Podcasts about New Mexico

This week we take a look at the Victorio Peak Treasure! Who could have put the treasure there? Why would they have put it there? And most importantly, is it actually there?  Check out our sources below for more info and to continue learning!Please Rate & Review us wherever you get your Podcasts! Mail us something: GYT PodcastPO Box 542762Grand Prairie, TX 75054Leave us a Voicemail or shoot us a text!430-558-1304Our WebsiteWWW.GraveYardPodcast.comPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/GraveYardTalesYoutube: Youtube.com/c/GraveYardTalesRumble – GraveYard Tales PodcastDo you want GraveYard Merch?!?!Go to https://graveyardtales.dashery.com/ to get you some! Thank You Darron for our Logo!! You can get in touch with Darron for artwork by searching Darron DuBose on Facebook or Emailing him at art_injector@yahoo.comThank you to Brandon Adams for our music tracks!! If you want to hear more from Brandon check him out at:Soundcloud.com/brandonadamsjYoutube.com/brandonadams93Or to get in touch with him for compositions email him at Brandon_adams@earthlink.net Our ContactsWWW.GraveYardPodcast.comEmail us at: GraveYardTalesPodcast@gmail.comFind us on social media:X(Twitter): @GrveYrdPodcastFacebook: @GraveYardTalesPodcastInstagram: @GraveYardTalesPodcastSourceshttps://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/lost-padre-mine-legendhttps://archive.org/stream/cookespeakpasaro00couc/cookespeakpasaro00couc_djvu.txthttps://www.academia.edu/53998426/Explorations_at_Victoria_Peak_Laboratory_of_Anthropology_note_no_285_Chester_R_Johnson_Jr_Santa_Fe_N_M_Division_of_Research_Museum_of_New_Mexico_1963https://www.aaalivestock.com/old-timer-and-old-timers-24https://blog.providentmetals.com/friday-fables-the-treasure-of-victorio-peak.htmhttps://www.tapatalk.com/groups/ancientlosttreasures/victorio-peak-mystery-treasure-t5761.htmlhttps://www.treasurenet.com/threads/victorio-peak-documents-symbols-and-artifacts.202332https://www.newmexicomagazine.org/blog/post/lost-padre-mine-legend/amphttps://www.lostadamsgold.com/2017/07/09/decoding-treasure-symbols-on-a-maphttps://www.treasurenet.com/threads/padre-larue-or-laure.8374https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-06-16-vw-1352-story.htmlhttps://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-05-03-mn-8435-story.htmlhttps://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19930728/1713254/4-chase-ghost-of-gold----local-men-hunt-in-new-mexico-for-gleam-of-fabled-desert-treasurehttps://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-treasures5.htmlhttps://unsolved.com/gallery/victorios-peak-treasure/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/19/buried-treasure-sought-in-operation-goldfinder/e02d57d3-7691-49fd-b3f1-7fcddd1fafd8/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/20/in-search-of-a-legendary-gold-stash/efd37931-9828-457e-83cd-bbaeca56c18d/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/22/treasure-hunt-is-halted-after-dynamite-discovery/017211d0-0226-4838-b5b3-9246fbee40b8/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/28/gold-legends-do-not-die-easily/b9de5625-c982-4772-93bd-9495e167f0c4/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/04/08/dreams-in-them-thar-hills/cb878974-1804-4424-b783-571dc5b34899/https://www.wsmrhistoric.com/files/BW_lowres/1985%20Missile%20Ranger%20V38%20Issue%2027.pdfhttps://www.wsmrhistoric.com/files/1990%20Missile%20Ranger%20V43%20Issue%204.pdfhttps://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0142/1103405.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorio_Peak_treasurehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorio_Peakhttps://www.victoriopeak.com/abouthttps://skeptoid.com/episodes/4880https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Victorio_Peak_Treasure

The Sponsors We want to thank Underground Printing for starting this and making it possible—stop by and pick up some gear, check them out at ugpmichiganapparel.com, or check out our selection of shirts on the MGoBlogStore.com. And let's not forget our associate sponsors: Peak Wealth Management, Matt Demorest - Realtor and Lender, Ann Arbor Elder Law, Michigan Law Grad, Human Element, Sharon's Heating & Air Conditioning, Winewood Organics, Community Pest Solutions, Radecki Oral Surgery, Long Road Distillers, SignalWire where we are recording this, and introducing Applied Fitness Solutions, and The History of Michigan Football, an online course by Greg Dooley. Featured Musician: Bump THE VIDEO: [After THE JUMP: The show notes.]  --------------------- 1. Minnesota Preview: Offense starts at the top. Fleck and Harbaugh (no relation, pronounced Har-Bo) have been rolling their system back towards pro-style, have an old fashioned 6'5"/230 arm who doesn't run in Drake Lindsey, was getting draft hype that we do not understand. They still run the #collegecrappe offense: RPO slants, Power/Zone with huge OL, and lots of WR screens, because Javon Tracy—an excellent returner—is good at YAC. Darius Taylor is beat up, and they're without their starting C, but big-ass Greg Johnson has shifted to C and will maul. Get them in 3rd & long and we should be okay; RT Daniel Shipp is a weak spot and backup LG Jaden Ball—who never saw the field at Purdue—is hurt as well as bad. 2. Minnesota Preview: Defense & Special Teams starts at 16:54 One step forward, one step back for a defense that's been solid but can't quite get to elite. One thing you can expect is for them to be very responsible on the edges (and for Fleck to LOSE HIS SHIT) if they don't call holding on anything that breaks outside). Best guys are a giant DE, Anthony Smith, and a giant LB, Maverick Baranowski. Alex not super impressed with their Iowa CB John Nestor but Seth is. But their other LBs are pretty good. Have some issues with their Zone defense under 2nd-year DC Danny Collins, a longtime Fleck assistant who finally got the callup after serving under all the journeymen that Fleck's brought through. Defensive line is big but moveable, and a banged up Riley Sunram at nose may be the spot to attack them. Special teams notes: Javon Tracy has been the best PR in the country this year; has two TDs and nearly had a third when he accidentally stepped OOB. Do not kick to him. Punter is an Aussie averaging 40/punt. They stole New Mexico's kicker and got him eligible for a 5th year. Until then they were going with Beckham Sunderland, whom we could have used on kickoffs. Gotta suck for him.   3 Iowa After Review starts at 40:27 It was a very good day from Bryce, who was reading coverages, moving guys with his eyes. Beck finally dumped the Jet Motion stuff that opponents have downloaded and the run game started to move. But he's got to stick and move. Injury to Frazier meant they were heavily left-handed in the 4th quarter. Iowa's offense was in "get it OUT!" mode. Zero dropback passes that weren't on passing downs or 2MD drives. First-look passing offense that just tried to clear out or space and throw to the first read, covered or not, which resulted in nerfing the pass rush and a lot of defenders getting their hands on the ball. Middle distribution was three, Michigan extremely unlucky not to come down with at least one of those. Lauck was as advertised. What would you have done for the last play, because going man-lock was not a "let's kill this" play at a "let's kill this" moment.   4. Jug Tales wsg Greg Dooley starts at 1:00:27 The Professor returns to get us pumped for The Brown Jug. You know the story, but what was the context? Why was this such a big rivalry in the 1930s and '40s? I want to discuss Crisler, a former Minnesota head coach, Bernie Bierman, and the last time Michigan switched from a messy handpicked successor to a legend to an establishment oldster.  Featured Artist: Bump Here's another band we played with—possibly in an earlier form—for this empty battle of the bands at the I-Rock in Detroit during the 2003 Michigan-Minnesota game, which was moved to Friday night at the last minute because the Twins made the playoff. The I-Rock didn't have TVs so all the bands were crowded into someone's band van with a 9-inch black-and-white TV to watch the ending. When I saw them again it was at The Pig in 2005 and they had demos for what became Incredible Consequence. The thing that really made Bump was lead guitarist Chris Sterr, who's now touring with Billy Strings for his Heartbeat of Eternia project. Sterr's been doing an Allman Brothers cover band, and playing around Traverse City, and I'm really happy this is happening for him because if he had any ego he'd be a big deal already. When I met him he was with Bump, which was an early project Yorg Kerasiotis, a musician/filmmaker/unfortunate Sparty who's been going from one project to another in the Detroit-Ann Arbor music/arts/film scenes since the early 2000s. Bump wasn't his first project, but it's still my favorite, because they took the music seriously and nothing else. They were genre-benders, a sort of electronic funk garage that would have worked better in the 1990s Alternative scene. The album is here on Spotify; the demos I have seem to be close. Songs: Don't Be the Sunrise A Million Reasons Why        Wait a Minute        Also because Across 110th Street will get our Youtubes taken down, the opener and outro: “The Employee is Not Afraid”—Bear vs. Shark “Ruska Vodka”—Motorboat

Ein Tisch ist ein Tisch ist ein Tisch ist ein Tisch: Wir sind im “griechische Philosophen”-Modus. Aber gleichzeitig sind wir heute der feministische Kampfpodcast. Es ist beides möglich, es ist beides nötig, es ist beides richtig. Das neue Abkommen von Trump und den KI-Unternehmen ist ein Freiwilliges Soziales Bla, wir machen den Deepdivefreitag - und natürlich geht es auch um Muse. Na toll. ➡️ Die Unterschrift von Greg Brockman: https://www.tbsnews.net/world/president-unites-states-typo-spotted-trumps-white-house-super-intelligence-accord-1558996 ➡️ Mit der "Haken Dran"-Community ins Gespräch kommen könnt ihr am besten im Discord: http://hakendran.org ✔️ Jetzt abstimmen für den Grauen Haken 2026 und den Goldenen Haken 2026 - am besten per Mail an grauerhaken@hakendran.org

On April 24, 1964, Socorro, New Mexico police officer Lonnie Zamora reported encountering a strange egg-shaped craft resting in the desert, accompanied by two small figures and bearing an unusual red insignia on its side. Moments later, the object reportedly lifted from the ground with a roar and disappeared into the distance. Investigated by the U.S. Air Force's Project Blue Book, the Socorro incident would become one of the most famous—and perplexing—UFO cases of the twentieth century. In this episode of The Micah Hanks Program, we take a deep dive into the Socorro mystery, examining Zamora's remarkable account, the physical evidence investigators documented at the scene, and the competing theories that have emerged in the decades since. We also look closely at one of the case's most intriguing details: the mysterious insignia Zamora said he observed on the craft, including the controversy surrounding its true appearance and whether this curious symbol might have held the key to solving what has often been described as one of Project Blue Book's best-documented unexplained cases. SHOW NOTES Below are links to stories and other content featured in this episode. NEWS: Radio Waves Coming From an Alien Planet May Be a Cosmic First - The New York Times Mystery Surrounds Destruction of U.S. Spy Satellite in Orbit as Officials Assess Possible Danger to Existing Spacecraft - The Debrief   Göbekli Tepe Remains an 11,600-Year-Old Enigma—and a New Discovery is Challenging Past Views on Its Mysterious Purpose - The Debrief  Government UFO Whistleblower Claims He Knows 'For A Fact' The US Has Recovered Non-Human Craft  SOCORRO INCIDENT: The Lonnie Zamora UFO Encounter - A History  CIA: How To Investigate a Flying Saucer - CIA  DUNNING: Lonnie Zamora and the Socorro UFO - Skeptoid BECOME AN X SUBSCRIBER AND GET EVEN MORE GREAT PODCASTS AND MONTHLY SPECIALS FROM MICAH HANKS. Sign up today and get access to the entire back catalog of The Micah Hanks Program, as well as "classic" episodes, weekly "additional editions" of the subscriber-only X Podcast, the monthly Enigmas specials, and much more. Like us on Facebook Follow @MicahHanks on X. Keep up with Micah and his work at micahhanks.com. Want to advertise/sponsor The Micah Hanks Program? We have partnered with AdvertiseCast to handle our advertising/sponsorship requests. If you would like to advertise with The Micah Hanks Program, all you have to do is click the link below to get started: AdvertiseCast: Advertise with The Micah Hanks Program

Photo: Revillagigedo Island in Alaska where the old-growth forest plan is facing objections from KIC. (Anita Gould / Flickr) Ketchikan Indian Community and two conservation groups are asking a federal court to halt an old-growth timber sale in Alaska's Tongass National Forest. The Shelter Cove sale offers about 4 million board feet of timber as part of the larger South Revilla project near Ketchikan. The groups argue logging would harm subsistence resources, wildlife. and remaining old-growth forest. KIC President Gloria Burns says Indigenous knowledge cannot be treated as an afterthought in decisions about Tribal homelands. The groups are seeking an injunction while the court considers their broader lawsuit challenging the South Revilla project. Bids for the timber sale are scheduled to open October 20. Tesuque Casino in Santa Fe, N.M. (Courtesy Tesuque Casino) Prediction markets are becoming an issue for Native American tribes who argue they are threatening their gaming revenues and thus their ability to fund vital services. As KUNM's Jeanette DeDios (Jicarilla Apache and Diné) reports, New Mexico tribes and state lawmakers are looking at taxing them. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket are online platforms where people wager bets on an outcome around future real-world events, like sports or elections, but because of the way they are regulated they do not usually pay taxes to states. Tribal gaming in New Mexico, however, contributed over $151 million to the state's general fund in the last fiscal year. Tribes fear that prediction markets will lead people away from gambling in tribal casinos to online markets, which people can access on their phones while on tribal lands. and tribal officials say that is a violation of the gaming rights they negotiated with the state as sovereign governments. Tribes also use those revenues for things like early education programs, housing, and healthcare. During a meeting of the Indian Affairs Interim Committee last week, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Eugenia Charles-Newton describes how prediction markets are also targeting minors to bet. Right now, with prediction markets, we know that a 10-year-old standing next to the sheep camp, they can go onto a website and they can wager a bet. Prediction market websites are classified as federal financial exchanges rather than traditional gambling platforms, which allows them to market to people 18 and older. With weak age verification on social media, minors have been reported making wagers. Prediction markets currently exist in a legal gray area and gaming officials want the state to tax them, but lawmakers raised concerns. Those include whether taxes would affect current gaming compacts, how online activity would be tracked on tribal lands, and who would collect revenue. The Mescalero Apache, along with Isleta, Pojoaque, and Sandia pueblos are suing Kalshi. The New Mexico Attorney General also filed suit in June. They are among a number of lawsuits across the country against the platforms. In response, the federal government is suing New Mexico to block the state from enforcing its gambling laws against prediction markets. (Courtesy Native Voters Alliance Nevada) Voting disparities have deep roots for people of color and new research shows New Mexico’s Native voters are likely to face numerous roadblocks at the November ballot box. Roz Brown has more. Native voters in New Mexico face many barriers to voting, including disproportionately high rejections for voter registration and mail-in ballots. The new Native American Rights Fund and Blockwell Consulting report, “Obstacles Persist”, analyzes data collected by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission from the 2020, 2022, and 2024 general elections. The report found rejected voter registration applications increased by an average of 200% in counties where Native Americans make up at least a quarter of the population. Senior staff attorney Allison Neswood says the report confirms what Native communities have long known to be true. “Their registration is getting denied, their ballots [are] getting rejected, and all of this really adds up to the systemic disenfranchisement of our people in our own homelands.” The report also outlines how disruptions at the U.S. Postal Service had a significant impact on Native voters. Even as overall mail-in voting numbers declined between 2020 and 2024, the rejection rate of ballots in areas with larger Native populations increased by 134%. Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump's executive order, calling on the Postal Service to oversee mail-in ballots, a move plaintiffs successfully argued would have severely restricted voting by mail. The report's recommendations include expanding automatic and same-day registration to areas with larger Native populations, and paying poll workers comparable wages. Neswood says more investment is needed for voting infrastructure in Indian Country. “Making sure that our Native communities have polling locations in a reasonable distance from where they live, making sure they have registration opportunities, making sure that they can participate in mail voting.” The study focused on counties with high Native populations, including Cibola, McKinley, and San Juan counties in New Mexico along with Apache and Navajo counties in Arizona. Research by the Brennan Center in 2024 found voters of color are more likely to turn out when they live in jurisdictions where their ethnic group is the majority. Get National Native News delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up for our daily newsletter today. Download our NV1 Android or iOs App for breaking news alerts. Check out today’s Native America Calling episode Thursday, October 1, 2026 — Indigenous leaders take on organized attempts to downplay residential school narrative

What happens when schools move beyond punishment and create meaningful opportunities for accountability, repair, and belonging? On this episode of Restorative Works!, host Dr. Claire de Mézerville López speaks with Erin Chávez, the restorative practices coordinator at Garfield STEM Magnet and Community School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, about building a safer, more connected school community through restorative practices.  Erin shares how Garfield STEM has integrated restorative practices across classrooms, families, and student support systems. She also highlights the Circle Keepers, a student leadership group that puts young people at the center of restorative implementation. What began with 12 students has grown to 25–40 students each year who facilitate circles, support school events, teach future educators, and share restorative practices with university and community partners. Through this work, students develop leadership, communication, and conflict-resolution skills while helping shape their school culture.  The conversation also explores a common question: Are restorative practices too "soft" to create safe schools? Erin explains how restorative practices can strengthen accountability and safety rather than diminish them. She discusses alternative-to-suspension supports, repair plans, mediation, reentry meetings, and the importance of helping students return to the community after harmful behavior. Erin also shares compelling data from Garfield STEM: over five years, the percentage of staff who reported feeling safe increased from 43% to 83%, while student perceptions of safety rose from 34% to 89%.  Erin is a 20-year educator, having worked as a teacher, school administrator, and currently a restorative practices coordinator. She also sponsors the school's Circle Keepers student group, putting students at the forefront of restorative practices. Her students have partnered with the University of New Mexico's DEI Department and the College of Education and Human Sciences to highlight the role of restorative practices in building safe, connected, and thriving school communities. Erin has experience training all levels of educators, from early childhood educators to university faculty. She is also the owner of The Restoring and Rising Collaborative, providing restorative practices implementation support to youth-serving institutions. She earned her bachelor's degree in elementary education and master's degree in educational thought and sociocultural studies from the University of New Mexico.     Tune in for a practical look at restorative practices in schools, student leadership, school safety, accountability, reintegration, and sustainable implementation. 

Brooke DeRenzis from the National Skills Coalition talks with Paul Fain about how to build a workforce agenda for the AI economy. The National Skills Coalition is a nonprofit organization that advocates for inclusive, high-quality skills training. DeRenzis is the group's DC-based CEO. She shares how the US can leverage bipartisan concern about AI's impacts to improve on decades of unfinished workforce policy. Chapters 00:00 How ready is the US?: The main workforce law is a generation old and its real funding has shrunk. The safety net is built for normal ups and downs, not structural change. 02:15 We spend far less than our peers: The US is at the bottom of the OECD chart on workforce spending. 03:15 What Americans are saying: Nobody has a crystal ball. People want to know what AI means for their own job, family and community. 06:05 From "second chance" to "first choice": Treating workforce spending as a core investment, and why the lack of partisan lines on AI is an opening. 11:45 "Job training doesn't work"?: What workers actually want: economic stability, and control over their own careers. 14:55 "Economic infrastructure": People shouldn't have to choose between putting food on the table and getting training. 17:20 Where basic income and reskilling overlap: New Mexico's guaranteed income for student parents, and pandemic emergency aid at community colleges. 20:00 The pilot problem: Low spending produces modest results, which justifies low spending. Per Scholas, and $2K training vouchers versus a $10K program. 25:05 Scaling up: Community colleges, union-management training partnerships, and employers who want in from the start. 29:40 Corporate money: Lowe's and others investing in the skilled trades, and the building of AI infrastructure itself driving demand for workers. 33:05 States or Washington? Why not to wait, and the broken promises of past economic transitions. 37:45 Pennsylvania: Deindustrialization, Gov. Shapiro's shift on data centers, and where people can look for hope. 41:40 Community anchors: Community colleges and community groups as the places people go when they're worried about work. 44:45 A New Promise of Work: About 500 conversations nationwide, policy proposals coming at the National Skills Coalition's March 2027 Skills Summit, and who needs to champion them. Mentioned in this episode National Skills Coalition, https://nationalskillscoalition.org/ New Promise of Work, https://nationalskillscoalition.org/campaigns/a-new-promise-of-work/ Skills Summit, https://nationalskillscoalition.org/event/skills-summit OECD spending, https://www.oecd.org/en/blogs/2025/11/active-labour-market-policies-in-oecd-countries-why-renewed-investment-matters.html The $2K voucher, https://pw.hks.harvard.edu/post/publicjobtraining Per Scholas evidence, https://mdrc.org/work/publications/long-term-effects-sectoral-advancement-strategy/file-executive Corporate spending, https://corporate.lowes.com/newsroom/press-releases/lowes-foundation-plans-expanded-250-million-investment-help-train-and-develop-250000-tradespeople-over-next-decade-increasing-skilled-trades-workforce About The Cusp This podcast explores how the U.S. should be preparing for potential AI-driven disruption to jobs. Host Paul Fain talks with top experts about how the U.S. education and workforce systems can be part of the solution, what sort of policies will be needed, and who should pay for all this. The Cusp is produced by Work Shift, an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on connections between education and work. Get The Job, Paul Fain's weekly newsletter: https://workshift.org/the-job/ All episodes: https://workshift.org/the-cusp/ Work Shift on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workshiftnews

Joe talks about who's fighting to win in New Mexico, the Left's strategy, and the importance of turning the tidesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe talks about the attempted hijacking in the Middle East, some of the races in New Mexico and around the nation, the lethal injection blunder in Tennessee, the Left's AI fears, energy investments, the fights against fraud, and more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe talks about who has too much "wet water" and the tragedy of New Mexico's governor's raceSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The true-crime saga of the intertwined lives of a Native spiritual leader and a prominent literary figure—and their shared work in their pursuit to right a tragic wrongful conviction.Silas John Edwards—a charismatic Apache medicine man—was known as a controversial figure on Apache reservations in Arizona and New Mexico, where white authorities determined to maintain control over reservation life. When his wife, Margaret, was brutally murdered in 1933, Silas John was tried and convicted—receiving a sentence of life in prison. The key piece of evidence against Silas John was a rock found near Margaret's body, scratched with his initials, “S. J. E.".Were the scratched initials an attempt to frame a man whose independent path was deemed troublesome? Eighteen years into Silas John's sentence, the celebrated writer of the Perry Mason mysteries, Erle Stanley Gardner, received a desperate letter from the incarcerated medicine man. Gardner and Silas John met in prison and joined forces to reinvestigate the case. Under the auspices of Gardner's Court of Last Resort, an organization like today's Innocence Project that investigated cases of wrongful conviction, Gardner traveled through Arizona's varied reservation landscapes to hunt for clues.Together Silas John and Gardner attempted to unravel the flimsy evidence—including dubious footprint casts and questionable claims of Apache custom—to shatter the "cement silence" of prison and fight for the freedom of a historically important spiritual leader. The Case of the Autographed Corpse details a dramatic and little-known episode in American history and two men's unwavering commitment to the truth.

