By LAWRENCE WALSH, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It may seem premature to think about registering for a 42-mile bicycle ride through the five boroughs of New York City on May 2.

A four-day trip for two to Sun Valley, Idaho, including a day of heli-skiing with former Olympians Reggie and Zach Crist.

And an opportunity to win one of 50 prizes valued at $20,000, including five-day trips for two to Park City, Utah, and Smuggler's Notch, Vt., and a two-day trip to Lake Placid, N.Y. The trips include lodging, lift tickets and apres-ski activities.

Expert skiers seeking something new this season in New England might check out New Hampshire's reopened Mittersill ski area, next to Cannon Mountain.

Closed since 1984, Mittersill's 86 acres will be operated by Cannon Mountain, which also will provide shuttle service to it on weekends and holidays.

It's the kind of publicity snowsports resorts savor -- free, around-the-clock videotape of snow descending on their slopes, lifts, parking lots and roads.

A state-of-the-art ski and snowboard school for children, the arrival of snowboarders where none had been welcomed before, a variety of multimillion-dollar improvements at a premier resort and a new tram.Those are just some of the developments at these major Western resorts.COLORADOBeaver Creek

A new telephone and text message scam has surfaced in Pennsylvania, hitting Philadelphia, and moving west through the state."We could trace its advance by the number and location of telephone calls and e-mails we received from victims and near victims," said Nils Frederiksen, deputy press secretary for Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.