By Karen D. Lorentz
Editors’ Note: This is part 11 of a series on the factors that enabled Killington to become The Beast of the East. Quotations are from author interviews in the 1980s for her book “Killington, A Story of Mountains and Men.”
From 1954 to 1963, the focus was on getting Killington open, operating, and growing. With the advent of the 1963–64 season, Killington entered an important new phase in the ski area’s history. The addition of snowmaking heralded a new “better way” philosophy, an era of pioneering improvements that would run simultaneously with the commitment to growth.
The basis for this direction was Pres Smith’s belief that Killington could provide a better ski experience if dependable snow were offered and a longer ski season reliably established. Killington was already committed to improving the ski experience by providing an abundance of terrain and lift capacity. Still, Smith wanted everyone, especially those who had never skied before, to be able to enjoy the mountains, and that meant there was more to be done than simply adding lifts and trails.
Snowmaking as insurance
What enabled Killington to be the first to commit to the longest ski season possible was the installation of snowmaking in 1963. At the time this seemed particularly foolish to Vermont ski area operators as snowmaking was something “banana belt” areas in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania utilized because it was the only way they could exist.
Installing expensive snowmaking at Killington, in the heart of the Green Mountains with one of the best reputations for natural snowfall, seemed like a needless expense and just plain crazy.
Killington’s (former) Operations Manager Paul Bousquet remembered Christmas Day of 1962 when “everyone — including ski school personnel, secretaries, and officers — picked stones on Snowshed. We had to get it ready for the least amount of snow. Fortunately, 14 inches fell the next day, saving us. But no way were we going to get caught short again.”
That fear was the incentive to spearhead snowmaking the next year. Bousquet, whose father had installed a snowmaking system at Bousquet’s Ski Area (Massachusetts) in the 1950s, was as determined as Smith not to go through with uncertainty anymore. “It was part of our philosophy to look for a better way and to be innovative,” he noted.
“When I first started out, I used to say this is a great snow area, we’ll never run short. But I soon found there were periodic times that natural snow wasn’t enough and called in a firm to design a snowmaking system. The idea was that if it didn’t snow, we could have skiing,” Smith said.
Looking to a reliable future, Smith wrote in a June 4, 1963, letter to Rutland Herald publisher Bob Mitchell “. . . the question becomes who will pay our future payroll of perhaps 500 persons or who will patronize perhaps 100 commercial lodges and restaurants in the area if we have a poor snow year or a series of poor weekends?
“Although we have just concluded a season that can be regarded as highly successful and profitable, and although Killington is probably the choicest site in the Northeast for snow and its retention, we have decided to install snowmaking equipment this summer. Eleven thousand feet of pipe with 250 pounds of water pressure will cover our Snowshed area with that most important commodity — SNOW.”
Management considered building their own snowmaking system but decided to be conservative and not take that risk, buying their first snowmaking system from Larchmont, an experienced snowmaking engineering and design company. It was a patented above-ground system that collected water from a brook in Killington Basin and brought it down through aluminum pipe to Snowshed.
“The pipe was so light that you could carry 40-foot sections around in your arms,” and “was very easy to install,” Smith said.
But when they loaded the system with water, applied air pressure to it, and started to make snow, it was only a matter of minutes before the pipes exploded.
“By the time it reached the bottom of Snowshed, there was about a 600-foot head of pressure. The pressure for that kind of pipe was way over tolerable limits. It was lucky somebody didn’t get killed because it was a very dangerous situation,” Smith said of the plume that jetted above the tree tops and sent shards of aluminum flying.
“We had all kinds of problems, so they sent an engineer up to show us how to make snow. He said, ‘Oh we’ll have snow in no time.’ But in three hours, he had successfully frozen every foot of pipe as solid as a rock from top to bottom.”
Thoroughly disgusted, Smith sent the hapless fellow on his way. What Smith remembered most about that under-designed system was fixing it and getting it back together again.
Worker Royal Biathrow recalled the tendency of the system to freeze up “every time good snowmaking weather came. We took the system apart and buried the aluminum pipe in sawdust, but it still froze up. One of the ways we used to thaw it out was to use a little denatured alcohol and compressed air. That’s very dangerous, the worst combination; it’s a wonder we didn’t blow ourselves up.”
For all its difficulties, Killington’s first snowmaking system pushed the area into operation one week ahead of all Eastern ski areas with a December 4, 1963, opening date and helped provide skiing in March when natural snow was sparse.
The snowmaking system also made a significant promotional effort possible by guaranteeing snow for midweek vacation customers, heralding in greatly desired midweek business as early as the 1963–64 season.
Most importantly, the initial snowmaking experience proved the impetus for Killington to tackle snowmaking engineering. From that point on, there was an engineer on staff and a snowmaking system of Killington’s own design, although the expertise of another engineering and design firm was used to supplement those efforts for several years.
Engineer James Kachadorian was assigned the task of getting the Snowshed system to function properly. He had been mystified by frequent pipe ruptures until one day he saw skiers “dinking the above-ground pipe with their ski poles.” The pipe had cost Killington $200,000, but he managed to convince his incredulous boss that it had to be replaced by steel pipe. When the expensive steel pipe was buried underground in sawdust, the system worked well, and the nightmarish freeze-ups ended.
Snowmaking saves the 1965 season
The decision to go with snowmaking was a fortuitous move, as the winter of 1964–65 was a marginal one for natural snow, with four complete washouts making it the worst season (to date) in the history of the East. New England ski business dropped 25 to 33%, and attendance at some areas fell as much as 40 to 50%. Killington attendance rose from 240,000 to 250,000 skier visits as snowmaking kept the area operating while many others closed.
Snowmaking also allowed a November 21, 1964, opening date, Killington’s earliest, and helped extend the ski season to May 4 for a 160-day record in the Northeast.
However, with almost continuous use, snowmaking proved to be expensive, and, coupled with almost constant grooming, high operating costs contributed to reduced earnings for fiscal 1965. At the same time, market share and gross revenues rose, and a net profit was realized.
Further capital improvements made to the system in summer 1965 reduced the time to cover Snowshed from seven to two days.
The commitment to snowmaking transitioned in the 1970s to include not only insurance for skiing but also repair of skier wear and tear on trails all over the mountain, as well as the promise of the longest ski season in the East.
Next week, we’ll look at another far-reaching approach to the ski business— ski instruction and the innovative GLM.
Comments and insights are welcome: email [email protected] to share thoughts about skiing in the 1950s and 1960s.