Three two game sweeps and a winner take all game on deck. MLB postseason thoughts. Dallas made another move to strengthen their defense. College golf match play in New Mexico! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

UNM offensive lineman, Kaden Robnett, joins the show to discuss expectations, his journey to New Mexico and staying focused. Which G6 conference has the edge right now? The surprise bowl, Cleveland vs Pittsburgh. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week's update:Transluce found AI agents probing websites for weaknesses when ordinary research hit a wall, without anyone telling them to.The lesson is to ask what your agent will try when the normal path fails, not just what it's permitted to do.OpenAI agents in a research environment posted 53 user images online, and a swarm shrugged off its own safety warning when a peer posted 'GO.'The lesson is that access plus freedom plus internet equals surprises, so give agents the minimum they need.Flock's CEO, who pitches surveillance as a reasonable compromise, blurred his own home and skipped a Senate hearing while the internet renamed his house.The lesson is that people who preach transparency for everyone else rarely volunteer for it themselves.Partisan sites disguised as local news are feeding AI chatbots, and the chatbots repeat them nearly half the time.The lesson is to demand sources from your AI, especially when it's talking about your vote.Bill Gates says a kill switch is useless if you can't tell when to use it.The lesson is that AI safety means continuous monitoring, records and accountability, not an emergency button.A developer offered 4,500 households $10,000 each for a 1,300-acre data center, and the town rejected it anyway.The lesson is to price the long-term cost to your community, not the size of the check.Researchers forged a 1024-bit RSA signature without stealing or factoring the key, using a raw signing oracle and a 2007-era technique.The lesson is to find where your systems expose raw cryptographic operations before someone else does.A New Mexico jury found nearly 44 million deceptive statements in Meta's privacy claims, with the penalty still to come.The lesson is to treat a free service's privacy promises as fine print to be verified, not marketing to be trusted.This week's throughline is that nothing stayed inside its lane, whether it was agents, executives, chatbots, developers, or even the math we trust. Systems will do what they can do, not just what we meant them to do, and hope is not a control. So here's your challenge for the week: pick one system you rely on, an AI tool, an account, a key, or a service, and ask what it can do that you never intended. Come back next week and tell us what you found.

Western Kentucky at New Mexico State Prediction by Tony T.Western Kentucky stopped a three-game skid with a 52-7 home win over Mercyhurst after losses at Nevada, Georgia and Indiana. New Mexico State lost the Rio Grande Rivalry 42-18 to New Mexico. Four consecutive meaningful Aggies possessions ended with two interceptions, a fumble and a turnover on downs, helping create a 35-3 deficit through three quarters.

Nepal, New Mexico, Thailand, the East Coast, Hawaii. Now Mexico and north. The water events keep coming. A hot spot in the equatorial ocean is changing the jet stream and bringing a super el nino. This is just the beginning as Earth begins to rebalance and heal. The message is 3-fold: prepare for areas of massive flooding, affecting farm lands, the food and clean water supply, and we need to unify and help everyone in order that all may survive.

Lisa Curtis is a an Albuquerque attorney, business owner, and community leader, who has spent more than 30 years representing New Mexico families. Lisa has long been active in her community. A graduate of Sandia High School and the UNM School of Law, Lisa grew up in the Northeast Heights, raised her family here, and her parents still live in House District 31. For 20 years, Lisa has led the L.K. Curtis Children’s Fund, supporting education, advocacy, and programs that improve the lives of New Mexico kids. From 2020 to 2025, Lisa chaired the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women. Lisa is a mother of four and a grandmother, she still lives in the neighborhood where she grew up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Santa Fe, New Mexico, thousands gather each year to burn Zozobra—a fifty-foot towering effigy stuffed with their worries, bills, and regrets. They shout, “Burn him!” as they hope the flames will devour their anxieties and troubles and reset their lives.

