By Pat Turner Kavanaugh
Snow Chronicles Correspondent

KILLINGTON, Vt. Jan. 18 -- The world’s first woman to take an Olympic gold medal in mogul skiing perfected her bump skiing here at Killington Ski Resort. Today, 25 years later, she still enjoys cranking turns here.

Donna Weinbrecht, the most honored moguls skiers in history, has skied and snowboarded all over the world, and still gets out on the snow at Killington as often as possible.

Even though she's skied Killington since 1980, Weinbrecht said she finds new places to explore on the seven mountains with 200 trails and 33 lifts, served by the world's most extensive snowmaking system, which supplements the average 250 inches Mother Nature provides.

"Last year the locals introduced me to chutes and tree skiing that I hadn't tried before,” Weinbrecht said. “There’s still terrain to explore.”

Noting that Killington has moved the terrain park to Bear Mountain, she said, "That's a good thing."

Although she's known for freestyle skiing, Weinbrecht took up snowboarding in 1990. "Killington has a great half-pipe," she said.

A Killington spokesman explained that "due to the increased popularity of the freeski/freeride culture, Killington's signature terrain park will move from the Beach to Bear Mountain for the '04-'05 season. Outgrowing the Beach indicated the need for a parks and pipes expansion, and this season skiers and riders will find one entire mountain with more acreage dedicated to terrain parks featuring more rails, tabletops and hits, giant pro-level jumps and a new superpipe."

In addition, Bear Mountain includes Devil's Fiddle, a double black diamond trail with rocks, cliffs and its own natural terrain features, augmented by increased snowmaking and its own quad chair.

This season's trail map shows designated tree skiing areas on Bear Mountain.

Bear Mountain is Weinbrecht's stomping ground, and she's looking forward to the 25th annual Bear Mountain Mogul Challenge April 2-3. She competed in the second annual event, and usually participates now as a forerunner, judge or commentator.

Outer Limits, the steepest mogul slope in eastern North America, covering 1,200 feet of vertical in half a mile, is where Weinbrecht trained as well as 2002 Olympic team members Hannah Hardaway and Evan Dybvig.

"Killington is by far the best place in the East for moguls," Weinbrecht said. "You can always find some."

For those just starting out in the freeski/freeride world, Killington offers Easy Street on Rams Head, and the intermediate park Timberline, with a quarter pipe running alongside the trees of Squeeze Play.

New this year is a Freeski/Freeride camp for skiers and riders ages 7 to 18, at which kids can get technical instruction, learn park etiquette and pick up some of the lingo.

Also available at Killington's Perfect Turn Ski and Snowboard School are Women's Turn lessons this weekend and next week, Jan. 24-28, as well as Mogul Camp Weekends; and Learn to Fly Weekends for intermediate and advanced skiers and snowboarders who want to learn to ride halfpipes and terrain parks, both available Feb. 5-6, March 5-6 and March 26-27.

Pat Turner Kavanaugh is a news reporter for the Newark (N.J.) Star-Ledger. She has covered news of skiing for three decades.