Photo courtesy Sarah Brunson/US Ski Team

6 October 2016 — Girl’s volleyballers at Southington High School in Connecticut — that’s home to modest Mount Southington ski area — were in for a surprise yesterday when World Cup star Lindsey Vonn walked in on the team practice.  Linds is making the rounds to promote her new book “Strong is the New Beautiful: Embrace Your Natural Beauty, Eat Clean, and Harness Your Power.”  Which, length aside, is a great title for a book.  Vonn spoke at the school during the evening, and said “Everyone is beautiful in every size. If you are confident in yourself, you exude beauty.  You don’t have to be skinny to be pretty. It doesn’t go hand in hand.”  Terrific!  Too bad she isn’t planning to be on the snow when FIS World Cup rolls into Killington VT next month…pleased to report that work has indeed begun at Colorado’s close-to-Denver Eldora Resort; they’re cutting three new trails as I type this.  The trio of new runs will open sometime around Christmas, according to new General Manager Brent Tregaskis, who was brought in when Powdr Corp. took over.  These new runs are key part of the plan to replace the aging Cannonball and Challenge lifts with a new high speed six pack, targeted to be installed for the 2017-18 season…Oregon’s Mount Hood Ski Bowl in the process of laying new pipe to expand snowmaking for the coming season…High Noon run at Arapahoe Basin looking like they’re likely winners of the first-to-open sweepstakes…lot of resorts doing the Oktoberfest thing this weekend, meanwhile Cali’s Boreal getting down to business with a job fair…snow at Alta UT yesterday, looking like winter in Little Cottonwood Canyon…more even up at Oregon’s Mt. Bachelor…also yesterday, pretty sight as the guns were tested at Jay Peak in northern Vermont…and if you’re itching to earn your turns and you won’t be denied, point your private jet toward Wyoming, where Jackson Hole garnered 17″ up high.