Skiers want cold; hunters want deer

By John Hitchcock12:00AM / Wednesday, November 24, 2004Print Story | Email Story

With dreams of a white Thanksgiving shattered by wet and warm weather, only a few resorts have retained enough machine-made snow for curtailed operations. Only Jiminy Peak in Hancock and Okemo and Killington in Southern Vermont were in business last weekend, and the best advice is to â€œcall ahead.â€ Mount Snow, which was scheduled to open today (Nov. 24) is determined to offer the most snow possible for its 50th anniversary celebration, which starts Dec. 11 and will feature one weekend of special events each month through April. And the feature of the Dec. 11 and 12 program will be the return of the infamous Fountain Mountain, the creation of the late Walter Schoenknecht, founder of Mount Snow. Located at the base of the ski slopes on Snow Lake, next to the Snow Lake Lodge, the fountainâ€™s two 600-horsepower pumps shot 10,000 gallons of water a minute some 350 feet into the air. The water froze as it landed on the lake, and a mound of snow and ice was created, rising in cone-shape form some 100 feet. The pumps were installed in 1965, when most other Vermont ski centers were spending their money on pumps and the other equipment required to make snow on the slopes. In those days, I was a reporter for the Springfield Union and taught skiing at the former Petersburg Pass and also operated a summer ski camp in Cooke City, Montana. I first met Schoenknecht in December 1946, when he had leased the original Brodie Mountain ski area in New Ashford and was running it for the season. In the meantime, he opened Mohawk Mountain in Cornwall, Conn., before buying the former Mount Pisgah in West Dover, Vt., in 1953. I renewed our relationship in October 1954, as Schoenknecht was rushing work on the now Mount Snow base lodge and two radical chairlifts. The new ski center opened Dec. 12 that year, and a month later I made my first ski run there. I have skied at least once a winter ever since. My stories on Mount Snow have appeared each year in various publications, including The Berkshire Eagle, the Springfield Union and The Advocate, as well as in Ski and Skiing and Magazines and Ski America, once published by Barry Hollister in Pittsfield. In 1959, I bought stock in the new Carinthia Ski Club, established that year by Walter Stugger, who headed the Bousquet Ski School when I taught there in the â€™50s. Carinthia was at the foot of the now Mount Snow, and only a narrow strip of trees separated the two ski centers. In 1986, Mount Snow purchased pesky Carinthia. But returning to the â€™60s, Schoenknecht asked me to operate a branch of my summer ski camp at Mount Snowâ€™s Fountain Mountain on three weekends in May in 1970. Mount Snowâ€™s pro racer Manfred Krings headed the staff of four coaches. Former Jiminy Peak ski school director, Ruedi Wyrsch, even set up a NASTAR slalom course of 10 gates on the precipitous slope, where a missed gate could result in a dip in unfrozen Snow Lake. The next year, in March 1971, Krings set up a real NASTAR course for a national field of regional champions, and Alan Davignon of North Adams and I skied for Jiminy Peak after working our way up the ladder in the Vermont/Mass competition at the former Glen Ellen. Davignon, working on his PhD at RPI, was the overall champion, and I was an also-ran in my age category. Mount Snow was the only Eastern ski center ever to host the nationals in this still popular citizensâ€™ race, now held at scores of locations throughout the United States. Schoenknecht kept expanding Mount Snow, until the Boston Globe called it the â€œworldâ€™s largest ski areaâ€ in 1960. He was a demon promoter, installing an ice-skating rink in the base lodge next to floor-to-ceiling gold fish tanks, with a heated swimming pool outside â€” a wild scene during K2â€™s wet T-shirt contests. Mount Snow, located partially in the Green Mountain National Forest, became the Wal-Mart of its era and drew thousands of skiers as late as April for ski weeks. But like Wal-Mart today, smaller competitors suffered, including the former Dutch Hill just to the south and Hog Back on the main access to Mount Snow from Brattleboro. After several changes in ownership, including two brothers who later ran the notorious Studio 54 in New York City, Mount Snow was purchased by Preston Leete Smith, founder of Killington, in 1977. The current owner, American Skiing Company, took over in 1996 and quickly spent more than $24 million into improvements. Mount Snowâ€™s 50th has been chosen one of Vermontâ€™s Top Ten events. â€œWe have chosen one weekend each month to pair up with a particular decade,â€ explained Mike Murphy, Mount Snowâ€™s communication manager. â€œIt should be a wild ride.