Now, imagine how much snow should that snowmaking system would create making the new cooling system very much necessary. I’m glad that the people behind Killington ski resort are finding ways to improve and maintain the resort’s “beauty.”

Students at Eastern prefer to ski and snowboard at Mt. Snow, Mt. Southington, and Mt. Wachusett. As a student finding time and money to go for multiple days is hard to come by.
Mt. Wachusett has the best price for adults, juniors, and children under five. The highest price at Mt. Wachusett is still under the lowest prices for Mt. Southington and Mt. Snow. Mt. Wachusett for weekdays is $8.00 cheaper than Mt. Southington and $26.00 cheaper than Mt. Snow. If you plan for a weekend day (Saturday or Sunday), than Wachusett is only $1.00 cheaper than Southington and $33.00 cheaper than Snow.
If you need someplace close, Mt. Southington is the best mountain to visit. From Eastern it is 48.58 miles away, followed by Mt. Wachusett totaling 75.39 miles. Furthest is Mt. Snow with 137.00 miles.
Mount Snow offers all experienced type riders or skiers the most excitement with 80 trails. The second to most trails is Mt. Wachusett with 22, then Mt. Southington with 14 trails. Maybe you want to go to a big mountain so you do not get bored. Mt. Southington is 525 feet above sea level and the longest trail is only 7/8 a mile long. Mount Wachusett stands 2006 feet above sea level, with the longest trail about a mile and a half long. Mount Snow at 3600 ft. above sea level is the best for a full day of snowboarding or skiing.

By Ed Leefeldt | Nov 30, 2009

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A lot of water has flowed under the bridge between former American International Group CEO Hank Greenberg and the company he once ruled. But it could be time to float the idea that Greenberg might want to buy a piece of the ailing insurer.

Looking back a few years that idea would have seemed far-fetched. Greenberg was ousted from the job he held for more than 30-years by an angry board after a battle with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who filed civil charges against him. He faced lawsuits from AIG, which wanted the 12 percent of its shares that he controlled. He testified before the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was somewhat dissatisfied with his answers. Criminal charges were pending against one of his former executives, as well as others who were involved in a spurious deal regarding an insurance contract that made AIG’s earnings look better than they were.

But things are better now. Greenberg bested AIG in court and still owns 12 percent through companies he controls. While the former executive who worked for him was found guilty, and may serve time, no one has pointed the finger directly at Hank. And Greenberg settled with the SEC for a mere $15 million.

Best of all, it appears that AIG has put out the welcome mat. Greenberg has met with CEO Robert Benmosche and the two have nothing but good things to say about one another. And according to the New York Times, one of Greenberg’s companies might sell some of AIG’s property casualty insurance.

AIG’s property casualty unit is hanging on by a thread. It changed its name to Chartis to distance itself from AIG’s reputation. Revenue is declining, people are defecting – in part due to salary caps – and just today AIG’s price target was cut nearly in half by Wall Street research firm Sanford C. Bernstein because of an $11 billion shortfall in reserves to pay property casualty claims. “AIG would likely have to take some kind of a reserve charge” before selling AIG/Chartis, says analyst Todd Bault in a Bloomberg story.

And if AIG were to sell this unit, would Greenberg have the money to buy it? Greenberg controls private companies, so the amount of available cash to do a deal is unclear, but probably substantial. He previously indicated that he wants to make multimillion investments. Since he owns 12 percent of AIG’s shares, they could theoretically be swapped for control of an AIG business. But would he want Chartis? Probably, if he could get it for the right price.

Greenberg launched an unsuccessful proxy fight for AIG two years ago. Many would like to see him come back. And with taxpayer backing of $182 billion to pay that reserve charge, it might be a match made, if not in heaven, then on Wall Street. Ironically, most, if not all, of those who ousted Greenberg are gone, casualties of the 2008 collapse of this once giant insurer. Spitzer, himself disgraced by scandal, is a blogger.

Imagine Greenberg’s triumphant return to his former company captured on camera. Hank probably has it already scripted.

Tags: American International Group Inc., Insurance, Business Operations, Corporate Insurance, Ed Leefeldt

Ed Leefeldt is an award-winning investigative and business journalist who has worked for Reuters, Bloomberg and Dow Jones, and is the author of The Woman Who Rode the Wind, a novel about early flight.
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I’m supposed to be heading up to Sugarbush this Saturday/Sunday and was planning on skiing on Monday (4th) and Tuesday (5th). I’m coming up from NJ and have been really concerned about the weather reports for those days. There is supposed to be strong winds and I am really worried about Sugarbush closing down the lifts. I’ve called the resort but they weren’t too helpful. Can you give me any info? In your experience, do you think they will close based on the weather reports? I’d hate to spend all the money on lodging and lift tickets (not to mention time off work) only to get up there and have the lifts shut down both days. Please help! You are my last resort!

