Bidding farewell to my trusty 'Giving Tree' of a snowboard

Once there was a snowboard...

and it loved a little grommet.

And every winter the young shredder would come

and he would wax and tune it

and adorn it with stickers

and clean it to a shine.

He would strap in with care

and admire it on the chairlift.

and shred the gnar on the way down.

And they would travel together far and wide..

And when he hit a jump or rail,

he would always trust the landing.

And the boy loved the snowboard...

very much.

And the board was happy.

But time went by.

And the boy grew older.

When thinking about my snowboard's final days of service, and its future, post-retirement plans, it's hard not to think of Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree."

I didn't always treat it the best, covering it in layers of stickers and riding some of that muddy and grassy late-season New England slush. I plumb forgot about it once at Berkshire East two seasons ago, and called the mountain in a panic three days later when I noticed it wasn't in my trunk. Luckily, it was waiting for me at the lost-and-found. Just like it's always been there, waiting for me.

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.

Celebrating yet another 'Best in Snow' award for Vermont’s Magic Mountain

There's a sign on the long driveway up to Magic Mountain in Londonderry, Vt. that reads "You've officially taken the road less traveled, welcome to Magic!"

That slogan couldn't have been more true for my first visit a couple years ago. My then-fiance and I were driving back from northern Vermont and looking for a place to hike and camp for the night. However, with spotty service and a gas tank running low, the hunt for some place with Wi-Fi became paramount. We turned left off a road and all of a sudden, the internet on my phone ticked on and we were face-to-face with Magic Mountain. I don't remember much more from that journey, just that we booked our wedding caterer using the excellent high-speed connection there.

Jump-cut to a little over a year ago. My buddies and I were planning a ski trip to southern Vermont, and I needed a spot to hit in between the big guys at Okemo and Killington and The Berkshires. Once again, though this time on my home internet, I stumbled upon Magic Mountain.

It turned out, Magic had just been rated the No. 1 mountain in America by a Liftopia 'Best in Snow' survey.

I hooked up with a couple of my friends and we shredded an icy day at Magic. My first impressions were definitely old school, rustic, a slower chair to the summit than I'm used to, but overall some gnarly terrain.

A year later, this past February, I happily returned to Magic on a foggy Thursday, kicking off another weekend of choice New England shredding.

Come to find out a couple weeks ago, Magic went ahead and three-peated as 'Best in Snow.'

I had to get to the bottom of how this relatively little mountain tucked deep off a main road in southern Vermont managed to claim a Kobe-and-Shaq level of greatness over a span of three years.

"It kind of measures the depth of passion of your customer base, and how strongly they feel about your particular mountain," Geoff Hatheway, President of Magic Mountain, told me over the phone this week. "In the case for Magic, we just have an incredibly powerful customer base in terms of their feelings about skiing at this place and what it offers.”

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a compete copy.

Testing out some Dion racing snowshoes; Locals represent US at international race

This weekend we move inside of eight weeks to go until the 2019 Steel Rail Half Marathon.

Before you know it, May 19 will be here, a scary thought to think when a season of sitting on chair lifts, with my feet up by lodge fireplaces, and the occasional downhill carve have left me in not-the-greatest of shape. But the grip of Old Man Winter still hasn't loosened entirely on Berkshire County, and my patience for the all-mighty Dalton CRA treadmills maxes out at around 30 minutes.

With this new batch of spring-enriched powder falling, I'm not particularly keen on pounding the pavement around the busy Dalton Avenue. Then, however, I remembered a Powder Report from last year with a few local athletes competing in a snowshoe race.

Since-graduated Owen Brandriss and Lilly Wells, and current sophomore Jackie Wells, all of Mount Greylock, picked up some snowshoes and earned spots on the U.S. National team at last years national championships at Prospect Mountain.

That gave them spots in the 2019 World Snowshoe Championships in the town of La Ciaspolada in Val di Non, Italy this past January.

"I didn't know there was a national team until right after that race," said Brandriss a few weeks ago. "When I found out the race was in Italy, I definitely wanted to go. It was a really cool opportunity."

Brandriss is now a freshman at the University of Vermont, but teamed up with his former classmates Lilly and Jackie Wells one more time earlier this year overseas.

"What really struck me was that it's this beautiful little mountain town," said Lilly Wells, who now runs cross-country and track for Williams College. "They have the race there every year and it's this huge tradition. There is the competitive race, which was great, but then there is this citizens race, which like 2,000 people come out and do. You can tell it's something the people in that area are really into. It's special that so many people are excited about getting out there and doing it."

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.

