November is a great month to get ready for ski season without spending a ton of dough — and you can help local students at the same time.

So you think the ski season is over.

The winter that's ending won't go down as the best season in Mount Ashland's 45-year history, but it was far from the worst.

March Madness on Mount Ashland means seeing how goofy can you look going down a race course. For the second weekend in a row, skiers in crazy costumes flooded the slopes as young racers, coaches, friends and families participated in the 17th annual Mt. Ashland Race Association's Sloan Cup Family Fun Race.

Gene Landsmann died just over a year ago, but he will be remembered this weekend in ski races at Mount Ashland and Mount Shasta.

Darth Vader and his stormtroopers officiated. Chewbacca was there. So was Princess Leia.

What's good for skiers and snowboarders isn't necessarily good for the folks who manage their winter playgrounds.

A bunch of dummies competed on the slopes of Mount Ashland Saturday, and it got ugly for some of them. The Dummy Downhill Race pitted crash dummies, created by Southern Oregon University students, against the mountain and each other. Contest rules dictated that dummies could not weigh more than 125 pounds, they had to be mounted on one snowboard or two skis, and they couldn't be constructed with glass, sharp metal objects or explosives.

BEND — Finally, a gust of wind blew hard across the cold white terrain, puffing a swirling cloud of snow into the blue sky on a ridge near the east base of Ball Butte.

You can expect snow on the Southern Oregon University campus Monday — at least on the grass near Stevenson Union.

Despite low-snow conditions, 60 snowboarders and skiers competed Sunday at Mount Ashland's third annual Rail Jam at the Comber terrain park, more than double the number who entered in 2008.

Powder hounds have had little to howl about this winter, but storms at midweek raised hopes that the second half of the ski season will be something to shout about.

On the slopes these days, most skiers and snowboarders give little thought to what is strapped to whose feet. They go about their similar goals of riding powder, catching air or just reaching the bottom of the slope.

With snow taking a vacation from Southern Oregon, skiers might want to take a look north to the Hoodoo Ski Area.

The Medford Ski/Snowboard Education Foundation freestyle team started the year with high hopes. With the lack of snow on Mount Ashland this year, however, their hopes were turning sour.

Mica Cardillo learned to appreciate winter on Mount Ashland. Now he's giving a whole new generation of kids an introduction to snow sports.

Skiing and snowboarding have never been big high-school sports in Southern Oregon, but that doesn't mean there aren't kids who want to compete.

Ten-year-old Chad Caswell points his skis toward a short ledge and barrels down the slope, his unzipped jacket streaming behind like a parachute.

Mount Ashland had the dubious distinction this week of having the thinnest snow pack among Oregon ski areas.

The Rogue Valley's most popular cross-country ski trails are even better this winter.