WhoDoug Fish, founder of the Snowvana ski show and Indy PassDate RecordedSept. 30, 2026About SnowvanaSnowvana is a “winter kick-off festival” (a ski show) scheduled for a four-city 2026 tour:Use the code “storm26” to snatch a free ticket here for any 2026 Snowvana show.Check out the list of free and discounted lift tickets available onsite at each show. Why I interviewed himIf we trust the metonymic origin story of our surnames, then Doug Fish is a descendant of “a catcher or seller of fish,” probably sometime before the invention of the printing press. I cannot think of anything that I understand less than fishing. Specifically, how a person can be good at it. My experience with fishing is that you cast a line in the water and nothing happens while you get drunk. But my buddy's brother could go out on Sanford Lake in a rowboat and return an hour later surrounded by like 50 fish. Every damn time. And I was always just astonished like whatever inherent traits you need to be good at fishing that dude has them.I don't know if Doug Fish is good at fishing, or if he even likes it. I do know that he's good at skiing, and that he likes it. And whatever fishing ability he may or may not have inherited from Alabaster Fish of the 12th Century, he certainly possesses some of the traits of great fishermen: patience, instinct, and the ability to do hard things that no one else can figure out.Organizing and launching the Indy Pass is probably one of the great achievements of modern skiing, in that it proved that any ski area - and therefore nearly any skier - could join the multimountain pass club. While Indy wasn't a novel or new concept, Fish was able to achieve the heretofore impossible task of organizing far-flung ski areas into a coalition with patience, persistence, and a low-key, no-pressure approach devoid of Big Ski's ego. Once Fish sold Indy Pass, he tried something even harder: replicating the success of his Portland ski show across the country. To me, that sounds even more impossible than fishing, and does not include the benefit of a cooler MGDs on the boat floor. But whatever is inside of Fish that made the Indy Pass work, it's making the recently faded ski show work too. I've attended Snowvana in Portland and Milwaukee, each time as a paid speaker. I'm scheduled to host live conversations with Indy Pass/Entabeni/Black Mountain owner Erik Mogensen (Friday, Nov. 6) and Killington owner Phill Gross and president Mike Solimano (Saturday, Nov. 7), at this year's New England show. I don't endorse Snowvana over any competing shows, but I do think ski shows in general offer a fun atmosphere, and a cool way to participate in skiing when you can't actually go skiing.BackgroundFish has appeared on The Storm Skiing Podcast four times, each time solely as a representative of the Indy Pass:TranscriptsThere are two transcripts. Both are generated by robots. Both are helpful and defective in their own unique ways. I do not proofread either of them.Transcript 1: Click the “transcript” button at the top of this article. You can only see this transcript on a computer. Because I don't know why exactly but everything is getting better and dumber all at once it seems. Anyway, this is the transcript that the robots create when I upload the podcast to the internet. The cool thing about it is that you can click on any block of text and the audio will teleport there instantly. The uncool thing about this transcript is that it does not indicate who is talking at any given moment.Transcript 2: You can read this below. This is the transcript that Zoom creates as we record the podcast. The cool thing about this transcript is that it indicates who is talking at any given moment. The uncool thing about this transcript is that the timestamps do not match the audio. Also, you cannot click on this text to move to the associated point in the audio.ZoomStuart Winchester: My guest today is the founder of the Snowvana Winter Kickoff Festival and also founder of the Indie Pass. Now in its 10th year, Snowvana gathers skiers, ski area operators, and retailers in Portland, Oregon.00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:46.000Stuart Winchester: Seattle, New England, and Wisconsin.00:16:46.000 --> 00:17:03.000Stuart Winchester: The Indy Pass, which Fish founded in 2019 and sold in 2023, but is still involved in, delivers skiers two days each at more than 300 ski areas around the world for winter 2026 to 27. He is making his fifth appearance on the Storm Skiing Podcast. He is Doug Fish. Doug, welcome back.00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.000Stuart Winchester: How's it been? Been way too long.00:17:06.000 --> 00:17:10.000Doug Fish: It has to. I know. I miss you.00:17:09.000 --> 00:17:21.000Stuart Winchester: I know. Well, it's been way too long on the pod, and I was just talking before this, in my little intro, before you joined, that this is one of the reasons I wanted to do a different format pod, because.00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:24.000Stuart Winchester: I talk or text you all the time.00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:25.000Doug Fish: Yeah, yeah, no worries.00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:39.000Stuart Winchester: And I haven't had you on the pod in 3 years. So, there's no reason for that, because we love hearing from you, and your episodes always do really well. And we will be working together here a little bit on one of these Snovana appearances in a bit. We'll get to that.00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:42.000Stuart Winchester: First, though, I do want to pick up…00:17:39.000 --> 00:17:40.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:47.000Stuart Winchester: where we left off in that pod three years ago. You had just sold IndiePass to Eric Mogensen.00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:47.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:48.000Doug Fish: Get it.00:17:47.000 --> 00:17:56.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, who has gone on to since, also by Black Mountain, and runs a technology company. He was on the podcast recently, and has been a couple times. Just…00:17:55.000 --> 00:17:56.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:04.000Stuart Winchester: First of all, tell us how you're still involved, and give as candid of an assessment as you can of.00:18:01.000 --> 00:18:02.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:18:04.000 --> 00:18:10.000Stuart Winchester: where the Indy Pass is once you… once you let that baby go.00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:18:11.000 --> 00:18:22.000Doug Fish: Well, it was a little difficult to let the baby go, but I felt at the time that it would be in good hands, and I'm happy to report that it is in good hands.00:18:14.000 --> 00:18:15.000Stuart Winchester: No.00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:27.000Doug Fish: Um, you know, my country… my employment agreement ran out.00:18:27.000 --> 00:18:29.000Doug Fish: Almost two years ago.00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:35.000Doug Fish: And I'm still involved, you know. Eric and I extended it, and we keep extending it, and…00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:45.000Doug Fish: I believe in in what he's doing. I certainly believe in the past. I think that Eric has done a great job of.00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:50.000Doug Fish: Staying true to the mission and the brand promise of IndyPass.00:18:50.000 --> 00:19:00.000Doug Fish: And, um, you know, as long as that continues, I will… I will be involved in some capacity. I'm kind of the Colonel Sanders of the IndyPass now.00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:08.000Doug Fish: I and you know I get to be a little a bit of an ambassador. I go to some of the trade shows.00:19:08.000 --> 00:19:10.000Doug Fish: I ski with people.00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:14.000Doug Fish: It's… it's a pretty good gig, you know.00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:15.000Stuart Winchester: When you said Colonel Sanders, I mean, are you…00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:19.000Stuart Winchester: What I thought you were doing is still…00:19:19.000 --> 00:19:23.000Stuart Winchester: Recruiting new partners? Is that not the case?00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:37.000Doug Fish: Yeah, I've been. That's what I've been primarily focused on recruiting and maintaining relationships, you know, and and helping grow from a hundred to 300 resorts in the last 3, 3 and a half years, which is pretty incredible growth. And.00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:33.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:49.000Doug Fish: you know, I can't take all the credit, but, um, you know, when you can focus on just one thing, you can be a lot more effective, and I've been focused on that.00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:04.000Doug Fish: But Eric has assembled a great team, and I've kind of handed that that part of the the effort off to Nick Niebus and a couple other people on Eric's team that are recruiting new resorts, and, as you can see from the latest release, that's.00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.000Doug Fish: Going pretty well.00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:12.000Doug Fish: Um, and I, you know, I think there's some other exciting news in the, in the, uh…00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:21.000Doug Fish: Uh, coming up in the future, I won't spill the beans, but, um, you know, there's always cool things happening there, and I'm just really thankful to be involved.00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:38.000Stuart Winchester: It's been really fascinating to watch the evolution of not just the Indy Pass, but the Pass landscape as a whole. And coincidentally, we started our brands in the same year. Obviously, you've been at this game for a long time, but the Indy Pass launched in 2019, and that's when I came around.00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:30.000Doug Fish: Mmhm.00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:41.000Stuart Winchester: observing the industry.00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:57.000Stuart Winchester: the pass landscape for as long as you've been directly involved in it. And I think the way I always look at this, Doug, is Vail normalized the notion of a multi-mountain pass as an everyday product for the everyday skier, not just a niche product for locals.00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:58.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:04.000Stuart Winchester: And then ICON copied that model, and your contribution to it, which I think was…00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:07.000Stuart Winchester: Extremely important was.00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:17.000Stuart Winchester: taking that idea and normalizing the idea of the non-alpha ski area, non-destination ski area, and you do have some of those, you do. But…00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:25.000Stuart Winchester: the idea that if you put together Brundage and Mission Ridge and Silver Mountain and White Pass.00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:25.000Doug Fish: Okay.00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:40.000Stuart Winchester: That would be an attractive pass together, right? Because those ski areas, they're, they're good, they're big ski areas, they have lots of snow, but they're not destination ski areas, they're not things people would have thought to fly to, but you had this insight, okay, but if I put them all together, that's pretty cool.00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:29.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.000Stuart Winchester: And so I'll give you some numbers and I'll let you react to this.00:21:44.000 --> 00:21:52.000Stuart Winchester: So, the first season of IndiePass, you launched with, you know, your first list of 10, and maybe you had 50 by the end of the year. Right now.00:21:52.000 --> 00:22:04.000Stuart Winchester: if you look at, uh, Epic, Icon, Indy, Mountain Collective, and the new Snow Pass from Snow Partners, there are 451 ski areas around the world.00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:11.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, between those 5 passes. A little bit of overlap between a few of them. 267 in the United States.00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:11.000Doug Fish: Yeah, thank you.00:22:11.000 --> 00:22:13.000Stuart Winchester: 55 in Canada, 61 in Europe.00:22:13.000 --> 00:22:17.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and 53 in Japan.00:22:17.000 --> 00:22:19.000Stuart Winchester: I mean, as you…00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:25.000Stuart Winchester: As you kind of reflect on how this landscape has changed.00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:33.000Stuart Winchester: I've asked this before, but I'll ask again, does this surprise you? I mean, how well this worked and how much it caught on?00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:37.000Doug Fish: No, it doesn't surprise me at all.00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:39.000Doug Fish: It's basic economics.00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:44.000Doug Fish: You know, lift tickets were getting super expensive, and.00:22:45.000 --> 00:23:05.000Doug Fish: a lot of people are getting priced out of the sport, and I mean, even if you want to ski at Vail resorts or Altara resorts. You know you you really have to get a pass if you want to ski more than a few days, and so it doesn't surprise me at all. It's just a it's a good deal. Any pass is the best deal of all.00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:49.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:19.000Doug Fish: You know, whether you use it as a regional pass, you know, you go 4 or 5 days in New England, or you take it and you hit the road and hit 25 resorts. It's the best deal in skiing, and it always has been.00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:24.000Doug Fish: So, you know, people respond to deals. That's…00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:28.000Doug Fish: That's, uh, you know, the most of… most, uh…00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:39.000Doug Fish: effective word in advertising is free and cheap comes a second, I think. So it doesn't surprise me a bit.00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:44.000Stuart Winchester: So we're starting to see a little bit of churn, and we've seen this since the days of the Max Pass.00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:45.000Doug Fish: Okay.00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:59.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and, you know, the Epic Pass and Mountain Collective sort of trading partners around. We've seen less of it, maybe, than I expected at the top end of Epic and Icon. We're starting to see a little in Indy. You've had some partners leave, you've had some partners who have gone to different passes.00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:50.000Doug Fish: Yeah. Okay.00:23:51.000 --> 00:23:53.000Doug Fish: Yeah, exactly.00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:00.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:05.000Stuart Winchester: What do you… so, the reality is it's a good idea, and people copied it, and that's a free market, and that's how compet.00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:06.000Doug Fish: Yes.00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.000Stuart Winchester: My question for you is, what do you think?00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:20.000Stuart Winchester: IndyPass has to do to make sure that it stays relevant, that the coalition stays together, that it stays an attractive.00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:18.000Doug Fish: Mmhm.00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:26.000Stuart Winchester: product for both skiers and ski area operators as Eric takes it into the future.00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:27.000Doug Fish: Yes.00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:32.000Doug Fish: Well, two things. I think that any of us, Lauren.00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:37.000Stuart Winchester: I'm sorry, can you repeat that?00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:41.000Doug Fish: I apologize, too. I got a derm.00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:40.000Stuart Winchester: All good.00:24:41.000 --> 00:24:43.000Doug Fish: Um…00:24:43.000 --> 00:24:51.000Doug Fish: In order for Dandy Pass to remain relevant, they need to continue to be an affordable option for consumers.00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:56.000Doug Fish: and continue to deliver value for the resorts.00:24:56.000 --> 00:25:07.000Doug Fish: And value in, you know, the quality of the visitors, the guests, the amount of check they write, and the amount that they pay for each visit.00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:11.000Doug Fish: And if they can continue to do that, then they will…00:25:11.000 --> 00:25:14.000Doug Fish: They will outlive you and I both.00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:14.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:28.000Doug Fish: Um, and, you know, yes, we have over 300 resorts now, you're bound to lose a few now and then. And, you know, we took a hit this year, a few people left, that was unfortunate, but we added…00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:17.000Stuart Winchester: Thank you.00:25:21.000 --> 00:25:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:38.000Doug Fish: quite a few more. So, you know, it's going great. I'm proud of what they're doing over there, and I'm proud to be associated with it still.00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:54.000Stuart Winchester: So you're playing… I mean, your name comes up all the time, as you said, from listening to the first few podcasts of this shorter version that I'm doing now, or trying to make them short, is… wow, everyone has a lot of opinions about Doug Fish, but so does Doug Fish.00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:50.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:25:54.000 --> 00:26:03.000Stuart Winchester: So, so you're clearly still living large in the minds of, of everyone who's involved in the IndiePass or works with it, but you're…00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:18.000Stuart Winchester: Main focus, I think, now, is on Snowvana, which… I copied this language, I don't want people to think I'm being corny, when I say it's a winter kickoff festival. I copied that from your press release, because I didn't really know what… like, I want to call it a ski show.00:26:16.000 --> 00:26:17.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:25.000Stuart Winchester: but you seem to not want to call it a ski show. So, what is… what is Snovana, and…00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:24.000Doug Fish: Well, that's a ski show.00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:28.000Stuart Winchester: And what are you trying to accomplish with it?00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:26.000Doug Fish: Good, good.00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:43.000Doug Fish: It's all those things. It's a enhanced ski swap. You know, you can call it anything you want, but, um, we started Savannah in 2016, so this is our 10th anniversary, and, um.00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:30.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:54.000Doug Fish: You know, Snowvana is a place for everyone to gather at the beginning of the season, you know, and we certainly didn't invent that. I think Warren Miller did.00:26:53.000 --> 00:26:55.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:26:54.000 --> 00:27:10.000Doug Fish: originally, and I remember as a kid going to Warren Miller films, and I was just in awe of of all that, and it was a just, you know, getting stoked for the coming season. It was just an annual pilgrimage.00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:14.000Doug Fish: And, um, you know, over the years there's been, um.00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:31.000Doug Fish: you know, hundreds of ski shows, 50 ski shows across the country, big shows. And you know we we I have always been involved in events. I was in the concert business for almost 20 years, and my.00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:34.000Doug Fish: At the beginning of my career.00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:46.000Doug Fish: And, uh, I just, you know, when I was a kid and was in high school, we used to, you know, put on keggers and sell cups for a buck. So, you know, events are in my blood, and I love it, and…00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:42.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:45.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:27:46.000 --> 00:28:01.000Doug Fish: you know, when I sold the IndyPass, I sold my marketing agency, but I kept Snowvana, because, you know, I thought it'd be fun to keep it going, and… and uh… the young man who…00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:06.000Doug Fish: helped me, um, helped me, um.00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:10.000Doug Fish: Grow the Indy Pass.00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.000Doug Fish: Didn't want to go with Indy Pass. He didn't want to move to Colorado.00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:19.000Doug Fish: So I said, well, why don't you come and run Snowball? And we'll keep that going.00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:26.000Doug Fish: And it was actually his idea to, um, to expand it. He said, you know, I think this is a model that we can scale.00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:38.000Doug Fish: And, um, you know, I looked at him, I said, okay, you do all the work, and I'll help with the marketing, and I'll finance the operation, and, you know, here we are.00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:39.000Doug Fish: That was, uh.00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:44.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, so you're doing… you started this 10 years ago, and you're taking it around the country.00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:50.000Stuart Winchester: But you said ski shows have been around forever, right? So, you said there's been 50, 100 ski shows.00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:49.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:52.000Stuart Winchester: How is…00:28:52.000 --> 00:28:57.000Stuart Winchester: What happened to all those shows? Aren't they still there? Are you still competing with them?00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:03.000Stuart Winchester: And if so, it doesn't seem like a… like a market that's super ripe for disruption, right? Like, once you…00:28:58.000 --> 00:28:59.000Doug Fish: Here.00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:04.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:29:03.000 --> 00:29:16.000Stuart Winchester: have a ski show, you kind of own the market, it would seem like. So, I guess rewind for us a little bit, maybe I should have started there. What have ski shows traditionally been in America, and.00:29:07.000 --> 00:29:09.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:29:16.000 --> 00:29:19.000Stuart Winchester: What's happened to them over time?00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:31.000Doug Fish: Well, ski shows have been, you know, what's Nirvana? It was kind of a kickoff festival, a gear sale, and I think they kind of collapsed under their own weight.00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:40.000Doug Fish: You know, the Windy City Ski Show had a 40-year run. The Boston Ski and Snowboard Expo had a 60-year run.00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:49.000Doug Fish: uh, the Denver show. There's been ski shows in all the major northern markets, even in, you know, Dallas had a big show for many, many years, Atlanta.00:29:49.000 --> 00:30:03.000Doug Fish: And, um, but the cost of putting on these shows, these big shows, 100,000 square foot shows, is just too much. And, uh, at the same time, as these big shows started to go away.00:30:03.000 --> 00:30:18.000Doug Fish: ski swaps proliferated, you know, in every gymnasium and, you know, high school cafeteria across the country. You know, small ski resorts have a ski swap and a kickoff, you know, festival in the fall.00:30:18.000 --> 00:30:22.000Doug Fish: All over the country, there must be hundreds of ski swaps.00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:39.000Doug Fish: And so we looked at that and said, well, you know, ski swaps are great, but you can't get out of there fast enough. You know, when there you rifle through all the stuff and maybe you find a gym and you get a good deal, but, you know, there's no reason to stick around.00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:55.000Doug Fish: And what we try to do is create a festival atmosphere. We still have the ski swap. We have a consignment swap, which is a fundraiser for a local nonprofit. And then we have a huge gear sale and we work with local retailers.00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:04.000Doug Fish: So, you know, there's a lot to choose from, but there's lots of really good deals. And, um, but there's…00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:16.000Doug Fish: you know, there's fun stuff to do, too. We have films, we have live music, we have a bar. Um, you know, we do stupid stuff like, uh, frozen t-shirt contests and barefoot skis.00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:15.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:19.000Doug Fish: Um, so…00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:25.000Doug Fish: Yeah, there's just, you know, there's a lot of fun activities happening.00:31:29.000 --> 00:31:31.000Doug Fish: And, um…00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:38.000Stuart Winchester: So, so, so that's, that's all right, that's all right. So.00:31:33.000 --> 00:31:37.000Doug Fish: Sorry, I got interrupted too.00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:42.000Stuart Winchester: Is there a… is there an inflection point when the ski…00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:54.000Stuart Winchester: show stopped working. I want to point to COVID in 2020 that probably killed a lot of them for a year and then forever, but that's probably too simple of an explanation.00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:50.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:00.000Doug Fish: Yeah, COVID I think was, you know, put a fork in a lot of the big shows.00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:08.000Doug Fish: Um, you know, a lot of promoters decided not to… not to come back. Um, but, you know, I think that the…00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:08.000 --> 00:32:15.000Doug Fish: It's very tough. These municipal convention centers are just extremely expensive.00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:27.000Doug Fish: and I think you know that's that was part of it. And you know, online sales. And you know all the all the things that kill retail right? Because these are retail events.00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:26.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:37.000Doug Fish: And so, you know, we kind of, we took a year off for COVID too. In 2020, nobody was doing events.00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:35.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:42.000Doug Fish: Well, we came back in 2021 and it was our best show. We were the first.00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:54.000Doug Fish: show to come back and give it a go in 21 at the Oregon Convention Center. And the place was packed, and it was because people were just starving for.00:32:54.000 --> 00:33:11.000Doug Fish: you know, human connection. You know, they've been cooped up in their house for a year, and they came out in droves. And, you know, this is what, you know, these shows give us, is that human connection.00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:56.000Stuart Winchester: Something.00:32:56.000 --> 00:32:58.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:21.000Doug Fish: You know you can buy skis online. You can buy anything online. But you know the the community comes together and and.00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:28.000Doug Fish: It's, you know, we call it AI for the ski business, authentic interaction.00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:33.000Doug Fish: You know, we need more of that, not less of it. And it's…00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:31.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.000Doug Fish: It's just a it's a cool thing.00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:51.000Stuart Winchester: So how are you getting around the cost piece, though? I mean, if you want to — they left Chicago because of cost. It seems like that's because Chicago costs a lot. So you're going into Boston this year, and we'll talk about that in a minute. That's not a cheap market.00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:42.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:47.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:33:50.000 --> 00:34:00.000Doug Fish: No, well, we're going into the suburbs. We're hitting the suburbs now, you know, we're in West Seattle, in a suburb of Seattle.00:33:53.000 --> 00:33:55.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:33:56.000 --> 00:33:58.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:01.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:11.000Doug Fish: Uh, we're in a suburb of Milwaukee and Franklin, Wisconsin, and we're in a suburb of Boston, out in Marlboro. It's about 40 minutes west of town.00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:19.000Doug Fish: And they call it, uh, West Metro. And, um, you know, these venues are smaller.00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:16.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:22.000Doug Fish: They're about 50,000 square feet versus 100.00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:34:22.000 --> 00:34:37.000Doug Fish: and they're way less expensive. We don't have to deal with union. You know the cost of a union labor, and you know nothing against unions. But.00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:52.000Doug Fish: they can drive the cost up. And and you know, General Motors and Ford, you know, they can do an auto show there. No problem. They've they've got deep pockets. We can't. And I think that's why some of these big shows, you know, finally threw in the towel.00:34:44.000 --> 00:34:46.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:34:52.000 --> 00:34:59.000Doug Fish: And, you know, the venues we're in, they're not as fancy. We're in a World War II airplane hangar in Seattle.00:34:58.000 --> 00:34:59.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:14.000Doug Fish: you know, at a in a in a park in West Seattle. It's a really cool building. But believe me, you know, it's it's it's not fancy. And so that's the that's the difference. And and.00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:10.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, thank you.00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:25.000Doug Fish: we're able to charge 5 bucks in advance. Kids are free. The booth cost is reasonable for for vendors, and.00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:27.000Doug Fish: You know, it works.00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:38.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so you… the timeline's interesting for those who are following along. So you started Snovana in 2016, launched Indie in 2019. I'm curious…00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:44.000Stuart Winchester: how one may have fueled the other. In other words, and I know you've been in skiing and in the ski industry for decades, but…00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:46.000Stuart Winchester: Once you…00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:58.000Stuart Winchester: established IndiePass, and you made all these connections all over the country, I have to imagine that greased the wheels a little bit for Snowvana, because a big part of this, and we'll talk about this in a minute, is.00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:07.000Stuart Winchester: when you go there, most of the regional ski areas have booths set up. And not just the Independents, it's Vail and Altera, I've been at a bunch of the ones that I've been to.00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:04.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:36:06.000 --> 00:36:08.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:36:07.000 --> 00:36:12.000Stuart Winchester: In their mountains, in the bigger mountains, all over the place, so… so…00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:15.000Stuart Winchester: Do you think, I guess…00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:24.000Stuart Winchester: I guess the question is, how did IndiePass fuel the growth of Snowvana, or do you think that this would be taking off the way it is either way?00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:33.000Doug Fish: Oh, I think Snowvana and the work we were doing at the agency with a number of ski resorts all led to the.00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:36.000Doug Fish: the idea behind the Indy Pass.00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:37.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:42.000Doug Fish: And certainly the IndyPass connections that I've made have helped us expand.00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:52.000Doug Fish: Snowball on it. There's no question. You know, we just we're moving into the Boston market this year for the 1st time, and we have 37 resorts signed up.00:36:52.000 --> 00:36:59.000Doug Fish: That's pretty good for a first-year show. We have 70 resorts across the country. I think it's closer to 80 now.00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:36:59.000 --> 00:37:08.000Doug Fish: And, you know, it's the only place where you're gonna see, uh, Epic Pass, Icon Pass, and Indy Pass all in the same room.00:37:07.000 --> 00:37:09.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:16.000Doug Fish: And, um, you know, that's the way it should be. You know, we want to be Switzerland and invite everyone in, because that's what the consumer wants.00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:27.000Doug Fish: you know, people want to want to interact with all those companies. And and so yeah, indie pass. There's no question it. It helped us.00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:29.000Doug Fish: You know.00:37:29.000 --> 00:37:31.000Doug Fish: break into new markets.00:37:31.000 --> 00:37:46.000Stuart Winchester: So if you look at the four markets you're in this year and, you know, Portland is the logical one, that's your home base and has been for a long time. Then you have Seattle, you have Milwaukee in the Midwest, and you have, you know, we'll call it Boston or New England or whatever you want to. It's in Mass.00:37:38.000 --> 00:37:40.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:47.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:55.000Stuart Winchester: Right? So, one thing I always appreciated about the Indy Pass is that you didn't just make it a Western Pass, you went into the Midwest right away.00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:56.000Doug Fish: Mmhm.00:37:55.000 --> 00:38:13.000Stuart Winchester: You went into New England right away. So talk about each of those four markets and, and why it makes sense to do ski shows there because for, for example, in the Midwest, you could have, you could have gone to Detroit, you could have gone to Grand Rapids, you could have gone to Chicago, you could have gone to Indianapolis.00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:23.000Stuart Winchester: chose Milwaukee, which is, you know, everyone's heard of Milwaukee, but it's not necessarily, like, the capital of Midwest, like Chicago is. So just talk us through those markets and your…00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:14.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:29.000Stuart Winchester: Slow expansion across the country, and you're kind of thinking behind where you're choosing to do this.00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:40.000Doug Fish: Yeah, good question. Um, so Seattle was a no-brainer. You know, we knew that we were drawing people out of Seattle for the Portland show. It's three, three and a half hours to Seattle.00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:48.000Doug Fish: And we were drawing a pretty good crowd, so… uh, there hasn't been a show in Seattle for a decade. It's a great ski market, you know, they have…00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:55.000Doug Fish: 3 phenomenal resorts within an hour of downtown Seattle, Stevens, Crystal.00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:11.000Doug Fish: Summit. That's no qualming help at all. So you know, we found a venue up there that was affordable, you know, an old airplane hangar. And you know, we put a show up there, and it did well. And so we thought, Okay.00:39:09.000 --> 00:39:10.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:18.000Doug Fish: Uh, we didn't really want to go to California, uh, so we started looking east because.00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:21.000Stuart Winchester: You, you didn't wanna go to California, why not? I mean, that's a huge market.00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:30.000Doug Fish: Um, yeah, it is a huge market, and, you know, maybe we'll go to the Bay Area. There's a big show down in LA called Ski Dazzle that's still going, a big show.00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:31.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:32.000Doug Fish: And, um…00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:44.000Doug Fish: Uh, but to my knowledge, nothing significant in Northern California, so we may go there someday. But, um, you know, where we… where we went, it's really…00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:52.000Doug Fish: you know, I knew that the Indy Pass was going to be successful back east because there's so many resorts, and more importantly, so many people.00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:55.000Doug Fish: And, and so.00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:03.000Doug Fish: We started looking to the east and Milwaukee, you may think, well, that's kind of a weird place.00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:23.000Doug Fish: Wisconsin's the number four ski state in the country in terms of number of ski resorts. And Michigan is number three. So, you know, or maybe it's number two, but yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of passion in the Midwest. And I knew that from working with the resorts out there.00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:07.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:15.000Stuart Winchester: It's 2.00:40:23.000 --> 00:40:35.000Doug Fish: you know, Rick Schmitz has been a great ally and supporter of mine, and you know we've been friends for many, many years, and he said, Hey.00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.000Doug Fish: Uh, come and do a show in Milwaukee, and I'll help you promote it, and…00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:54.000Doug Fish: you know, there just happens to be a big sports complex right there at the base of Crystal Ridge, which he owns. And, um, you know, they had space that would work for a show, so we popped a show in there, and it worked.00:40:55.000 --> 00:41:10.000Doug Fish: Um, and then we were all set to go into Chicago next, you know, kind of an eastward progression, uh, either Chicago or Detroit, and, um, I got a call.00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:17.000Doug Fish: from a friend of mine in New England. They said, Hey, Snowbound is leaving Boston.00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:20.000Doug Fish: You guys should come out here and do a show.00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:38.000Doug Fish: And I thought, oh my gosh, that's the best ski show market in the country, you know, it's been going for 65 years. And so Quinn McIntyre and I jumped on a plane in early December, when there was absolutely no snow, by the way, in the West.00:41:38.000 --> 00:41:58.000Doug Fish: And so we, of course, took our gear, and we spent a week in New England skiing some phenomenal powder at Loon, and Jay Peak, and Bretton Woods, and Black Mountain, and, you know. But we also, you know, met with a few venues back there, and found one that made sense out in Marlboro.00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:45.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.00:41:49.000 --> 00:41:51.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:41:58.000 --> 00:42:09.000Doug Fish: Uh, a nice suburb of… of Boston, and… and made the decision right then, okay, we're gonna do this. We signed a 3-year lease, or 3-year contract for… for the space.00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:14.000Doug Fish: And here we are. We're in Boston.00:42:13.000 --> 00:42:19.000Stuart Winchester: So, so to, so to clarify for listeners, Snowbound still exists. It moved to the Mohegan Sun.00:42:19.000 --> 00:42:23.000Stuart Winchester: Casino in Connecticut. So that show, indeed, will still go on.00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:29.000Doug Fish: Yes. Yeah, they didn't go away, they just moved… they just changed locations, and… and they're a couple hours from Boston now, so…00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so, so…00:42:29.000 --> 00:42:31.000Doug Fish: Thank you.00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:32.000Doug Fish: Go ahead.00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:48.000Stuart Winchester: So each of these shows you go to and, you know, the gear is great and I'm sure that's why a lot of people go. I'm obviously super into the ski area, so when I go and I look at the deals tab on Snovana.com, the first thing I see at the top of each.00:42:48.000 --> 00:43:05.000Stuart Winchester: list of ski areas that will be there, and their deals are free lift tickets for Willamette Pass, when you're out in the Western shows, uh, I believe in the Midwest, you get one free at Little Switz, or Nordic, or Crystal Ridge, then out East, it's Black Mountain Maine, and there's some others as well, I'm just…00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:53.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:02.000Doug Fish: Yep.00:43:02.000 --> 00:43:04.000Doug Fish: Okay.00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:08.000Stuart Winchester: Highlighting some. So, talk a little bit about…00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:07.000Doug Fish: Mm-hmm.00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:25.000Stuart Winchester: that, because, I mean, you pay $5 to get in, and this is… it's funny, because it's kind of a throwback to the pre-pass era, when you kind of have to collect your own pass, and find all these coupons, and, you know, Warren Miller would have, like, a free ticket to Sugarbush or whatever, so… so just talk a little bit about that, and what.00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:20.000Doug Fish: Yeah, right.00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:21.000Doug Fish: Yes.00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:23.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.000Stuart Winchester: attendees can expect to find their deals wise.00:43:28.000 --> 00:43:36.000Doug Fish: Oh, yeah. Well, that's what motivates people is deals. We say the deals are great and the stoke is free.00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:36.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:36.000 --> 00:43:39.000Doug Fish: And yeah, I, you know.00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:45.000Doug Fish: Can't help but mention in Boston, we have Black Mountain of Maine.00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:47.000Doug Fish: Neshoba.00:43:47.000 --> 00:44:03.000Doug Fish: and Mcintyre, all giving away free lift tickets for your with your admission. And yeah, so 5 bucks, or for 5 bucks you probably get. I don't know. That's 200 bucks worth of lift tickets, and that that's before you know all the other swag that people are giving away.00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:50.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:43:58.000 --> 00:44:00.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm, sure.00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:03.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:44:03.000 --> 00:44:14.000Doug Fish: So, yeah, I mean, it takes a lot to get people off the couch to come down and park and, you know, go to an event. And, excuse me.00:44:14.000 --> 00:44:19.000Doug Fish: So we try and pack as much value into the ticket as we can. Um…00:44:19.000 --> 00:44:39.000Doug Fish: And all the resorts are there with deals. There'll be 37 resorts in Boston and 70 across the country. They're all offering deals of some kind, whether they're selling a season pass for a discount or a three pack or a daily lift ticket.00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:30.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:43.000Doug Fish: And that's what people want.00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:44.000Stuart Winchester: 8. Yep.00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:52.000Doug Fish: And, you know, those are just the lift tickets. The gear is… the deals on the gear is what really brings people in.00:44:52.000 --> 00:45:06.000Doug Fish: And, um, you know, we can… I can confidently say that we've got some of the best selection of new and slightly used gear for 40% to 80% off.00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:07.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:45:06.000 --> 00:45:14.000Doug Fish: And, you know, we spend all summer collecting it from manufacturers, from reps, from, you know, demo fleets.00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:30.000Doug Fish: And the retailers that we work with in each market, they also, you know, they bring last year's stuff that didn't sell. They bring maybe their lease fleet that, you know, they're retiring. And there's just some incredible deals, and…00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:36.000Doug Fish: You know, people will walk out saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:40.000Doug Fish: If they can spend the time, you know, looking around.00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so, so, lip ticket deals, gear deals, another thing you'll find there, uh, at least at the Boston show, is me and I will be doing live interviews on Friday with Eric Mogenson, the owner of IndiePass and IntoBenny. Then on Saturday…00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:51.000Doug Fish: Yes.00:45:54.000 --> 00:46:13.000Stuart Winchester: I will be hosting live on stage at Snovana Boston, or Suburban Boston, or New England, or whatever you want to call it. The owner of Killington, Phil Gross, and also the president, Mike Solomano, who I've had on my podcast before, but this will be our first live event. This is the third time I've done this sort of event.00:46:04.000 --> 00:46:05.000Doug Fish: Uh-huh.00:46:13.000 --> 00:46:20.000Stuart Winchester: For Snowvana, I did one last year with Lonnie Gleiberman of Mount Bohemia at the Milwaukee show, and I did one.00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:29.000Stuart Winchester: I think maybe it was the year… two years before that, in Portland, with a panel of general managers. It's been a lot of fun, and… and, you know, that's a…00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:25.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:46.000Stuart Winchester: That's a disclosure. I've worked, I guess, for Snowvana because these, you know, I don't do these things for free. It's, it's a, it's a business, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a business deal. And, um, and those things take a lot of work, as you know, but, but that, that's just one example. All right.00:46:37.000 --> 00:46:38.000Doug Fish: No.00:46:46.000 --> 00:46:48.000Stuart Winchester: Talk about just…00:46:48.000 --> 00:46:59.000Stuart Winchester: I guess quickly just run through the dates of the other shows, and the sorts of things that people can expect to be on the stages, or other things I haven't mentioned yet.00:46:58.000 --> 00:47:00.000Doug Fish: Yeah.00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:02.000Doug Fish: Excuse me.00:47:02.000 --> 00:47:08.000Doug Fish: We don't spend a lot of time with speakers. You're kind of the only one, Stu.00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:12.000Stuart Winchester: That's not true. Sean Suttner, my friend, is doing one the next day.00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:12.000Doug Fish: Yeah, the great Sean Sutner.00:47:12.000 --> 00:47:23.000Doug Fish: Yeah, Sean Suttner from the Worcester Gazette and Telegram will be there on Sunday interviewing the ownership team from Wachusett.00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:21.000Stuart Winchester: Crowley's.00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:23.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:42.000Doug Fish: But yeah, I mean, we have live music. We've got, you know, frozen T-shirt contests this year. We're launching the pray for snow dance contests. And we've got this thing called the Sumo Bowl. It's a inflatable boxing ring and 2 inflatable beer cans. You put these on your body, and.00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:50.000Doug Fish: you try to knock your buddy down, and if you do, you're entered to win a pair of skis. I mean, it's just stupid stuff, but people love it.00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:50.000Stuart Winchester: Right, right.00:47:50.000 --> 00:48:04.000Doug Fish: And so those are happening at all the shows. Great gear sales, lots of resorts, free lift tickets. The great Stu Winchester in Boston this year.00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:56.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:15.000Doug Fish: And and then, you know, we've got this thing called the cream of the swap. It is a special section in the gear sale.00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:07.000Stuart Winchester: Don't oversell it.00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:11.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:30.000Doug Fish: in the ski swap where we feature a lot of higher end product, mostly, you know, brand new 2627 demo skis. It's all mount. They're all mounted. They've been skied 2 or 3 times.00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:38.000Doug Fish: And there's just some incredible deals there, 40% to 50% off on essentially brand new gear.00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:38.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:53.000Doug Fish: And, um, so you'll find those features at all of the shows. Each market, you know, had some slight differences and, you know, based on what's going on locally and how the venue's laid out, but…00:48:53.000 --> 00:49:03.000Doug Fish: You can go to our website and check out what's different in each show if you want, what the different deals are. All the deals are listed.00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:10.000Doug Fish: Uh, that, you know, the resorts are giving away, or the retailers are giving away for, you know, discounting.00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:20.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so don't hold me to this, because they could change, so check the website, please, before you go. But right now, I'm scheduled to interview Al… Excuse me.00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:36.000Stuart Winchester: Eric on Friday, November 6th at 5.30pm Eastern, and Phil Gross and Mike Solomano of Killington at 2pm on Saturday, November 7th. Those are in Marlboro, Massachusetts. So the… the only thing that I think we can hold Doug to at this point.00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:44.000Stuart Winchester: is… is the dates. So, Seattle, Washington, October 16th to 18th, at Hangar 30 in Magnuson Park.00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:50.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, the Portland show is October 23rd to 25th at Portland Expo Center, where it's been for several years.00:49:49.000 --> 00:49:51.000Doug Fish: Mmhm.00:49:50.000 --> 00:50:06.000Stuart Winchester: The show that I'll be at will be in Marlboro, Massachusetts, November 6th to 8th at the Royal Plaza Trade Center, and you wrap the season in Franklin, Wisconsin at the Crystal Ridge Ski Area, or the Mosh Performance Center, November 13th through 15th, and again, we won't.00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:13.000Stuart Winchester: resorts and everything else, because I'd imagine you're adding more all the time. You do have a special treat for my listeners, Doug.00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:15.000Doug Fish: Yes, we do.00:50:13.000 --> 00:50:16.000Stuart Winchester: If they want to go to any of those, right?00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:22.000Doug Fish: Yeah. Thank you, Stu, for having me on, and thank you to your listeners for, you know, listening to this podcast.00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:30.000Doug Fish: Um, if you want to go to Snow Vaughan and check it out, because you're a fan of Stuart Winchester, you can get a free ticket.00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:47.000Doug Fish: And oh, the code. So there's a promo code. Go to our website, snovana.com, and, you know, click on Buy Ticket, and the promo code that'll get you a free ticket is THESTORM26. THESTORM, all lowercase, 26. You should put that up on the screen.00:50:47.000 --> 00:50:49.000Doug Fish: Stu, um…00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:51.000Stuart Winchester: I will have my editor do that.00:50:50.000 --> 00:51:02.000Doug Fish: Okay, good. And, uh, yeah, get a free ticket, come down, get some, you know, some swag, some free lift tickets, and find a deal on a pair of skis, or a snowboard.00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:05.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, any… so that's for this year…00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.000Stuart Winchester: You have any sense of where you want to go next?00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:14.000Doug Fish: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've got Philadelphia booked for 2027 through 2019.00:51:12.000 --> 00:51:13.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, really?00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:33.000Doug Fish: We will be in the King of Prussia suburb of Philly. Quinn McIntyre, my colleague, is from Philadelphia, so he's pretty stoked about that. And so we'll be there, and then, you know, we're looking at some other potential.00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:25.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:27.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:34.000Doug Fish: expansions.00:51:34.000 --> 00:51:40.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, and do you anticipate these 4 locations returning for 27, or is it too soon to say?00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:55.000Doug Fish: Oh, yeah, we anticipate all of them just, you know, going gangbusters this year, and we'll be back, but, you know, it's like an election. You never know how it's gonna go until election day, and uh…00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:07.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, Doug. Well, look, I appreciate you coming on the show again. I never know where I'm gonna see you next. You mentioned you were in New England last December, and I had gone up there for the Ski New Hampshire media event they hold every December, and…00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:56.000Doug Fish: So…00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:23.000Stuart Winchester: I turned around at one point, and there's Doug Fish and Quinn walk through the door. I was like, the last thing I… the last people I expected to see at the Ski New Hampshire media night, because you guys are usually, uh, locked into the West Coast at that time of year, but… but it was a pleasant surprise, so, uh, next time I see you, hopefully.00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:12.000Doug Fish: Bye.00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:19.000Doug Fish: Yeah. Okay.00:52:23.000 --> 00:52:28.000Doug Fish: Yeah, hopefully it will, Stu, and it's always a pleasure. It's great to be back on the show.00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:33.000Stuart Winchester: You too, man. Talk to you soon.00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:40.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, that was Doug Fish, founder of IndiePass and Snovana.00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:56.000Stuart Winchester: Let's do a little quick reader react, listener react, and then we'll get outta here for today. So there you got some reaction to the podcast that I put out on Monday with Pajarito, New Mexico, general manager Jason Bellamy.00:52:56.000 --> 00:53:12.000Stuart Winchester: Gary Luft says, as a New Mexico local, I am pumped about Powerito getting these upgrades. I've been a pass holder at Ski Santa Fe, but this year I'm going with MCP's Power Pass. Thanks to Stuart for giving some attention to our great unknown.00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:25.000Stuart Winchester: to those outside of New Mexico, mountains. You're welcome, Gary. I, uh, love all ski areas, and I'm sorry I have not given more love to New Mexico in the past, though I have done a couple of Taos podcasts. So the Power Pass, for those who.00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:32.000Stuart Winchester: don't know what Gary's talking about is… is Mountain Capital Partners owns about a dozen ski areas, including two down in Chile, and… and…00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:48.000Stuart Winchester: The power pass is, is basically their epic pass, right? It's the unlimited pass at all of their mountains, not unlimited at the Chilean ones, but you can see all the footnotes on their website. Uh, the point is it, it, there's three different versions and the cheapest version, it's 4 49 right now, I believe.00:53:48.000 --> 00:54:05.000Stuart Winchester: gets you unlimited access to Pajaritos, Sapapu, and Sandia Peak in New Mexico, and it gets you quite a bit of access at MCP's other resorts as well. The full unlimited version is unlimited at all of MCP's U.S. mountains, including really, really good ones like Purgatory, Arizona Snow Bowl.00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:18.000Stuart Winchester: I've also got Lee Canyon on there, which is a super gorgeous ski area outside of Las Vegas I talked about the other day. And again, the PowerEater upgrades he's referring to are… PowerEater's just putting in this massive snowmaking system that's…00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:23.000Stuart Winchester: Doubling is a fire suppression system, so it's, uh, it's super… it's a…00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:40.000Stuart Winchester: Partnership with local governments that they're doing this through. So it's, it's a really cool model that hopefully other ski areas around the West can learn from and copy. Jeremiah Kay says, interesting episode. I think wildfire mitigation will be an increasingly important component of helping get snowmaking permitted in the West.00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:50.000Stuart Winchester: 100% agree. Jeremiah Kay continues, The ski school and MCP episodes back-to-back got me thinking about urban opportunities to learn and progress as a skier.00:54:50.000 --> 00:55:02.000Stuart Winchester: Mostly because I always thought MCP should acquire the Outpost Ice Rink at the base of the Sandia Tram, and put their version of the indoor part of Woodward in that facility.00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:13.000Stuart Winchester: Would love an update episode on the state, urban, indoor… uh, state, I think he's saying state of urban slash indoor ski areas. I know you covered Big Snow well, not sure what happened to Alpine X.00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:21.000Stuart Winchester: Much like Epic and Icon add small feeder hills, I wonder if they will add something like Snowbond to a past product.00:55:21.000 --> 00:55:38.000Stuart Winchester: A little surprised we don't have Woodward Brooklyn in a warehouse somewhere. Yeah, I think, Jeremiah, that that would get back to Doug's earlier comment about why the urban ski shows mostly died. It's just the expense. You don't… and the Brooklyn warehouse, as you well know.00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:40.000Stuart Winchester: is not inexpensive.00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:55.000Stuart Winchester: thing to find these days, even though they still look like they're 150 years old, because they are. I don't know what happened to AlpineX, either. I check in with them for an update once in a while, and they keep answering my emails, but there's nothing to report. I would imagine they're caught up either in permitting.00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:13.000Stuart Winchester: or financing hell, and probably both. Continuing, Allison says, this pod does a great job showing the appeal of smaller, out-of-the-way resorts. Thank you very much, Allison. That is a core part of the storm. I love ski areas, large and small. Patrick says, I had to rewind to double-check after listening to the first 10 minutes.00:56:13.000 --> 00:56:30.000Stuart Winchester: You recapped the exciting things MCP has done while mentioning every ski area except Arizona Snowball. Later, it made more sense. You discussed Snowball specifically with Jason and called out the potential for Power Rito to follow the same transformative storyline, and you probably planned that all along.00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:42.000Stuart Winchester: This was a great interview about a skier I'd love to check out one of these days, and maybe snowmaking will make it more feasible. Yeah, you know, Patrick, it's interesting. There's a little nuance there in that that big snowmaking project?00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:57.000Stuart Winchester: I believe all happened before MCP bought Snowbowl, so I hesitate to give them credit for it. I do give them credit for all the things they've done since, you know, putting in the Chadala and.00:56:57.000 --> 00:57:12.000Stuart Winchester: really revamping that ski area, and… and uh… I think the power pass and everything else has been great for it, and I think MCP's doing a… a great job across their portfolio, so… so you're right. It was… it was, uh, something I didn't get to till later, and… and I'm always…00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:13.000Stuart Winchester: a little bit…00:57:13.000 --> 00:57:22.000Stuart Winchester: indecisive about how much credit they should give her, but I am working on a separate podcast that's going to focus on that, so stand by for that.00:57:22.000 --> 00:57:24.000Stuart Winchester: Scott Abraham…00:57:24.000 --> 00:57:39.000Stuart Winchester: Bajarito, Powerito, Powerino, don't care what AI calls it, had one of the best powder days of my life 15 years ago or so. Girlfriend in Santa Fe, who worked at Los Alamos, drove her up on Thursday and headed for the mountain, 2 feet afresh since they closed Monday.00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:54.000Stuart Winchester: Over the groom, helly skiing quality, amazingly friendly locals who were delighted to show off their mountain to the tourists from Seattle, and green chili on my inexpensive burger, of course. Might have to visit her again this winter and sneak up on Thursday. Alright, Scott's a tough critic, so…00:57:54.000 --> 00:58:03.000Stuart Winchester: if he likes something, uh, that's a good sign that it's probably pretty good. So that's an endorsement, uh, from someone who typically complains about everything.00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:20.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, Aiden says, in the last comment, I was referring to Scaria operations and management programs when he said SROM, or similar at several colleges. Thanks again for the great work. So Aiden was referring to a previous comment he made in an episode when he said, uh, you should find out more about SROM programs in your…00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:27.000Stuart Winchester: And I said, you're right, I should, because I have no idea what they are. All right, thank you, Aiden, for clarifying that. That will be our show for today.00:58:27.000 --> 00:58:43.000Stuart Winchester: Please go to stormskiing.com and subscribe to the Storm Ski Newsletter. You can start with the free tier and the very best way to up to support my mission of independent ski journalism is to upgrade to the paid tier, which will give you the ability to interact with the podcast and all of the written content.00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:50.000Stuart Winchester: below the paywall, which typically is about 80% of the storm. Been a little slow lately, but like I said, it will pick up.00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:52.000Stuart Winchester: You can rep the storm.00:58:52.000 --> 00:59:05.000Stuart Winchester: like this hat if you're watching, uh, with hat, shirt, hoodie, go to stormskiing.myshopify.com. Please follow the storm on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, at Storm Ski Journal. Till next time, stay well, stay safe.00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:21.000Stuart Winchester: I'm Stuart Winchester, and I'll talk to you again very soon. No show tomorrow on Thursday. I'm recording a couple on Friday. We'll put one out Friday, one out Saturday. That's the plan anyway. General managers of Mount Southington, Connecticut, and our good friend Dennis Eshbaugh.00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:25.000Stuart Winchester: who has run Holiday Valley in New York for decades.00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:32.000Stuart Winchester: Till next time, stay well, stay safe. I'm Stuart Winchester, and I'll talk to you again very soon.00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:36.000Stuart Winchester: All right, sorry, you'll have to smooth me out a little at.00:59:36.000 --> 00:59:38.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, so, uh…00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:40.000Stuart Winchester: Just a couple notes.00:59:41.000 --> 00:59:42.000Stuart Winchester: Um…00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:44.000Stuart Winchester: There's, uh…00:59:44.000 --> 00:59:48.000Stuart Winchester: At the end, Doug says a discount code.00:59:48.000 --> 00:59:55.000Stuart Winchester: Storm, lowercase, 26, and he wants us… he said, put that up on your screen. I said, I'll ask my editor to do that. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

