16 March 2017 — Winter storm Stella is the story in the east, while Slovenian skier extraordinaire Ilka Stuhec is the story in the west…First Stella, just a round up of the good and great news…check out the photo above…judging by the mostly buried Adirondack chairs, it would seem this was taken in the Adirondacks. Indeed it was, base of Oak Mountain in Speculator NY. Now we announced about a week ago that Oak was forced to bang it up for the season, and indeed they did — until Stella hit — now they’re gonna reopen, call it a second season I guess. Whatever you call it, I like it…not far from Oak down by Saratoga Springs, New York’s Willard Mountain was forced to shut down about a week ago, but they didn’t stick a fork in it completely as mountain ops did fire up the guns on Monday. Then Stella hit, and well, Willard has also reopened today and they’ve got all but a few trails open…down in Pennsy, Montage Mountain was gasping for air after power outtages and all sorts of weather havoc, they gleaned some 30″ of POWDER from this thing and for a little while anyway has conditions to rival anywhere…Vermont’s golden triangle, Bomley/Stratton/Magic all good; Magic reporting 20″ and skiing almost everything, Stratton trail count back up to 90 something, and Bromley, well that’s below, and a picture is worth 1,000 words so I’ll shut up momentarily…

…different story altogether on Michigan’s UP; Ski Brule has actually turned the snowmaking back on. They usually put the gear away in December or early January, but this year needed to do some touch up work and this week was a good time to do it…Ilka Stuhec and Italy’s Peter Fill claimed the season Downhill titles and the resulting “little globe” trophies; Stuhec won the race yesterday in Aspen while Fill finished second to countryman Dominick Paris, which was sufficient for the points. Swiss star Carlo Janka rounded out the men’s podium; other noteworthy finishes included Canadians Manny Osborne-Paradis (4th) and Erik Guay (6th). Best American was Travis Ganong, 17th. Ladies meanwhile, Lindsay Vonn was second to Stuhec, with Sofia Goggia rounding out the podium. They were followed by Tina Weirather and American Laurenne Ross.