Wonderful at Snowbird, Utah, where they claimed 6″ in one storm, then 16″ Saturday into Sunday, the ‘bird is back to over 50% of terrain open and they’ll be dropping more ropes in the days ahead…it’s about time…down in Colorado 5″ this weekend at Arapahoe Basin, they now have almost all of their greens and blues open, about half of the diamonds…over the divide at Loveland they added lifts 4 and 8 this past weekend, which really adds some elbow room for I-70 skiers…and in other Colorado news, not quite as wonderful, we head west to Snowmass Village where 25-year-old Stephen Elmore was arrested for setting a fire in his garage. Seems Mr. Elmore awoke sometime during a drinking binge to find penises drawn on his face, which enraged him to the point of lighting some shoes on fire in the garage. The fire was quickly contained and a woman, reportedly the homeowner, admitted to drawing on Elmore’s face with a magic marker while he was passed out. Mr. Elmore was arrested and faces arson charges…that’s a hard act to follow…rough day in parts of the east; West Mountain NY closed today due to rain and such, following one of the busiest non-holiday weekends in that mountain’s history. Let’s hope this rain event doesn’t slam the east as bad as the last one…back to that wonderful weekend, lots of news from the World Cup circuit…the boys were competing in Kitzbuhel and the gals in Cortina, what a weekend! Most notable is the fact that relatively unknown German skier Thomas Dressen won the Hahnenkamm from a late start position, positively shocking Beat Feuz, who had edged 2014 winner Hannes Reichelt earlier on Saturday. This is something akin to a 30:1 horse winning the roses in Kentucky. Anyway, Dressen’s name is in the history books and he’ll never have to pay for a drink in Kitzbuhel again. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal won the Super G on Friday, while his teammate Henrik Kristoffersen edged Marcel Hirscher in the slalom yesterday, which was mildly surprising…history also made meanwhile in Cortina, where Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin stood on the same podium for the first time, albeit 2nd and 3rd to downhill winner Sofia Goggia. That’s our photo above. Honestly I didn’t know that Shiffrin was even in Cortina, and to grab a podium spot on her first attempt there is downright unbelievable. Also noteworthy was the announcement that Friday’s downhill would be Julia Mancuso’s last; she was unable to make it back to top form after her last round of injuries, and Super Jules decided that she would make one final run at the site of her first World Cup podium. Donning a “Wonder Woman” costume complete with cape, Mancuso ran last and finished last, not exactly a fitting coda on her great career. We’ll miss her skiing; glad to hear she’s headed for the broadcasting booth for the upcoming Pyeongchang Olympics. And that was just day one in Cortina! Day two? Vonn must’ve figured out that she needed to step it up, although she had the victory if not for a bobble about 2/3 down. Well step it up she did, taking top spot in the second downhill on Saturday for her 40th downhill victory, 79th overall. Unbelievable. Another wonderful note from the weekend occurred yesterday in Cortina when comeback kid Lara Gut won the Super G event. The Swiss speed ace has faced a tough road back from injury and we’re glad to see her back on top. Tomorrow the men head to Schladming for a slalom race and the women will stay in Italy for a GS even in Kronplatz.

Thanks for the memories, Julia!