Opening Day at Killington, the Beast of the East

Every autumn, skiers watch one mountain in particular: Killington, whose aggressive snowmaking and high terrain often let it open before anyone else in the East. Opening day there has become an unofficial start to the Northeast ski season, drawing die-hards to ride a single white ribbon of manufactured snow down an otherwise brown mountain.

Its size earns the nickname "the Beast of the East." Killington sprawls across several peaks with a vast network of trails, from gentle cruisers to steep bump runs, and a lift system to match. That scale, paired with serious snowmaking firepower, lets it stretch the season at both ends when nature won't cooperate.

Opening day itself is more ritual than sport. The early snow is often limited to a run or two, the crowds are thick, and the conditions are whatever the snow guns and the weather have managed. None of that dims the enthusiasm. For a certain kind of skier, being there for the first turns of the year is the whole point — a chance to shake off the offseason and declare, snow or no snow, that winter has finally arrived.