powderfreak

That Maine race must be spending money for the advertisements. Even here, I don't see or hear any campaigns from the VT or NH races... but every political ad is regarding a race in Maine. Mostly Collins v Gideon.

Yeah aesthetically I still love the Great 48 concept, but functionally for Mountain Ops and how the mountain is skied/opened/closed/groomed/snowmaking it makes sense to break it up into segments instead of 2,000+ vertical feet, 1-2 mile long trails with a lot of variability that ski like different segments anyway (I will say it's rare to ski a trail fully from top-to-bottom too, it's more hopping from segment to segment). Grooming often can be only certain parts of trails too, so you get a bunch of partially groomed runs. Snowmaking is easier to communicate even to staff when its broken up into segments too. But the "Stowe Great 48" is now classic ski memorabilia... maps, posters, t-shirts, etc. I love that stuff.

It’s so widely used that it makes sense to try and get some tax dollars out of it. Just to clarify (I know what you meant though), recreational marijuana has been legal since 2018... but this new bill is to permit recreational sales (starting in 2022).

Just pretend to be leaf peeping. They barely know what state they are in, and it seems they all just got their drivers licenses before coming, not a COVID test . Three-way stop signs are very tricky to navigate.

Ha, none taken. I actually did that, literally. Stowe used to have the “Great 48” and it was only 48 trails, top-to-bottom. One of the very first tasks I had when I started in 2008 was to change the trail map to more accurately represent the mountain in terms of open terrain, and increase our trail count for marketing (Bolton Valley had like 60 trails I think? Stowe was the smallest mountain in Vermont per trail count with only 48, lol). Aside from marketing, a big issue was if you ski here, you’d know we really had “48 partially open trails.” There'd be times when literally almost every trail was “partially open” which confused the hell out of people...because only in mid-season snowpack with good conditions would many of the trails be fully open top-to-bottom. Now Ski Patrol had them internally sort of hacked up into different trails anyway in their lingo, because you have to when describing stuff over the radio (like they already named things upper/lower etc). An injured skier would call and the nearest trail sign says Lord and I have a broken leg. Well that’s a couple miles and 2,000 vertical feet of possibilities. Now they say the nearest sign says “Lower Lord” so patrol can quickly know where they are. So I worked with the Patrol director and others to break up the trails into how the mountain skied, what our normal closures are, access points to trails, etc. So now Starr and Lower Starr can be marked on the report as open, and Upper Starr (steep rocky headwall) can be marked as closed. I do think that’s better for communicating rather than saying “Starr is partially open.” Sometimes only Lower Starr is open from Shiftrs Shot, too. So you’d see Starr is partially open before 2008 on the report but have no idea what “part” was actually open. Marketing got a great trail count boost and it’s much more functional for figuring out what’s actually open and serves as easier to communicate with ski patrol and the public.

Isn’t that the storm you guys are talking about? Or is there another?

That would drive me insane. That can’t be good for appliances/electronics and everything else to shut down/off quickly and then come right back on... several times.

That storm was truly ridiculous. Time of year and coverage of heavy, heavy snow amounts. That will be a hard one to top for just spanking climatology.

The morning after the Valentines Day blizzard of 2007. Lived in downtown BTV at the time, finishing up at UVM at the time. Six of us lived in a 3-story townhouse, this was the view out the backdoor on the morning of the 15th, looking at our neighbor's entrance.

Dendrite FTW. Wow. Yeah MPM, I remember a photo early on of your deck or truck and you said you got like 8” in 3 hours... that was when it was like holy shit, this is actually happening. Pete has some great shots that evening of his cars just absolutely gone under the snow.

October 2011 pics anyone?

I'll take some more space too if we are giving it out, lol.

Forgot to share yesterday's rainbow after the final round of showers. Perfect set up, rain moving away, sun low in the sky and coming from directly behind.

Yeah those must’ve been pulled off FB a very long time ago lol. Like maybe I just got my drivers license.

Man those are some old shots, lol. I look like I’m still in college in those. Reindeer sweaters for life. I’m gonna have to mail one to Phin for this winter.

A lot of it came out through a couple solid baths, but she’s going to smell for a while. The last time a dog of mine was hit I could still smell the exact spray point (below her neck that must’ve taken a direct hit) a month later. That time a skunk was under the porch and the dog walked outside and just got immediately blasted through the decking. It basically sprayed into our place as the door was open and in direct aim. That took a long time to get the smell out of the house.

It was a fitting night for this Red Sox fan cheering on the Indians... Yanks come back to win in the 9th right as the dog got sprayed by the skunk. Terrible night lol.

Dog just got smoked by a skunk at 11:15pm on her last time out.... damnit! Its retreated to between us and the river, so into the bath tub we go.

Saw so many ads for that race on NESN when watching the Sox, who were still sucking at the end of the season. Every commercial break seemed to be one or the other.

Yeah it’s done. Can see through the forest now in the backyard. Just yellows and orange but the deep red is gone and many leaves down. The entire process took about a week in total from change to peak to leaf drop.

Congrats man. You earned it.

I want that. We decided to get my wife tested tomorrow. She can’t work until the results come back and they said likely by Tuesday sometime. 4 days to find out up here. She truly just feels like a head cold, nothing in the chest (ha, in another context that sounds bad to say about the wife). But everyone looks at you side eyed if you have the sniffles and voice sounds stuffy, so we are just going to do it despite the PCP saying it’s not a requirement and up to her. Going to be a long winter for head colds if that’s what it is.

Yeah like this is the wording they are using which is the same as the CDC (a fever AND symptoms). It’s a very uncomfortable position to be in, just wait till everyone is getting colds. If you think you have been exposed to COVID‑19 and develop a fever and symptoms...

Yeah I think we are leaning towards a test anyway once she can get home. But primary care and her General Manager guidance was to watch for fever. It’s really the first instance of trying to delineate between normal cold and COVID. I know at the ski area the fear here is getting into a practice where everyone with a runny nose needs to go home and get tested. It’s really tough to think about managing a couple dozen people and knowing when the right time to pull the trigger is. I think that’s why they look for fever? When my sister and her fiancé had it, they were firmly in the fever camp...101-102 for a week. Rapid testing is key.

My wife just came down with a really bad cold in the last 24 hours... runny nose, sneezing, sounds terrible, no energy, etc. Her work is allowing it fine as she has no fever and after contacting local PCP, they said it's fine as long as there's no fever. She's taking her temp every 3 hours or so. Will likely go home early today anyway but her spa has no employees and no one applying...so she needs to be there for now until someone comes in at noon. But it seems like a good starting point that everyone with a head cold doesn't just get sent home for two weeks or presumed to have COVID. The fever seems to be the really big part per the hotel group's SOP and the physicians advice. I always get at least one crushing head cold per winter...usually lasting 1-2 weeks. Maybe this enhanced hygiene though will cut down on those things like you said.