Do ski areas own the water they used for snowmaking? That’s the central issue in a fight between Vail and the U.S. Forest Service. The agency wants to alter the way resorts account for their water rights, and Vail, for one, is crying foul, saying that after investing millions in infrastructure they should have the right to dictate both the use and sale of the rights. The feds say their aim is to tie the rights directly to resorts, since the original intention of the grants was for the water to be used to make recreation viable (snowmaking, drinking, etc.), not to resell for farming or to cities. As usual, this fight is all about money and who will profit from the sale of water that’s originating on federal land.

We shouldn’t care about the jargon used to sell mountain bikes, argues Mitchell Scott’s funny, engaging essay, Riding in the Age of Confusion, where he says that all the technobabble is alienating, prevents more people from adopting the sport, and denies mountain biking its central appeal: the simple act of getting out on the trail and away from the complexities of computerized daily life. He uses skis/boards for a perfect analogy: “We don’t really care if our snowboard or skis have a triaxal weave, or if they’re balsam or spruce or monocoque foam core or not. We just want to know if it shreds. If it will shred for a long time. And if we’re getting maximum shred for our buck. It’s more about ‘what’ this thing can do, and less about ‘how.’

While the rest of the world dithers over climate change, Mongolia is doing something about it. In the nation’s capital, Ulan Bator, they’re creating what’s being called an “ice shield” by growing the amount of ice that naturally forms on the city’s Tuul River with a little help from man. It’s similar to how ice skating rinks are made thicker, by topping the ice with more and more water. Ulan Bator will grow the ice up to 21 feet in thickness to create reserves of water for summer, as well as fight the city’s heat island effect. The project could provide a precedent for other arid cities that also have cold winters; Denver, for instance, which is facing potentially dire water shortages by 2020.

After an online petition reamed the Discovery Channel for being cowardly on climate change, the network has reversed course and said it will air the seventh episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary when the series hits this coming spring. The final episode not only documents the coldest regions of our world, as do the first six, but also starkly discusses the effects a warming world will have on the plants, animals, and people who depend on cold winters either directly or indirectly. Discovery had originally said it wouldn’t show the finale because it was worried that some viewers didn’t believe in climate change. But an online petition from Change.org hit 75,000 signatures in just a few hours after the news broke, prompting the network to backpedal.

The Kahuna Snow Stick made by Kahuna Creations is seeking to make cross-country snowboarding more of a viable sport. A few years back we had some dedicated cross-country snowboarders who seemed to do just fine without the stick, and in their purist view of the sport would likely skoff at people using sticks. Prepare to get laughed at by the purist snowboarders! At $119 it’s a great way to spend cash on something you’ll use for about 10 seconds before throwing it away. Is it too early to start thinking Olympics 2022?