Killington, Vermont — Killington Resort is experiencing many exciting changes right now. In August, it was announced that POWDR was selling the mountain to a group of local investors. One of their first significant investments is upgrading Killington’s snowmaking fleet.
Last month, Killington detailed where their approximately 1000 (1004 to be exact) new snow guns will be situated. For the 2024-25 season, Killington & Pico are adding 36 HKD Snowmakers Phazer portable snowmaking guns, 454 HKD Impulse and Phazer R5 tower guns, as well as four fully automatic HKD Diablo fan guns.
Locations of the new and replacement guns this season include Cruise Control, Upper and Lower Needle’s Eye, Outer Limits, Alpine Training Venue, Upper Header, Timberline, Upper and Lower Great Eastern, Blue Heaven, Bear Trax, Skyeburst, Upper Bittersweet, Panic Button and Superstar.
Perhaps the most important snowmaking replacement is on Outler Limits, which is receiving 33 new tower guns. The double black diamond trail is highly regarded for its bumps, as it hosts the Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge.
During the 2025 offseason, Killington will install another 510 HKD Impulse and Phazer R5 tower guns. These new and replacement snowguns will be added to Cascade, Middle Chute, Lower Dreammaker, Lower Downdraft, Lower East Fall, Easy Street, Bear Cub, Great Northern, Highline, Upper and Lower High Road, Kilink, Launch Pad, Mouse Run, Mouse Trap, Upper Pipe Dream, Northbrook Trail, Snowshed Crossover, Upper and Lower Skyelark, Spillway, Snowshed Slope, The Stash, Upper and Lower Wildfire, and Upper Yodeler trails. A new control and hydrant tracking system will help them improve snowmaking production and efficiency.
Pico will also receive snowmaking upgrades. For the 2024-25 season, forty-four tower guns will be installed on the 49er, Ace of Clubs, Swinger, Upper, and Lower Pike runs.
Overall, this snowmaking project is an investment of around $7 million. These low-e (energy-efficient) snowmaking guns will reduce carbon emissions by 5,818,850 pounds each year. When completed, they will have 2,459 snow guns to service 3,500 sets of hydrants across Killington & Pico.
“This is the most transformative snowmaking project since Killington expanded over to Bear Mountain in the late 70’s,” said Killington Snowmaking Manager Greg Gleason. “It’s great to see the resort investing in low energy snow guns, not only will it save on costs, it will allow us to expand terrain at a much faster rate in the early season, while still providing a quality product to our guests.”
In terms of their old equipment that was replaced, they’ve given some of it away to other ski areas in the Northeast. One example is Magic Mountain, which installed snow guns that were previously situated at Killington.
Other planned investments for the 2025-26 season at Killington include replacing the Superstar Express with a Doppelmayr detachable high-speed six-pack, replacing the gondola cabins on Skyeship, and building a new Skysehip gondola barn to store the cabins. At Pico, a covered conveyor lift is planned to replace the Bonanza Double Chair & Rope Tow.
For more information about Killington’s future, Mike Solimano joined the New England Ski Journal Basecamp Podcast to discuss the new ownership group, changes for the 2024-25 season, and future investments. That podcast episode, which you can watch below, gives you a great idea about where Killington is heading.
Image/Video Credits: Killington Resort, Pico Mountain, Magic Mountain Ski Area, New England Ski Journal
