Well, this winter stinks! There is just no way around it. Vermont is not the only one in this very soggy boat either. NY, NH and ME are seeing record rainfall and lack of snowfall. When things like this happen there are many that are affected, starting with our members that just want to ride. Those folks have bought passes to ride and it is just not in our cards this season. What some don’t understand is that the money spent on buying a TMA supports the entire organization which includes our trail system, administration, etc. Just because we have no snow VAST guarantees to pay half of our annual grooming contracts. That itself is 1.1 million dollars annually. You might wonder why that it is and it is because the clubs don’t just use this money to buy fuel for the groomers, but also pay loan payments, equipment repairs, equipment housing, etc out of the money they get from their grooming contracts. VAST is a very lean association and is run with 20% going toward administration, marketing, insurance, etc and 80% toward trails.

So while we work through this nasty weather year along with each of you, we would like to thank you for your dedication to our sport, for supporting the best signed and groomed trails in the Northeast, and supporting the clubs and businesses that also rely on you so much.

We are also working on someway to thank those of you that did buy TMAs for 2016 this year, so stay tuned for that.