Killington Developments For 18-19 Season
Vermont’s Killington Resort, the largest ski and snowboard resort in Eastern North America and part of POWDR, announced today continued enhancements to the way guests will experience the mountain this winter. The $25 million investment will make Killington easier to access, and provide more and higher-quality snow surfaces for skiers and riders to explore.
“Our entire team is continuously focused on improving the guest experience and over the last few years we’ve made tremendous progress having improved our guest survey score by 100%, “says Mike Solimano, president and general manager of Killington Resort. “I’m especially excited to showcase this season’s improvements as our next step in the evolution of redefining the Killington experience to be the best version of ourselves.”
Last spring Killington announced $16 million in upgrades which included:
New Snowdon 6-Person Bubble Chairlift
The new Snowdon Six Express, 6-person high-speed bubble chairlift manufactured by Leitner-Poma, features a bubble shield that will protect skiers and riders from wind and weather as they ascend 1,100 vertical feet to the Snowdon Mountain peak, which features intermediate cruising terrain, moguls, trees and a terrain park.
South Ridge Quad Installed
The highly anticipated return of lift service in the South Ridge area will occur with the relocation of the refurbished, Snowdon Quad chairlift. The South Ridge Quad will load and unload in the same locations as the old South Ridge Triple. The South Ridge Quad will provide easier access to terrain such as Pipe Dream as well as a quick and easy way to connect back to the north side of the resort from Bear Mountain without having to access the K1 Gondola.
New and Improved K-1 Express Gondola
Ahead of 2018-19 ski season, all cabins will be replaced with brand-new Leitner-Poma Sigma 8-person cabins which will be stored in a new cabin storage facility to improve reliability and de-icing time. The haul rope will also be replaced. This lift will continue to run on electricity generated by BioGas, through a program commonly known as Cow Power as part of our commitment to POWDR’s Play Forever using renewable energy.
New RFID Gates
Killington Resort and Pico Mountain will introduce Axess smart gates with RFID (radio-frequency-identification) at lift access points. This technology will improve the guest experience by the use of hands-free automated gates instead of manual barcode scanning.
Terrain Improvements
Killington Resort will continue to improve the on-mountain experience with a number of terrain improvements on the mountain. These improvements include trail widening, re-routing Great Northern in the Snowdon area and adding tunnels at select intersections to improve the experience on several key intermediate trails by limiting trail intersections in high traffic locations and removing pinch points for more top to bottom skiing and riding.
Additional improvements included in the $25 million that guests will notice this winter are below.
A Snow Surface Worthy of Delivering the Longest Season in the East
More than a million dollars in snowmaking enhancements will include 44,000 feet of replaced and new snowmaking pipeline, reconfiguration and replacement of current pipes for enhanced operational efficiency and adding snowmaking to the Great Bear trail on Snowdon and Lower Pipe Dream on South Ridge.
Additionally, four new groomers will be added to the fleet ahead of the winter season. One Prinoth Bison Winch Cat will specialize in steep terrain including the World Cup Superstar Trail, one Pisten Bully Park Cat will be brought in as a critical component of terrain park building, and two Prinoth Bison Free Groomers to tackle the nightly grooming plan.
Lift Reliability Improvements
In addition to major lift projects, multiple lift components are being upgraded or replaced on the Bear Mountain Quad, Skye Peak Express and Superstar Express lifts. Seat pad replacements and lift house rebuilds round out improvements to lift infrastructure.
Overall Killington Experience
Staff are key to delivering excellent service and with the purchase of the Mendon Mountain View Lodge property we’ll be able to offer convenient housing which will improve our ability to attract staff for key seasonal positions. Additional improvements are being made resort-wide in administrative areas such as conferences, vehicle maintenance, ski patrol, human resources and food & beverage in our ongoing efforts to ensure our guests and staff has access to the best equipment and facilities.
Pico Mountain Improvements
The Pico snowmaking crew is replacing snowmaking pipe and installing a more efficient water transfer system between the two Pico snowmaking ponds. These two improvements coupled with the installation of new snow guns last season will further improve our ability to maintain a quality snow surface at Pico. In addition to the on-mountain snowmaking work completed this summer; extensive permitting work is underway relative to providing a new source of water for snowmaking at Pico. If permitted and when completed, this additional water will greatly enhance snowmaking’s ability to consistently provide a quality snow surface.
Additional improvements include an extensive replacement of the retail and administration building roof in preparation for the installation of a roof top solar system. New roofs on the Little Pico Triple chairlift bottom terminal as well as the vehicle maintenance building round out the facility upgrades at Pico.
