Jazzbo
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This news just came to me via email and I thought it might be of interest to VFTT folks in eastern MA and southern NH. Windblown XC Ski Center in New Ipswich, New Hampshire has been hit hard by the recent ice storm. It now appears they won't be able to open up this season. Here is the first posting on their ski conditions page:
"Friday 12/13/08
Dear Skiers and Snowshoers,
Returning to our beautiful hilltop homesite today, I felt like Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind" coming home to Tara from the war, passing burned out plantations and a devastated landscape. Nature, not human passions provided the destructive power this time. An inch and a half of ice has brought down uncountable numbers of trees, filling trails with impassible amounts of debris, downing power lines, and damaging buildings. It is difficult to assess the total amount of damage because of the danger of falling ice and tree limbs. From what I can see from our house to the Warming Hut and the Ski Shop, it is ten times the damage caused by the great ice storm of 1998. Cleaning up will be costly and time consuming. I do not know when or if we will be open this season. In twenty-four hours our trails went from being the best ever to being the worst ever. "
More recent posting follows:
12/19/08
"Windblown now has a business cell phone that will be good for at least a month or two, until we get our land line service back. You can call for updates or to leave us a message.
603-801-1153
We are currently looking for 15 volunteers to help with some clearing tomorrow - Saturday December 20th, starting at 8 am. If you can help, please call our new cell phone number above. If I do not answer personally, please do not leave a message and just show up - we really only want 15 people for tomorrow. Try again if you want or wait for our next request for volunteers. Thank you for understanding.
If you have a Warming Hut Reservation please call us to let us know if you plan to come or not. We are clearing the trail from the Ski Shop to the Warming Hut so your reservations are good and your deposits are still non-refundable.
Your response to Al's message (below) is astonishing! And so heart warming. It seems like all of you would make up an army of volunteers. And we so appreciate your offers. This is a bigger job than you can imagine. We are arranging to bring in big logging machinery to clear the trails. After they have gone through, we probably will take you up on your offers to help with the finer work. It won't be for several weeks though. We'll keep you posted here.
We expect to be out of power and phone and internet for several weeks still. I expect to occasionally travel with my laptop to where I can get internet service and receive emails. You are welcome to send us messages so long as you don't require a response. email Al and Irene
We'll keep in touch as we know and decide more.
We send our best holiday wishes to all of you,
Irene Jenks"
Link to page and full text is here is here:
http://www.windblownxc.com/Pages/conditions.html
Those of you who live in the area and have an interest in clearing some trails might consider heading over to Windblown to lend a hand. I'm thinking about it.
"Friday 12/13/08
Dear Skiers and Snowshoers,
Returning to our beautiful hilltop homesite today, I felt like Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind" coming home to Tara from the war, passing burned out plantations and a devastated landscape. Nature, not human passions provided the destructive power this time. An inch and a half of ice has brought down uncountable numbers of trees, filling trails with impassible amounts of debris, downing power lines, and damaging buildings. It is difficult to assess the total amount of damage because of the danger of falling ice and tree limbs. From what I can see from our house to the Warming Hut and the Ski Shop, it is ten times the damage caused by the great ice storm of 1998. Cleaning up will be costly and time consuming. I do not know when or if we will be open this season. In twenty-four hours our trails went from being the best ever to being the worst ever. "
More recent posting follows:
12/19/08
"Windblown now has a business cell phone that will be good for at least a month or two, until we get our land line service back. You can call for updates or to leave us a message.
603-801-1153
We are currently looking for 15 volunteers to help with some clearing tomorrow - Saturday December 20th, starting at 8 am. If you can help, please call our new cell phone number above. If I do not answer personally, please do not leave a message and just show up - we really only want 15 people for tomorrow. Try again if you want or wait for our next request for volunteers. Thank you for understanding.
If you have a Warming Hut Reservation please call us to let us know if you plan to come or not. We are clearing the trail from the Ski Shop to the Warming Hut so your reservations are good and your deposits are still non-refundable.
Your response to Al's message (below) is astonishing! And so heart warming. It seems like all of you would make up an army of volunteers. And we so appreciate your offers. This is a bigger job than you can imagine. We are arranging to bring in big logging machinery to clear the trails. After they have gone through, we probably will take you up on your offers to help with the finer work. It won't be for several weeks though. We'll keep you posted here.
We expect to be out of power and phone and internet for several weeks still. I expect to occasionally travel with my laptop to where I can get internet service and receive emails. You are welcome to send us messages so long as you don't require a response. email Al and Irene
We'll keep in touch as we know and decide more.
We send our best holiday wishes to all of you,
Irene Jenks"
Link to page and full text is here is here:
http://www.windblownxc.com/Pages/conditions.html
Those of you who live in the area and have an interest in clearing some trails might consider heading over to Windblown to lend a hand. I'm thinking about it.
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