Southeast: Ski season kicked off this weekend in North Carolina with both Cataloochee (photo above) and Sugar Mountain open for business. Cat serving up a pair of easier slopes while Sugar got after it in a big way, open to the summit. Kudos to both…elsewhere in the south, West Virginia’s biggie Snowshoe Mountain reports they’re not gonna make a planned Thanksgiving opening, but will possibly have something going over the weekend…WV’s Canaan Valley Resort State Park will open ice skating and snow tubing this weekend, then close temporarily until they ramp up for ski operations in mid December…Southwest: Sipapu Ski Resort in New Mexico spun lifts this past Saturday morning, and plans to keep ’em spinning through Thanksgiving. Sip sez they’re gonna close then and focus on snowmaking for December 1st reopening…and Purgatory Ski Resort near Durango Colorado also opened Saturday. Yes it’s Colorado but really as “southwest” as it gets; it’s a lot closer to Albuquerque than it is to Denver…speaking of Colorado, Loveland Colorado added chair 1 and the Valley this past weekend…future of Peak Resorts’ Hidden Valley just may hinge on tonight’s local planning board meeting in Wildwood, Missouri; Peak wants to add ziplines and Wildwood wants to shorten both the ziplines and the hours of operation. Peak CEO Tim Boyd threatening to sell the land to developers if he doesn’t get his way.