A snow conditions update at Sugarbush featured an employee’s thoughts on the Trump administration before a visit from JD Vance. The posts were deleted, but she kept her job.
A flare of protest against the Trump administration erupted last weekend from the most unexpected of places: a snow report.
The setting was the powder-packed peaks of the Sugarbush ski resort in the Green Mountains of Vermont, where Vice President JD Vance had retreated on Saturday for a day of skiing with his family. Before Mr. Vance arrived, a lengthy post appeared on the Sugarbush website, meant to be an early morning rundown of the current slope conditions.
As it turned out, it was more of a report of the current conditions of our nation, as perceived by Lucy Welch, the resort’s “snow reporter.”
“Right now, National Forest lands and National Parks are under direct attack by the current Administration,” Ms. Welch wrote, after praising the natural beauty of the place. “This Administration also neglects to address the danger, or even the existence of, climate change, the biggest threat to the future of our industry, and the skiing we all so much enjoy here.”
Ms. Welch, 25, was not finished, noting the staff cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — “a resource I use every day for snow reporting,” she said — and praising the diversity of people, including veterans, immigrants and members of L.B.G.T.Q. communities, who both work and play at Sugarbush.
“ALL of these groups are being targeted, undervalued, and disrespected by the current Administration,” she wrote, adding, “We are living in a really scary and really serious time.”