This episode: ETOPS flights could be impacted by the closing of an airport on a tiny South Pacific island. FAA rescinds Cessna Citation single-pilot exemptions. Heart Aerospace unveils the ES-36 hybrid-electric 30-seat regional commercial aircraft and JSX purchase agreement for up to 100 aircraft. A Congressman questions the FAA deployment of the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (“SMART”). The Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Board determined that incorrectly positioned variable vanes caused the F-16 crash in December 2025. A Boeing 737 MAX software glitch could disrupt a navigation feature. Boom Supersonic loses the launch customer for their land-based Superpower stationary powerplant. And pilots are accused of being in a “club” of furry fetishists. Aviation News Midway Atoll's Airport Has No Flights, But Its Closure Could Disrupt Airlines Worldwide Midway Atoll Airport (MDY) in the South Pacific, also known as Henderson Field, is a public airport on Sand Island. Midway Atoll is a 2.4-square-mile unincorporated territory of the United States. With a 7,800-foot runway, the airport primarily serves as an emergency diversion point for transpacific flights. The DOT estimates that the airport needs at least $100 million to stay certified. The Airline Dispatchers Federation (ADF) opposes closing Midway Atoll Airport because it will affect airline operations across the Pacific. ETOPS ratings (“Extended-range Twin-engine Operations Performance Standards) apply to twin-engine jets and specify how many minutes a plane is allowed to fly on a single engine to get to the nearest suitable diversion point. The FAA grants approval for each airframe-engine combination and again to each operator, based on its maintenance and dispatch program. The ETOPS rating process is informal. The FAA grants two separate approvals, one for the design and one for the operator, and both are needed before an airline can fly a route: Type design approval (Aircraft Certification Service) The manufacturer shows that a specific airframe-and-engine combination is suitable for extended diversions. It involves: Design and systems review. The FAA assesses ETOPS-significant systems such as fuel, electrical, hydraulic, APU, cargo fire suppression, and pressurization for redundancy and their ability to keep working through the maximum diversion time, including time-limited systems. Propulsion system reliability. Assess in-flight shutdown (IFSD) rates and the engine’s overall service record. For new engine/airframe combinations without an in-service history, an early or accelerated ETOPS relies on design assessment, testing, and a demonstrated reliability program instead of accumulated fleet hours. The Configuration, Maintenance, and Procedures (CMP) document defines the required airplane configuration, maintenance tasks, and operating procedures that an ETOPS-approved airplane must follow. Operational approval (Flight Standards) Type design approval doesn’t let any airline fly ETOPS routes. Each operator must be authorized through its FAA certificate-holding district office (CHDO). The airline must show that it can: Maintain the airplane to the CMP standard, with an ETOPS maintenance program, ETOPS-qualified maintenance personnel, and procedures such as verifying critical systems after work and monitoring reliability. Dispatch properly, including selecting ETOPS alternate airports with suitable weather and services, and planning for time-limited systems, fuel, and diversion scenarios. Train crews and dispatchers on ETOPS procedures. Conduct a validation process, which for new operators or new airplane types may include proving or validation flights. The FAA conducts ongoing oversight and monitors IFSDs and other events that could affect ETOPS. It can restrict or revoke an approval if reliability degrades. For detailed ETOPS information, including EDTO (Extended Diversion Time Operations), see How Do Planes Fly Over the Pacific? (ETOPS Explained) from Aeruxo – Flight Ops Insights. FAA Rescinding Cessna Citation Single-pilot Exemptions The FAA is rescinding exemptions that allow some Part 25-certified Cessna Citation jets to operate with a single pilot. The exemptions date back to 1984 and had been based on a lack of data showing any negative impact. The FAA’s decision is based on an 18-year review indicating that older Citation jets operated by a single pilot have a significantly higher accident rate than other models. Also, investigations revealed issues such as incomplete training records and unauthorized use of training devices among exemption holders. The ruling is effective September 28, 2026, and affected pilots must operate these aircraft with a qualified second-in-command. Pilots who previously held single-pilot exemptions will lose their privileges.  The FAA has been issuing single-pilot exemptions for transport-category CE-500 variants for over forty years, starting with Exemption No. 4050 to Cessna in 1984. The eight variants covered are the 500 (Citation and Citation I), 550 (Citation II), S550 (S/II), 552 (Navy T-47A), 560 (V and Ultra), 550 Bravo, 560 Encore and Encore+. The exemptions went to training providers, who issued single-pilot logbook endorsements. Heart Unveils ES-36 With JSX Order In Episode 898, our guest was Heart Aerospace co-founder and CEO Anders Forslund. We talked about the ES-30, a hybrid-electric 30-seat regional commercial aircraft the company is developing. Heart just unveiled the 36-seat ES-36 with an additional 1,415 pounds of payload capacity. Maximum takeoff weight and battery capacity remain the same, and the plane now employs two series-hybrid electric powertrains. The changes result from Heart's experience flying the X1 demonstrator aircraft. JetSuiteX, Inc. (or JSX) charters a 30-seat Embraer regional jet that is operated by a subsidiary and then resells seats on that aircraft to the public. It offers point-to-point flights in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Texas, Utah, and Baja California Sur in Mexico. JSX's agreement converts a 2023 letter of intent into a deposit-backed purchase commitment and secures early delivery positions for the carrier. See also, press release: Heart Aerospace Unveils ES-36 with JSX Purchase Agreement for Up to 100 Aircraft Beyer Calls For Suspension Of AI System Deployed By FAA At Washington Area Airports In a press release, U.S. Representative Don Beyer (D-VA) says, “The FAA should not use my constituents as guinea pigs for an unproven AI air traffic control system.” He was referring to the FAA's deployment of the Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (“SMART”) system to manage flights at Washington area airports. Beyer cited uncertainty among regional residents about air safety, and the lack of public awareness about the change. Air traffic controllers were also neither consulted nor trained, and airlines “were privately ‘panicking' about the hasty implementation of this system.” Beyer serves as co-Chair of the bipartisan Congressional Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus. His Northern Virginia district includes Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA). ‘Misaligned' fan blades, loss of thrust caused Thunderbird F-16 crash The F-16CM aircraft that crashed on Dec. 3, 2025, in California was powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 turbofan. The pilot was rejoining the formation after a vertical loop/barrel roll sequence when the engine stalled. The pilot described it as “the jet just… stopped midair.” He fought the aircraft for roughly four minutes, then ejected at under 500 ft AGL. The Air Combat Command Accident Investigation Board [PDF] determined the mishap was caused by three misaligned or turned variable vanes in the engine’s 4th and 5th stages, which caused a 5th-stage compressor blade and a 6th-stage compressor blade to fracture and separate, resulting in catastrophic engine damage at low altitude with no ability to recover. The aircraft had a documented foreign object damage (FOD) event years earlier (2021, per Common Defense’s reporting) that produced damage in the 1st stage on three separate occasions, plus recovered foreign material at the 4th stage (paracord). Because the visible damage was upstream and nothing was seen in the sections preceding the 5th/6th stage core, that area was never inspected and the investigators concluded the FOD “substantially contributed” to the mishap by leaving a latent path for the vane misalignment to develop undetected. Variable vane actuators on the outside of an engine case. Image by Olivier Cleynen. Boeing flags 737 MAX software glitch: reports The software glitch identified can prevent pilots from accessing an automated navigation feature when they change their planned flight path after a missed approach. Pilots have been notified, and Boeing is working on a software update. The Air Current reports that the software issue emerged nearly two years ago. Boeing “was alerted by a customer in November 2024 to the potential issue affecting 737 models with flight management computer (FMC) updates U14 and 14.1… When a pilot alters their preprogrammed flight path following a missed approach, the FMC may transition from vertical navigation (VNAV) mode to a simpler level of automation for pitch control.” Crusoe abandons $1.25B plan to use Boom turbines at AI data centers In Episode 874, we looked at Boom Supersonic's plan to develop the land-based Superpower stationary powerplant as a derivative of its Symphony engine, generating a revenue stream to fund Boom's other operations. We cited reports that Crusoe Energy, an AI data center startup, had 29 Superpower units on order, valued at $1.25 billion, with delivery expected in 2027. Crusoe has now announced it will not pursue a deal with Boom. Boom Supersonic CEO Blake Scholl posted on X his congratulations to Crusoe on their latest funding round, and: “Also wanted to let everyone know Crusoe and Boom are no longer launching our Superpower turbine together. The TL/DR is that turbines are no longer part of Crusoe’s near term primary power mix at Abilene/etc., so a launch partnership just didn’t make sense.” Further, “Boom will be delivering about 250MW of Superpowers next year to other sites, and we’re targeting 1GW in 2028.” Trump ally Tuberville isn't kidding when he says US pilots are in a ‘club' of furry fetishists Senator Tommy Tuberville from Alabama claimed on the Senate floor that “many airline pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community.” The International Anthropomorphic Research Project's Furscience website says “furries” are an anthropomorphic animal subculture. Members of this group adopt alter egos known as “fursonas” and wear “fursuit” costumes. Tuberville said, “We got a huge mental illness problem in this country, and we need to address it. We need to address it quick.” The IARP website says, “Furscience is the public face of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project (IARP), studying furries and their fandom and disseminating our evidence-based research to furries, the general public, scholars, and the media to increase understanding and decrease stigma.” Hosts this Episode Max Flight, our Main(e) Man Micah, Rob Mark, and David Vanderhoof.

