I just wanted to post this image of the beautiful view from the shop this morning.  A nice, white capped Killington.  It is currently 20 degrees… sure feels like winter to me!

To make our morning even better, we just heard Killington will be open next week, starting Monday, the 2nd, from 10-5.  (We’ll let you know about Easter Weekend hours as soon as we hear more information).  We’re pretty stoked to have another week of Spring skiing and riding!

Vin Quenneville has worked at Basin Sports since he escaped Connecticut in 1997, managed Out of Bounds Snowboards since 2000 and launched Basinshopping.com in 2007. "I live for riding my bike in the summer and ripping tight tree lines in the winter." V.Q.

 With the temps breaking 80 degrees today, I figured this would be a great opportunity to chime in with the first True Wheels-Bike Report of the season. Matty and Jay have been working super hard at the shop building our 2012 Specialized bikes and moving them out onto the floor.  We are also stoked to announce that our Santa Cruz bikes will be rolling through the doors in about 2 weeks.  Our service center is up, running and ready to get your bike, trail or road, ready for the season.  Check us out at truewheels.com!

I always love this time of year when I can still snowboard and also get out for an occasional pedal.  This year is of course is a little strange with the lack of snow and that Pine Hill Park has been dry enough to ride for over a month now. Today was exceptionally amazing with temps feeling like summer and the park was PACKED! I met people from Stowe, New Hampshire and even Maine when I was out on the trails.  The dirt was just how I like it, nice and tacky with very little mud.  You could even consider this the equivalent of Hero Snow.  You can just lay into the turns and your bike feels like it’s glued to the ground.  Being a Vermonter, I know that Spring isn’t REALLY here yet, but Summer sure felt nice today!

For those of you that don’t know about Pine Hill Park, it’s a 300 acre park in the middle of Rutland featuring over 16 miles of singletrack.  The trails offer something for all skill levels and unlike many technical Vermont areas Pine Hill Park offers a smooth, buffed out trail network. The trails, for the most part, are easy to ride as a beginner, yet challenging enough for those that like to pin it!  They even built a short freeride trail featuring a table style jump and a series of berms for us Freeriders . For more information on Pine Hill Park and what it has to offer, please check out their site, pinehillpark.org.

Cheers – Vin

Pine Hill Park

A short steep climb onto Lunch Rock.

Playing on the table jump.

A little berm smashing!

The infamous suspension bridge.

A great view of Rocky Pond.

One of PHP's many buffed out trails.

A really good view of the trail work at PHP

My boy Garth hanging out.

Vin Quenneville has worked at Basin Sports since he escaped Connecticut in 1997, managed Out of Bounds Snowboards since 2000 and launched Basinshopping.com in 2007. "I live for riding my bike in the summer and ripping tight tree lines in the winter." V.Q.

For those of of you that are still thinking that we still don’t have snow here at Killington, check out the world through Fred Scott’s eyes this morning…  Happy Holidays all!!!

The shop will be open tomorrow,  Christmas Day 7:15-7. Then Monday- Thursday 7:15-9 and Friday 7:15-midnight.

Vin Quenneville has worked at Basin Sports since he escaped Connecticut in 1997, managed Out of Bounds Snowboards since 2000 and launched Basinshopping.com in 2007. "I live for riding my bike in the summer and ripping tight tree lines in the winter." V.Q.

We here at the Basin are always looking for the latest technology.  This year Salomon is kicking off the season with their new Salomon BBR ski.

They are having an exclusive demo and VIP party that we would like to extend to our loyal customers on December 2nd and 3rd. The on-snow demo will be both Friday and Saturday starting first thing in the morning. The VIP party starts at Killington’s Long Trail Pub, then moves down to the Wobbly.

For those of you that would like to join us, please respond to Christine@basinski.com She will be able to set you up with the event’s credentials.

Vin Quenneville has worked at Basin Sports since he escaped Connecticut in 1997, managed Out of Bounds Snowboards since 2000 and launched Basinshopping.com in 2007. "I live for riding my bike in the summer and ripping tight tree lines in the winter." V.Q.