me with the explanation that this was the plan for the ski resort, with lodges, houses, golf courses, shopping centers, etc. "Where is it?" I asked, and was hushed again. The salesman was annoyed. My dad knew that I would persist, so he pointed out what existed at that time -- just a fraction of the planned resort. The rest would be built all over the wild land surrounding this lodge. I confirmed loudly, "so this is what they want to do?" Once I comprehended what I was seeing, I vocally offered my opinion "ha...this will never happen!" At which point I was hustled away by my embarrassed mom.

Of course I was wrong. Killington became all that and a bag of chips within a few years; today it has far exceeded even those spectacular plans. By the mid 1970s Killington was the beast of the east: the biggest, the best, most glamorous. It stole the spotlight from Sugarbush, and became the target for NY metro ski areas. Hunter and Great Gorge asked, "why drive to Killington?" Well, because it's Killington.

Today the Access Road is a four-lane boulevard with ritzy restaurants, trendy gin mills and shopping honky tonk of every description. Condos sprawl along the lower hills like giant centipedes. Skier visits may rise and fall over the short term, but overall, Killington seems to grow and grow.

I recently climbed Killington Peak from the "back" side, using a trail from Wheelerville Road that connects briefly with the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail and ascends the summit via a steep scramble called the Killington spur trail. After I dropped over the summit peak, I walked down to the summit lodge past the Catwalk trail. The K1 gondola now stands in place of the old yellow double. It was depositing a steady stream of sight-seers and mountain bikers at the top terminal; the summit was hopping. Looking off the sizable observation deck, I saw the bikers scrambling like an antfarm down the mountain below.

I thought back to that afternoon in 1966 on the small wooden platform, looking off at the wilderness around, and marveled at what has become of it. I won't say the growth is a negative thing, not at all; the rides and attractions bring people who would otherwise not venture into the mountains. I don't think the trappings of the Access Road are as attractive as they were proposed on that 3D model. And I don't think any of those visionary folk could foresee exactly how insanely crowded and built up their resort would become. Again, that isn't a negative...it's just a lot different than it was.

-- Rick Bolger, SkierNet.com

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This popular artist's rendering of Killington was updated in the late 1970s to reflect the addition of Outer Limits and the South Ridge section. It also shows trail enhancements on Rams Head.

Artist's rendering of the planned Rams Head base lodge, with a rather fanciful depiction of Killington peak.

The newly completed lodge.

Changes at Ram's Head:

• Original summit abandoned due to frequent icing and wind holds. This reduced the vertical and eliminated the Header trail headwall, and eliminated the upper "expert" section of the Vagabond trail
• Prior to the addition of the Swirl trail, Ram's Head had two short "cross-country" trails off of the Header trail. These were extremely narrow, service road trails. Eventually this route was widened and called RH Road, then widened further and absorbed by Swirl.

If you're really into the history side of Vermont skiing, or perhaps have ties to a particular ski town, there's a book called Lost Ski Areas of Southern Vermont by Jeremy Davis of NELSAP fame. NELSAP, if you aren't familiar with it, is the New England Lost Ski Area Program, a loosely organized group started by Davis that preserves the history of shuttered ski areas. NELSAP is affiliated with the New England Ski Museum and all sort of other history folks. Anyway, the book is terrific, the link goes to Amazon.com and if you decide to purchase, a few cents funds this website at no added cost to you.

Snowshed shortly after construction of the lodge. Notice how different Superstar was during the 1970s.

Easy Way to Save Money on Lift Tickets: It's a "clearinghouse" of sorts that many ski areas use to raise cash by selling discount tickets in advance, called Liftopia . If you haven't used this service, it is important to know for certain that you are going on a specific date. The deeply discounted tickets must be purchased in advance; generally up to two days out. The sticking point is that some ski resorts only make a limited number of tickets available to Liftopia for any given day, so they might be sold out if you wait too long...so, as soon as you are absolutely, positively sure that you will be skiing on a certain day, click this link to get deeply discounted tickets . I've used this service many times, but again, ONLY when I am absolutely certain I will be skiing on a specific date. You need to have access to a printer to print out your receipt, and you have to take identification with you to the mountain. I've knocked a third off the price of some tickets. Not every area participates, but it's well worth checking if you've got a date nailed down.

Needle's Eye trail under the original Killington gondola, circa 1972.

Bill's Country Store, an iconic landmark and popular roadside stop for much of Killington's history. Here's how it appeared to 1960s tourists en route to summer chairlift rides.

For a much more complete and well-illustrated summary of changes at Killington through the years, please visit this page at Jeremy Clark's informative New England Ski History site.

-- Rick

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