Vonn wins again, Triple Peaks casts its lot with Vail Resorts, lifts, bankruptcy, east coast skiers say better late than never…so much to talk about,  let’s get right to it…biggest news resort-wise is that Triple Peaks, aka Tim and Diane Mueller, aka Crested Butte, Okemo and Sunapee, have been assimilated into the collective and are now part of Vail Resorts Inc’s Epic Pass.  The result is that Epic, Epic Local or Epic Australia pass holders will receive seven days of skiing — with no blackout dates — at each of the three Triple Peaks resorts.  There are similar offers for lesser Epic pass holders, as well as deals for Triple Peaks season pass holders, but no need to cover all of that here.   The big news is that this is a fairly sizable smack at the new Ikon Pass, as the Muellers were part of the MAX Pass that the Ikon is morphing out of.  Battle lines are drawn.  It also adds two northeast jewels to Vails offering, and we won’t even speculate about what the relationship might be if the day comes that the Muellers decide to sell…photo above taken yesterday, any guesses?  Answer at the end of today’s report…New Jersey’s Mountain Creek bankruptcy filing is proceeding; they’ve submitted a reorganization plan but no details available.  What is known is that debt includes $26 million contracted with the local municipal utilities authority…Southern California’s Mountain High shut down yesterday, then promptly received half a foot of snow and reopened today, that’s good news…lots of snow in the northeast, Blue Mountain Pennsylvania grabbed a few inches yesterday in addition to a pretty healthy base. Just south of Blue is Allentown area Bear Creek; they’ve announced that the season will end this Sunday the 18th. Bear Creek has had a decent season despite the warm ups and rains…speaking of which, Yawgoo Valley, which is tiny Rhode Island’s only remaining ski area, had already closed down due to rain and what have you, will reopen this weekend…these recent snows have given a lot of New England areas a shot in the arm; Maine biggie Sugarloaf will finally get an opportunity to run its cat skiing operation on the Burnt Ridge terrain. That debuts tomorrow morning at the ‘loaf…gotta say something about Colorado right now, the biggies are mostly skied-off. Want snow? Head to what they call the “Gems.” That’s places like Loveland, Cooper, Monarch, etc…no such problems in Utah right now, Snowbird gleaned a foot from last night’s storm…back to New England, Stratton going through Vermont’s Draconian Act 250 process to replace the old snow bowl lift. Plans are for a high speed quad on a slightly different line…now on to World Cup, where the action has been fast and furious amid the finals this week. If you hadn’t heard, Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher have repeated as overall champs; Shiff clinched last week with a GS podium in Ofterschwang (GER). Winner of that race was Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel, her first atop the podium at the World Cup level. Some readers might find surprising, considering how impressive she was in PyeongChang. It’s certainly been a breakout year for “RagMow,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if she contends for the overall in the years ahead. Shiffrin and Hirscher also repeated as slalom champs. Shiffrin also wrapped that title up in Ofterschwang when she beat Wendy Holdener to the top spot by just 9/100ths of a second. The men were in Kvitfjell (NOR) last week for a pair of speed events, and the suddenly surging Thomas Dressen won his second downhill, edging Beat Feuz and local fave Aksel Lund Svindal. This week the men and women have been contesting the season finals in Are (SWE). Men’s downhill had Austrians Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kreichmayr tie for the win. Feuz finished third, which was enough to give the Swiss star his first discipline globe. Yes, that’s correct — this downhill title is Feuz’ first, hard to believe after he was just 25 points off the overall globe a few years ago. Lindsey Vonn won the ladies’ downhill, her umptyeighth career win. Sophia Goggia finished second, giving her the discipline globe for the season. We’re also pleased to report that America’s Alice McKennis finished third. She also just narrowly missed bumping Goggia down a few points, which would’ve rendered the globe to Vonn. Regardless of that, it’s been an impressive comeback for Lindsey after such a disappointing outing in Lake Louise. Goggia was atop the podium in the Super G final this morning, while Tina Weirather‘s 7th place showing was enough to tip the season crown in her favor. In the men’s Super G, Kreichmayr won the event while runner up Kjetil Jansrud took the discipline globe. Dressen again proved that he’s here to stay, sharing third spot with Svindal. The tech finals will be contested this weekend….and the photo above taken at Jack Frost Resort in northeastern Pennsylvania…think snow!