🇺🇸 United States · New England
Killington is, for many people, a synonym for skiing in the eastern United States. Set in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Killington Resort spreads across six interconnected peaks and holds the largest skiable area in the whole region, which earned it the nickname 'Beast of the East'. Every winter, thousands of skiers and snowboarders from New York, Boston and all over the Northeast drive up Killington Road looking for its slopes, its reliable snow and its lively après-ski.
But Killington is not only snow. When the white retreats, the mountain turns first the deep green of summer and then the red and gold of New England's famous fall foliage. In those months the resort becomes a huge mountain-biking park, with trails to ride down, and the area offers hiking, golf and the calm of Vermont's towns, with their red barns, white churches and maple syrup shops.
This guide covers Killington with a practical eye: what the resort and its peaks are like, what to do in each season, how to get there from the nearby airports and cities, where to stay along Killington Road and how to combine it with the rest of Vermont. Whether you come to ski the 'Beast' or to get lost among the colors of fall, it is one of the great mountain destinations in the American Northeast.
Killington's history as a destination starts in the mid-20th century. The town, in Vermont's Green Mountains, was a rural, mountainous area until in 1958 the entrepreneur Preston Smith opened Killington Resort on the slopes of Killington Peak, the second-highest summit in the state. The resort grew fast and became a pioneer of snowmaking and long seasons, earning its reputation as the 'Beast of the East'. The region, like all of Vermont, had originally been inhabited by Algonquian-speaking peoples, in particular the Abenaki, before European colonization and the arrival of English settlers who shaped the towns of New England. Vermont, which was an independent republic between 1777 and 1791, joined the United States as the 14th state. Through the 20th century, skiing transformed the economy of many of these mountain towns, and Killington became one of the great icons of eastern skiing, a regular host of women's alpine World Cup races. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Green Mountain State: Abenaki land, briefly an independent republic and the first territory of the future nation to abolish adult slavery, home of maple syrup, blazing autumns and the ski resorts of Stowe and Killington.
Read the history of Vermont →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before any ski resort existed, the mountains and valleys of what is now Vermont were inhabited by Algonquian-speaking Indigenous peoples. The Abenaki lived in the region (the Western Abenaki in particular), hunters, fishers and farmers who moved through the forests of the Green Mountains and the river valleys, living off hunting, fishing and the cultivation of corn, beans and squash. For them, these mountains were not a leisure destination but a living territory they had been part of for thousands of years.
The arrival of the Europeans from the 17th century on —first French and English explorers and traders— profoundly disrupted this world. The territory that is now Vermont sat in a friction zone between the French colonies of Canada and the English colonies of New England and New York, and the Abenaki were dragged into those disputes, on top of suffering the epidemics brought by the newcomers.
The region's name itself has a French root: 'Vermont' is usually associated with 'verts monts' ('green mountains'), for the forests that cover its ranges. That mountainous, wooded identity, which today is the great tourist appeal of places like Killington, has its roots in a landscape that Indigenous peoples inhabited long before the first ski run was cut.
Through the 18th century, the territory of Vermont was disputed among the neighboring English colonies, above all New York and New Hampshire, which claimed the same lands and issued overlapping grants to settlers. Out of that tension came the Green Mountain Boys, a militia led by Ethan Allen that defended the rights of Vermont's settlers against New York's claims.
In the middle of the American War of Independence, Vermont took a singular step: in 1777 it declared itself an independent republic, with its own constitution, which has the historical distinction of being one of the first to ban the enslavement of adults. The Vermont Republic functioned as a de facto sovereign entity for fourteen years, between 1777 and 1791, without yet forming part of the new American Union.
Finally, in 1791, Vermont joined the United States as the 14th state, the first to be added to the original thirteen colonies. Through the 19th century it settled into a rural state with a farming and livestock economy —famous for its dairy farms, its wool and its maple syrup—, with small towns of white churches and red barns scattered among the Green Mountains. That rural, mountainous landscape would be, much later, the stage on which the ski industry grew.
Skiing came to Vermont at the start of the 20th century through European immigrants and enthusiasts who adapted the sport of the Alps and Scandinavia to the mountains of New England. The snowy slopes that for centuries had been nothing but an obstacle to rural life suddenly began to be seen as an opportunity for recreation and business.
A key milestone came in the 1930s, when one of the first mechanical ski lifts in the United States was installed in Vermont, letting skiers ride up instead of climbing on foot every time. That advance, together with the arrival of the railroad that brought visitors closer from the big cities of the Northeast, laid the foundations for the development of ski resorts.
After the Second World War, skiing became hugely popular. Veterans of the mountain troops, an expanding middle class and better roads and cars made it possible for more and more people from New York, Boston and all over the Northeast to head up to the mountains of Vermont on weekends. It was in that ski-boom context that many of the state's great resorts were born, among them the one that would rise on the slopes of Killington Peak.
Killington's great leap as a destination came in 1958, when the entrepreneur Preston Leete Smith opened the ski area on the slopes of Killington Peak, the second-highest summit in Vermont. The bet was ambitious: to develop a resort on a high mountain with great potential, in a town that until then was rural and thinly populated, at the height of the postwar ski boom.
Under Smith's direction, Killington grew fast and became a pioneer on several fronts. It was among the first to bet heavily on artificial snow (snowmaking) to guarantee coverage on the runs and extend the season, and to expand toward neighboring mountains to add skiable terrain. That growth strategy led Killington to end up spanning several interconnected peaks, becoming the largest ski area in the eastern United States.
Over time, Killington added other attractions —among them the incorporation of the nearby Pico ski area— and earned the nickname 'Beast of the East', for its scale, its variety of runs and its notably long seasons. The resort passed through different owners and rounds of modernization, but kept its place as one of the great reference points of skiing in the American Northeast.
Today Killington is one of the best-known mountain destinations in the eastern United States. The resort, with its six interconnected peaks, still offers the largest skiable area in the region and one of the longest seasons, true to its nickname 'Beast of the East'. Its lively après-ski along Killington Road and its closeness to the big cities of the Northeast keep it a magnet for skiers from New York, Boston and the whole Atlantic corridor.
One of the milestones of its recent stage was becoming a host of alpine Ski World Cup races. Killington has hosted women's World Cup events around the Thanksgiving weekend, drawing the best skiers on the planet and thousands of spectators, which reinforced its international prestige and its image as a big mountain capable of hosting top-level events.
But Killington stopped being a winter-only destination. The resort bet on the warm seasons with the Killington Bike Park for downhill riding, hiking, golf and the scenic gondola, on top of the enormous appeal of the fall foliage in the Green Mountains. So a town that in the 20th century lived almost exclusively off snow turned into a year-round mountain destination, keeping the rural spirit of Vermont and the passion for skiing that gave rise to it.