Gettin' Sendy and sociable with some spring-time shredding

With Old Man Winter hemorrhaging the life blood of this ski season into soppy puddles around the Berkshires, there would seem to be reason for despair.

Worry not, though, yee fellow worshipers of the shred, for there is plenty of fun to be had in the late-season period of winter.

The Powder Report is coming to you a few days late this week, thanks in large part to how good the local high school basketball teams were this season, but before I could make it out to Curry Hicks Cage for the five Western Massachusetts title games The Eagle covered on Saturday, I had to stop by Ski Butternut for the Gettin' Sendy park jam.

If you caught us last time in the gnar-lossary, you know Gettin' Sendy was a collaboration between The Garden and Shire Breu-Haus. They created an IPA with a release party two weeks ago, and then the jam at Butternut.

Saturday saw around 30 skiers and riders mixing it up in Great Barrington on the Cruiser trail, which was molded into a mini-park by Butternut's master builder Josh Morse.

"He had about two days to work on it, and he just went to work," said The Garden's Bill Whitaker. "Butternut is always a good time, and we love doing stuff with them. They've made their name with park riders and people travel there for that."

Whitaker was on the hill supervising and handing out swag prizes alongside Justin Maruco, who had the play-by-play on a megaphone. Maruco broadcasted the happenings down the Butternut's sun deck, where more than 100 spectators enjoyed some Gettin' Sendy — and kicked the keg long before the jam reached it's peak — while watching the skiers and riders get sendy of a multitude of features.

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.

Sucking it up and getting back on the terrain park horse

I write this with a deeply-bruised backside and a left bicep that won't fully extend and screams whenever it tries to carry weight.

Oh, and a big smile.

That smile isn't just because the Powder Report snagged a crunchy bronze at last weekend's New England Newspaper and Press Association awards banquet in the sports column category. It's because I finally sucked it up and hit the terrain park again. I finally tried out those snowshoes that were a wedding gift last April. I wore snowpants for each of the first four days of February school vacation. The NENPA recognition didn't hurt, either.

Now, with full realization that ski stories can carry the same weight as an over-embellished fishing story, here's the tale of my worst wipeout.

I was at Berkshire East two seasons ago, snagging some weekday pow before scooting up to Greenfield to cover a Miss Hall's girls basketball game. I've normally been more of an all-mountain snowboarder, and in general prefer bombing some groomers over the terrain park scene. But, as my great aunt Mary always told a young and unable-to-keep-a-girlfriend Mike Walsh: Variety is the spice of life. So I was tackling some rails and jumps that day, and eventually gathered up the guts to try some spins.

On an attempted backside 360 Indy grab, I didn't even come close to a full rotation. The result was a full-on, face-plant wipeout. When I managed to fight back my breath and sit up on my knees, I assumed I was concussed, because I couldn't see anything. It was all blurry. So I removed my helmet, (always wear a helmet, don't be a selfish jerk) and pulled off my goggles. That's when I realized the reason I couldn't see was because I slammed my face into the snow so hard, my contact lenses popped right out of my eyes and were stuck to the inside of my goggles. The damage was altogether not that bad; cracked ribs and a limited ability to laugh heartily or sleep on my stomach for six weeks. I stayed off my board for a while, but the true lasting damage was mental. A season later I promised my fianc I wouldn't do anything risky on the mountain, for fear of showing up at the the end of the aisle on April 21, and in wedding photos for eternity, in a cast or worse. As I turned 30 earlier this month and things like health insurance and home-ownership are more readily on the front burner of life, fear kept me out of the park and doing the same old safe carving.

But for this week's column I wanted to try and combat that fear by trying some new things, or old things again.

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a copy.

Preaching context in face of social media outrage directed at Jiminy Peak

It's been a little over two weeks since Jiminy Peak was blanketed in the wrong kind of winter storm.

I'm packing up for a spoice roadie up to Stratton, Bromley and Magic Mountain this weekend, and while I try and figure out what to feed a horde of shredded-out buddies for breakfast in an AirBNB kitchen, I've got some thoughts.

Because of this column and everything it celebrates, I've been asked a handful of times over the past couple of weeks for my thoughts on the "All Employees" letter posted somewhere on Jiminy's campus the week of a big mid-January snow storm [Martin Luther King weekend], the ensuing fallout, responses and the re-dredging up of the child labor violations of last summer.

Before I dive switch nose first into this mogul field of a situation, some background on this particular grommet's upbringing and background.

While I've never worked at a ski resort, I have spent 10-plus years of my life in the hospitality business, mostly waiting tables and tending bar. A lengthy stretch of that came at a restaurant inside a major hotel and convention center. I will also say that over the past few years of working in Berkshire County, Jiminy Peak has been very good to the Powder Report with communication and information for stories. While my writing career was in flux before joining The Berkshire Eagle, I went through the application and interview process for a part-time job at Jiminy, though I did not ultimately choose to follow through with employment there.

