Photo above, sunrise this morning on the Olympia delle Tofane course at Cortina, where the ladies are competing in speed events this weekend. As you can see from this photo, the terrain may not be quite as hairy as what the boys will be dealing with in Kitzbuhel, but the setting is every bit as intimidating. Today’s second training run again had Lindsey Vonn pacing the field…turning to resort news, how about that Snowshoe West Virginia, 6″ of fresh over night, they’ve got all 60 trails open, photo below grabbed from one of their webcams this morning…
…Vail Resorts Inc. reports early season business down 10.8% October through December. Colorado Ski Country USA sez their group is down 13% for the same period. Lack of snow…and now to Throwback Thursday…have to say I like what Bromley VT is doing to try and build business back after a pumphouse fire took out their snowmaking back in December. This Saturday is “Mom’s Day,” $25 tix for all Moms, and all of those funds are going to support the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center. For the non-Moms in your party, Bromley has a special $25 demo day, and you can swap out as many times as you’d like. They’re also working hard to get some of the terrain off the Blue Ribbon quad open…and in Michigan, Caberfae re-fired their snowmaking arsenal yesterday, they’ve got everything open except for one terrain park which I believe is getting a makeover. Caberfae, if you aren’t familiar with it, is just a bit south of Boyne and all that. We’ve got a live feed from the resort over there in the right hand column…and back to Vermont for that throwback of throwbacks, Mad River Glen getting a bit of snow today, a bit tonight, a bit tomorrow, add it all up and we may see the single chair spinning again on Saturday…another New England throwback, Black Mountain of Maine, offering free ski nights Feb 1st & 8th. Although I must say it’s not so much of a throwback any more, they’ve got a terrific lift system, lodge and some new trails. Incidentally the XC facilities at Black Maine are second to none — they have FIS homologation and have hosted the US National Championships. It’s a pretty cool place.