mercano @ mercano @lemmy.world

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The Sugarbush snow reporter published a poignant criticism of how the current administration’s policies directly affect the resort and skiing as a whole. The mountain later took it down, but not before it was emailed out to anyone subscribed to the daily snow report mailing list.

Mar 1st, 2025, 6:49 AM: Today of all days, I would like to reflect on what Sugarbush means to me. This mountain has brought me endless days of joy, adventure, challenges, new experiences, beauty, community, and peace. I’ve found that nothing cures a racing mind quite like skiing through the trees and stopping to take a deep breath of that fresh forest air. The world around us might be a scary place, but these little moments of tranquility, moments I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy as a direct result of my employment here, give me, and I’d guess you, too, a sense of strength and stability.

This fresh forest air, is, more specifically fresh National Forest air. Sugarbush operates on 1745 acres of the Green Mountain National Forest. Right now, National Forest lands and National Parks are under direct attack by the current Administration, who is swiftly terminating the positions of dedicated employees who devote their lives to protecting the land we love, and to protecting us while we are enjoying that land.

This Administration also neglects to address the danger, or even the existence of, climate change, the biggest threat to the future of our industry, and the skiing we all so much enjoy here. Burlington, VT is one of the fastest-warming cities in the country, and Vermont is the 9th fastest-warming state. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), a resource I use every day for snow reporting, is crucial in monitoring extreme weather events and informing public safety measures, and is also experiencing widespread layoffs and defunding at the hands of the Administration.

Sugarbush would not be Sugarbush without our wonderful community. Employees and patrons alike, we are made up of some of the most kind hearted, hardworking people I have ever met. Our community is rich with folks of all different orientations, ethnicities, and walks of life, who all contribute to make this place what it is. They all love Sugarbush because it is a place where they can come to move their bodies, to connect with the land, to challenge themselves, to build character, to nourish their souls with the gift of skiing.

Many of these people are part of the LGBTQI+ community. Many (well, that’s a stretch, we all know this is an incredibly white-washed industry) are people of color. Half are women. Many are veterans or adaptive skiers who, through Vermont Adaptive, are able to access snow sports in part thanks to federal grants through the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is also facing devastating cuts. Many of our beloved employees moved across the world through an exchange program on the J1 visa to help this resort run, and they are not US citizens. ALL of these groups are being targeted, undervalued, and disrespected by the current Administration.

The beauty of National Forest land, is that anyone and everyone is welcome to enjoy it. Anyone and everyone can buy a lift ticket. I also imagine it is incredibly difficult, and likely impossible, to say “No” to the Secret Service. I hope that, instead of faulting Sugarbush management or employees for “allowing this to happen”, you can direct your anger to the source — the Administration that, in my oh-so-humble opinion, is threatening our democracy, our livelihoods, our land.

I want to reiterate how much I admire and respect my fellow employees and managers — they work so hard to make this place operate, to keep you coming back and enjoying it and making lifelong memories. Many of them may feel the same way that I do, but their hands are tied, and for good reason. They have families to support, they have benefits and health insurance to receive, they face far greater and more binding pressure from Corporate. I am in a privileged position here, in that I work only seasonally, I do not rely on this job for health insurance or benefits, and hey, waking up at 4:30 AM isn’t exactly sustainable. Therefore, I am using my relative “platform” as snow reporter, to be disruptive — I don’t have a whole lot to lose. We are living in a really scary and really serious time. What we do or don’t do, matters. This whole shpiel probably won’t change a whole lot, and I can only assume that I will be fired, but at least this will do even just a smidge more than just shutting up and being a sheep.

