Chute

Always the destination for a remarkable experience, Mad River Glen clings ferociously to the old ways, relying mostly on natural snow, which it grooms only to a modicum. Thus, its adherents proudly stand by the notion that skiing there is a throwback to "real" skiing, or at least New England the way it used to be. If you ski at Mad River and really want to be a snob, your car can wear the old bumper sticker: "Mad River Glen -- Ski It if You Can. " (We haven't seen the less tasteful bumper sticker around lately, but the attitude is still at Mad River Glen -- and the snowboards are decidedly not there.

NEW YORK — The flight attendant accused of onboard antics that captured the nation’s attention when he told off a passenger and slid down the plane’s emergency chute with a beer will undergo a mental health evaluation with the aim of avoiding jail time in a plea deal. Steven Slater appeared in a Queens courtroom for a brief hearing on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and trespassing after last month’s meltdown aboard a JetBlue Airways Corp. flight from Pittsburgh that had landed at Kennedy International Airport.

NEW YORK — The flight attendant accused of onboard antics that captured the nation’s attention when he told off a passenger and slid down the plane’s emergency chute with a beer will undergo a mental health evaluation with the aim of avoiding jail time in a plea deal. Steven Slater appeared in a Queens courtroom for a brief hearing on charges of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and trespassing after last month’s meltdown aboard a JetBlue Airways Corp. flight from Pittsburgh that had landed at Kennedy International Airport.

Looking for a few inside tips? The Globe has surveyed the scene from top to bottom and taken notes: Best move to the dark side Last season, Sunday River added night skiing for the first time on weekends and holidays. The trend will continue this year, with a 12-hour ticket good for access to under-the-lights terrain serviced by the Chondola and South Ridge Express lifts. It’s a welcome option for skiers and boarders who arrive for a late check-in on Fridays and want to get in a few runs before dinner or bedtime.

CAMDEN, Maine - Here's a way to prove you're the one and only at any sport: preface it "National Championship" and see if anyone complains. That wasn't exactly the idea behind the US Toboggan National Championships, to be held this weekend in one of Maine's prettiest coastal towns, but, says Tom Cox, "No one stepped up to make a challenge, so I guess there aren't any others around. " Strictly speaking, there is at least one toboggan chute at Lake Placid, but it certainly doesn't hold an annual 400-entry event with team names such as the Office Monkeys, Quack Attack, or the...

CAMDEN, Maine -- If, as Andy Warhol predicted a generation ago, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, the competitors in next weekend's annual National Toboggan Championships will earn their accolades nine seconds at a time. But tobogganers are familiar with the fleeting nature of fame, and with the unusual course over which they will try to make their mark -- the tiny Camden Snow Bowl, a vest-pocket Alpine ski area on Maine's mid-coast, a region better known for ocean views than for snowy slopes.

Naturalist John Muir once described a waterfall as the voice of the landscape, and we could hear what he meant as chutes, cataracts, and cascades spoke to us in the Connecticut Berkshires. Many of New England's oldest rocks poke out of the ground in the northwest corner of the Nutmeg State, ocean floor tossed skyward when North America and Africa collided 450 million years ago. The bedrock creates some of the most abrupt changes in altitude in New England, perfect spots for mountain streams to spring...

Looking for a few inside tips? The Globe has surveyed the scene from top to bottom and taken notes: Best move to the dark side Last season, Sunday River added night skiing for the first time on weekends and holidays. The trend will continue this year, with a 12-hour ticket good for access to under-the-lights terrain serviced by the Chondola and South Ridge Express lifts. It’s a welcome option for skiers and boarders who arrive for a late check-in on Fridays and want to get in a few runs before dinner or bedtime.

NEW BRAUNFELS - "Forget the Alamo!" That was the response from our 11-year-old son when I suggested a visit to the shrine of Texas independence as a possible destination for a fun family outing. Such heresy might normally lead to quite a dust-up here in the Lone Star State. But the boy - a newly minted Texan - could be excused when you consider that he has already been to the Alamo numerous times on school trips and with relatives and other assorted out-of-town guests since we moved here 10 months ago. OK, so enough of the heroic deeds of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett.

