Jay Peak Sold to Quebec, And 5 More April Fools You May Have Missed
Ok, we confess: we love April Fools. A little satire, a little “let’s take ourselves less seriously” seems to go hand in hand with corn snow, tailgates and spring. This season there were a bumper crop of posts. Here are a few you may have missed. And if you want more humor, follow our #NotTheNews page.
JAY PEAK, BURKE SOLD TO QUEBEC
When we posted this week an elaborate release about how Jay Peak and Burke had been sold to Quebec, complete with fake quotes from Prime Minister Trudeau and Governor Scott, we had no idea it would go viral.
An excerpt: “On a recent powder weekend, angry Montrealers lined up at the St. Albans border, waving bottles of Canadian Club and threatening to riot if they had to wait another hour at customs. “We considered declaring a national emergency but then decided this offered a better solution,” said Gov. Scott.”
There was even a link to Jay Peak’s “MLS listing”, composed by contributor Zander Basedepth (a.k.a Alex Kaufman or WintryMix podcast fame.)
Perhaps it was the riffing off of the national concerns about border security. Or maybe a nod to Canada’s healthcare system. Either way, that story spread like wildfire, with some folks believing it… until they got to the part about the name change to “J’ai Pique.”
A few others from our archives:
FIS Announces New World Cup Event
Vail Buys 17 Resorts and Vermont
And from around the ski world”
KILLINGTON’S MIKE SOLIMANO RUNS FOR GOVERNOR
Some April’s Fools are so good you want to believe them. That was the case when we saw that the Killington CEO (who has brought the World Cup to Vermont, helped build 36 miles of mountain bike trails and has secured more than 25 million in investments in the resort and a new base lodge) was running for governor. While we loved the press release, the piece de resistance was the fake website, Solimano in 2020, Chandler Burgess and the resort’s marketing team set it up with pictures of Mike (like this one, below) and video of him playing with Tonka toy-sized snowcats. We even spotted some fake Solimano 2020 signs in the snow.
DOZENS OF SKIERS STRANDED ON CORINTH T-BAR
There are so many reasons why we love Northeast Slopes. One of Vermont’s smallest ski areas (rope tows and t-bars, hello?), this little area in the Northeast Kingdom is big on attitude and was one of Glen Plake’s favorite Vermont stops on his 2019 Down Home Tour. So their Facebook post about eagles and beavers chewing into the safety rope wiring was classic Northeast Slopes and earned them more than 435 likes and 200 shares on Facebook.
IKON PASS SECURITY SCREENING COMING TO ASPEN
Haley O’Brien, the former Mount Snow communications person who has gone on to become the Tina Fey of skiing, put together an amazing video and story documenting a move by Aspen/Snowmass to install security screenings for Ikon Pass holders on her The Snow Report.
US RESORTS TO ENFORCE SKIING SPEED LIMITS, WILL AUSTRALIA FOLLOW SUIT?
Australian ski and travel writer Rachel Oakes-Ash hit a nerve with many skiers when she published “USA Resorts to Enforce Skiing Speed Limits: Will Australia Follow Suit?” on her site, Snowsbest.com. It was almost believable that “Green runs will be 5 to 10 miles per hour, intermediate blue runs will be 10 to 20 miles per hour and black groomed runs will be 20 to 40 miles per hour,” and that some resorts would be out there with radar guns. It was one of those “thank heavens it’s April 1” moments.
WORLDWIDE SKI RESORT CONSOLIDATION FINALLY COMPLETE
Though she almost fooled us by posting a day early, Wendy Clinch (a.k.a The Ski Diva) reported on how Alterra and Vail basically bought up all the resorts in the world. “Only one resort remains untouched: Mad River Glen, the legendary ski co-op located in Waitsfield, Vermont. “We were approached by both companies,” said Matt Lillard, MRG General Manager, “but when they insisted on replacing the single chair with a six-pack heated bubble — well, we knew it’d never fly with our shareholders.”
