Hidden Valley Missouri in the news, the St. Louis area ski resort wants to add zip lines but is having its plans modified by the local Wildwood (MO) Planning and Zoning Commission. Hidden Valley was one of the first in the Peak Resorts empire, but Peak CEO Tim Boyd sez they may have to shutter it if they don’t get their way: “Hidden Valley needs year-round revenue, and it’s just not sustainable in this climate. We’ll sell it to a developer. The ground is valuable. We’ll continue to operate until we sell the ground.” Posturing, perhaps? Don’t know. The Commission is seeking to shorten one of the proposed lines, as well as limit evening hours to 6:30 PM…Photo above shows Boreal CA early this morning; they’re slated to open today but clouds have rolled in and we’re just not sure yet. Good idea to check with the mountain before heading out on I-80…photo below shows live action on the Northridge section of Killington VT also this morning; they’re running the up-and-down loading thing from the K1 gondy and serving up a couple trails off the triple chair up high…

…but the bad news is, it’s only for passholders today. Opens for the rest of us riff raff tomorrow…couple other New England resorts have announced some sort of opening for this weekend, in addition to those mentioned yesterday (Wildcat, Mount Snow, Sunday River) as of this morning Vermont’s Okemo sez they’re serving up the usual twig season white ribbon of death on Nor’easter, Upper World Cup and Countdown, so I assume they’ll be up-and-down loading on that orange bubble express chair…Sugarbush VT being real aggressive with their snowmaking efforts this year, wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of announcement comes before Saturday…snow guns are on elsewhere in the region at Bretton Woods, Cannon and Loon in NH, as well as Whiteface in NY. Even Mad River Glen VT getting in on the action; they’re laying down their “patches” during this cold spell. Also Sugarloaf Maine; they’re targeting a Thanksgiving opening…FIS World Cup Alpine action resumes this weekend with slalom competitions for both guys and gals in Levi, Finland. Mikaela Shiffrin and Marcel Hirscher are your defending champs for this event, no word yet from Team Austria as to whether or not the latter will enter. Hirscher is still recovering from a serious ankle injury. He made about five runs on the Reiteralm in Schladming yesterday, reporting that the pain had lessened but not yet enough to make the call for Sunday.