â€ And Fountain Mountain will share some of its precious snowmaking water to flow again. Golden fireworks will decorate the sky, and the 50 Days of Giveaways promotion will kick off Dec. 11 with a 1950s cover band Dec. 11 in the Snow Barn. On Sunday, Dec. 12, two lift tickets will be sold for $50, less than the price of one. During the same weekend, the Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce will commence its Nights Before Christmas Celebration. Schoenknecht sadly will miss the celebration. The World War II Marine veteran died in 1987, but a trail dedicated to him, â€œThanks Walt,â€ is one of the most popular of the 145 trails located at Mount Snow, Carinthia and Haystack. The Schoenknecht family still operates Mohawk Mountain. Call 802-464-1100 for full information or visit: www.mountsnow.com. Jay Peak, in North Troy, Vt., near the Canadian border, will also celebrate its 50th, but thatâ€™s another story. In the meantime, keep up with the weather and ski reports, better days are sure to come. Jiminy, Okemo and Killington are the best bets, although Taos reports fantastic conditions in New Mexico. Hunting notes Massachusetts deer have been known to cross state lines to avoid hunters, and they can drift into Vermont after sunset Sunday, when the season will end in the Green Mountain State. They will face Bay State hunters the next day, when the shotgun season starts (Monday, Nov. 29). It will run through Dec. 11, except for Sunday, Dec. 5. Deer have faced New York hunters since Nov. 22 and will have to be on the lookout until the Empire State season ends on Dec. 14. Of course, it has been tough on deer everyplace since early November, with short special seasons in one place or another for bow hunters, handicapped hunters and primitive firearm hunters. Hopefully, hunters will not face â€œhunter rage,â€ like they did Sunday in Rice Lake, Wis., when an irate hunter was ordered to vacate a tree stand on private property and climbed down shooting. Five persons were killed and three injured in the worst hunting outrage on record. Some 600,000 deer hunters took to the Wisconsin woods on opening day, and many had their own deer stands and did not want to share them. The perpetrator was found, with an empty weapon, and taken into custody. There are fewer hunters and fewer deer in New England, with the most in Maine (about 175,000 hunters expected to bag about 35,000 deer in the season ending Saturday). Vermont Fish & Game officials are concerned about the steady decline in the number of hunters, from 112,000 licenses issued in 1991 to only 88,000 last year. The stateâ€™s population climbed by 15 percent in that period. They are also concerned about the drop in license revenues, which currently amount to about $2.7 million per year. About 10,000 deer are shot each year in Vermont, about the same in Massachusetts. The big battle in Main this year was over the Nov. 2 vote on a referendum that would have banned using dogs, baits and traps in bear hunting. The measure was defeated by a narrow margin, after both sides spend hundreds of thousands of dollars campaigning. Of the 28 states allowing bear hunts, only Maine permits the use of all three measures â€” hounds, bait and traps. In 1966, all three approaches were banned in Massachusetts, which has accounted for a sharp increase in the bear population, although more than 100 are killed each year. Baiting is still used (illegally) in this area. Two men from Lee were fined $850 in Bennington District Court for baiting and killing a black bear in Searsburg. They used donuts, bagels and muffins taken from a Dunkinâ€™ Donuts Dumpster. Watch out for deer and moose on the roads. In a crash, they could kill you! John Hitchcock of Williamstown writes frequently about the area sports scene.

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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

02:13PM / Tuesday, December 23, 2025

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."

The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School.

The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday.

The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season.

The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations.

"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.

"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."

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