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Ski season up here took its time arriving then dumped four feet on us all at once and it was so much snow you couldn't move the first day. For a few days all the backcountry rock stars from up around Stowe were down here in little ol' Brownsville because Ascutney got hammer-slammered with powder in a storm that didn't go much further north than White River Junction. You never saw so many Sprinter vans and Labrador retrievers in our parking lot. Then two weeks later it rained and washed ALL of that snow away and that's how Vermont winter rolls. Then February arrived and kept giving and giving and it was amazing. Nobody could stand the Epic-Pass lines at Okemo (even weekdays were nuts) so we did lots of AT skiing on Ascutney. I work 24-hour shifts and have way more days off than my friends, so I taught myself to snowboard. Got some snowshoes and earned my turns and bruised my tailbone. I can ride a T-bar on the board no problem but still can't figure out how to get off a chairlift without it looking like a disaster from an I Love Lucy episode. I'm drinking coffee this morning and waiting for the New Yorkers to go home so I can get in some springy-soft runs at Okemo this afternoon. Here are some random pics from this season: One day it was all glare ice on Ascutney after some rain, and we were all bummed not to be able to ski. Then around 3pm the guy who runs the groomer decided to make some passes, so we followed him around for a little sunset touring and fresh corduroy: N The community T-bar runs until 4pm weekends then it clears out fast. I had a firepit and a whole powdery mountain to myself lots of evenings. Skinning up near the top of Ascutney is great fun and the snow was unbelievable last month: I retired from teaching and work as an EMT for a fire department, so I drive a fire engine now. This is so much more fun than grading papers and I have five days off every week!

This is actually pretty funny, and pretty much backs up my thinking that the Vail EC resorts wont be getting the full "vail treatment:" They plan on spending 215 million in 2020 on some western resorts, and then at the very bottom says they plan on spending 15 million on improving "guest experience" at the 17 resorts they just acquired from Peak. Shows you exactly where those resorts rank on the Vail ruler. 15 mil over 17 resorts is some card scanners, new deep fryers and a hot dogger. https://snowbrains.com/vail-resorts-capital-plan-2020/?fbclid=IwAR04NDqTn0X7Obp1NVhOcffEqN6jAjd8SBMnfMZ5ZNxX31KDL_Fbap-OfzM

Just passing this along in case any of you are thinking of being EPIC with skitoolive. I didnt buy any, so dont blame me if its not EPIC. https://ufcwlocal152.org/news/introducing-jack-frost-big-boulder-ski-resort-discounted-tickets/?fbclid=IwAR1ybgPcByMvBzD7Cu468vYRlmlWNhPz7K4hkEBSsGe-xhohA6S5MlDfQ5o#.XerbuDlxMug.facebook

Hey All, I'm back from a fun session at Blue mountain the true mountain. At 730AM it was around 2 degrees with 15-20mph winds actually warmer than expected. There were a lot of PASRs in the house including Atomic Jeff, Shadows, Enjorales, JFDan, Root, Ryan, Toast, Matt Edge, Johnny Law, Justo, the real KT, T maki, skier112, Indiggio, mbikeMike, Mrs Snowbunski and many others. As always the gates opened before the liftees got ok but first chair was had. I had a very nice first run on Razors before it was closed to the race team was between hardpack and aoftpack not bad challenge was good for run number two followed by nightmare to dreamweaver which was even better. Run number four usually would be sidewinder which was closed with five groomers grooming out the new blown snow compete with a winch cat Swithback was pretty good and I skied that three times total. It as a bit of a wind tunnel so I tucked the top half befor the two big turns. I didnt ski lazy mile because I heard it wasn't that good then back to nightmare dreamweaver and another challenge run which was still pretty nice and then we waited 2-3 minutes at the rope drop for sidewinder and high tailed it down and it was like Toasts favorite Katie perry song hot and cold. Some good areas and some bad. I skied another sidewinder run with matt edge behind shadows and hit the fresh manmade pow under the lift on the left side near the bottom. My feet ended up frozen everything else was ok and it took some effort to get boots off. I had some beers in the lot and thought about going back out with a few PASRs but my boots were solid as a rock and I got some really nice cord and empty runs today and will be back tomorrow. The ambient temperature will be colder initially but less wind

Opening day is finally here! The earliest in Blue Mountain history. The groomers are finishing up, the lot is still empty, the beer is cold, and employees are scrambling like they didn’t know the place was opening today. You my boy, Blue! Feels good to be back.