Locals have waited long enough for Payette Lake to return! Payette Lake is almost back while Brundage Mountain in the background welcomes skiiers in its closing day on Saturday – kids under 17 and Mom’s ski free! Closing festivities will bid farewell to the epic ski season of 2007-2008 with the second snowiest winter on record – 428 inches of the best powder snow in Idaho!

goto www.Brundage.com for all the details

Brundage Mountain Resort just logged in over 400 inches of snow for this epic 2007-2008 ski season! Friday night we got pounded with over 8 inches of new powder and more is on the way tonite. Nordic trails at Ponderosa Park were freshly groomed early Saturday morning and you couldn’t have asked for better snow/grooming at Little Bear Basin last Friday. With overnite temps just over zero we’ll wait for warmer air and trail conditions early afternoon tomorrow.

While Brundage normally closes around the second weekend of April, the resort will be open the third and fourth weekends of April. Go to www.brundage.com for all the details and end of season festivities.

Perfect snow conditions, sunny skies and enthusiasm permeated the 2008 Masters World Cup competition at Ponderosa Park in McCall over the last week. We shot much of the competition from the start/finish lines as well as along the trails so stay tuned for our event photo album.

The 2008 Masters World Cup at Ponderosa Park is well underway in McCall with record crowds, great snow conditions and marvelous competitors in our midst. It is a rare privilege to watch world class athletes compete in all age groups from 30 to 87 years of age.

The event’s website at http://www.mwc2008.com/ is being updated daily to record race results and news.

Over the last week Nordic skiers from all over the world have been arriving in McCall to train for the 2008 Masters World Cup with competition commencing this Saturday, March 1. Trail and grooming conditions at all of McCall’s Nordic venues have been superb to welcome event participants and visitors alike.

We shot this photo at Little Bear Basin in McCall today at 3PM. Nice!

Ten straight days of snowfall this month pushed Brundage Mountain over the 300 inch mark for total snowfall for the season. The Mountain’s record snowfall was 420 inches in both 1998-99 and 2005-6. For the resort to hit 300 inches so early in the season bodes well for a record, epic year!

Alpine and Nordic skiiers are enjoying banner days this week with sunny skies and silky tracks.

Brundage Mountain Resort’s construction of two new chairlifts is well underway and scheduled for completion in time for the 2007/2008 ski season. A fixed grip triple chair named the “Bear Chair” will replace an existing Platter Tow and provide easy access to underutilized terrain. The new “Lakeview” Chair will open up nearly 160 acres of new terrain on the south side of Brundage and is visible from the city of McCall. This is also a fixed grip triple chair with the bottom terminal at 6,600 feet and the top terminal at 7,400 feet. Together, the two new lifts will increase the resort’s uphill capacity from 3,100 people per hour to 6,700 people per hour. For more information and a trail map of the new lifts check out Brundage’s website at www.brundage.com

We ran into Pete Zimowsky, a widely read photo journalist from the Idaho Statesman at the boat launch near North Beach on Payette a couple weekends back. He and his wife, and Lab were visiting McCall to explore Payette Lake via kayak and his story was recently featured in the Idaho Statesman – a great resource for anyone wishing to do the same. Pete’s website at

http://web.mac.com/rapidz/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html

features some great shots around Payette Lake!

By the way, the Idaho Statesman, in its’ yearly “The Best of Treasure Valley” just named McCall as the top “Best Weekend Getaway or Road Trip” out of Boise!