Winter Blast Brings Headaches, Celebrations to Vt.

(NECN: Jack Thurston, Bolton, Vt.) - Thursday's winter storm, which will stretch into Friday for much of Vermont, meant a lot of headaches for a lot of people. Travel was tricky and slow. Wind made for an uncomfortable evening for many, and according to WPTZ-TV, more than 280 schools had announced by 9 p.m. Thursday that they would be closed on Friday.

However, Vermont's ski industry was overjoyed. "It's a great night," beamed skier Kyle Munderville, who was taking part in night skiing at the Bolton Valley Resort. "It's a good way to end the work night!"

"It's absolutely beautiful out," added skier Stephen Ash. "Psyched to get a nice dump of snow once in a while!"

This mid-season boost should erase memories of the melting and icy conditions that plagued the Green Mountain State during January, not to mention those dangerously cold days. "I think the snow's going to be good," skier Jill Gagne told New England Cable News. "It's going to be soft, there's some piles on the trails, so I think it's going to be a good time!"

Vermont's winter tourism industry is excited that this was a large, regional storm, meaning good "promotion" going into the long holiday weekend. "If you don't have snow in people's backyards down-country in our core markets like Boston, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, it's very easy for them to be out of sight out of mind, and not be thinking about skiing and riding," said Parker Riehle of the trade association Ski Vermont. "It can be very difficult to get people fired up to come on up to Vermont. Whereas when they see winter as it should be, out their backyard, they get really excited and stoked, and we see the crowds come through in a big way at that time."

Riehle noted that after Presidents' Day, ski resorts tend to be quite busy with two weeks of school vacations.

Vermont's mountains were expecting more snow than the valleys, and the southern and central parts of the state were generally in for more snow than the north.

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