Angus

I was in Portland Saturday night and friends had a mailer on their table, houses listed for $600-$700K were selling over ask by $100K. Nuts. Rumor in my neighborhood is a multi-million dollar listing sold for 25% over ask. Insane. Friends in adjacent town have a tear down across the street, on less than 1/4 acre built out to maximum extent, no backyard, supposedly going on market for $3.5mm. I lack an adjective. Right now, life science stock options seem to be leading the charge but I always wonder about the % down payment on these homes - are the banks allowing a higher % of income to be directed to mortgage - or is it just folks with lots of home equity moving up? I pay no attention to this stuff given I'm want to downsize in 2024 and will probably leave the area.

just arrived back, skied SLoaf Sunday and yesterday. Sunday was far better than expected - partly cloudy skies loosened the snow pack. They received 4-5" on the upper third of mountain Saturday afternoon/evening which is the part of the mountain that you really ski - King Pine and Skyline lifts. I was stunned to be able to ski and enjoy a couple steeper, natural snow only trails off the top - Bubblecuffer and Winter's Way. Yesterday was fantastic - blue sky from get-go and slopes gradually softened and everything was good to go by around 11ish. Mountain was fairly deserted - did I say the skiing was just fantastic. You could see Baxter Peak covered in white in the distance along with all the western Maine mountains clearly. The mountain has received little snow since my visit two weeks ago but frankly not really sure if they have lost much either. The trails are deep all the way to the bottom and they have a ton of snow to push around if they need to keep the base lift - superquad - connected and running until May 1 when I think everyone believes they will call it a season. Yesterday was just one of those days that you dream about all winter long. On Sunday after skiing @tamarack, I drove up to Coburn Gore/Chain of Ponds to the border crossing - I'd never been further than Stratton/Eustis. Beautiful area - the ponds are still covered in ice but the ice is very rotten. The views of the Bigelows and Flagstaff lake from north of Eustis give you a very different perspective as well. Drove home via Waterville and didn't realize the mill in Madison had closed - not sure how long that's been but it's too bad for the local economy.

LOL. I delayed my departure to SLoaf until tonight b/c today was forecasted to be crappy. Not a cloud in the sky on the webcam at the moment. Tomorrow's forecast isn't as nice and now Tuesday which I was going to take off looks crummy.

Don't they normally try to make it to Patriot's Day weekend? I remember getting a free ticket there for the next season for skiing there on Patriot's Day for $17.75 or something like that. I think I'd gone up to ski Tuckerman or Wildcat and it was socked in and raining in Pinkham Notch so went over to BW. I believe it was an early season ticket and used it the next December in a heavy snow storm.

@powderfreakfrom the look of Tim Kelley's twitter account, he appears to be skiing at Stowe this morning - things look pretty good!

Gosh, I'm feeling old. I remember reading reports from you when your kids were in the single digits.

Didn't mention how Mount Mansfield really stood out today looking north from Cannon. The whole top was white and you could make out trails. Caught a glimpse of Jay too.

delayed our start from metrowest this am, chose to pass WV on 93 due to windholds and was on the peabody lift at cannon by 10:15. Mostly cloudy with intermittent sun until around noon and then full on sunshine until we stopped about 2:15ish. Pretty tough conditions but it was still skiing. The top of the mountain was very icy and cold - although we had the opportunity to ski upper cannon right after it opened and there was fresh snow on the trail from the night before - no evidence anywhere else. We ended the day with a few runs on the zoomer lift - by then the snow had softened up and was a lot of fun. As I said to my son, it reminded me of why spring skiing is so fun. I usually ski cannon after they have closed in late April, early may and able to go top to bottom with very minimal walking - that won't be the case this year - they have little base and suspect it will go fast.

that is just crazy @powderfreak amazing what a good foot of snow will do...

skied at Sugarloaf on Saturday. I plan to go up to reggaefest in two weeks given I bought a 5 ticket pass and yesterday was only day one. I left feeling better about the skiing in two weeks. Talking to folks, Sugarloaf really made a lot of snow this season and the snowmaking trails are in good shape. Unless they get an epic early april, the majority of natural trails are done - upper bubblecuffer and winters way were closed but looked like they could be skied gingerly if soft but who knows what lurked underneath the 1-2" of sleet that fell Friday. The NorAm/US nationals are being held right now on the mountain and I rode up with a # of coaches and skiers and the crappy winter was a big topic of conversation. It was interesting that one skier who told me he grew up skiing at Sugarbush said SLoaf had way more snow on their trails than any place in VT which surprised me. With that said, Sugarloaf didn't get a hard freeze Friday night and the day broke with partly cloudy skies. The skiing was way better than I expected. By mid-day though, it had clouded back up and although the temps didn't really drop, we got periods of snow as well as a few raindrops in the afternoon. There is a lot of boilerplate ice lurking under the snow and by day end with snow being pushed aside made for some interesting skiing on dull edges and tired legs on the steeper terrain. Have not been to SLoaf since 2018 and again was reminded of how big the area is compared to other resorts here in the east.