A TOUGH WINTER AHEAD?
The absurdity of winter weather hype along the
East Coast of the United States

Winter in the Western, Midwestern, and northern New England regions of the United States needs no headline to announce its arrival. Folks who live in these regions know how to prepare for the long and severe winters that come with living in a northerly or high altitude location. Each winter they meet the cold season with little fanfare or hype. If you live in a place like Williston, North Dakota or Green Bay, Wisconsin…you don’t need the TV weatherman to tell you a cold front is coming when the wind chill is – 45 F below zero. Folks living in the mountains of the Western United States… don’t need to be told what to do when it snows, you learn quick in places like Soda Springs, California where they get 470-inches of snow each winter, or in Alta, Utah where 516-inches of snow piles up in most winters. Folks around the Great Lakes and Northern New England seem unfazed when they get “only” a 100 inches of snow in an average winter.

The meaning and reality of the word “winter”, is far different along the East Coast of the United States. We shout from the rooftops when it’s 30 F in Central Park or two whole inches of snow falls in DC. From the Tri-State area (NYC/NJ/Conn) southward….the Eastern Seaboard does not have a winter in the Midwestern or northern sense of the word – only a season of cool weather with sporadic snow that lasts a a month or so on average. Although there is the occasional respectable snowstorm and bouts of subfreezing weather…winters along the East Coast are short and mild compared to the Western and far northern United States. Of course, once you get as far south as North Carolina on the East Coast…real winter generally just fades away. The long, hot summers are the dominant climatic feature of the East Coast south of Massachusetts.

However, each fall, around early November… the comical pump-up to winter begins in the I-95 states. Time and time again, East Coast weathercasters warn, “snow is not far off“ (really? it’s 65 F outside now) …or “snow has now been reported at Mount Washington, NH” (yea, that tends to happen at 7000 feet). By December the machine is in full swing – each broadcast the viewer is bombarded with “its sunny, but boy is it cold” (44 F cold? they would laugh at that in Duluth)…or the evening weathercaster announces “there is the threat of snow in the 8-day forecast” (as if we need to plan stock-up with supplies for a few inches of snow that will melt in two days),….or an oldie but a goodie is that file video of a snowstorm we had 7 years ago (or 17 years ago).

By December, the terse, non-stop rhetoric, reaches an almost comical pitch: If there is no threat of snow in the big cities along the East Coast (which happens most often)….we are then even warned about the cold – as if that the next cold front coming down from Canada into the upper Midwest will end all life as we know it on the East Coast. Somehow though, … that 20 below zero temperature they show us up in Minnesota … becomes 15 F in Indiana….25 F in Ohio,… and finally 35 F in Maryland or Connecticut. All we really needed was an extra scarf or a heavier coat. In a few days, it’s 45 F again.

Predictably, by mid winter, most folks in the I-95 states from Virginia to the Tri-State area…have long since stopped paying any attention to the evening weathercast beyond 48 hours. As each hyped bout of pathetic wintry weather comes and disappointingly departs…even the folks who love an occasional good snowstorm have lost interest. It can be a bit embarrassing when your local TV station in Baltimore or Long Island tells you in a frantic voice to get prepared for 2-inches of snow …when you see folks in Denver or Cleveland digging out from 2-feet of snow. The final chapter of this absurd East Coast tale comes to an end in mid March: local weathercasters (especially the ones who live for the 90-days of winter on the East Coast) grumble with comments like “we got off easy this year, wait till next year”. Year in, year out, it’s the same story.

For the millions who live in the Atlantic States… the TV weatherman has been reduced to a silly personality with a warped sense of climatological averages. Winter weather is a point of comical conversation for East Coast residents – a joke, a myth, something playful in a serious world. Sure, there is the occasional valid warning that it may snow once in a while, there may even be a week when the daily high temperature is stuck below freezing…but winter is fleeting along the Atlantic Coast of the United States south of Boston.

It takes awhile for a relocated Midwesterner to understand that winter along the East Coast is really a state of mind…not a real season. A true winter landscape… with huge snow drifts…ice hanging from the eaves…bitter cold, and people bundled up in parkas and mittens, is really what we romance winter to be. In the end, despite the best attempts by the gods of media, marketing, and meteorology…. residents along the East Coast never really pay much attention to winter…only images of winter. The hype of winter on the East Coast is really about marketing and media.

But oh how they hype that winter from Washington DC to southern Connecticut.

See you on the slopes.

Bob Maxon
NBC CT