Special guest Todd Lisenbee joins us to discuss if Mateer will get replaced at QB. Steve paints the picture that this is the pivotal moment for Venables to make a key head-coaching decision. While we ponder if it should happen (mostly we all agree it should), we debate if it will happen. That discussion plus predictions.Realist Deal Locks of the WeekSteve: Notre Dame -21, New Mexico -22.5, James Madison -18.5 Conner: Notre Dame -21, Penn State -2.5, North Dakota State -18.5 Lucas: Tennessee -7.5, Kentucky +2.5, USC -9.5 Jay: Alabama -5.5, Georgia -24.5, Florida -5.5 Listener: Ohio State -14, Florida -5.5, Wisconsin -9.5Prop Bet of the WeekOver/under 11.5 victories for ranked teams in the 13 ranked vs. unranked matchups this week.Steve: OverConner: OverLucas: UnderJay: UnderThis Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Two Homers and a Realist at twohomersandarealist.substack.com/subscribe

In June of 2015, a family traveled from New Mexico into the mountains of southern Arizona for what was supposed to be a quiet Father's Day weekend camping trip. But shortly after arriving, one member of the family disappeared during a walk that should have taken only a few minutes.Sources:Tombstone News, Las Cruces News, Charley Project, Reddit, Labyrinth Podcast, Strange Outdoors, NBC News, Facebook, WikipediaSupport us on Patreon for as little as $1 a month, with benefits starting at the $3 tier!Follow us on Instagram at offthetrailspodcastFollow us on Facebook at Off the Trails PodcastIf you have your own outdoor misadventure (or adventure) story that you'd like us to include in a listener episode, send it to us at offthetrailspodcast@gmail.com  Please take a moment to rate and review our show, and a big thanks if you already have!**We do our own research and try our best to cross-reference reliable sources to present the most accurate information we can. Please reach out to us if you believe we have mispresented any information during this episode, and we will be happy to correct ourselves in a future episode.

About this episode: In this episode of the Wellness Pro Hotline, Cate Stillman sits down with Amy Glasser, founder of The Vital Well — an Ayurveda-based membership community for women seeking deeper vitality, hormonal balance, and long-term health. Amy has already done the foundational work: she has built her club, set up her classroom, refined her Vitality Checkup sessions, and established her sales cycle. Now the question is simple — how does she fill her pipeline consistently and convert cold leads into committed members? What unfolds is a practical, laser-focused coaching session on one of the most underutilized lead generation strategies in the wellness industry: showing up in person at farmers markets, festivals, and community fairs to offer free Vitality Checkups. Cate walks Amy through the entire three-session funnel, from the initial pulse check at the table, through the assessment review on Zoom, to the Sacred Sales pitch that closes the client into a year-long club commitment. This episode also covers how to handle time blocking as a single parent, when to offer certificates of completion and continuing education credits, how to create FOMO using a monthly club calendar, and why the closing call is simply about getting someone to defend their desire and commit to their health. This is the Wellness Pro Hotline: real practitioners, real challenges, real coaching — on the record. Key Takeaways: The Three-Session Farmer's Market Funnel: How to move a cold lead from a free vitality checkup at a community table to a closed year-long club member across three intentional touchpoints Discover, Desire, Defend: Why the Sacred Sales framework is the difference between a presentation that informs and a conversation that converts Certificates of Completion and CEUs: How to add perceived and real value to your club by offering completion certificates and continuing education credits without overcomplicating the process Time Blocking for Leads and Sales: How to structure your week so lead outreach, sales calls, and closing calls each have their own designated time — even around childcare and a split-location lifestyle Creating FOMO With a Monthly Calendar: Why showing prospects exactly what is happening inside the club this month is one of the most effective closing tools available One Claude Prompt Away: How Amy is already using AI to support session notes, client plans, and content creation — and how to go further Resources and Links: Fix Your Offer Session: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/bookings/fix-your-offer-session Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Yogahealer: https://www.yogahealer.com About the Guest, Amy Glasser: Amy Glasser is the founder of The Vital Well, an Ayurveda-informed membership community helping women reclaim their vitality, balance their hormones, and build sustainable long-term health. With over 10,000 hours of practitioner experience, Amy brings deep clinical expertise and genuine warmth to every client relationship. She splits her time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and San Pancho, Mexico. About the Host, Cate Stillman: Cate Stillman is an Ayurvedic practitioner, author, and founder of Yogahealer and Wellness Pro Academy. For more than two decades she has helped wellness professionals build thriving membership communities rooted in ancient wisdom and innovative structure. She is the author of Body Thrive, Master of You, Uninflamed, and Primal Habits. Wellness Pro Academy: https://wellnesspro.academy Primal Habits: https://amzn.to/3OvfPOx Uninflamed: https://amzn.to/3UUBgJ2 Body Thrive: https://amzn.to/3udNFR0 Master of You: https://amzn.to/3OlfoGn What would change in your practice if you stopped waiting for leads to find you online and started showing up where your ideal clients already gather every week?

Episode #152 | Brooke Einbender, Mindbender StudioA neighbor's hot pink door in Santa Fe, New Mexico, studded with tin milagros, was one of the first thresholds that shaped Brooke Einbender's path. Born in San Francisco and raised in Marin before moving across Santa Fe, North Carolina, and New York City, Einbender learned early on that changing environments can alter perspective. Working under the moniker Mindbender, her career spans oil painting, virtual reality, projection mapping, and public art installations—exploring physical and digital portals that invite viewers into multidimensional spaces.In this conversation, Einbender talks about expanding beyond the VR headset to projection-mapped mountainsides, transforming an Alaskan yurt into a creative sanctuary, and the logistics required to take six-foot interactive kaleidoscopes from her mind to the city streets.Website: mindbender-art.comInstagram: mindbender.art | mindbender.studio

Jodi Hendricks of New Mexico Family Action Movement and Christie Martinez with The Libre Initiative join us on ABQ Connect to discuss a growing partnership focused on strengthening families and local communities across New Mexico. They’ll highlight Faith Beyond Sunday, a new resource designed to help believers live out their faith beyond the church walls, and share details about NMFAM’s 2026 Voter Guide, available October 1 ahead of early voting. The conversation also includes an invitation to volunteer for the upcoming Farmington Family Festival on October 31, a free community event featuring family activities, local resources, and the giveaway of 250 pairs of shoes for children. It’s an encouraging discussion about faith, service, civic engagement, and strengthening families across New Mexico. The post Jodi Hendricks and Christie Martinez appeared first on ABQ Connect.

On a cool fall night in 1999, twenty-six-year-old Sarah Green crept out of her house, retrieved a backpack from its hiding place, and ran for her life. She was escaping not just the Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, a paramilitary religious cult based in the New Mexico desert, but also the cruelty of the cult's leader—her mother, Deborah. In his book ‘The Oracle's Daughter' Harrison Hill traces the “extraordinary” twists and turns of the group's development, from its early days as an outgrowth of the 1960s counterculture, through its descent into conspiracy-fueled abuse, to the explosive trial that would lead to its downfall. Fred Stella engages with Harrison Hill, discussing this specific organization and the social and psychological dynamics that make such destructive cults appealing to a wide variety of people. Theme music "Nigal."

 Episode 311.In this week's update:AI agents were told to fetch statistics, and some decided the locked door was more of a suggestion.Another set of agents posted 53 private user images to the open internet, and OpenAI can't tell you whose they were.A surveillance CEO discovered that having nothing to hide is easier to preach than to practice.Your chatbot sounds neutral about the candidates, but it may be quoting a partisan site dressed up as your local paper.Bill Gates says a kill switch isn't enough, and the reason is that you'd never know when to press it.A developer offered every household $10,000, and the town said no anyway.Researchers forged an RSA signature without ever stealing the key, and the math behind it is older than the iPhone.And a New Mexico jury found that Meta's privacy promises didn't hold up 43,899,725 times.It's been a week of things going off script: agents, executives, algorithms, and even math. We start out unsettled, move through some genuinely absurd territory, and end on what you can do about it. Let's get into it.Find the full transcript here.

Pilot and passenger knife fight as an attempted terrorist attack on board a plane is thwarted is what TJ starts the hour with. Plus a flooding response from the State of New Mexico, Co-pays for Universal Childcare, and Carlyle says there's sexism in Congress. All this and more on News Radio KKOB See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 0:00 SEG 1: Terror attack on an AirDubai flight 17:02 SEGMENT 2: ZACK SMITH, Sr. Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation || TOPIC: Top legal headlines of the day || What trouble could Jack Smith be in after testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday? || New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable for over 43 million violations of consumer protection law || Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use SAVE database to check voter citizenship for nowx.com/tzsmithheritage.org SEGMENT 3: CHRIS CORNER: Can the President refuse to spend money that was allocated by Congress? https://newstalkstl.com/ FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/NEWSTALKSTLSTREAMS RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE TIM JONES AND CHRIS ARPS SHOW 0:00 SEG 1: Terror attack on an AirDubai flight 17:02 SEGMENT 2: ZACK SMITH, Sr. Legal Fellow at The Heritage Foundation || TOPIC: Top legal headlines of the day || What trouble could Jack Smith be in after testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday? || New Mexico jury finds Facebook liable for over 43 million violations of consumer protection law || Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use SAVE database to check voter citizenship for nowx.com/tzsmithheritage.org SEGMENT 3: CHRIS CORNER: Can the President refuse to spend money that was allocated by Congress? https://newstalkstl.com/ FOLLOW TIM - https://twitter.com/SpeakerTimJones FOLLOW CHRIS - https://twitter.com/chris_arps 24/7 LIVESTREAM - http://bit.ly/NEWSTALKSTLSTREAMS RUMBLE - https://rumble.com/NewsTalkSTL See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fresh back from the elk country of New Mexico, and fresh off the John Deere tractor, we have a pile of stories and news to share this week. The biggest news is that Mississippi has a new law for hunting deer over bait, and frankly, it's now easier than ever to bait deer if that's what your into. We also have elk hunting stories from New Mexico, as well from a college professor in Pennsylvania. Check it out!

Steve Lowry sits down with Motley Rice partners Michael Pendell and Chelsea Monroe about State of New Mexico/DOJ v. Meta Platforms, Inc., which produced a $375 million jury verdict for Unfair Practices Act violations and a $567 million bench-trial public nuisance abatement award, totaling $942 million.   CASE SUMMARY: The case, brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez, alleged Meta designed and operated its platforms with inadequate protections that enabled predators to find, groom, and exploit vulnerable children. The complaint asserted multiple violations of the state's Unfair Practices Act, supported by claims that defendants misrepresented or omitted material facts about the risks their products posed to minors. Motley Rice served as trial counsel for the State of New Mexico. (READ MORE)   GUEST BIOS CHELSEA L. MONROE: Chelsea Monroe represents victims of defective medical devices, medical drugs and cosmetic products, as well as families and communities harmed by toxic exposure. Specifically, Chelsea's casework focuses on women's health issues. She is a member of the Leadership Development Committee in MDL 3060 In re: Hair Relaxer Marketing Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation in the Northern District of Illinois. The thousands of plaintiffs in the MDL argue they developed gynecological cancers after using certain chemical hair relaxers. They assert defendant manufacturers failed to adequately test the products and warn customers about potential harms. (READ MORE)   MICHAEL J. PENDELL: Michael Pendell is a trial lawyer who represents people affected by corporate wrongdoing, including whistleblowers, people harmed by tobacco, prescription medications, dangerous medical devices, and victims of international terrorism. He also represents pension fund trustees and other institutional investors in securities, consumer fraud, and other complex class actions. Michael served as trial counsel in a number of prescription opioid lawsuits representing dozens of governmental entities, including states, cities, and counties in litigation against several pharmaceutical drug manufacturers and distributors for the alleged deceptive marketing and distribution of highly addictive prescription opioids. (READ MORE)   LINKS FROM THE EPISODE: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/motleyricelaw/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MotleyRice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motley-rice/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MotleyRice --- Check out previous episodes and meet the GTP Team: Great Trials Podcast --- Show Sponsors: Legal Technology Services  Harris Lowry Manton LLP - hlmlawfirm.com Production Team: Dee Daniels Media Podcast Production   FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE: 00:00 Welcome and Guests 01:39 Meet Michael Pendell 03:19 Meet Chelsea Monroe 04:15 Motley Rice Tribute 05:08 Case Verdict Breakdown 06:10 What Meta Did Wrong 08:59 How Damages Were Calculated 11:56 Phase Two Public Nuisance 15:25 Injunctions and COPPA 20:07 Building the Trial Machine 23:01 Parallel California Trial 25:54 Shocking Evidence and Whistleblowers 34:14 Whistleblower Culture Shift 36:05 Section 230 Strategy 39:53 Jury Selection Reality Check 44:19 Focus Groups And Timing 46:29 Meta Defense Tactics 50:08 Mosseri Safety Slipup 53:55 Appeals And Wrap Up  

Frances Whitehead is an award-winning transdisciplinary environmental artist who integrates art with plants, soil, food, and agricultural sustainability. Having spent much of her career in cities of the Great Lakes Basin, she moved to New Mexico five years ago because she wanted to live in a dry climate and work on what she calls "arid reworlding" — which is all about responding to climate change by building a healthy future that uses less water. On a trip to Mexico, her life was changed by an encounter with the Nopal cactus, which has been a staple of Mexican culture for millennia. This led to her project, Nopalogy, which addresses the potential role of Nopal as a future food in colder climates. In this podcast we explore the work with Nopal, as well as the role of the artist in agriculture and the food system, the latest research on Nopal, and the new field trials she's initiated in Santa Fe. 

The 1945 Trinity nuclear test was conducted in southern New Mexico, but advocates argue its effects lingered long after the bomb detonated. For decades, residents in communities surrounding the test site have pushed the federal government to recognize the health impacts New Mexicans endured in the years that followed. Tina Cordova, a seventh-generation New Mexican from Tularosa, joins Chris and Gabby to discuss the decades she's spent advocating for Trinity Downwinders, collecting data, and documenting the experiences of families across the Tularosa Basin. Her work includes a medical survey examining cancer and other health conditions reported by people who lived in the area around the time of the test. In 2025, the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) was expanded to include certain people affected by the Trinity test. Eligible New Mexicans and surviving family members now qualify for $100,000 in federal compensation for certain compensable cancers. Who qualifies? What does the survey reveal about health impacts? Thanks for listening. If you've got an idea, send it to us at chris.mckee@krqe.com or gabrielle.burkhart@krqe.com. Give us a follow on social media at @ChrisMcKeeTV and @gburkNM. Watch or listen to our prior podcasts online at KRQE.com/insiders and our KRQE YouTube channel, or on broadcast TV every Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. MST on KRQE Xtra (channel 13.2 over the air).

Slight poverty improvement is hardly an accomplishment. The most interesting of New Mexico's legislative races this fall is between trial attorney Lisa Curtis and Nicole Chavez. RGF opinion piece in ABQ Journal: Amendment 4 is a cash grab, not reform. Guest column: gluttony thy name is NM pension plan. Poll: New Mexicans overwhelmingly support school choice. Free Childcare will soon require copays for some. NM education department asks for a record $5.9 billion for fiscal year 2028, a 2.9% increase from the year prior (despite dropping enrollment). A federal film tax credit is a terrible idea.

SHARESIES · MARKET UPDATE · Week of 28 September 2026Jacki Neumann, Head of Capital Markets ↑ WHAT'S UP — The S&P 500 rose 1.2% for the week and the Nasdaq gained 2.1%, hitting a record high. Meta jumped almost 13% after its AI agent, Muse, topped US App Store downloads. Microsoft added 4.5% on reports of Copilot discounts for business customers. ↓ WHAT’S DOWN — The ASX 200 fell 0.8%, its fourth straight weekly loss, and closed at its lowest since mid-June. It’s down around 4.5% for September, with utilities the weakest sector last week at around −5.2%. Oracle fell over 7% after invoking force majeure on its New Mexico data centre, citing power and permit delays. ! BIGGEST SURPRISES — The US 10-year Treasury yield topped 5.2% on Thursday, driven by strong business data, weak Treasury auctions, and hawkish Fed comments. Markets now see a 66% chance of an October Fed hike. In Australia, unemployment rose to 4.6%, the highest since late 2021, though employment grew more than expected. ◎ WHAT TO WATCH — The RBA’s latest decision comes on Tuesday afternoon, with a hike to 4.60% around 90% priced in. August household spending is also out Tuesday. Wednesday brings Australian inflation, building approvals and private sector credit, plus China's manufacturing PMI and US core PCE. US non-farm payrolls land Friday. ◈ BIGGER PICTURE — The Fed, RBA, and RBNZ all have hikes on the table. RBNZ Governor Anna Breman warned inflation will run higher if oil prices persist, and markets price a 70% chance of an October hike. Brent briefly fell below $100 a barrel on US-Iran hopes, then swung with news on the Strait of Hormuz. The US and China extended their trade truce to January, due to meet again at APEC in November. Disclaimer: Sharesies Market Movements is brought to you by Sharesies Australia Limited (ABN 94 648 811 830; AFSL 529893) in Australia and Sharesies Limited (NZ) in New Zealand. This video is general market commentary and educational in nature. It is not financial advice and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Information is current at the time of recording and may be subject to change. We do not provide recommendations and nothing in this video should be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any financial product. Investing involves risk. You might lose the money you start with. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. If you require personal financial advice, you should consider speaking with a qualified financial adviser. Our disclosure documents and terms and conditions, including a Target Market Determination and IDPS Guide for Sharesies Australian customers, are available on our relevant Australian or NZ website.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Injuries played a big week three role, what ones will linger? Why old QB's stick around! New Mexico women's basketball head coach Amy Eagan drops in studio to shares thoughts on the season ahead. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pastor Ray Montoya from Calvary Southwest joins us on ABQ Connect to share about the upcoming Men's Retreat 2026: Equipping Soldiers for Christ. Held October 9–11 at El Porvenir Christian Camp near Montezuma, New Mexico, this weekend retreat is designed to help men grow stronger in their faith through biblical teaching, worship, fellowship, and encouragement. Whether you’re bringing a son, grandson, friend, or coming on your own, it’s a great opportunity to step away from the busyness of life and be equipped to follow Christ with greater purpose and conviction. Registration is now open through Calvary Southwest. The post Ray Montoya appeared first on ABQ Connect.

