10 February 2017 — Practice crash today in St. Moritz apparently torn ACL for reigning overall world champion Lara Gut, this will put her out of action for at least the St. Moritz schedule. I predict it’s going to be the season. That’s a shame because the competition between Gut and Mikaela Shiffrin for this year’s overall was arguably the most compelling story this season…other news from St. Moritz, Anna Veith (nee Fenninger), two-time overall champ coming back from injury, has announced that she will not be competing in the downhill…on the other hand — no pun intended — Lindsey Vonn is practicing her technical skiing, I assume for the combined. Not sure that’s a good idea, considering she can barely move one of her thumbs…in mens news from St. Moritz, ah, who cares…moving stateside, have to make a correction to yesterday’s commentary about Eaton Mountain out in the semi-boonies of Maine, New England contact Sam Shirley was kind enough to point out that indeed they have offered lift served skiing the past couple years, apparently they weren’t planning to this year so it’s still a surprise and still cool whenever an up-and-down area has an up…I was just kidding about the men on the World Cup circuit, of course that’s important, but the only news there is that today’s training was fogged out. People are still abuzz about that Canadian show in the Super G, particularly after we saw Erik Guay do an in-flight barrel roll a week ago in Garmisch-Partenkirchen…Oregon’s Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort is back in action after yesterday’s dismal weather…Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is not; their latest update sez: Today a great deal of progress was made by Lower Valley Energy and they are currently installing new power poles along Highway 390. 25 additional crew members from five different cities have been working around the clock to get power back to Teton Village. At this time JHMR is still aiming for a Monday opening, but will continue to update twice daily on the situation. JHMR Ski Patrollers were able to conduct avalanche mitigation work on the mountain earlier today. With new snow and warming temperatures the patrol saw many results from this work, and will continue with mitigation work daily throughout the closure. At this time Snake River Canyon, Teton Pass and Hoback Canyon are all closed to travel in and out of the valley. With a winter storm warning through 5 PM Friday we are not anticipating Teton Pass to open before Saturday or Snake River Canyon to open today. Well that isn’t good if you booked a trip to Jackson Hole. So for all the people stuck in the valley, and for all the people working hard to get things back up and running, we put up today’s photo of happier times at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, remembering that these blue skies and powder stashes are just around the corner…speaking of up-and-down ski areas, kudos to Vermont’s Bolton Valley Resort, they’re celebrating their 50th season with a semi-formal party bash tomorrow, that’s cool. BV has had quite a checkered history but they seem to really be on the right track these days; I strongly recommend it if you’re in the area. Even when they’re only partially open it’s still a terrific place to ski. That’s not a problem right now as Bolton skiers are enjoying the goods from nine straight days of snowfall…Caberfae Peaks Michigan now reporting 100% open. You may be thinking, what took so long? Fact is Caberfae has some quirky steep pitches on the backside that are tough to get open; they even had a mini-midwest avalanche earlier this year. But it’s all good now, and if you live anywhere in striking distance they’re doing a family day Sunday, $59 for a family of three. Now considering the average household in Lake County is like 2.72 people, that’ll do it, although I bet that .72 person is kinda strange looking. If you’re above average, let’s say you have 3.72 people in your household, you can bring brother oddball for just $15. Good deal. Our regular correspondent Bob Sisco is a Caberfae passholder. He’s very tall, like 1.22 people, I wonder if he was charged more…
Photo above courtesy Jackson Hole Mountain Resort