KILLINGTON — The Killington Resort is accustomed to hosting fast-flying World Cup racers on its aptly named Superstar trail. But that didn’t stop locals from gawking Wednesday when a helicopter circled higher than the mid-August temperature as part of an even more stratospheric event.
Vermont’s largest ski area used the chopper to install a dozen towers — some up to 58 feet tall — for a new $12 million Superstar chairlift. It’s part of a $38 million improvement project that also will raise the capacity and reduce the energy consumption of the resort’s 9-million-gallon-a-day snowmaking system.
“This is really a milestone moment,” Tait Germon, Killington’s director of mountain operations, shouted over the windy whir of propellers. “It’s exciting to see it start to come together.”
When a 20-something honeymooner named Preston Smith opened the first trails on the state’s second tallest peak in 1958, he was happy to raise $30,000 for a simple shelter and parking lot.
Smith, now 95, went on to create the biggest snow-sport resort in eastern North America before its sale to the Maine-based American Skiing Company in 1996 (the same year neighboring Pico Mountain joined the portfolio), the Utah-based Powdr Corp. in 2007 and local investors who formed the Killington Independence Group last year.
“This landmark purchase represents a commitment to keeping Killington and Pico in the hands of those who know and love it, with plans to increase capital investment while preserving the mountains’ unique character and community,” the current owners said in a statement last August.
The Rutland County resort closed the four-decade-old Superstar chairlift in April for dismantling, leaving its nearby K-1 gondola to transport summer visitors to hiking and biking trails and an 18-hole golf course.
Killington faced challenges finding a helicopter, as its original pilot left to fight Canadian wildfires. But another crew arrived Wednesday to fly the towers onto recently poured concrete foundations, logging in some 50 trips up and down the 4,241-foot peak from early morning to late afternoon.
“Given the challenging terrain we’re working with — it’s not like you can drive in with a crane — this is the most efficient way to do this,” Germon said.
The new six-passenger chairlift is on schedule for completion in November, Killington officials said. But mindful of potential weather problems, they couldn’t guarantee it would be finished in time for the World Cup, which has drawn up to 20,000 spectators and a national television audience of 2 million viewers annually since 2016.
As a result, the international circuit will move this year to Copper Mountain in Colorado, although “the race is expected to return to Killington Thanksgiving weekend 2026,” the Vermont resort said in a statement.
