11 February 2017 — Don’t often do Saturday reports, but this morning we have a lot of news left over from yesterday…couple of ski areas closed in Central Idaho due to weather troubles and avy danger; Pomerelle Mountain Resort and Soldier Mountain Ski Area both shut down yesterday, even venerable Sun Valley has Bald Mountain closed due to avy concerns. SV is spinning lifts on Dollar Mountain…sorry to report that 58-year-old Edwin Wood of Warwick NY died at Hunter Mountain earlier this week; the expert skier was killed after striking several trees on the Annapurna trail…and another tree well death, this time at 49 Degrees North in Washington State on Monday; no name released…and in Boulder Colorado, Active Interest Media has announced that it is folding up publication of Skiing Magazine, seems the 69-year-old print vehicle just doesn’t have an audience anymore. Problem is Skiing was catering to younger skiers in recent years, and that demographic simply doesn’t read magazines…good grief, death seems to be the theme here this morning…and Susan Galli, 57 of Amherst NH died last weekend when she went off the historic Taft Slalom trail at Cannon Mountain…our thoughts and prayers are with all of these…better news out of Colorado where Summit County resident Kelsey Malin and her friend, who does not want to be identified, spent two nights in handmade snow caves to protect themselves from the elements after getting extremely lost near Monarch Mountain. Malin sez they saw a powder stash, went for it, and got lost. Fortunately the pair were found, albeit suffering from a dandy case of frostbite…big fire earlier this week at the closed down Saddleback Resort in western Maine, seems a three-story condo building is a total loss. Apparently none of the skiing infrastructure — currently not in use — was damaged…photo above is Saddleback in happier times…and now on the positive side of things, ski areas east and lower midwest enjoying some of their best conditions in over a year…Killington VT has terrain open that hasn’t been for over a year, including almost 750 acres of natural tree skiing…lower midwest areas like Paoli Peaks IN have had an up and down season, now is definitely up, in addition to their snowmaking they’ve received flaky stuff from the heavens, serving up the best conditions they’ve had all year…back Monday, plenty of World Cup action on tap this weekend, if you check NBC, NBCSN, Universal HD etc. you’re bound to find something.