looks like it is snowing hard at Saddleback. They have a nice network of cams and weather stations on the mountain. Headed to SLoaf to ski tomorrow. Looks like Saturday will be ok weather-wise. Don't believe they had a lift running yesterday due to wind and icing.

funny b/c every I see the boston snow total, I reflect how out here in metrowest I would judge this winter to be significantly below average due to poor snow retention which cut way down on my # of local xc ski days plus I really missed out on the short period where we had good ice for skating - late January - when I was out west skiing.

that's a unique 'destination' wedding!

watch out, books like that get you fired these days in Mississippi.

It's kind of crazy to realize that I haven't done an all-SLC ski trip since 2013 and wonder if my opinions would now be different based upon wider travels out west over last decade; but I don't get the lack of love that Deer Valley gets...well, I do understand of course; but is it really warranted if you are just comparing terrain? Couple of clarifying statements, of all the resorts out there, DV does get the worst snow and the clientele and infrastructure built to support their ski experience may not be everyone's taste but I've skied there 2 or 3 times and really liked the place! Granted I skied there one day where 12-18" fell but I remember skiing lots of fun and challenging terrain and looking at ridges that were very steep. The place was one big construction project in 2013 between private homes, condos and hotels so I can only imagine what it looks like now but I just recall I liked the skiing very much. @powderfreakYou are right about the vibe at Alta on a storm day.

The IRS and any state department of revenue is a government bureaucracy by definition but I think we need to differentiate between 'incompetence' and purposely underfunded by Congress. Not something I follow closely but I believe the IRS software is still programmed in Fortran or Cobalt and I'd estimate the average age of a programmer with competency in those languages to be be in late 60's. I did a quick search and found this article - https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/congress-needs-to-take-two-steps-to-fund-the-irs-for-the-short-and-long-term this is similar to the PPP programs and the underfunded unemployment benefit software most if not all states run. Note: believe a few states that have tried to update have had failures due to project management. I have had some recent dealings with the IRS and although not fast, the outcome was satisfactory and the people I dealt with were very professional and competent. Here is a quick excerpt from another article I found via a search The IRS manages IT systems running hundreds of thousands of lines of code written in a programming language few developers bother to learn anymore: COBOL. In response to unspecified “national security demands,” the agency is looking for cybersecurity tools designed to work with these aged systems. The federal tax collector runs some of the oldest IT systems in government, including the 60-plus-year-old Individual Master File system that intakes and processes individual tax returns. While that system runs on Assembly, many of IRS’ other systems run on a slightly younger programming language: the common business-oriented language, or COBOL.

What a great day at Saddleback. Rain the entire way from Portland to the parking lot this morning. My friend who'd agreed to com along last night was very skeptical of my 'snow all day' guarantee - and so was I! Booted up in a lodge for the first time since covid and walking outside, rain turned to snow! It pounded snow all day and after lunch ski patrol started dropping ropes to closed runs and glades. Estimating 10" had fallen in the parking lot when we left just past 4. Just a ton of fun all day.

2nd or 3rd season opened. purchased by ... community development fund. hearing good things and on my Indy Pass. My prior two visits before they closed, I really enjoyed but like lots of other folks when driving that far, I take a right to SLoaf rather than left to Saddleback.

really would like to ski saddleback tomorrow but not 100% sold on this thing...

Drove up to Waterville Valley yesterday, they reported 2-4" new, not sure about that but it really improved the conditions according to folks who had skied Wednesday. First time since the new tbar at top of mountain - big win as well as the new ski pod - ho hum. WV is first big mountain I skied as a kid in mid-70s, I rarely go back. When I do, I am always so disappointed that True Grit is not top to bottom VW bug sized bumps like I remember! Good day, lots of vertical.

just got back from a nice ski under the lights and falling snow at the weston ski track...maybe 3" in the 01742 but I haven't really been paying careful attention.

So for some preliminary planning Bolton or Saddleback or Sugarloaf on Saturday?

That's funny because I have the opposite reaction, it's too steep and wide - too much speed and the crowd it attracts. Much prefer Bubblecuffer, Winter's Way or even White Nitro (and the terrain in between them)to Gondi Line. I think I still have nightmares of hitting the now dismantled mid-station. I still have my 5 ticket pack to Boyne's three NE ski areas that I'm planning to use at SLoaf over the next 5-6 weeks.

Cochran's website says they aren't doing rentals this season.

Hiked the Hancock Loop today off the Kancamagus today. The entire length of ridge between north (`4,400') and south (`4,300') Hancock is above 4K. The snow depths are really low even at these elevations but as @#NoPolessaid, the foot of fluff that fell this week made things very picturesque and the weather was spectacular.