Last week I mentioned the utter cold that comes with Vermont skiing. Today, I bring you a more generalized, yet related, commentary: the weather in Vermont stinks. If it's not 20 below zero, it's humid and pouring.

My team traveled north again this past weekend for our second race of the season -- at Middlebury College's Snow Bowl. I can't really complain about Saturday's weather, but the layer of crunchy ice that was frozen on top of the powder below led to extreme difficulty in turns. Combine this snow with an unforeseen gutter in the terrain and you're left with your editor launching out of his skis and sliding halfway down the hill on his face. You've heard of road rash; before Saturday, I didn't realize snow could have the same effect.

With Sunday came a torrential downpour. The bad snow was wiped out, but in its place was slush -- and even a flowing creek at the base of the mountain. Rarely have I skied in such wet conditions. My supposedly waterproof pants and jackets couldn't live up to their claims, and even a garbage bag couldn't keep all the water out. By the end of the day (well, after the morning race; the usual afternoon race was called off due to weather -- go figure), I was squeezing water out of my useless gloves. A day later, back in New York, I think there's still water dripping from my body.

Meanwhile, back in California, I'm sure the skies are clear and the snow is great (I hear Tahoe was just dumped on by six feet of new powder).

Had I lost my mind when I decided to leave my homeland for this frozen corner of the country?

-Gabe

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Now, after many fits and starts, the roller-coaster negotiations appear to be nearing an end. But with the deadline just weeks away, nobody is certain whether the deal really will go through or what the effect will be of the 11th hour change in administrations.

In the Capitol, there are hints of frantic scrambling under way as the March 1 deadline looms.

The deal, which has received national attention, involves about 10,000 acres of Pacific Lumber Co.'s forest, including 5,000 acres of old-growth redwoods and other trees, with a price tag of $480 million divided between the state and federal authorities. The land is located in the coastal hills about 250 miles north of San Francisco.

Charles Hurwitz, a billionaire financier whose Texas-based Maxxam Corp. controls Pacific Lumber, and government authorities generally support the sale -- Hurwitz because of the money it will bring, the officials because they believe it will provide enviornmental safeguards for trees that otherwise would be lost to logging.

Ironically, environmentalists have not been allowed to participate in the closed-door negotiations brokered by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein that gave birth to the Headwaters agreement. But they have been the most vocal in denouncing the proposal, saying protections should be extended to the entirety of the 66,000-acre Headwaters Forest Complex, not just the 10,000 acres targeted in the deal. Moreover, they contend, a crucial environmental document called a Habitat Conservation Plan, or HCP, that is a required piece of the Headwaters sale does not ensure that Pacific Lumber will manage the rest of its 200,000 acres in a way that will satisfy environmentalists.

During the weekend, the U.S. Interior Department posted a copy of the Habitat Conservation Plan on its its Internet Web site (http://www.doi.gov), and now environmentalists and others are pouring over the document line-by-line to determine the scope of its impact and to find out if it is written in such a way that it contains loopholes for environmental safeguards.

A new factor has emerged in recent days in the negotiations. Mary Nichols, Gov. Gray Davis' new environmental adviser, is said to be taking a particular interest in the Headwaters and feels that the HCP should be tightly written -- much to the delight of environmentalists and much to the dismay of the company. In fact, one rumour circulating in the Capitol is that the Wildlife Conservation Board -- the agency empowered to actually spend the money for the Headwaters -- won't let go of a dime unless there are separate written assurances involving the HCP.

The bottom line: Despite politicians' pronouncements to the contrary, the Headwaters deal is not a done deal, by any means.

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