Superstar Six Opening Party Recap

At this time of year, we’ve gotten used to watching the world’s best female skiers take on Superstar. With the final steps of installing our Superstar Six happening just days ago, the Audi FIS Ski World Cup had to take a year off from the slopes of The Beast, though the event found a great home for 2025 at Copper Mountain in Colorado. Taking the place of Mikaela Shiffrin & company on Saturday, November 29th were thousands of dedicated skiers & riders, all eager for the first turns offered by Killington’s newest chairlift.

Last Checks before First Chair

Before the first public chair scooped up the first six of our guests, all of whom were selected after completing every Killington app achievement last winter, there were some final checklist items to attend to. Since our last update, chairs were added to the lift and an acceptance test was conducted, a process which includes a standard load test, where over 100% of the lift’s uphill load capacity was added onto the chairs to confirm its functionality during its busiest times.

After some final checklist items, Dopplemayr turned over the keys to our staff and gifted us a hefty ceremonial bell, a tradition upheld after the completion of every Dopplemayr lift all over the world. In Austria, where Dopplemayr was founded, these bells pay tribute to the ornate “festivity bells” adorned on the region’s cows that represent gratitude for a successful summer. In the same manner, this bell celebrates the teamwork and dedication that brought this lift to life this past summer. This being Killington’s first ever Dopplemayr lift, we’ll proudly be displaying the bell in our K-1 Lodge during the winter. Finally, inspectors from the state of Vermont visited right before the holiday to confirm that our staff was well-versed to operate and troubleshoot the lift, and it was go time: the $12 million Superstar Six was ready for action, ahead of our initial opening timeline of early December.

Superstar Stats & Specs

The final numbers are in, and they spell out an improved guest experience on Superstar. Though the total number of chairs on the lift decreased about 40%, from 95 to 56, the uphill capacity of the lift remains very similar to our previous Superstar chairlift, due both to the higher capacity on each chair and a ride speed that is approximately 15% faster. Due to the new direction of the lift (clockwise instead of counterclockwise), along with the chairs being more spaced apart and each chair’s safety bar resting between the legs of each guest, the lift will both be easier to load and more ideal for children.

Besides being our newest lift, the Superstar Six is now our most automated lift as well. It is able to sense both wind speed and direction and automatically slow down the chair when needed, a process that normally needs to be done manually on other lifts. Further, if a child has difficulty getting on the lift or any guest loses part of their equipment, certain chairs can be marked to get slowed down automatically at the lift’s unload station. The backup diesel-powered generator and two-story repair barn, found on your right upon exiting the lift, are two additional modern features that will keep Superstar running, even through potentially inclement conditions. On top of all that, the unload area was also regraded, making for easier access to surrounding trails without having to push uphill.

If you’ve been lucky enough to ride the lift already or simply have just seen photos, you may have noticed the new smaller footrests on every chair. These are somewhat of a compromise between no footrest and the footrests found on many of our chairlifts—it takes up less space, but the smaller pegs still offer support between the skis & boots of skiers and can also be utilized by snowboarders. For a quick PSA on how to use the new footrests, check out our latest YouTube video linked here. Unlike our Snowdon Six Express, the chairs are also not equipped with “bubbles”, as Superstar receives more wind than Snowdon, making bubble chairs harder to operate, and the sub-four-minute ride up Superstar is one of our quickest.

Following a massive effort from our snowmaking and grooming teams, we managed to open Superstar trail top-to-bottom on the lift’s first day of operation. First, our snowmakers covered the whole trail in just two brief snowmaking windows, making great use of the entirely new low-energy snowgun towers, valve stations, and pipeline that were all installed this past summer. Once there was enough snow to work with, our groomers did their thing, using a winch cat on the upper headwall on Thanksgiving Day, moving on to smooth out middle Superstar later on, and finally cleaning up lower Superstar’s snowmaking piles to get it ready for skiing & riding.

Time to Party!

Finally, after nearly eight months of hard work and years more of planning, it was the moment of truth. Mike Solimano, Killington’s President & CEO, gave a speech to the many guests lined up in the lift maze and helped with our ribbon-cutting ceremony. Also present were Michael Ferri and Phill Gross, lead investors from our Killington Independence Group, as well as their families and representatives from Dopplemayr. Our celebration came together with the help of a number of our resort partners who provided free giveaways, including our “bubly” toast, custom neck buffs courtesy of Mountain Dew, and commemorative koozies from Kona Big Wave. Staff members rang the Dopplemayr bell, handed out giveaways including Superstar Six stickers, and kept the stoke alive while our new lift began to escort guests into the sky.

Thanks to Superstar spinning non-stop and great weather for being on the hill, it was easy for everyone to stay positive. A couple dustings of snow even came through in the early afternoon as visibility continually improved throughout the day. Several guests commented on the great conditions on Superstar as well as Bittersweet, even as many sections of Superstar were open “under the guns” during the day. Some of the snow piles on Superstar are already starting to climb, as the “Superstar glacier” is beginning to make its triumphant return after a year off. If today was any indication, we’re surely in for another fantastic season of Superstar laps.

Things tend to move pretty fast at The Beast, so it was worthwhile taking the day to celebrate all the effort put into opening up the Superstar Six. Many settled in the K-1 Lodge to watch the Giant Slalom runs at the Stifel Copper Cup, while our snowmakers were already out prepping gear for their next projects. Not to worry—they’ll come back around soon enough to keep building on Superstar, keeping us skiing & riding our famous spring bumps well into May and (hopefully) June. Here’s to our new Superstar era!