This winter had many highlights. The 2002 Winter Olympic Games at Salt Lake City, Utah had to be the highest point of the winter for Americans. Not only did the Olympics go on without any problems but the Americans put together the best showing for American winter olympic teams, ever. The Americans took home 34 medals, 10 of them gold. Overall that was the second best performance out of all the countries. Bode Miller took home 2 silver medals for alpine skiing. The American snowboarders Ross Powers, Danny Kass, and Thomas Jarret swept the men's halfpipe competition.

On the downside, while the west had the Olympics and plenty of snow, the east had a horrible year for snowfall, mostly in New England. Many of the smaller ski areas did not open until right near Christmas or later, missing one of the biggest money-making times of the year. Sugarloaf/USA opened in mid-fall, a little after Halloween but was forced to close in November because of warm temperatures and no natural snow. Portland, Maine normally recieves 70 inches of snow a year, this winter they recieved only a little more that 20 inches! The story is the same everywhere. Cold weather nver took hold for long either. When it did the resorts had to pump out as much snow as possible. It must be noted that Sugarloaf/USA recieved 2 feet of snow in the first week of spring and were able to open all there trails. They kept the entire mountain open until April 10 and still have 124 of 129 open today (4/11). Not all bad news.

Now spring has sprung and the snow is melting, skiers and snowboarders are leaving and you need to read part 2 to find out what to do this spring!