Killington Invests 25 Million In Lifts and More

The biggest resort in the east, Killington invests . in some serious upgrades this year, to the tune of $25 million. 

This summer, Killington Resort and Pico Mountain, both owned by POWDR, saw $16 million in improvements that included a gondola revamp, a new quad, a lift relocation and terrain improvements in the form of tunnels. The ski area also introduced new RFID gates at some of its lifts.

Then, on September 12, the resort unveiled an additional $9 million in upgrades and projects slated for this winter. Killington is also going to be hosting The Killington Cup– a stop on the Audi FIS Ski World Tour—over Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 23-25). The event will bring some of the best alpine racers in the country to Vermont and features a weekend-long celebration of all things skiing and ski culture.

Here’s what skiers can expect when they hit the slopes this year.

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.