If your fridge can be bricked by a firmware update and your AI can outwit its creators, are we trading convenience for chaos? This lively episode tackles the tension between relentless innovation and apparent human oversight in today's weird tech world. Unpack the reality behind AI agents hacking government sites and why industry leaders suddenly want to "pause" progress while shipping new models. An OpenAI Agent Hacked Australia's Health Service. Their Government Found Out Months Later Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents OpenAI's A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites US and China Discuss Alerting Each Other to AI National Security Threats Meta Connect 2026: The biggest news and announcements Amazon doesn't trust Meta's Muse AI agent Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds Ireland's data watchdog has fined Google €403M over location data Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1 Microsoft thinks its new Copilot 'super app' will be as influential as Office OpenAI pauses training of its 'most capable models' Hacking group ShinyHunters claims it breached the FBI, stole agents' and applicants' data New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators Walmart chief rules out personalised pricing as AI transforms retail Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges The smart home graveyard is getting crowded Scientists build world's most accurate atomic clock Fat Bear Week 2026 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed and Iain Thomson Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit doppel.com superhuman.com PaloAltoNetworks.com/Idira coveron.com/thisweekintech and use code thisweekintech

The U.S. and China agree on an AI safety channel. Some states say CISA's election security plan comes too late. Citrix patches critical zero-days under active exploitation. AI agents probed government websites in unexpected and concerning ways. ShinyHunters launches a new campaign against Oracle PeopleSoft customers. A New Mexico jury finds Meta misled state residents. Business briefing. Tim Starks from CyberScoop shares insights on multiple issues facing CISA. Who's ready for algorithmic holiday shopping?  Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. CyberWire Guest Today we are joined by Tim Starks from CyberScoop who is sharing insights on multiple issues facing CISA. Selected Reading China and US Agree to Establish AI Safety Channel and Continue Trade and Military Talks (SecurityWeek) 40 days to midterms, election officials say new US cyber plan comes too late (TwinCities Pioneer Press) Citrix Patches Critical Zero Days Under Active Exploitation (Infosecurity Magazine) OpenAI's A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites (The New York Times) OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs called to appear at Australian AI probe (Reuters) Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents (Axios) Google Warns of ShinyHunters' Fresh Oracle PeopleSoft Campaign (SecurityWeek) Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds (Reuters) Cyera has secured a $400 million Series G extension from Goldman Sachs. (N2K Pro Business Briefing) Consumer AI use a boon for the holidays as AI traffic doubles (Yahoo Finance) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast wants you to know that there is skiing in New Mexico. Even beyond Taos. Subscribe for constant journeys into such improbable ski realms:WhoJasen Bellomy, General Manager of Pajarito, New MexicoDate RecordedSeptember 28, 2026Also discussedUpgrades across Mountain Capital Partners' portfolio (see chart below), and reader reaction to last week's pods - especially the EuroSki ep with Iain Martin.About PajaritoOwned by: Mountain Capital Partners, since 2014; company also owns:Year founded: 1957 - predecessor ski area, Sawyers Hill, founded nearby by the same ski club in 1944Pass affiliations: Power Pass, Power Pass Select, Power Pass Core - unlimitedBase elevation: 9,000 feetSummit elevation: 10,440 feetVertical drop: 1,440 feetSkiable acres: 280 trail acres + unspecified glade acreage (though Bellomy urges caution in the glades)Average annual snowfall: 125 inchesLift count: 6 (1 fixed quad, 1 triple, 3 doubles, 1 carpet) - view Lift Blog's inventory of Pajarito's lift fleet.Why I interviewed him“Ski New Mexico,” you say? Those three words underwhelm, but the stat sheet suggests that skiers miss out by dismissing New Mexico:Those are respectable vertical drops, and some nice acreage with modernizing lift fleets. Taos gets all the Ikon/Mountain Collective destination attention, and deserves it, after building seven new aerial lifts and otherwise sweeping the place clean over the past dozen years. But just about every New Mexico ski area is investing: Angel Fire props up the state's first sixer for winter 2026-27, just a year after dropping a second quad, Rake's Rider, onto its east side to spread skiers out between blues and blacks:Ski Santa Fe, Ski Apache, and Red River have collectively built or relocated another five lifts in the past decade. Tiny, super-south Cloudcroft seems like a mess, with little online presence and minimal operations (the bump lacks snowmaking). But overall, New Mexico is a bit of a big-mountain secret, with dry desert snow when it comes.The key to this improbable kingdom is base elevations among the highest in America:It's not quite Colorado, but they're high:And it's high enough to get us to nine active New Mexico ski areas in 2026, which is probably nine more than most people think the state has. But even cloud addresses are not enough to keep these survivors around forever. They need snowmaking. Taos' system - a big part of the mountain's modernization under billionaire Louis Bacon, who bought the ski area in 2013 - runs to nearly 11,000 feet. But the smaller areas are building more firepower too. MCP, which operates one-third of those ski areas, stapled together a nice system at Sipapu, the company's first acquisition, in 2000. Now, after years of negotiations, MCP is working with state and Los Alamos County officials on an $18 million snowmaking modernization plan for Pajarito:A five-mile pipe will shuttle water approximately 2,000 vertical feet up from Los Alamos to Pajarito's summit reservoir. But this is not just a snowmaking project: firefighters will be able to tap hydrants along the five-mile route or dip the 10-million gallon reservoir with helicopters. The impact, MCP officials believe, will be substantial, and could mirror the turnaround of the company's Arizona Snowbowl ski area. Prior to running a 15-mile-long snowmaking pipe 3,000 feet up from Flagstaff, Snowbowl's seasons swung wildly, from 162,000 visits in winter 2000-01 to just four operating days the following season. Now, Snowbowl is consistently one of the last ski areas in the nation to close, with a 185-day 2024-25 season that ended on June 1. Repeating that success at Pajarito would, according to officials, give skiers seasons up to 140 days long - more than double the ski area's traditional 60-day winter.So yeah, ski New Mexico, Man. It's weird, I know. Down there in the desert. But there's water if you get creative and work together. (Now we just need to see if MCP can repeat some version of this deal at snow-starved Sandia Peak.)Additional reading* A Ski profile of Pajarito by Nick Heil, 2016* Pajarito's blog tracking the snowmaking projectTranscriptsThere are two transcripts. Both are generated by robots. Both are helpful and defective in their own unique ways. I do not proofread either of them.Transcript 1: Click the “transcript” button at the top of this article. You can only see this transcript on a computer. Because I don't know why exactly but everything is getting better and dumber all at once it seems. Anyway, this is the transcript that the robots create when I upload the podcast to the internet. The cool thing about it is that you can click on any block of text and the audio will teleport there instantly. The uncool thing about this transcript is that it does not indicate who is talking at any given moment.Transcript 2: You can read this below. This is the transcript that Zoom creates as we record the podcast. The cool thing about this transcript is that it indicates who is talking at any given moment. The uncool thing about this transcript is that the timestamps do not match the audio. Also, you cannot click on this text to move to the associated point in the audio. I only included my conversation with Jasen in this transcript - you can read my editorial on MCP or my reaction to reader's comments in the other transcript, but frankly I'd either listen to them or skip those sections.ZoomStuart Winchester: My guest today has been the general manager of Powerito New Mexico since 2023.00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:26.000Stuart Winchester: Bajarito's predecessor ski area, Sawyers Hill, was founded by top American scientists and soldiers working on top secret research, including the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos during World War II.00:35:26.000 --> 00:35:46.000Stuart Winchester: In 1957, the Los Alamos Ski Club moved the facility up to Pareto, where today, 5 chairlifts serve 1,440 vertical feet on 280 skiable trail acres, plus glades. Pareto is one of 13 ski areas operated by Durango, Colorado-based Mountain Capital Partners.00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:52.000Stuart Winchester: and one of three that the company operates in New Mexico, including Sipapu and Sandia Peak.00:35:52.000 --> 00:36:09.000Stuart Winchester: Prior to joining the team at Power Reno, he worked at Saddleback, Maine, Sugarbush, Vermont, Pratchett, New Hampshire, and all the way back at the start of his career as a lifty at Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. He served a tour in the Marine Corps and spent several years working in air traffic management technologies.00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:16.000Stuart Winchester: Jason Bellamy is my guest. Jason, welcome to The Storm. So good to have you. How is life in the mountains of New Mexico today?00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:24.000Jasen: Oh, man, thanks for having me. Super excited. Uh, busy. And wet, currently.00:36:23.000 --> 00:36:38.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's… I'm out on the East Coast, it's been raining all weekend, so… so I… look, I know you got a ton going on, so let's jump right into it. The headline, if you go to Powerito's website right now, which, by the way, if I'm saying the name of the scary wrong, you.00:36:38.000 --> 00:36:48.000Stuart Winchester: 2700% more water for snowmaking, so lay this out for us, Jason. What did Powerito's snowmaking system look like before, and what are you…00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:50.000Stuart Winchester: Building up.00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:57.000Jasen: So, historically, it was about 2010 that we were able to.00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:04.000Jasen: while it was still operated by the Los Alamos Ski Club, they put in a very bare-bones snowmaking system.00:37:04.000 --> 00:37:10.000Jasen: and captured surface runoff in the springtime to fill a 10 million gallon pond at the top of the mountain.00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:11.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:17.000Jasen: The runoff did not yield enough water to fill that pond.00:37:17.000 --> 00:37:18.000Jasen: So for…00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:35.000Jasen: pretty near a decade, there's been this effort to get a pipeline connecting the county to the Ski Hill for both wildfire suppression and firefighting capabilities, as well as solidifying the future for the Ski Hill.00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:43.000Jasen: That pipeline is going to provide us with about, we'll be able to cycle that pond about six times a winter.00:37:43.000 --> 00:37:55.000Jasen: Um, which, with 60 million gallons, we should be able to make about 300 acre-feet of snow. So, theoretically, when we're done with this, we could cover the entire mountain with 12 inches of man-made snow.00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:13.000Stuart Winchester: So talk about, I guess, to start with, just that pipeline. I mean, there's echoes here of Arizona Snowbowl, your sister mountain, which ran a pipeline all the way down to Flagstaff from its mountain. And from the press materials, it looks like this is being run up.00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:20.000Stuart Winchester: from Los Alamos. So how long is that pipeline? Where does it start? And what does the effort look like to put that in?00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:23.000Jasen: Yeah, great question. Um…00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:39.000Jasen: The project started over half a decade ago, the real nuts and bolts of it. It's a really complex project. It involves running that pipeline across DOE land, Llano property, Santa Fe National Forest. We had to get the county, the state, and the federal government.00:38:39.000 --> 00:39:01.000Jasen: behind it, and it's amazing how everyone's come together. So, after about five or six years of negotiating and all the legal work required, we were able to break ground. The pipeline's about five miles long, and as a result of previous wildfires that have sparked up from the overhead power lines, we decided to go ahead and put the power underground as well.00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:41.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:01.000 --> 00:39:03.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:03.000Jasen: Um, so…00:39:03.000 --> 00:39:16.000Jasen: The… we're also running fiber infrastructure in the road associated with the project so that we can create backhaul to Albuquerque to solidify our communications for the community as well.00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:20.000Jasen: There's a lot more going on with this project than just water.00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:22.000Jasen: Oh.00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:23.000Jasen: The…00:39:24.000 --> 00:39:36.000Jasen: there'll be 4 booster stations to push the elevation to get it to the mountain, and then it'll tie into a 250,000 gallon tank, which will energize all the fire hydrants along Camp May Road.00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:42.000Jasen: And then from there, we push it to the summit pond out of a pump station.00:39:43.000 --> 00:39:52.000Stuart Winchester: So, so we're looking here at the, at the map of, uh, here's Puerto Rico and then here's Los Alamos. Does the, does the pipeline come from up from the.00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:59.000Jasen: It does. It starts down just on the corner of the DOE property at the bottom of Camp May Road.00:39:59.000 --> 00:40:03.000Jasen: It's a few thousand feet down, um…00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:05.000Jasen: Once you get…00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:07.000Jasen: Yes.00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:10.000Stuart Winchester: Click around, here's Camp May Road, where it meets up with West Road.00:40:07.000 --> 00:40:10.000Jasen: So, on… on…00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:21.000Jasen: Yes, uh, just to the, uh, I guess that would be east on West Road. If you scroll your mouse to the corner there, you can see there's a tank right there.00:40:15.000 --> 00:40:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:40:18.000 --> 00:40:19.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:21.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:29.000Jasen: We built another half million gallon tank there, and then that's where the first booster pump will reside.00:40:28.000 --> 00:40:45.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. Well, that is a major project. I mean, just talk about the effort of that. I, you know, I guess it's a partnership. Did you share in the cost of construction of all this? And what did it take to run a pipeline five miles?00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:50.000Stuart Winchester: And I'm not sure what the elevation is it starts at, but I imagine you have to also push that water up.00:40:50.000 --> 00:41:06.000Jasen: It's close to 2,000 feet of elevation gain, and it is a financial partnership. It's probably one of the first of its kind where we've got federal, state, local, and private dollars to accomplish the mission.00:40:54.000 --> 00:40:55.000Stuart Winchester: Wow.00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:06.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:10.000Jasen: It's really just amazing to see the support.00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:17.000Jasen: And everything come together. Los Alamos and Mountain Capital Partner developed a.00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.000Jasen: an agreement. So, the state was, uh…00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:29.000Jasen: basically funded with a grant, the project, um, for $8 million, and then FEMA's kicking in.00:41:29.000 --> 00:41:30.000Jasen: Um, so…00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:40.000Jasen: an amount to be determined to bury those power lines. Historically, Los Alamos has been very affected by two, um, huge wildfires.00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:53.000Jasen: With hundreds of millions of dollars in, um, asset loss. So, the water getting up there, and Parito, the way it sits, is kind of like a frontline defense to protect the town and the lab.00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:54.000Jasen: Oh.00:41:54.000 --> 00:41:59.000Jasen: So, it's amazing that everything's come together the way it has.00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:10.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, I want to linger on that water point for a moment here, Jason. You know, I never really appreciated this until I was talking to some of the guys who run ski areas in Southern California, and I believe this is your pond right here.00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:15.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, which you anticipate being full, and I'm not sure if there's an older picture, if that's what.00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:12.000Jasen: Yes, it is.00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:18.000Stuart Winchester: So so.00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:19.000Jasen: That's pretty current.00:42:18.000 --> 00:42:35.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, yeah, so this is Google Earth. So I was speaking with Robbie Ellingson, who runs Mount Baldy, right above Los Angeles, and Carl Kabasinski, who runs Mountain High, just there, I guess, a little bit east of the city. And the way they explained it to me, I never thought about this, was…00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:41.000Stuart Winchester: When they have these full ponds in the summer, the helicopters can just come and dip the pond.00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:57.000Stuart Winchester: ponds for fire suppression. And so I, I guess that would help answer the question of, you know, we always hear about water shortages in the, in the West, right? So, so how is the ski area building, you know, all this snow making, don't we have better things to use water for? So, so just talk about that relationship.00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:05.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, with… with the, uh, firefighters and… and the firefighting infrastructure this is creating, as well as being useful for snowmaking.00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:18.000Jasen: But yeah, you brought up two interesting points there, sir. First and foremost, yes, they will be able to dip out of the pond. We're also putting in a dry hydrant so that we can hook pump vehicles up to it.00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:20.000Jasen: Um…00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:32.000Jasen: The other thing, I think Mountain High in California, one of the things they did when that fire came through there was they energized their snowmaking system in the summer and just turned on all the snow guns.00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:37.000Jasen: And from what I understand, that that had a beneficial…00:43:37.000 --> 00:43:50.000Jasen: outcome. Um, it could have been a lot worse, apparently. So, there's a bunch of different things, and we've got water now that we can push, you know, multiple locations across the mountain as we build out our pipelines.00:43:50.000 --> 00:44:01.000Jasen: in our snowmaking infrastructure. So we're gonna put water across this 750-acre piece of land that is pretty critical in the defense of Los Alamos.00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:08.000Jasen: And then the other thing you mentioned, which I hear a lot, is how can we waste all this water for skiing?00:44:08.000 --> 00:44:21.000Jasen: But fundamentally, if you consider what mountains are, they're a storage device for water during the wintertime. We take the water from the earth, we pump it up the hill, yeah, we're using energy, but we're conserving the water on the hill.00:44:21.000 --> 00:44:36.000Jasen: as stored water, and in the springtime it melts and goes back into the aquifer. So 80 to 90 percent of the water that we use is going to go directly back into the land. I mean, what we're losing is what we lose to sublimation through evaporation into the atmosphere.00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and in the fires in the past where a couple of Poweritos lifts were damaged, having this on site would theoretically have at least mitigated the damage to some point. So what I have up on the screen here, Jason, as you know, but for the folks watching on stormskiing.com or YouTube.00:44:54.000 --> 00:45:09.000Stuart Winchester: is, uh, your phased snowmaking plan. So just talk us through this. Is this year one, year two, year three, or… or how do you… how do you envision or plan for this to play out in real life? And then, you know, here's…00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:14.000Stuart Winchester: Pario's trail map for reference, but just to see the snowmaking plan.00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:24.000Jasen: This was originally the concept that we were going to roll with. Like any major project, there's speed bumps in the road.00:45:19.000 --> 00:45:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:45:23.000 --> 00:45:25.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:24.000 --> 00:45:35.000Jasen: So we've had to pivot a little bit. Um, we're putting a lot more resource into the actual delivery of water in year one, so we had to scale back a little bit of the on-hill distribution.00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:36.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:43.000Jasen: For this winter, we're gonna add about 50% in snowmaking coverage, acreage wise.00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:50.000Jasen: Uh, we did not get into the pump stations. We're working on engineering and design of, um, future pump stations.00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:52.000Jasen: Right now…00:45:52.000 --> 00:46:02.000Jasen: We're at about 1,000 GPM, gallons per minute, for production pumping capacity, and next year we plan to increase that by 400%.00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:07.000Jasen: Um, final design build out of 4,000 gallons per minute.00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:09.000Jasen: which…00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:09.000Stuart Winchester: And yeah.00:46:09.000 --> 00:46:11.000Jasen: Oh, I'm sorry, go ahead.00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:29.000Stuart Winchester: So, final of 4,000 gallons per minute. You have some trails in white here that are not phased. Do those already have snowmaking, or do you want to keep some stuff natural? I see your famous kind of front four steepies here. A couple of those are white. So, talk to us about the white trails and what's planned for those.00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.000Jasen: So, those will just be… those will be El Natural?00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:41.000Jasen: Classic, you know, old school bump runs and let Mother Nature take care of those.00:46:43.000 --> 00:46:49.000Stuart Winchester: All right, so another interesting thing about Pyroido, Jason, is…00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:57.000Stuart Winchester: It's the only major New Mexico skier area, other than Angel Fire, that does not operate, as far as I understand it, on U.S. Forest Service land.00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:12.000Stuart Winchester: So who does own the land? You referenced a lot of different entities here. I know there's a partnership with the county. Does MCP own the land? Was that given to the county? Take us through the land ownership and the sort of different parties that are involved here and have an interest.00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:17.000Jasen: So, the land historically was…00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:22.000Jasen: Um, owned by the Los Alamos Ski Club.00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:23.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:28.000Jasen: Through over the course of time, they did some land exchanges with DOE.00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:32.000Jasen: So back in 14 when the ski club needed support.00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:49.000Jasen: Um, James and Mountain Capital got involved, and originally, MCP was going to assume the liabilities of the ski area and operate the ski area. The bank didn't like that arrangement, so it took about 3 or 4 years to get through the legal work.00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:58.000Jasen: And currently, the majority of the land is owned by MCP. That was a requirement from the bank to transfer the liabilities against the assets.00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:05.000Jasen: And then there's one shoulder over on the west side that was originally part of, um…00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.000Jasen: I believe it was the Dunnigan family owned it.00:48:09.000 --> 00:48:17.000Jasen: And they gave it to the ski club, and there was a first right of refusal on any future transfer of the west side.00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:32.000Jasen: So currently, we're still working through the legal details on that. And in the transfer of the land, the ski club said once the pipeline was established and operational, that they would be willing to transfer the remaining land to MCP.00:48:32.000 --> 00:48:39.000Jasen: So that's happening here pretty quickly, and there's still… there's a bunch of legal work to satisfy the first right of refusal.00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:46.000Jasen: Um, but essentially, Parrito, the 750-acre parcel, is completely privately owned.00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:48.000Jasen: Oh.00:48:48.000 --> 00:48:50.000Jasen: Which is pretty rare in the West.00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:57.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. So you're a little late to snowmaking, but it's… in some ways, I would think…00:48:57.000 --> 00:49:01.000Stuart Winchester: an advantage to install a snowmaking system, kind of…00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:17.000Stuart Winchester: from whole right now, because the technology's gotten so good, right? You can start low energy, you can start with automation, if you want. Talk to us about who you worked with, whether it's SMI or HKD or whoever, uh, to plan out your snowmaking system, and what sort of technology.00:49:17.000 --> 00:49:21.000Stuart Winchester: you're able to deploy to make sure you get the most snow out the most efficiently.00:49:22.000 --> 00:49:27.000Jasen: Yeah, great question. So, the partners that we've most…00:49:28.000 --> 00:49:33.000Jasen: We worked with, uh, Torrent is working with us on some of the pump stations.00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:46.000Jasen: The pipe design layout, electrical. Brandon, I'm sorry, Jeff and the guys from Slope Works have been here supporting the physical installation.00:49:46.000 --> 00:49:55.000Jasen: And because of the history of Puerto Rico, we originally had a — it was a TechnoAlpin system. So we've got some legacy TA gear here.00:49:51.000 --> 00:49:52.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:49:55.000 --> 00:50:04.000Jasen: And then, we've also started working with SMI on some of their equipment. One of the things that, um…00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:11.000Jasen: we're balancing is… there's so much need in terms of how much infrastructure we have to build and how much equipment we have to purchase.00:50:11.000 --> 00:50:16.000Jasen: So we're kind of balancing the future with today's needs.00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:17.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:22.000Jasen: Automation is not inexpensive, so we're doing kind of a semi automation.00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:34.000Jasen: where we can run actuators on the hydrants, but it's not a full-blown system. The original system that was installed back in the early 2010 period, um…00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:41.000Jasen: That system didn't work out very well for Power Reno, so we've pivoted and moved in a different direction.00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:58.000Stuart Winchester: So, you know, you've had snowmaking for a while. I'd imagine you got some guys who are pretty good at it. I saw one of your videos, you brought in a fellow from Pennsylvania. I always say that Pennsylvania is home to some of the best skier operators in the world because they have to be masters.00:50:58.000 --> 00:51:14.000Stuart Winchester: of snowmaking, because if you don't have it, you're just not going to open. I know you're an East Coast guy yourself, so what have you done as far as, okay, you got this great new system, have you brought in some folks who are more experienced with snowmaking to help out? Are you confident you have the experience yourself?00:51:14.000 --> 00:51:18.000Stuart Winchester: What's your plan to make sure you get the most out of the system right away?00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:36.000Jasen: So we got Brandon on board and one of the things that's challenging at every skier across the country is staffing. So for this winter we really need to nail it and we reached out to Seasonal Labor Solutions.00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:29.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:51:37.000 --> 00:51:42.000Jasen: And they have a team of professional snowmakers that basically do the Never Summer.00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:55.000Jasen: Um, so after the guys get done making snow for the Birds of Prey up in Colorado, a couple of those guys are gonna come down and support us this winter for the season to make sure that we get it right.00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:52.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, wow.00:51:54.000 --> 00:52:01.000Stuart Winchester: Awesome, so they're coming straight to you from Beaver Creek. That's… that's impressive. That's good. And, you know.00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:00.000Jasen: Yeah!00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:09.000Stuart Winchester: Tell us how much it helps to be part of a larger group like Mountain Capital. I'm particularly interested because this Arizona Snow Bowl.00:52:09.000 --> 00:52:24.000Stuart Winchester: story just amazes me, how they… and I realize this was done before MCP arrived, but they ran the pipeline all the way up from Flagstaff, and, you know, Arizona Snowbowl, in the 2001-2 season, was open 4 days, and did 3,000 skier visits.00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:39.000Stuart Winchester: Last year, even in a bad winter, it was open 134 days, 185 the season before that. They keep it open until June a lot of years, and that's a sister mountain of yours. So we're talking about Arizona, you know, high desert.00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:51.000Stuart Winchester: Probably, I would imagine, a pretty similar climate to what you're dealing with. How much have you learned from talking to them, and how valuable is it to have that support sort of in-house, so to speak?00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:55.000Jasen: Oh, yeah, it's critical.00:52:55.000 --> 00:53:10.000Jasen: It's funny that you picked up on that. The storyline behind Power Rito and Snowball, I mean, you couldn't draw a more parallel story. It's the same thing. And realistically, you know.00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:06.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:08.000Stuart Winchester: Right.00:53:11.000 --> 00:53:18.000Jasen: what they did in Arizona is exactly what we plan on doing in New Mexico. Um, the…00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:27.000Jasen: Part of that is, you know, our philosophy is skiing first, and it's, you know, as soon as we can open, and as long as we have snow, we're gonna run a chairlift.00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:28.