Rutland Herald
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This drawing shows a planned slope, ramp and huge inflatable bag for stunt skiers to land on at Killington Mountain School.
Killington Mountain School, a private school with a curriculum designed to work around and support competitive skiers and snowboarders, is finally reaching phase three of a plan to cultivate even more accomplished young athletes.
That plan, the Highline Trails project, has been unfolding over the past three years, but will wrap up before the snow flies.
The Highline Trail, a black diamond trail used primarily for racing, has gotten more than a face-lift during those years. The trail itself was expanded in length and on either side by 20 meters, and snowmaking machines have been added on either side to ensure more snow coverage.
Amy Allen, communications director of the school, said the expansion will allow more courses to be set up, giving students studying different areas of skiing a chance to work simultaneously, instead of sharing space and taking turns.
These adjustments will help increase the time KMS students spend training.
“It’s a pretty exciting feeling to finally be finishing this project,” said Tom Sell, alpine athletic director for KMS. “It’s going to be incredibly beneficial. Repetition in training is key for the students; this new trail will be more efficient and they’ll get more reps in.”
But the work on the trail doesn’t end with the expansion of the length and width.
The school is also aiming to add another chairlift to the Highline Trail.
Right now, KMS students ride the Snowdon Triple lift, but that brings them further up the mountain than they actually need to be.
To get to Highline, where they spend much of their day practicing, they must first go up to the top, then ski back down to it.
The solution KMS has come up with? Add a chairlift to cut traveling time in half.
“It really doesn’t make sense for students to spend all of that time on the chairlift,”Allen said. “Think about it. If the students have a chunk of time to practice, they can either get three runs down the mountain in, or they can get six runs.”
But the trail updates aren’t the only aspect of the mountain that will be improved to create a better training environment for students from all over the world.
A four-season air bag will be built near the Superstar Trail.
The air bag is exactly what it sounds like; a giant bag filled with air at the end of a ski jump.
“It gives kids the chance to practice jumps and tricks in a safe way,” said Wynn Bern, a director of the free ski program at KMS.
The bag is about 60 feet long and 60 feet wide, and kids coming off the jump land on it after falling anywhere between 5 and 50 feet in the air.
One thing that makes this feature appealing is that it can be used in all seasons, not just winter.
“The surface of the jump feels like toothbrush bristles,” Bern said. “So it feels like snow while wearing skis. That way they can train in the summer.”
When it snows, the rough surface simply gets covered in layers of powder.
“We’re hoping to get this up and ready to go before the end of the summer,” Allen said of the air bag and jump.
The new additions to the school will cost about $1.24 million.
To date, KMS has raised $660,000 through public and private donations.
“Parents and alumni have been really generous because it’s a project that benefits all students,” Allen said.
She added that $500,000 of that number has already been invested into the remodeling of the hill, the rest being held for the final stages of that specific project.
The $300,000 air bag and jump will be paid for through parent and alumni bonds; they invest the money up-front, then the school pays them back over time through revenue created by the new features.
Grants and additional fundraising are underway to cover the remaining cost.
And the new features will bring in their own revenue.
“It’s one of the only training systems in the world,” said Bern, who often brings his students to Lake Placid or Park City to give them this sort of training exposure. “It’s going to be a huge draw for new students and teams.”
This past winter, members of the Japan and Russian World Cup Freestyle skiing teams traveled to Killington to train on Highline.
“We’re going to expect more of that,” Allen said.
But support from parents and from around the world isn’t the only way this project has been successful.
“Both the town of Killington and the ski resort have been incredibly supportive,” Allen said.
She said it rounds the town out as a whole, because it will attract more people to the area.
“The resort is adding more family adventure activities, and the town has a wide range of events,” she said. “It all fits in with the idea of Killington.”
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