Shout out to Matthew Micharlsen from the New England ski scene; he’s a fan of this website and squeezes in about 30 days per season using the Max pass…moving across the country, word just in from Oregon’s Anthony Lakes Resort; they’ve got about a foot of early season snow but need a bunch more to open. Still hoping for December 16…good news out of Utah, Snowbird able to reopen this past weekend thanks to their snowmaking crew. More importantly, it’s snowing today! Take a look at that snow stake above. They’ll be operating daily out of the Creekside base until they get more, but, finally snowing again in the Wasatch…things also looking up in Colorado where Steamboat finally gleaned a couple inches of fresh. Not enough to add terrain, but better than a) what they had, and b) a kick in the pants…and one of my faves in Vermont, Bolton Valley now saying that the December 9 opening looking real good…word just in from FIS Ski World Cup, races in Val Gardena / Groeden (ITA) are confirmed following the official snow control. As scheduled, the races will take place on 15th – 16th December 2017…and normally I wait until the dust settles and do the World Cup report on Wednesday, and yes will do. In the meantime, let’s run down the winners for anyone who missed them…First up, Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek saw Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr take the Super G, and Norse veteran Aksel Lund Svindal win the downhill! Last but not least, Marcel Hirscher back from injury took the GS race yesterday. Up at Lake Louise, Austrian Cornelia Huetter won the first downhill, Mikaela Shiffrin won the second downhill, (no, that’s not a typo) and lovely Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein won yesterday’s Super G…we’ll have a complete wrap-up with some insights on Wednesday. Or perhaps tomorrow if time permits…it’s with a heavy heart that we report the first inbounds fatality this season; 23-year-old Collin Zak, a U.S. serviceman from Ohio, died at Monarch Colorado this past Saturday December 2nd. Zak was snowboard on the black diamond Mirage run, and was wearing a helmet. Ski patrol was performing CPR on the slope when Chaffee County EMS arrived, and sadly, pronounced on scene…Lake Louise Resort, mentioned above, has pleaded guilty to cutting down at least 39 endangered trees listed under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. The unlawful forestry occurred in 2013 on the side of a ski trail located within the borders of Banff National Park. The resort faces fines up to $300,000 CAD for each tree.