Once shunned by many gardeners as too demanding, roses have responded to rejection by getting better. "The new ones are easier to grow, they bloom longer, they're more disease-resistant, and little by little their fragrance is returning," says Mike Chute, who has grown hundreds of varieties with his wife, Angelina, on their quarter-acre plot in Riverside, Rhode Island. Rose varieties that flourish in this region must be particularly tolerant of cold winters, hot summers, and rapid weather swings, Mike Chute says.

NEW BRAUNFELS - "Forget the Alamo!" That was the response from our 11-year-old son when I suggested a visit to the shrine of Texas independence as a possible destination for a fun family outing. Such heresy might normally lead to quite a dust-up here in the Lone Star State. But the boy - a newly minted Texan - could be excused when you consider that he has already been to the Alamo numerous times on school trips and with relatives and other assorted out-of-town guests since we moved here 10 months ago. OK, so enough of the heroic deeds of Travis, Bowie, and Crockett.

CAMDEN, Maine - Here's a way to prove you're the one and only at any sport: preface it "National Championship" and see if anyone complains. That wasn't exactly the idea behind the US Toboggan National Championships, to be held this weekend in one of Maine's prettiest coastal towns, but, says Tom Cox, "No one stepped up to make a challenge, so I guess there aren't any others around. " Strictly speaking, there is at least one toboggan chute at Lake Placid, but it certainly doesn't hold an annual 400-entry event with team names such as the...

CAMDEN, Maine -- If, as Andy Warhol predicted a generation ago, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, the competitors in next weekend's annual National Toboggan Championships will earn their accolades nine seconds at a time. But tobogganers are familiar with the fleeting nature of fame, and with the unusual course over which they will try to make their mark -- the tiny Camden Snow Bowl, a vest-pocket Alpine ski area on Maine's mid-coast, a region better known for ocean views than for snowy slopes.

Naturalist John Muir once described a waterfall as the voice of the landscape, and we could hear what he meant as chutes, cataracts, and cascades spoke to us in the Connecticut Berkshires. Many of New England's oldest rocks poke out of the ground in the northwest corner of the Nutmeg State, ocean floor tossed skyward when North America and Africa collided 450 million years ago. The bedrock creates some of the most abrupt changes in altitude in New England, perfect spots for mountain streams to spring...

Always the destination for a remarkable experience, Mad River Glen clings ferociously to the old ways, relying mostly on natural snow, which it grooms only to a modicum. Thus, its adherents proudly stand by the notion that skiing there is a throwback to "real" skiing, or at least New England the way it used to be. If you ski at Mad River and really want to be a snob, your car can wear the old bumper sticker: "Mad River Glen -- Ski It if You Can. " (We haven't seen the less tasteful bumper sticker around lately, but the attitude is still at Mad River Glen...

KALISPELL, Mont. - A quadriplegic man with five years of skydiving experience died in a weekend skydiving accident in northwestern Montana, Flathead County officials said yesterday. Sheriff Chuck Curry said Zack Fogle, 27, of Kingston, Wash., died Saturday afternoon when his parachute failed to open after a jump at the 44th annual Lost Prairie Boogie, a 10-day skydiving event near Marion that typically draws hundreds of participants. Fogle had limited mobility in his extremities after being struck by a car in high school, but had a custom-built parachute and was certified as a skydiver,...

SPANISH FORK, Utah - The popular cave where a 26-year-old medical student died earlier in the week will be closed permanently and his body will not be removed, state and county officials said yesterday. Any effort to recover John Jones’s body from the cramped underground chute where he became stuck with his head at an angle below his feet Tuesday night would simply be too dangerous, they said. “If we put other people in that same location, they could get stuck or get hurt,’’ said Lieutenant John Valentine with Utah County search and rescue.