Yesterday we got a cool message from Travis, he sez “would love to hear a shout out to Bear Paw Ski Bowl in Montana! The volunteer run mountain is open weekends this year after 3 years without an opening! Really great small mountain!” Well that’s the only review you really need, so if you’re ever in Havre, Bear Paw Ski Bowl is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. depending on the weather of course. Gotta be honest with you, I’ve only been in Havre once in my life, nearly 30 years ago and did not know about Bear Paw. If you can picture Montana, Havre is about in the top center, along US Highway 2. Some folks call that part of the Big Sky state “the Big Empty,” which is kinda accurate, but I will tell you it’s beautiful if you ever make it to those parts. Added bonus, there’s no traffic…Rain and snow and flooding heading for New England…madness I tell you…speaking of Montana, Ladies FIS World Cup races in Crans Montana (SUI) this weekend for a super G and a combined. Crans Montana will host an airshow on Sunday, featuring the Swiss Army PC-7 team.  Here I always thought they were limited to knives, I did not know they had airplanes. Boys meanwhile are in Kranjska Gora (SLO) for a couple of tech races.  Next week Ofterschwang (GER) is confirmed for the gals following the official snow control. As scheduled, a pair of technical races will take place on March 9-10…resorts starting to offer spring pass deals; if you look around there’s a bunch of skiing to be had for less than $150 bucks. I’ll tell you one that is surprisingly good is Okemo in Vermont, right now the online spring pass deal is $139…madness! Good price even if you’re just going for a weekend…speaking of deals, Swain Resort in New York State does a thing I think is pretty cool, they’ll sell you ten fully transferrable tix for $375. I’m not one to promote ski area deals, but when I see something like this, it’s worth mentioning as an example.