Inviting one and all to the slopes

It dawned on me last week that anyone on this whole big blue ball can come wandering up and buy a lift ticket and go sliding around on the local mountains.

Nobody is going to hassle you. Nobody is going to ask you which God you worship, which country you come from, which region you claim as holy.

Nobody is even going to ask you if you can ski or not.

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Come on up. Ride the lifts. Breathe in the fresh air. Be thankful for peace. And slide on down. Then do it again.

It becomes more and more remarkable almost every day now, the fact that we’re open to the world, to one and all.

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Oh, I suppose if you were wanted in seven countries for mayhem and such, you might not be welcome here, but who is going to know it’s you under the goggles and the gaiter and the funny ski clothes?

Come understand peace. We’ve got plenty. And we’re willing to share. Of course, we can only share what we’ve got.

This winter, what we’ve got is diversity in snowpack.

We’ve got snowpack low on the mountain that feels like it’s somewhere in April already.

We’ve got a crusty layer of snowpack from the rain that came Thursday and lasted until midnight.

We’ve got firm, shaved bumps where the skiers and riders have scraped by again and again, just before the cold night set in.

We’ve got some fresh snow still piled up here and there, from the 3 to 5 inches that came in on Thursday night, when the rain finally turned to snow.

And we may even have fresh snow this morning.

Last night’s forecast was calling for “very windy” conditions with west winds 30 to 40 mph shifting to the northwest.

Also, the wizard gurus were expecting isolated snow showers and perhaps 2 to 5 inches of fresh, public, universal snow for this morning.

Today, Presidents Day, we welcome all presidents (although we recommend gators for some).

And we welcome them with snow showers (maybe) in the morning and perhaps snow showers in the afternoon.

There could be snow accumulations of up to 2 inches today, with some winds. Highs are to be in the mid 20s to lower 30s, and the chance of precipitation today is 60 percent.

Tonight is to be cloudy with a slight chance of snow showers in the evening. Then snow showers are likely overnight. And hey, snow accumulations of 2 to 5 inches are expected again tonight. In fact, there is a 60 percent chance of precipitation.

And all we are we saying is give precip a chance.