February 25-26, 2017

Photographed at Stowe Mountain Resort.

It was a mild and warm week to say the least. The weather on more than one occasion was appropriate for opened jackets or just sweaters. Despite all this, reported ski conditions are still very good, little to no ice with fast and soft snow. The snowpack in the city is dramatically melting away but the snow on the ski trails is holding out well thus far. As a welcome bonus, the mountains are also less busy meaning more runs during your time out on the slopes.

And now the bad... It has been raining all day, with alot more to come on Saturday. There is always the possibility that the ski mountains will receive some snow, but the fact that it is quite mild all but rules out this chance. Still it is best to remain surprised, weather conditions can be vastly different from the city to the ski mountains. To cut this long story short, if you do plan on getting on the slopes this weekend, aim for Sunday, the weather will be alot more favorable for having a good time than Saturday.

Check out some recent ski reports on the forums here. The most recent this past Wednesday at Camp Fortune can be found here.

With the weather being what it is, let's move on to more interesting topics in the world of skiing.

The big news this week comes from Vermont. Vail Resorts has announced that they have acquired Stowe Mountain Resort for a sum of $50 million. This includes everything, the mountains, infrastructure and base facilities, but does exclude the Stowe Mountain Lodge and certain properties and parcels of land, that are being retained for future development possibilities. Officials have promised no real changes for the rest of the season, the future does look bright. This is Vail Resorts first property in the East. The EpicPass, valid at all Vail Resorts is a fantastic deal and this new mountain addition brings this exclusive offer in reach of the East for the first time. Vail Resorts also make tremendous investments and improvements to all their mountains year after year. Stowe can only get even better thanks to the massive capital available from their new owner. Definitely something to follow as more details slowly come to light. Read all the details here.

Also recently, Fortress Investments (owners of Intrawest and by extension, Blue Mountain and Tremblant), was acquired by SoftBank of Japan. What effect this will have on those mountains and the rest of the Intrawest line-up is not clear at this point. Looking back at the master plan for Tremblant, the complete vision called for an expansive village development on the Versant Soleil as well as more development at the base of the North side (refered to as Camp Nord). Due to the recession of 2008 and poor weather of those years, development stalled and ended. The Versant Soleil only received the Etoile du Matin condos and the Casino, drastically short of what the plans called for, which was something quite similar but smaller in scope to the existing South pedestrian village. For several years the future of Tremblant has been a hot topic... this latest development could be the turning point to get things back on track or be the event that leads to that happening. Time will tell. I definitely wouldn't mind seeing the Lowell Thomas triple finally make way to a high speed quad! If you are interested, EcoSign was contracted to develop the masterplan, which you can find here.

What are your thoughts on the Vail Resorts acquistion of Stowe? Would you be in favour of Tremblant resuming development? Let us know in the comments below.

Have a great weekend and happy skiing.