KILLINGTON, Vermont – Killington Resort officially became independent with new local owners earlier this fall, and with their new ownership comes a massive $30 million investment into the ski area. The first major step in that investment comes through 1,000 new low-energy snowmaking guns from HKD Snowmakers installed around the resort.
The upgrade marks the largest snowmaking investment at Killington Resort since Bear Mountain saw work in the 1970s. The new ownership team worked alongside former owners POWDR to purchase the guns even before the resort sale was complete, allowing about 500 of the new tower guns to be installed this summer.
The new snow guns will hopefully allow the resort to open earlier while creating a quicker and more efficient snowmaking process. Eight of the new HKD Low-Energy snow guns can run on the same air required to run just one of Killington’s old K3000 snow guns. While the one old gun does around 20 gallons per minute at 20°, the eight guns would be doing close to 100 gallons per minute.
Plenty of trails will see the new guns, including Blue Heaven, Bear Trax, Bittersweet, Needle’s Eye, and more. Recovery from bad weather events will be significantly faster, allowing many guns to be activated without actually requiring snow makers to go out onto the mountain to turn them on.
Additional future work to go along with the $30 million investment includes the replacement of the Superstar Quad and all 116 Skyeship Gondola cabins. The Skyeship barn, storage for the new cabins, will also see an upgrade, and summer facilities will se an upgrade with an expansion in bike trails designed by Gravity Logic.