I am really scared for our future. Acting like nothing is happening here feels way scarier than losing my job. I want to have kids one day, and I want to teach them to ski. The policies and ideals of the current Administration, however, are not conducive to either of these things, because, at least how things look now, I’d never be able to afford a good life for a child anyway, and snow will be a thing of Vermont history. So please, for the sake of our future shredders: Be Better Here. It has truly been a pleasure writing your morning snow reports — I hope this one sticks with you. With love, peace, and hope, Lucy Welch

But hey, while we’re here…1-3” of fresh snow to kick off this interesting weekend. Chance of scattered mixed precip showers today, with warmer temps reaching 36 at the base and 28 at the summit. Right now, the snowpack is a mix of machine groomed and frozen granular, with more winter-like conditions near the summits, but the new snow may help nudge conditions into the powder/packed powder category in certain aspects and elevations. Enjoy 60 groomers and 100% open terrain today! For Saturday, we’ll be rocking 111 trails, 484 skiable acres, and 60 groomed runs. Temps are expected to be in the mid-20s and mid-30s under cloudy skies with winds out of the WNW ranging from 15-40 MPH. With all the new snow we saw this month, it is more important than ever to be diligent when skiing and riding in the woods — tree wells pose a greater risk with all this fresh pow.

The hamberders can not give this guy a heart attack fast enough.

I most frequently encounter these when feeding the cat, so in that case I have a spoon out already.

It’s like the military: a three star general is a Lieutenant General, a four star is just a General.

Probably one of the least flashy accessories, but I bought a 10 foot long USB-C cable that lets me sit anywhere on the sofa and play without battery anxiety.

The man can get his country into NATO, I’d say he has earned his retirement.

The FAA had to activate a contingency plan, a Debris Response Area, after the explosion. Instead of one rocket, you have an expanding cloud of debris that takes varying time to descend. Some planes had to enter a holding pattern to stay out of the area, while others delayed takeoff.

https://www.reuters.com/technology/space/spacex-launches-seventh-starship-mock-satellite-deployment-test-2025-01-16/

This the same SpaceX that caused multiple airliners to divert after their rocket exploded and rained debris onto active flight corridors?

Surprised no one’s brought up Futurama yet.

I don’t know if Mr Rodger’s was shot on film or video, but either way, the flame was glowing in a wavelength the camera couldn’t pick up. Either it was a color that the chemicals in the film don’t react too or it’s not something the electronic sensors were sensitive too. Probably a high frequency violet bordering on ultraviolet. TV cameras are optimized to record the frequencies of light the human eye can see, making allowances for cost & technological capabilities. They may not work the way you’d expect as red fades to infrared or violet goes towards ultraviolet, especially when using 70’s or 80’s TV cameras in the price range of PBS.

Everyone assumes Canada is super liberal country just because of universal healthcare. They forget that Alberta is basically snowy Texas, and the other prairie provinces have more in common with the Midwest than New York.

It’s fine, it’s not like he’s going to be disappointed if she makes him sleep on the couch.

Point taken.

It’s not like Russia is going to issue press releases on its troop deployments.

I’m afraid I may fail that version of the Voight-Kampff Test.

Wow, a DEC AlphaStation computer. That couldn’t have been cheap.

Only Mac OS 10 and later, based on BSD, uses ‘/‘. (And, I guess, A/UX.) Classic MacOS used a ‘:’, but it wasn’t regularly exposed in the UI. The only way most users would know is that the colon couldn’t be used in a file name.

It’s useful for people with unisex names like Taylor, Chris, or Jordan, especially in email, where you may not have any face-to-face contact.

They know they’ll catch hell if they take away the holidays (MLK more than Juneteenth, as it’s been a federal holiday longer), but they don’t want people to talk about WHY they’re holidays.

Even if Canada would merge with the US, surely it wouldn’t become a state. We all know the importance of the Senate at this point, and how the two-senators-per-state rule affects things. At the very least, each province would want to become a state to get more senators, and it may be in the best interest of some of the larger provinces like Ontario or Quebec to subdivide to gain even more, if they can get away with it. Goodness knows the idea of splitting California has been floated by some to try to get something closer to senator-per-capita parity.