2/21/18 Western Snow, Eastern Steam

Photo above from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, in honor of our Minnesota girls who won medals yesterday (today?) Jessie Diggins who grabbed gold with Utah’s Kikkan Randall, and Lindsey Vonn, who took home bronze in a hard fought donwhill. The ski area is midwest biggie Lutsen Mountains, photo taken Sunday after they pulled down close to 14″…good news continues from the western states; Snowbird UT recent recipient of a 23″ storm — they’re spinning everything but the Baby Thunder lift and they’re skiing on about 75% of overall terrain…also in the west, Tahoe, Heavenly sez they’re gonna start removing boulders and thinning trees to deal with low snow seasons…in the Dakotas, Terry Peak got 8″ of snow over the weekend, has all but a trio of trails open…Pac NW also getting the goods, 8″ of fresh at Anthony Lakes in Oregon and they’ve been enjoying the powder…Oregon biggie Mount Bachelor got a nice storm over the weekend, resulting in some longer than usual liftlines…speaking of liftlines, Mount Snow VT got positively dumped on Saturday, then got slammed with bodies Sunday. Meltdown in New England right now, although it is expected to turn around for the weekend…speaking of New England, North Conway NH will be the site of a ribbon cutting and grand opening this Saturday at the new branch of the New England Ski Museum, 3:00-5:00 pm…men’s slalom tonight (tomorrow) in PyeongChang, don’t hold your breath for any team USA miracles here…sorry to report that 26-year-old Lincoln James Kuwabara of Ontario Canada died last night at Camelback Mountain in the Pennsylvania Poconos, apparently found in the woods after a skiing accident…another fatality, not on-mountain, Alex Marra of Orem UT died this past Saturday after being trapped in an avalanche in Rock Springs Canyon near Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.