Great news out of Tahoe, Mt Rose Nevada opened this morning for four hours, serving up beginner terrain off the Wizard quad…Photo above shows construction progress at the base terminal of Belleayre New York’s new gondola. ORDA sez it will be ready to roll by mid December…Mikaela Shiffrin and a healthy Ted Ligety leading the charge for the US Ski Team at this weekend’s season opener in Soelden, Austria. As always it’s a Giant Slalom competition. Big surprise this year is that Lindsey Vonn has entered the event for the USA; I say surprise because she’s coming off injury and GS isn’t historically her best event. She hasn’t even competed in this event since 2012, but who knows. A bunch of the top GS racers are sidelined right now, so Linz could rack up a few points. Favorite on the ladies’ side has to be Shiffrin; Swiss star Lara Gut is still working her way back from injury and is not scheduled to compete. On the men’s side, reigning overall champ Marcel Hirscher still nursing his way back from an ankle injury suffered in August, which (finally) gives a few other racers a shot at the big globe. Let the White Circus begin…word out of Massachusetts is that tiny, club-operated Ski Blandford has been “saved” from extinction. Seems the 465′ ski hill has been purchased by Ski Butternut, which is another resort in the region, albeit much larger. Butternut has a nice habit of doing this, in years past they purchased or got involved with a couple other struggling hills in the Berkshire region…elsewhere in New England, some snow up high at Stowe this morning, said to be a couple of skiers who hoofed up to earn some turns…guns are on at Winter Park, they’re opening on the 15th of November…Loveland CO reports that they’ve added Spillway to their early season offering; the guns are now pumping on Lower Richard’s Run, Tango Road and Turtle Creek. Right now the plan is to get Lift 2 spinning, followed by Lift 6 and then Ptarmigan. Kudos to Loveland, A-Basin, Mt Rose and of course Timberline Lodge for getting the ball rolling this year!