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.

Terrain immaculate at Berkshire East, and surrounding area working to match

Let me slide myself away from the dinner table and loosen this belt a notch before diving into this column. I gobbled up a bit too many cords on Friday at Berkshire East.

One of the weirdest weather weeks in my memory has led us to a new edition of the Powder Report

The deep freeze of MLK Weekend gave way to a 50-plus-degree overcast and rainy mid-week. The backyard view out my kitchen window was a river. So, when the temperature dipped back into the 20s Thursday night, I was a bit hesitant to trek up Route 8A and across West Hawley Road to Charlemont.

First off, kudos to the plows and sanders, because the drive was far safer than I imagined. But, the real heroes here are the overnight groomers at Berkshire East Mountain Resort. Liftys, lesson teachers, ski patrol and bartenders get a lot of shine this time of year, but it's the guys and gals working during the mountains' closed hours that make weekends like this one so surprisingly great.

I met up with Jon Schaefer, who runs Berkshire East, around 9:30 a.m. Friday in the main lodge, and while waiting for him to wrap up a quick meeting, a skier plopped down next to me and instantly raved about how great it was.

When I relayed that to Schaefer a few minutes later, he responded with the quote of the week.

"It's always good," he said while strapping up his ski boots and grabbing a pair of mis-matched ski poles.

And it was.

This column can be read in its entirety on The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.

Bousquet opens up; New Lebanon's Austin Esposito wins Burton Qualifier at Loon Mountain

Growing up, my dad always had a no-pets policy.

"Only humans poop in our house," he would joke.

Thus, I was never a dog or cat person. I never saw the appeal, and maintain some of those feelings, though my wife — who grew up with several dogs and brought a rabbit with her when she moved in — has slowly worn me down.

However, up until Thursday night, I just couldn't see myself dealing with a pet.

Then I met potentially the only other living creature more excited than I that Bousquet was finally able to open.

I was in line for the second chair at Bousquet's first $10 Thursday Night Owl Special, and just in front of me was a young pair of urchins with a golden retriever named Rossi (inspired by Rossignol).

Rossi, who belongs to ski school director Cindy Bartlett, was psyched to be out in the snow, jumping and barking all over the place. I assumed when they got on the lift, the dog would stay at the base with someone, but then Rossi followed them through the loading area, and began galloping after them up the blue chair lift line. She made it all the way to the end of the lift, met back up with the snowboarding couple and the trio departed down the green Drifter trail.

I think I found what my nerdier friends call a Patronus. I think I'm starting to understand dogs.

"We, along with our pass holders and regulars have been chomping-at-the-bit super eager to get on our local mountain," writes Bousquet's Marki Lee Roberts-Blackwell, who spent Thursday with her two and four-year old sons on the beginner slope. "They've been holding out and ecstatic to finally be out gliding and making turns on our family mountain."

I wished Rossi and friends silent luck, and scooted myself over to the other open slope at Bousquet, Beeline, an intermediate that follows the blue lift line.

I was only there from 3-5 p.m. before heading back to the office, but even turning onto North Street downtown and seeing that white blanket in the distance got me going. It hasn't felt like winter without the mountain open. The local winter sports community needs Bousquet, and Bousquet needs us.

"Although we've taken quite a hit, missing out on holiday vacation week and having to divert much of our typical groups and clubs to other mountains, we are hopeful to regain those patrons, clubs and school groups now that we are operating," Roberts-Blackwell wrote. "Community support is vital for our small mountain."

With the weather finally starting to turn, Bousquet is blowing up a storm of snow whenever possible, and growing closer and closer to opening more of the mountain. The hard-pack cords on Beeline were nice and stiff. Drifter was left a bit more untamed and benefit from the heavy midweek dusting Old Man Winter gifted the Berkshires.

Speaking of gifts, Austin Esposito scored himself a pretty sweet one this holiday season.

The New Lebanon, N.Y. native stomped out a first place finish in the open division at a Burton Qualifiers rail jam event at Loon Mountain on Dec. 29. The top podium spot came with a chill $1,000 check and a spot in the Burton Qualifiers tour finals. There, he'll compete for a share of $10,000 in prizes.

"Last winter I went to the same contest and got sixth, which is the last qualifying spot," said Esposito from his spot up in Stratton, Vt. "This year, going in I thought the same thing, get top six.

"It was a big surprise when I won, I was hyped."

This column can be read in its entirety at The Berkshire Eagle website, or reach out to me directly for a complete copy.