The Road to Opening Day - Part 4

Well, Schweitzer, as you can no doubt tell, is open, and flourishing. Here's a recap of the past few weeks.

Dec. 1-3 - Schweitzer receives a huge dumping, I believe it was 70 inches in total. Resort officials announce a Wednesday opening.

Dec. 4 - A Pineapple Express rain event pushes back the day to Thursday - the rain melted very little of the snow, however.

Dec. 5 - Schweitzer announces that only Chair 2 - Musical Chairs - would be open on Thursday, with Happy Trails and minimal foodservice and other operations

Dec. 6-7 - Schweitzer open with just Musical Chairs.

Dec. 8 - The Basin Express, Lakeview Triple, and Musical Carpet open today for the first time.

Dec. 15 - Schweitzer opens with the following lifts: Basin Express, Lakeview Triple, Musical Chairs, Musical Carpet, Never Ever Tow, Great Escape, Snow Ghost, and Stella. Excluded run areas include entire North Bowl area and entire South Bowl area.

Dec. 22 - Mountain now 100% open with remarkable conditions and knee-deep powder. Open Lifts include Chairs 1A (Basin Quad), 1B (Lakeview), 2 (Musical Chairs), 3 (the Quad), 4 (Sunnyside), 5 (Stella), 6 (Snow Ghost), 7 (Idyle-Our), Musical Carpet/Never Ever Tow. Hermit's Hollow Tubing Opens with two lanes. Terrain park has 6 features.

Burton's "Sabotage Stupidity" Campaign - Part I

Okay, so this is a tad off-topic. I found this campaign by Burton. The objective: repeal the ban on snowboarding at the four United States ski resorts that ban it through a combination of guerrilla warfare and downright poor attitude. The prize: $5,000 from Burton and $5,000 from evogear. Quote Jake Burton: "We have demonstrated our sport to be for real, and of no threat to society." I'm sorry, but I can't make head or tails of this. For example, you can view poaching videos at burton.com/poaching. The videos clearly show numerous boarders doing the following, usually considered violations of the Skiers' and Snowboarders' Responsibility Code:

1. Obviously, purposely cutting skiers off - mere feet from the skiers.
2. Weaving in and out of young skiers.
3. Not bothering to look up as they merge into a trail.
4. Ignoring the shouts of annoyed skiers who paid premium prices for the experience.

In ski country - the mountains - the Skiers' and Snowboarders' Responsibility Code is generally considered the "law of the land," along with various codes set forth by the Board of Directors. So tell me how, in the process of shooting the poaching video, they did not break any laws or endanger society? You could argue that the Responsibility Code is the law on the mountains.

More next week...