24 April 2017 — Plenty of decent skiing still to be had, particularly in the Tahoe region and much of Colorado…photo above from Loveland taken yesterday, they’re still getting snow…east coast place to be is Sugarloaf Maine, that’s looking more like January than January did…Killington VT of course is holding on, as is Wildcat NH…change of ownership, sort of, for Crystal Mountain in WA. Boyne Resorts scion John Kircher has swapped his stock in Boyne for sole ownership of Crystal. Kircher, who led the buyout from a few hundred shareholders in 1997, has been living at and running Crystal more or less since then. Sez he will put $5 million into improvements, including snowmaking, new lights on the Quicksilver run, and new gondy cabins. Kircher is also planning to offer longer operating hours, and expand the summer activities at Crystal…more Pac NW news, 36-year-old Morgan Miller, an experienced ski mountaineer from Snoqualmie, was killed a week ago in an avalanche on Red Mountain in the Snoqualmie Pass area…SkiCo still in the news after the recent buyout of Intrawest; the usual chatter about “challenges” and “independence” blah blah blah. Hidden in all of that was a comment that they plan to expand snowmaking further up on Ajax (Aspen Mountain)…and finally, proving that cats always land on their feet, website NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com reports that the signature on Burke Resort’s Vermont Act 250 application for the new racers t-bar is none other than Bill Stenger. Stenger, you may recall, was the GM of Jay Peak who was ousted as part of the alleged schemes involving Ariel Quiros/Jay Peak/EB-5 funding. Stenger said to have made a deal with the SEC, however it is still odd to see him involved so significantly and quickly after the chicanery he was supposedly part of. In my limited personal contact/correspondence with Stenger a few years ago I found him to be a stand-up guy, so I was surprised when the SEC said he was right at the heart of that firestorm — time will tell I suppose. Anyway, he’s definitely qualified when it comes to managing a ski resort so if the receiver is consulting with Stenger, it’s probably good for Burke enthusiasts.