Spraying the slopes; curling isn’t actually silly

Mount Snow, in Dover, in southern Vermont. The ski area has long had one of America’s biggest “snow’’-making operations.

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

I wonder how long ski areas will be allowed to take so much water to use to make  artificial snow to spray on trails even in areas with water shortages. And as the fake snow melts, it increases erosion on slopes. Further, at some ski areas, chemical additives are used to boost “snow’’ production. (China claims it hasn’t used additives in its fake-snow making at the Beijing Olympics. Beijing, by the way, has suffered water shortages for years.)

As the climate warms, this will be more and more of an issue.

Speaking of The Olympics, what other sport combines so weirdly decorum and seeming silliness as curling, which originated in Scotland?  Players slide heavy polished granite stones  on ice toward a target area segmented into four concentric circles and use brooms to reduce friction in a stone’s path. It’s rather hard to watch without chuckling.

I had an aunt on Cape Cod who was a curler. After I joked about it, she responded with dignity: “No, no, it’s a real sport. Lots of skill.’’ 

“Curling—a Scottish Game, at {New York’s} Central Park” (1862), by John George Brown

Green Mountain gorgeous

"Top of the World" (pastel), by Ann Coleman, in the Ann Coleman Gallery, West Dover, Vt., part of Dover, in southern Vermont, and best know for Mount Snow, the big ski area that was among the first to install snow-making equipment and that has always had a large percentage of “snow bunnies,’’ who tend to lounge at the base lodge rather than ski.

An edited version of the Wikipedia entry on Dover:

“West Dover was settled in 1796, when the area was part of Wardsboro, and was incorporated into Dover when that town was chartered, in 1810. The village grew economically in the 19th Century due to the construction of mills along the river. The first mill, a sawmill, was built in 1796, and was expanded to process wool through the first half of the 19th Century. The mill complex was destroyed by fire in 1901, bringing an end to that source of economic activity. Only traces of the mill complex survive today, but the village has a fine assortment of Federal and Greek Revival buildings that give it its character. In the 20th Century the village benefitted from the state's promotion of out-of-staters’ purchase of farms for vacation and weekend homes, and the growth of the nearby ski areas.’’