Let me say, first and foremost, that Killington is remaining on the Ikon pass for this year, with no foreseeable changes to that in the future.
Killington's new buying group is made up of 16 investors who
call themselves Killington Independence Group- which includes previous owners
POWDR and Great Gulf, who retain minority ownership percentages.
The group is headed by Phill Gross, A longtime Killington
homeowner and passholder who co-founded Adage Capital Management. He's
also served on the board of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the
World Cup Dreams Foundation. The other key player of the group is Michael
Ferri- A partner and owner of East Coast Valvoline Instant Oil Change
franchises. He's also served as a trustee for Killington Mountain School since
2008.
The group made a statement on "X" (formerly known as
twitter) recently, laying out their plan for the first year of operations:
First and foremost, the resort will have a new Board of
Directors, including influential local businessman and director of Casella
Waste Management, John Casella.
The owner of the Snowed Inn, Carolyn Kepcher, and long-time local and KMS Board
Member, Mike Hone will also serve on the board.
There will be some additional internal reshuffling, with a few well deserved title changes, etc.
As for capital improvements:
- The Skyeship gondola and barn are slated to be upgraded/replaced.
- The Superstar quad will be replaced with a six-pack.
- 1,000 new Low "E" snow guns will be brought online.
- Re-branded (old-branded) parks.
The Superstar chair will
not be a bubble chair- most of us have
ridden that chair on windy days while the the snowmaking guns are blasting away, so I was hopeful they would be able to pull that off.
My guess is that this will reduce wind holds, which bubble chairs are often subject to.
Sidenote- The existing chair runs fast for a quad; This chair was originally manufactured by Yan, who was driven out of business due to commonplace failure/high risks. With that in mind, Killington, very wisely, did an upgrade package on that lift. which also increased uphill
loading. That chair, amazingly, moves over 3,000 people per hour, which is the current capacity for most sixpack chairs. So, it seems, there wont be a major increase in uphill capacity, even given the fact that the six-pack is high speed.
That said, this chair is getting old and It's replacement was coming due. This is a good move for Special K.
Killington is served by two gondola lifts- both gondolas were huge advances for Killington-
Prior to the upgrade of the original Skyeship line, experienced skiers avoided the old, bright orange gondola cars coming up from RTE 4 past Needle's Eye, because the risk of those cars dropping off the line, in mild to moderate winds, was very real, and fairly common. Back in those days, two of my housemates were lift mechanics (RIP Chalker), and they would not ride them, nor would they ski under them, no matter how good the snow was. They did, however, have some entertaining stories about some of the failures on that line.
Anyway, I was working there when they replaced the old death pumpkins in 1994, with the current design, and that was a welcome upgrade. In fact, part of me still regrets not buying one of the old cabins to do something interesting with. Those old cabins had lots of stories in them, most of which I wont regale you with, due to inappropriate content.
Prior to the K1 Gondola implementation, lift service was provided by the old double chair
to the peak. Riding that double was the old route to early season skiing, and significant walking was often involved. That was a rite of passage, but that lift was, certainly, a dinosaur long overdue for replacement.
Also prior to the K1, there was no fast, easy route to the top, because the double wasn't very reliable in it's twilight years... It was subject to ice on the lines, deteriorating shiv trains -evidenced by the common but not so comforting, repetitive squeak emanating from them, and the globs of grease that fell on you as you passed under them. Most of the Killington experienced would go up the Snowdon double or triple, then pole our way over to East Fall to hit CQ4 (the Canyon quad).
As for the Skyeship gondola, all 116 cabins are scheduled for replacement in the summer of 2025.
I was a bit surprised to hear this- as I understood it, this gondola system was still considered to be state of the art technology. I have to believe that the new gondola cabins will be easier to board, especially since the doors on the old cabins barely open wide enough for someone carrying a pack into the cabin. Anyway, it's just the cabins which are being replaced, and the new cabins will, apparently, make that lift more reliable and less subject to wind hold .
I'm curious to see these new cabins, especially since the heaters in the old ones never really worked properly. Not to mention, I've been told that this gondola line ran under-capacity (with less cars than it was meant to run) with to avoid wind holds and too much stress on the system. In fact, this line ran way less than anticipated when it was put in- Especially since
mid-week, these cars would be empty.
It will be good to not have an excruciatingly long wait for one of those cars to arrive, assuming the new system runs a higher capacity.
The gondola barn is slated to replaced at an undisclosed time in the future.
There will, also, be a change to spring skiing for the 2024-25 season at K-Mart, with
skiers being sent up to the Northridge chair to ski there ,and in the canyon.
For the Killington spring faithful this is a blow. Most of May and June skiing were done on
Superstar, and it was mighty convenient being able to park right there, have a
deck to sit on for soaking up the spring rays of the sun, and nearby bathrooms.
Lastly, the new, uber-efficient snow guns will be great for reducing resource use while improving the quality and depth of man-made snow. However, those guns wont be on line early season, because (rumor has it) they cannot run with enough water content to provide a solid base for early-season skiing. So, the old guns wont be going away..... yet.
Stay tuned on how that pans out.
At the end of the day, I'm glad to see Killington purchased by
people who will love her, and take care of her, like the real skiers they claim to be-
Hopefully we will see a skier friendly resort with real skiing, flourish for real New
England skiers.
What are your thoughts on the changes at
Killington?
