A huge dump of snow, a big breakfast, a band of fiddlers and crowds of people made the annual Hallis Lake Open house a resounding success last Sunday. Though the groomer struggled to keep up with the snow and the rental shop to keep up with all the new skiers, the conditions and temperature were perfect and if you weren’t skiing there was food and, early on in the day, music inside. Even complete neophytes could join in on the fun, as lessons were as free as the passes and the rentals, which is to say it all cost a very reasonable (some might actually say unreasonable) $0.