Looking at some of the best conditions of the season in much of the country — especially the northeast and Utah — yet skier numbers are dropping like a stone as thoughts turn to springtime activities…photo above from Mountain High in Southern Cal; they’re holding on with about a foot of base. We take this time to say “kudos” to Mountain High and all of the ski areas that make the effort to support adaptive skiing…on that note, special shout out to Crested Butte. Right now they have nice locker room facilities and workshop areas set aside in their main base lodge for our fellow skiers who need assistance. But as good as that is, they’re going ahead with a joint community effort to build a dedicated, state-of-the-art facility for the local adaptive program. I’ve seen the plans and it looks wonderful. Shows how much can be accomplished when the community and ski area work together…let’s keep the feel-good rolling here…checking in with our friends on the upper peninsula of Michigan, Ski Brule is one of those “little engines that could” that constantly gives back to the community. They’re skiing at 100% open, with terrific conditions right now…speaking of Michigan, take a clicky on our Caberfae Peaks webcam over there on the right hand column and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The NW lower peninsula resort is 100% covered side to side, about a 50″ base — that’s fifty inches, as in over four feet deep — and they are closed during the week because nobody bothers…look east to New England, Crested Butte’s sister resort Okemo is doing that spring pass again; you can ski the rest of the season for not much more than a single day holiday ticket was back in December. And the sad part is, in December only 18% of the terrain was open and the slopes were mobbed — today Okemo is 100% open including glades, and it’s virtually empty by comparison. If we skiers were smart we’d wait until March to start the season, sheesh…65-year-old Tom Mullarkey of Richmond CA missing since last Wednesday after a day of skiing at Bear Valley in Alpine County. He was last tracked getting on the Kuma lift…back to Michigan, again, good Samaritan story this past weekend at Boyne Highlands. Apparently a hunting dog went out on a pond after some geese and fell through the ice. The owner and some bystanders got a rescue effort underway with the aid of a kayak. Apparently that went wrong and the situation was worsening until some resort guest, who had been watching from a hot tub, came running out and jumped in the frozen water and rescued the mess. Dog, owner, kayak, and hot tub guy are all fine.