First up, kudos to Terry Peak SD; they’re hosting Black Hills Ski for Light through Thursday. It’s an annual event in which volunteer guides come from around the country, and each participant is assigned to a personal guide for the week. That’s the featured photo above and if you’d like more info, click here…as for the fire, that’s volcanic ash at Kusatsu Kokusai Ski Resort in Japan where an inactive volcano started acting this morning, killing one skier and injuring ten others. The eruption caused an avalanche which hit a group of six patrollers who were out on a training exercise. Other skiers were injured by flying rocks, some of which were said to hit gondola cabins. After close to 80 people gathered at a shelter or lodge of some sort up on the mountain, they were escorted or skied to safety…ice is the word at Zermatt, where another round of heavy snows and resulting avalanches has forced more closures, evacuations, problems, problems. That’s twice this season, and the snow continues. If you have reservations you might want to change them…same deal over the hill in Italy; Breuil-Cervinia Resort in the Dolomites is cut off with stranded vacationers. Meteorologists are saying Thursday is the soonest they might catch a break…Steamboat Colorado would be a good alternative, they got hit with another batch of snow overnight and now have 98% of terrain open, nobody stranded…back to Italy, Viktoria Rebensburg victorious in today’s Giant Slalom in Kronplatz; event notable also for an unusual DNF for Mikaela Shiffrin in the first run…the men are lining up for a slalom race in Schladming as I type this, will update later today…sorry to report that 19-year-old Bethany Becker of Corcoran, MN lost control on the Fall Line trail at Coffee Mill Ski Area and died Saturday. Police say Becker was a novice skier; Fall Line is one of the black diamonds at Coffee Mill…Bridger Ski Foundation has teamed up with a local group called Run Dog Run to open a 1 km dog-friendly nordic trail in Lindley Park, which is near Main Street in Bozeman. Dogs are allowed off-leash but owners are urged not to allow their dogs to run amok through the rest of the park. For those less inclined to ski with Rover, the Bridger Ski Foundation maintains six other XC trails that are dog-free.