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:39.000Jasen: And I do believe New Mexico is ripe for the picking. I think Puerto Rico is slated to become the king of spring. There's a lot of great mountains here, but everyone shuts down like the first or second week of April.00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:53:39.000 --> 00:53:43.000Jasen: And that's not the vision that we have for Power Reno at all.00:53:43.000 --> 00:53:49.000Jasen: Well, we plan on having margaritas on the deck, Cinco de Mayo, and hopefully a lot.00:53:49.000 --> 00:53:51.000Jasen: Few more weekends after that.00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:55.000Stuart Winchester: So, so Pat Ridley, looking back at historical skier visit data was.00:53:55.000 --> 00:54:10.000Stuart Winchester: One of the least busy ski areas in New Mexico, you know, Cloudcroft obviously barely operates, but uh someone within MCP whispered to me that they think that Parito within a few years could be the busiest ski area in New Mexico with these upgrades.00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:12.000Stuart Winchester: Is that is that the aim?00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:16.000Jasen: That's… that's kind of the goal, yeah.00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so how thorough will the transformation be? Because I saw this in some of your materials. Power Radio averaged 60 days open per season. You want to increase that to 120 to 140. Does that mean… I'm not sure if you go 7 days a week right now, and you have the snow, but…00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:36.000Stuart Winchester: But just talk to us about what that could mean for the skier if you're able to achieve that.00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:45.000Jasen: Well, I mean, there's so much to unpack there. I mean, the economic impact for the community, the labor…00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:46.000Jasen: um…00:54:47.000 --> 00:54:52.000Jasen: Bottom line is, yes, we are going 7 days a week, effective this winter.00:54:52.000 --> 00:54:54.000Jasen: um…00:54:54.000 --> 00:55:05.000Jasen: And the plan is, you know, Thanksgiving, as soon as we can get open. Two years ago, we got a monster storm, and I think we were the only skier in the southwest other than Wolf Creek open.00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:11.000Jasen: And we were busier that day than we were the previous winter. So there's the demand.00:55:08.000 --> 00:55:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:12.000Stuart Winchester: Yep.00:55:11.000 --> 00:55:12.000Jasen: Oh.00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:22.000Jasen: So, from the very first cold snap, and we've designed and built the new snowmaking system that we put in this year to be able to open it with about 40 hours of snowmaking.00:55:22.000 --> 00:55:23.000Stuart Winchester: Wow.00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:33.000Jasen: So, we're looking to do things quite a bit differently, and be super aggressive. Uh, and the plan is, you know, we'll run 7 days a week into April.00:55:33.000 --> 00:55:44.000Jasen: And then as the demand tails off, and the snow starts to melt, we'll run weekends until we just can't anymore. So, my goal is Thanksgiving to May every year.00:55:42.000 --> 00:55:49.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. Okay. And what's the, what's the sort of alpha trail that opens first, closes last? I don't know, maybe they're different.00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.000Jasen: Uh, it would be Pussycat.00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:55:52.000 --> 00:55:55.000Jasen: It's kind of shaded, it's in between the two peaks.00:55:53.000 --> 00:55:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah.00:55:55.000 --> 00:56:00.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, is that one of those, uh, double black bumpers off of the mother lift?00:56:01.000 --> 00:56:07.000Jasen: No, it's off of Aspen. It sits in the saddle between Aspen and Mother. Um, it's a blue square.00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:04.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:05.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:08.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:11.000Jasen: But it's a really great fall line trail.00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:26.000Stuart Winchester: So, so let's talk about the Aspen lift. So the Aspen lift was one of those ones that was damaged in the 2011 fire. It is, uh, a 1982 SeaTac triple 1,143-foot vertical rise, 3450 length, so a pretty substantial.00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:36.000Stuart Winchester: lift, and, and I think your most important lift out of your base. So, so you got a lot, you're, uh, spiffing that lift up. Take us through Aspen and what you're doing with it this offseason.00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:43.000Jasen: Yeah, so as you pointed out, um, our historical average is about 60 days. Um, that lift.00:56:43.000 --> 00:56:45.000Jasen: um…00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:54.000Jasen: Because of the limited seasons, we looked at that lift and said, you know, all this snow in the world isn't going to do us any good if we can't get the people to it.00:56:53.000 --> 00:56:55.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:56:55.000 --> 00:57:06.000Jasen: So, we went through… we have major lift projects in the works, but we have to do this piece by piece. The first piece was get the water. Second piece is be able to use the water.00:57:03.000 --> 00:57:05.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:16.000Jasen: So as a stopgap for the meantime, we went through and rewired the entire lift, all new controls, new drive.00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:19.000Jasen: New hydraulics for the brake systems.00:57:19.000 --> 00:57:23.000Jasen: We just did the return bull wheel bearing this summer.00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:33.000Jasen: Basically, everything short of the steel and the carrier has been updated, and the goal there was really reliability.00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:33.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:57:33.000 --> 00:57:39.000Jasen: So when you show up to Puerto Rico this winter, you're not gonna see a sexy new lift, but you're gonna have a very reli.00:57:39.000 --> 00:57:40.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:55.000Stuart Winchester: So, so Aspen Triple's getting an upgrade, and then your rest of your lift fleet, you have 3 doubles. Uh, this Beginner is an 81 Seatech. Uh, Mother is a 76 Riblet double. Uh, Spruce…00:57:55.000 --> 00:58:14.000Stuart Winchester: is a 69 riblet double, and then Townsite is a 94 quad, so I imagine you're pretty happy with Townsite, but what are some of those projects that you're eyeballing? What can you share with us, Jason, about, ultimately, I mean, because once you double the season, the revenue should follow, right? You should be able to make some investments.00:58:14.000 --> 00:58:18.000Stuart Winchester: What would you like the Lyft fleet to look like, ultimately, at Pareto?00:58:19.000 --> 00:58:32.000Jasen: I think currently we're looking at, um, the next… the first focus would be updating Motherlift, um, and I do suspect, based on conversations that we had, that that lift, uh, winds up being a detachable.00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:38.000Jasen: Townsite, I'm really glad you brought that up. That's a 1994 Lyft.00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:43.000Jasen: That exposure got heavy, uh, burn scars during the fires.00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:48.000Jasen: And that lift, as a 94, doesn't even have 4,000 hours on it.00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:49.000Stuart Winchester: Wow.00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:53.000Jasen: So that lift is in pretty, pretty new shape in terms of wear.00:58:54.000 --> 00:59:05.000Jasen: Um, so, the big focus right now, the next piece is, uh, getting the mother lift done, uh, with the new lift, and we've got some other things that we're talking about doing in association with that.00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:01.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:15.000Jasen: That peak overlooks the Valle Caldera, which is an absolutely amazing, breathtaking piece of New Mexico landscape. So there's a lot of…00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:14.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.00:59:15.000 --> 00:59:33.000Jasen: a lot of opportunity with the detach. Um, discussions around Chandler have been thrown around. Um, the idea being is, you know, from the top of that peak, having a, um, potentially a banquet, um, event center at the top of the lift, and being able to use that in the off-season for.00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:38.000Jasen: Dinners and different type of corporate functions and stuff like that.00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:54.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, everyone I talk to, Jason, just tells me that weddings are going off. They're so busy, they can't keep up. It's just, it's such a natural thing, and now folks are starting to think about it, especially in the East. It's really popping. Any thoughts on spruce? I mean, I love an old riblet double.00:59:54.000 --> 01:00:04.000Stuart Winchester: you know, they look cool, uh, there's a couple hundred of them still spinning, but, you know, probably won't last forever. Any ideas for spruce long-term?01:00:04.000 --> 01:00:13.000Jasen: I think, Spruce, that lift, uh, based on the parking lot, there's a stairwell that goes right up to it. It's a really popular lift.01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:10.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:13.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:27.000Jasen: It's a redundant lift. You can ski off at Aspen and get the whole middle of the mountain, but that lift does have tremendous value. That would probably be the second lift that we look at.01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:38.000Jasen: The timing on that, I'm not sure. We haven't really gotten that far in the master planning. Um, but based on that profile, I would imagine that that becomes a fixed-script quad.01:00:32.000 --> 01:00:34.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:00:38.000 --> 01:00:48.000Stuart Winchester: Okay. And, and do you like where the lifts are? You like the layout? They, they did a good job that your predecessors or, or do you wanna move anything around, like as far as where it loads or lands?01:00:47.000 --> 01:00:58.000Jasen: I think there might be a slight realignment on the mother lift. That lift doesn't truly go to the top of the… there's a few feet of elevation that you can gain.01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:52.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.01:00:58.000 --> 01:01:04.000Jasen: so that the alignment would kind of come down between, um, Mother… Big Mother Trail and Pussycat.01:01:02.000 --> 01:01:04.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:05.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:11.000Jasen: And land a little bit closer to the base area, in that triangle of trees at the bottom there.01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:09.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:14.000Jasen: And the…01:01:12.000 --> 01:01:15.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, go ahead.01:01:15.000 --> 01:01:26.000Jasen: But realistically, I mean, the scientists and all the folks that worked on this project back in the day did a really great job of laying out the mountain.01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:25.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:29.000Stuart Winchester: Is there, yeah, go ahead.01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:28.000Jasen: And…01:01:28.000 --> 01:01:38.000Jasen: Oh, I just… the other thing I think that's kind of cool to know, I don't think that there's a larger ski area in the country that was built by volunteers.01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:43.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, no, I don't think so either. There's a lot of, uh…01:01:43.000 --> 01:01:50.000Stuart Winchester: of ones that I'm sure you know from your time in the East that were started with Civilian Conservation Corps, but that wasn't volunteer, those was putting men to.01:01:50.000 --> 01:01:55.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, and I… most volunteer-built ski areas are, like.01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:11.000Stuart Winchester: A rope tow and a couple of trails like this is, this is impressive. I, I cannot believe what they did here is, you know, looking around and I, and I know you explained the land situation. Is there any potential for expansion in any direction or, or is this the footprint that you're working with for the foreseeable future?01:01:57.000 --> 01:01:59.000Jasen: Yeah, yeah.01:02:13.000 --> 01:02:15.000Jasen: There's…01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:26.000Jasen: A couple things. So, Camp May is a campground. The county has approached us about doing a management agreement. With the water line, they're going to be able to put water in.01:02:18.000 --> 01:02:20.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:02:25.000 --> 01:02:27.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:30.000Jasen: It's a primitive campground right now. It's beautiful.01:02:30.000 --> 01:02:33.000Jasen: A lot of people come up here to escape the heat.01:02:32.000 --> 01:02:34.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:34.000Jasen: um…01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:43.000Jasen: The way this bowl is laid out, it's amazing. When I first got out here, we had, you know, we were skiing on 60, 70 inches of snowpack, and the mountains…01:02:43.000 --> 01:02:45.000Jasen: That we're looking at.01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:56.000Jasen: are completely bare. It's just the sun angle. Uh, it's… coming from the east, it's just… it's pretty trippy. But, um, I think we're pretty much…01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:48.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:02:48.000 --> 01:02:50.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Yeah.01:02:56.000 --> 01:03:04.000Jasen: the footprint that we're in right now is pretty much, I think, about what it's gonna be, just because of the aspect.01:03:04.000 --> 01:03:08.000Jasen: And, you know, where we can hold snow.01:03:08.000 --> 01:03:23.000Stuart Winchester: Alright, two more quick things for you, Jason, I'll let you go. This one's kind of for your more hardcore. I saw in one of your posts that the Crazy Mother Terrain Park was being, uh, quote, regraded into a regular run. Does that mean you're not going to have a terrain park at Barrio this season?01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:32.000Jasen: No, the exact opposite is true. With snowmaking, it gives us the ability to ensure that we can build quality parks.01:03:25.000 --> 01:03:27.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.01:03:32.000 --> 01:03:48.000Jasen: One of the things that I am really passionate about, I grew up ski racing, so getting consistent seasons so that we can host USSA races, support USASA, we want to have events and we want to grow.01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:39.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.01:03:45.000 --> 01:03:47.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:03:48.000 --> 01:03:54.000Jasen: the foundation for our sport to make sure that it survives for the next several generations, so…01:03:54.000 --> 01:04:03.000Jasen: Those pieces, the train parks, the available train for ski racing, and all the ancillary stuff that comes with that, we're 100% behind.01:04:03.000 --> 01:04:17.000Jasen: I've got… I saw a lot of pushback, and I've heard a lot of pushback about the Crazy Mother Train Park getting bulldozed down. The problem was, is that stuff hasn't… hadn't been used in years. Um, they built some really big stuff, and it was too…01:04:13.000 --> 01:04:14.000Stuart Winchester: Really?01:04:17.000 --> 01:04:21.000Jasen: It was too large. We didn't have progression to get to that level.01:04:21.000 --> 01:04:26.000Jasen: When we need something like that, we'll build it again.01:04:25.000 --> 01:04:40.000Stuart Winchester: I've heard the same thing from operators all over the country. Those big ones, they're impressive and people like to look at them, but in reality, they're expensive and not a lot of folks use them or have the skill to use them. So that's a pattern I've seen all over the country.01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:45.000Stuart Winchester: Uh, so the last thing I wanted to touch on here, Jason, I mean, I…01:04:45.000 --> 01:04:52.000Stuart Winchester: I mention this every time I talk about MCP, but I think it's hard to… I can't mention it enough. I mean, the PowerPass…01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:56.000Stuart Winchester: This thing is unbelievable. Kids 12 and under are free.01:04:56.000 --> 01:05:12.000Stuart Winchester: Everyone. No parent purchase required. And right now, the PowerPass Core, which is unlimited at your ski area in Sipapu and Sandia Peak, and has lots of access to the other ski areas in MCP's portfolio, it's $449. I mean, it was $299 if you grabbed it early.01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:21.000Stuart Winchester: But talk a little bit about that power pass, and do you think people in Los Alamos really get it? Like, kids 12 and under are free, do you hit the schools, do you hit that hard?01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:14.000Jasen: Yes.01:05:22.000 --> 01:05:28.000Jasen: We do, um, we… it's amazing how the message just doesn't resonate loud enough.01:05:27.000 --> 01:05:28.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.01:05:28.000 --> 01:05:35.000Jasen: But when you look at our organization, Skiing First, like, that's real. That's like the Bible.01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:39.000Jasen: And one of the things I think everyone within the organization looks at is.01:05:39.000 --> 01:05:55.000Jasen: How do we strip back the barriers to access? Price is number one. So the 12 and under ski free, I mean, that's just something that the entire organization just firmly believes in. We want to cultivate and grow our sport, and we feel like there's no better way.01:05:55.000 --> 01:05:58.000Jasen: Than to get kids involved at an early age.01:05:58.000 --> 01:06:01.000Jasen: And then the pass pricing for, um…01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:13.000Jasen: Every year that I've been with MCP, springtime comes around and the pass pricing discussion comes up, and it's not even a discussion because, like, they're not increasing pricing, and they're really proud of that.01:06:13.000 --> 01:06:19.000Jasen: Another thing that we're doubling down on this year, which is really cool, is $9 Lyft tickets.01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:22.000Jasen: I mean, 9 bucks, with a $10 resort credit.01:06:23.000 --> 01:06:25.000Stuart Winchester: We're basically free.01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:29.000Jasen: We're paying you a dollar, you know?01:06:27.000 --> 01:06:32.000Stuart Winchester: That… and is that… that's not every day, is it?01:06:32.000 --> 01:06:47.000Jasen: No, that's… it's limited availability, but when we launch, um… I think Purgatory, Snowbowl, and Brian had a launch ticket, so if you hop on the computer right now and you say, I want to go ski on such and such day, you can get a $9 ticket with a $10 resort credit.01:06:34.000 --> 01:06:35.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.01:06:42.000 --> 01:06:43.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.01:06:48.000 --> 01:06:50.000Stuart Winchester: That's incredible.01:06:48.000 --> 01:06:53.000Jasen: It's not gonna last all winter, but… I mean, the deals are out there.01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:51.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.01:06:51.000 --> 01:06:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah.01:06:53.000 --> 01:07:01.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and you have, uh, so is it a… when you have a $9 day, is there a limited number of $9, and it goes up to $10 or $11?01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:08.000Jasen: It's incremental. Yeah, it's an extremely dynamic pricing system.01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:03.000Stuart Winchester: et cetera.01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:04.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, okay.01:07:04.000 --> 01:07:06.000Stuart Winchester: All right, well…01:07:07.000 --> 01:07:12.000Stuart Winchester: That's… and have you… have you rolled those out yet at Pareto?01:07:12.000 --> 01:07:15.000Jasen: We plan to launch our tickets in the next couple weeks.01:07:15.000 --> 01:07:18.000Stuart Winchester: Okay, do you know how many days we'll have that $9 price?01:07:20.000 --> 01:07:23.000Stuart Winchester: Is it, like, one or two, or is it, like, dozens.01:07:23.000 --> 01:07:27.000Jasen: No, in October, it'll be, like, 80% of the season.01:07:24.000 --> 01:07:26.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:36.000Stuart Winchester: Oh my gosh, okay. All right, well, set your timer. All right, I'll leave us with this, Jason, because I have a lot of listeners on the East Coast.01:07:28.000 --> 01:07:29.000Jasen: Yeah.01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:53.000Stuart Winchester: And who have never skied Parado. I imagine most people haven't skied Parado because New Mexico is sort of like the forgotten ski land. Uh, but a lot of my listeners have skied the places that you've worked at. So I know you grew up at Hunter Hunter's Madness. I love Hunter. There's nothing else like it.01:07:53.000 --> 01:08:08.000Stuart Winchester: But it's just, it's just New York City sort of transposed onto the ski slope. Uh, Crotchet, more of a college scene, kind of like, you know, they have the high speed quads, a lot of night skiing, you know, a lot of like beer in a lap. Uh, Sugarbush.01:08:08.000 --> 01:08:25.000Stuart Winchester: More of a resort, lots of natural snow, great skiing, you know, gets busy, but people get spread out around the base, and it has, obviously, the two mountains. And Saddleback is just, like, this glorious, you know, highest elevation in the east, up there. Uh, it doesn't get too busy, because it's far from everything.01:08:25.000 --> 01:08:27.000Stuart Winchester: Of those four.01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:33.000Stuart Winchester: that my listeners are probably familiar with a couple. What is Powerito? Which one is Powerito most like, and why?01:08:34.000 --> 01:08:45.000Jasen: Interesting question. Uh, yeah, New Mexico, the land of enchantment. Um, when I moved out here from the East Coast, everyone asked me why I was leaving the ski industry.01:08:44.000 --> 01:08:45.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.01:08:45.000 --> 01:08:54.000Jasen: The lack of awareness… New Mexico's the best-kept secret. You can fly into Albuquerque, grab a rental car, not hit any traffic, and be a skier in less than 2 hours. It'.01:08:48.000 --> 01:08:49.000Stuart Winchester: There.01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:54.000Stuart Winchester: Love it.01:08:54.000 --> 01:08:57.000Jasen: But Paul Rito, I would say…01:08:58.000 --> 01:09:09.000Jasen: I would say it's very similar in feel to Saddleback. Saddleback is kind of a hidden, quiet gem. It's just far enough you have to pass everything else.01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:04.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.01:09:09.000 --> 01:09:12.000Jasen: On a busy day at Parrito.01:09:12.000 --> 01:09:18.000Jasen: Because we have 300 acres and we only have fixed scripts getting you up the hill.01:09:18.000 --> 01:09:31.000Jasen: the downhill to uphill ratios are a lot different than what most skiers are today. Throughout my life, I've seen detaches go up where there used to be a double, especially at… Hunter's a perfect example, right?01:09:31.000 --> 01:09:38.000Jasen: When I started skiing there, there was a summit double chairlift, and now there's, I think, 3 different detaches that put you at the top of that mountain.01:09:38.000 --> 01:09:46.000Jasen: Um, so we've increased the uphill capacity and not addressed the downhill capacity, and I think it's watered down.01:09:46.000 --> 01:09:57.000Jasen: the experience a little bit. Powder Retail is the way it used to be. You get to the top of the mountain, and you ski down a trail, and even on a powder day, you have the trail to yourself. It's amazing.01:09:57.000 --> 01:10:01.000Jasen: It's it's what I fell in love with as a kid.01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:04.000Jasen: And Paul Rito still has that.01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:13.000Stuart Winchester: That is an awesome vision. And I read here and there that the Glades are pretty good, and that's something else Saddleback has. Talk to us about the Glades at Power Reno.01:10:15.000 --> 01:10:19.000Jasen: Yeah, the… with some of the, um…01:10:19.000 --> 01:10:26.000Jasen: When we get sufficient snowpack, you can go into the trees, but with all the burn scars and stuff.01:10:26.000 --> 01:10:30.000Jasen: You really want to be cautious about the woods. Um…01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:10:30.000 --> 01:10:35.000Jasen: I'm actually trying to get the tree message removed from our marketing campaign.01:10:33.000 --> 01:10:36.000Stuart Winchester: Oh, I see. Okay. Okay.01:10:36.000 --> 01:10:48.000Jasen: So, uh, I would really define Palo Rito more as… there's certainly trees to get into, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not a J Peak, if you will, um, but…01:10:48.000 --> 01:10:54.000Jasen: It's in-your-face fall line skiing, more so than I think most in New Mexico.01:10:50.000 --> 01:10:52.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that's true.01:10:53.000 --> 01:10:56.000Stuart Winchester: But you are allowed in the trees when there's snow?01:10:56.000 --> 01:10:58.000Jasen: Oh, yeah.01:10:57.000 --> 01:11:13.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. And, uh, just one last thing, just because I… this popped into my head. Saddleback was doing some really cool things with, like, portable rope tows in their terrain park, their lower level, uh, by, like, the Sandy Lift when they put in the new one. Were you involved with all that before you came out?01:11:14.000 --> 01:11:16.000Jasen: I, I was.01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:26.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, and so that's kind of cool. I really like rope tows for terrain parks because they, you know, you can lap, lap, lap without having to ride a lift. Is that something you've thought about for Power Radio at all?01:11:26.000 --> 01:11:33.000Jasen: Yeah, as a matter of fact, uh, if you want to pull up the trail map, I'll show you kind of what I got thinking here.01:11:29.000 --> 01:11:31.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, yeah, yeah.01:11:31.000 --> 01:11:33.000Stuart Winchester: All right, let's do it.01:11:33.000 --> 01:11:35.000Jasen: So…01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:37.000Stuart Winchester: Here's a trail map.01:11:37.000 --> 01:11:41.000Jasen: Yeah, so the bottom of Lone Spruce…01:11:42.000 --> 01:11:48.000Jasen: Right now, we're having a hard time to really… the beginner lift…01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:53.000Jasen: On a busy day, we don't want to add a lot of traffic on that lift.01:11:52.000 --> 01:11:53.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.01:11:53.000 --> 01:12:04.000Jasen: Down here below East Road on the bottom of Daisy May and the bottom of Lone Spruce, there's a perfect little triangle in there when we're not running spruce lift.01:12:04.000 --> 01:12:05.000Stuart Winchester: Mm-hmm.01:12:06.000 --> 01:12:16.000Jasen: The thought process is potentially for next year. We're on a surface lift up along the looker's left side of the bottom of Daisy May.01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:16.000Stuart Winchester: Okay.01:12:16.000 --> 01:12:24.000Jasen: So that if that lift isn't running, that parking lot is the easiest access to snow, so you could boot up in your car, ride up.01:12:24.000 --> 01:12:30.000Jasen: We've got snowmaking down in there, and that could be the beginning of our future, um…01:12:30.000 --> 01:12:35.000Jasen: uh… beginner level terrain park, and that lift would…01:12:33.000 --> 01:12:35.000Stuart Winchester: That's awesome.01:12:35.000 --> 01:12:40.000Jasen: would give you the bottom of Lowen Spruce, the bottom of Daisy May.01:12:39.000 --> 01:12:40.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:12:40.000 --> 01:12:43.000Jasen: And also access from that parking lot back to the lodge.01:12:44.000 --> 01:12:53.000Jasen: So, exactly, think of what, you know, the lodge is below the train park at Saddleback, but essentially kind of the same thing that we did at Saddleback.01:12:49.000 --> 01:12:50.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, so…01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:55.000Stuart Winchester: That's really cool.01:12:53.000 --> 01:12:56.000Jasen: To access that lower section.01:12:56.000 --> 01:13:00.000Stuart Winchester: And with a portable rope tower, would you put something more permanent in?01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:03.000Jasen: Probably something a little more permanent.01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:04.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.01:13:04.000 --> 01:13:05.000Jasen: Um…01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.000Jasen: Because even when we do replace Sloan's spruce lift.01:13:10.000 --> 01:13:17.000Jasen: You know, do you really want to ride… if you're just looking to nail a couple features, do you really want to ride a 6 or 7 minute chair?01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:17.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah. Okay.01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:21.000Jasen: When you can just loop and cycle that lower area.01:13:23.000 --> 01:13:32.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, that's awesome, Jason, and I imagine being right above a city, you have a good, you know, young skier demographic for that, so…01:13:32.000 --> 01:13:42.000Stuart Winchester: All right, Jason, listen, I really appreciate all this. This is, uh, it's really exciting, and now I've skied a little in New Mexico, but I gotta get out there, and I'm always telling people these kind of…01:13:42.000 --> 01:13:58.000Stuart Winchester: fringe areas, if you're coming from the East Coast, they see… they're as big as an East Coast ski area, and there's no one there. And they're wonderful skiing, so this sounds, uh… this first time I focused on Power Reno, it sounds kind of like that if you were an East Coast skier coming out.01:13:59.000 --> 01:14:08.000Jasen: Yes, yes. Even on the busiest of days, it's just… it still amazes me how awesome the terrain is. And you know.01:14:08.000 --> 01:14:16.000Jasen: all of the places I've worked, we've talked about some of the different skiers I've worked at, um, in the East. The other thing that I think is important to note.01:14:16.000 --> 01:14:17.000Jasen: Because of…01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:20.000Jasen: Just the quantity of people.01:14:21.000 --> 01:14:28.000Jasen: At 3 or 4 o'clock, the trails get stomped. I mean, you're down to, like, boilerplate, everything's scrapped off.01:14:26.000 --> 01:14:27.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah, okay.01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:29.000Stuart Winchester: Mmhm.01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:46.000Jasen: And, uh, that was the other thing that blew my mind when I got out here. The quality of skiing from 8 AM to 4 PM is pretty consistent. Like, you just don't get that, oh, you know, I'm going to the pub to have a beer because it's already scraped off at 1 o'clock or 2 o'clock, you know. It's just, it's great skiing from first chair to last.01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:35.000Stuart Winchester: Yeah.01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:37.000Stuart Winchester: Awesome. Yeah.01:14:41.000 --> 01:14:42.000Stuart Winchester: Yes.01:14:47.000 --> 01:15:02.000Stuart Winchester: Incredible. All right, Jason. Well, I'm going to come test that theory hopefully this winter. If not, I'll make it out at some point and hope to take a couple turns with you. So thanks so much for all your time, especially I know how busy you are. It's a huge project. I really appreciate it.01:15:02.000 --> 01:15:05.000Jasen: Thanks a lot, Stuart. It was awesome talking to you. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Tigst Assefa was on world record pace at the Berlin Marathon before an Achilles injury derailed her final two kilometers. She still limped home in 2:11:04, the third-fastest women's marathon ever, and underwent surgery within hours. Would Assefa broken Ruth Chepngetich's drug-tainted 2:09:56 world record? Is the new Adidas shoe the new "mechanical doping"? In the NCAA, New Mexico upset number-one Oklahoma State at the Cowboy Jamboree behind 27-year-old freshman Pasanjo Kitonga while BYU's Jane Hedengren suffered a rare defeat. Is is a sophomore slump? Josh Kerr released footage of a 2:12.66 1,000-meter time trial that would rank fifth all-time, fueling further argument about whether this was the greatest mile season in history.

