Mother Nature can be a fickle friend to New Englander’s during any season but no more so than during winter when snow storms, extreme cold, ice and wind can create dangerous conditions not only on the roads but at ski resorts. Freakish weather and extreme cold Monday morning landed me at Pico Mountain, just down the road from Killington in Vermont.I should have known when I headed to Killington Sunday night for a tour Monday morning with Communications Manager, Tom Horrocks that skiing Monday might be a problem. High winds were blowing snow across the road, creating white out conditions for the last 10 miles of the journey.Monday morning I stepped out of the hotel to warm the car up and was greeted with more blowing snow and a temperature of just one degree. As I stepped back inside I got a call from Horrocks saying the lifts weren’t running at Killington yet but would start when and if the wind died down.I drove over anyway to catch up with him and find out how the season was going. The big event on Horrocks radar is the Chevy U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix coming to Bear Mountain March 15-16. Killington will host more than 100 of the world’s best snowboarders at the finals of this series which offers one of the largest overall purses in snowboarding. Prizes totaling $300,000, including a new Chevy truck will be awarded to the overall champion at Killington. The event will also be broadcast on NBC March 29 at 2 p.m.After the interview there was one lift running in front of the Snowshed Lodge and the temperature was up to seven degrees. The wind was still whipping the snow around and no one outside looked like they were having much fun. Horrocks called over to Pico Mountain and got the report that three lifts were running and he suggested I head over there if I wanted to ski.Killington and Pico are sister resorts, both are owned by POWDR Resorts which took them over last year when American Skiing Company divested their New England properties. I had never been there so was interested to check it out and get some runs in even with the extreme cold and wind situation.What I found when I got there is a big, challenging mountain in a small package worth revisiting in better weather. I was unable to explore all the trails because there were no lifts going to the summit due to the wind. The ticket sellers assured me you wouldn’t want to go to the top anyway with the wind chill being around 20 below if you factored in the wind speed. I did hike up to some steeper trails and catch some fresh powder from one of the lifts that was running, on the advice of some guys I met in the lodge!Pico is one of Vermont’s first resorts, opening on Thanksgiving Day, 1937 and one of Vermont’s largest mountains. It has a vertical drop of 1,967 feet which is more than 80 percent of the downhill ski areas in New England. There are 50 trails and 214 skiable acres, with lots of choices for all abilities.”One of Pico’s most enjoyable attributes is that it is undeniably a big mountain with a small ski area’s personal touch,” said Pico General Manager, George Potter. “There are mogul trails, glades, and groomed steeps, but all the trails lead back to the same base area.”More information about Pico Mountain can be found at www.picomountain.com. For the New England snow report see page C6