If your fridge can be bricked by a firmware update and your AI can outwit its creators, are we trading convenience for chaos? This lively episode tackles the tension between relentless innovation and apparent human oversight in today's weird tech world. Unpack the reality behind AI agents hacking government sites and why industry leaders suddenly want to "pause" progress while shipping new models. An OpenAI Agent Hacked Australia's Health Service. Their Government Found Out Months Later Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents OpenAI's A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites US and China Discuss Alerting Each Other to AI National Security Threats Meta Connect 2026: The biggest news and announcements Amazon doesn't trust Meta's Muse AI agent Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds Ireland's data watchdog has fined Google €403M over location data Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1 Microsoft thinks its new Copilot 'super app' will be as influential as Office OpenAI pauses training of its 'most capable models' Hacking group ShinyHunters claims it breached the FBI, stole agents' and applicants' data New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators Walmart chief rules out personalised pricing as AI transforms retail Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges The smart home graveyard is getting crowded Scientists build world's most accurate atomic clock Fat Bear Week 2026 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed and Iain Thomson Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit doppel.com superhuman.com PaloAltoNetworks.com/Idira coveron.com/thisweekintech and use code thisweekintech

If your fridge can be bricked by a firmware update and your AI can outwit its creators, are we trading convenience for chaos? This lively episode tackles the tension between relentless innovation and apparent human oversight in today's weird tech world. Unpack the reality behind AI agents hacking government sites and why industry leaders suddenly want to "pause" progress while shipping new models. An OpenAI Agent Hacked Australia's Health Service. Their Government Found Out Months Later Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents OpenAI's A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites US and China Discuss Alerting Each Other to AI National Security Threats Meta Connect 2026: The biggest news and announcements Amazon doesn't trust Meta's Muse AI agent Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds Ireland's data watchdog has fined Google €403M over location data Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1 Microsoft thinks its new Copilot 'super app' will be as influential as Office OpenAI pauses training of its 'most capable models' Hacking group ShinyHunters claims it breached the FBI, stole agents' and applicants' data New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators Walmart chief rules out personalised pricing as AI transforms retail Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges The smart home graveyard is getting crowded Scientists build world's most accurate atomic clock Fat Bear Week 2026 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed and Iain Thomson Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit doppel.com superhuman.com PaloAltoNetworks.com/Idira coveron.com/thisweekintech and use code thisweekintech

If your fridge can be bricked by a firmware update and your AI can outwit its creators, are we trading convenience for chaos? This lively episode tackles the tension between relentless innovation and apparent human oversight in today's weird tech world. Unpack the reality behind AI agents hacking government sites and why industry leaders suddenly want to "pause" progress while shipping new models. An OpenAI Agent Hacked Australia's Health Service. Their Government Found Out Months Later Scoop: Top AI companies probing tens of thousands of security incidents OpenAI's A.I. Went Rogue and Meddled With U.S. Government Websites US and China Discuss Alerting Each Other to AI National Security Threats Meta Connect 2026: The biggest news and announcements Amazon doesn't trust Meta's Muse AI agent Meta Tests Muse AI Agent Calls That Are Actually Made By Humans in a Call Center Meta misled users about Facebook data practices, New Mexico jury finds Ireland's data watchdog has fined Google €403M over location data Google's first Suncatcher orbital data center test launches October 1 Microsoft thinks its new Copilot 'super app' will be as influential as Office OpenAI pauses training of its 'most capable models' Hacking group ShinyHunters claims it breached the FBI, stole agents' and applicants' data New Jersey fines data center $1.1M after drone pics expose 62 gas generators Walmart chief rules out personalised pricing as AI transforms retail Owners mourn spoiled food after firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges The smart home graveyard is getting crowded Scientists build world's most accurate atomic clock Fat Bear Week 2026 Host: Leo Laporte Guests: Harper Reed and Iain Thomson Download or subscribe to This Week in Tech at https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-tech Join Club TWiT for Ad-Free Podcasts! Support what you love and get ad-free audio and video feeds, a members-only Discord, and exclusive content. Join today: https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsors: trustedtech.team/twit doppel.com superhuman.com PaloAltoNetworks.com/Idira coveron.com/thisweekintech and use code thisweekintech

In a shocking verdict, a New Mexico jury found Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, guilty of violating the state's Unfair Practices Act. The company was ordered to pay up to $219 billion in fines, with the state claiming that Facebook's failure to delete misinformation and hate speech was a form of consumer fraud. But what does this mean for free speech and the future of social media moderation?This episode delves into the details of the case, exploring the tension between Facebook's promises to users and its actual practices. The speaker discusses the implications of the verdict, including the potential for other states to use similar laws to target social media companies. We also examine the role of the First Amendment in protecting editorial judgment and the importance of transparency in moderation practices.The speaker highlights the case of a New Mexico teacher who was put on paid administrative leave for posting a TikTok video supporting a teacher strike, raising questions about the limits of free speech for public employees. We also discuss the Supreme Court's recent decision in the case of Moody v. Net Choice, which emphasized the importance of editorial judgment in moderation practices.If you're concerned about the future of free speech and the role of social media in our democracy, this episode is a must-listen. Join us as we explore the complexities of this case and its implications for our online lives.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jeffrey Epstein's crimes did not fit neatly into any political party, ideology or partisan narrative. His network included wealthy and influential people from across the political spectrum, along with figures from finance, academia, royalty, business and entertainment. That breadth is one of the reasons efforts to reduce the Epstein story to a weapon against one party or faction have always missed the larger point. The central issue was not whether someone was a Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal or politically unaffiliated, but whether they had a meaningful relationship with Epstein, what they knew about his conduct and whether they enabled, facilitated or ignored what was happening around him.The same was true geographically. Epstein's operation stretched far beyond Palm Beach and New York, reaching the U.S. Virgin Islands, New Mexico, Paris, London and other locations tied to his travel, properties and associates. Victims were recruited and moved through an international network, while money, aircraft, businesses and social relationships crossed borders just as easily. Epstein's crimes were therefore both transpartisan and global in nature, involving institutions and individuals in multiple countries and jurisdictions. Understanding the full scope of the case requires looking past political tribalism and treating it as what it was: an international criminal enterprise sustained by wealth, access and a remarkably broad network of people and institutions.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-epstein-chronicles--5003294/support.

LAST MONDAY OF THE MONTH! We're keeping the stream casual, and going where the chat wants to take us! Some important political stories to cover. Facebook could be on the hook for $200 Billion after a lawsuit in New Mexico. Banks can sue Apple over fees. Deepseek made a billion dollars! And what's going on with PS5 emulation? It's time for a pajama podcast! Let's get our tech week started off RIGHT! -- Show notes and links https://somegadgetguy.com/b/4hM Support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu Find out more at https://talking-tech-with-somegadgetgu.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast. Try Pinecast for free, forever, no credit card required. If you decide to upgrade, use coupon code r-c117ce for 40% off for 4 months, and support Talking Tech with SomeGadgetGuy.

Send us Fan MailFor your information, everyone knows monsters prefer blondes. Al & Siena are traveling to Tromaville and visiting Mrs. Voorhees on this toxic team-up of THE TOXIC AVENGER (1984) x FREDDY VS JASON (2003)! Find out how that infamous head-squishing scene was shot, explore the unreal and decades-long development hell the slasher sequel survived to make it to production, and learn the low-tech recipe for Toxie's radioactive sludge on this Travis' birthday "ex-TRAV-aganza" edition of Splice & Splatter. You can scream new episodes every other Monday with full video episodes on Youtube!Hosts: Al LaFleur and Siena Sofia BergtTheme Song: Theodore SchaferSplice & Splatter is a New Mexico x Michigan podcast productionFollow us on social media at linktr.ee/spliceandsplatterpodSupport the show

When the sun sets over the Navajo reservation, ancient legends come alive — and those who've seen the skinwalkers will never forget the eyes watching from the shadows.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/FaceToFaceWithFearREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p927m85FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Numerous Reddit users describe their own personal encounters with strange creatures that might be described as werewolves or wendigos… but even further skin deep. (Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters) *** In 1836, an unsuspecting passerby entered the Gardette-LePrete mansion and uncovered a scene of unimaginable horror. (Blood Soaked Gardette LePrete Mansion) *** Is it possible that some classic UFO events were actually hallucinations by people on drugs? (Psychedelic UFO Sightings) *** Ann Hodges, the only person struck by a meteorite who survived it, suffered a nervous breakdown after a media frenzy and a court battle for meteorite ownership. (Struck By a Meteor) *** A mysterious sighting in the night spawned the legend of one of West Virginia's creepiest cryptids. (The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster) *** A Weirdo family member tells the story of a ghost named Matilda. (Matilda)CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:01:35.685 = Show Open00:03:27.394 = True Stories of Skinwalkers And Shapeshifters00:45:36.764 = Blood Soaked Gardette-LePrete Mansion ***00:50:42.066 = Psychedelic UFO Sightings01:00:00.794 = Struck By A Meteor ***01:07:47.832 = Legend Of The Flatwoods Monster01:16:07.232 = Matilda ***01:19:25.669 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:“Skinwalkers and Shapeshifters” by Nida Sea: http://bit.ly/2Xzkaml“Blood Soaked Gardette-LePrete Mansion” by Adam Karlin: http://bit.ly/2Lb3RKI“Psychedelic UFO Sightings” by Nick Redfern: http://bit.ly/2LSsETx“Struck By a Meteor” by Martin Chalakoski: http://bit.ly/2xBwmZ5“The Legend of the Flatwoods Monster” by Orin Grey: http://bit.ly/32jIImG“Matilda” submitted anonymously to WeirdDarkness.com(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: June 2022LIKE WHAT YOU'RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIALWeird Darkness host Darren Marlar covers firsthand skinwalker encounters, a massacre legend from a French Quarter mansion, UFO cases that may trace back to hallucinogens, an Alabama woman struck by a meteorite, West Virginia's Flatwoods Monster, and a ghost named Matilda.It opens with the skinwalker of Navajo tradition, a witch or medicine man said to take an animal's shape by wearing its skin, and with accounts of meeting one: a blood-matted creature with a half-bear, half-human face sitting in the road between Window Rock, Arizona, and Gallup, New Mexico, and a figure that paced a high school basketball bus at 85 miles an hour before dropping to all fours as a coyote. Other sightings range from Bandelier National Monument to the Australian bush, and a New Mexico highway patrol officer's two encounters come from George Knapp and Colm Kelleher's book Hunt for the Skinwalker.From there, it goes to the Gardette-LePrete mansion at 716 Dauphine Street in New Orleans, where legend says a passerby in 1836 followed a trickle of blood inside and found a courtyard strewn with hacked-apart bodies and a man who'd been buried alive, said to be the brother of an Ottoman sultan, though no historical record mentions the prince or the murders.Next, Rich Reynolds of the UFO Conjectures blog points to the CIA's MK-Ultra LSD experiments and suggests that some classic UFO encounters were drug-induced. The cases include contactee Orfeo Angelucci swallowing a pill in a Twentynine Palms, California, diner in December 1954, the 1957 abduction of Antonio Villas Boas in Brazil, and the 1973 Pascagoula, Mississippi, abduction of Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker near the World War II biological-warfare site on Horn Island, in an area where local tales tell of later experiments with the hallucinogen BZ.After that, on November 30th, 1954, a nine-pound meteorite crashed through the ceiling of a rented house in Oak Grove, near Sylacauga, Alabama, bounced off the radio, and struck Ann Hodges on the hip as she napped. A lawsuit from her landlady, Birdie Guy, was settled with the Hodges family paying $500 for the rock, which Ann later gave to the Alabama Museum of Natural History; she suffered a nervous breakdown, split from her husband in 1964, and died in a nursing home in 1972.Then comes West Virginia's Flatwoods Monster, the figure with a round red face, a dark green body, and a hood shaped like the ace of spades that Kathleen May and six children saw on a farm hillside in Flatwoods on September 12th, 1952, after three boys watched something streak across the sky. In 2000, Joe Nickell of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry traced it to a meteor, an aircraft beacon, and a barn owl, and Braxton County still celebrates the creature with a museum, monster-shaped chairs, and Flatwoods Days.The episode closes with an anonymous listener's story of Matilda, the ghost in a grandmother's big double house, where a door swung shut in a windowless room, a radio switched on in the night, and police kept answering calls nobody in the house had made. An obituary in an old newspaper in the attic named a woman called Matilda who had died there, and the activity stopped once the grandmother got a dog.