Combine a bunch of fan guns with a cold blast of frigid air, and Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls, MN is likely to be the first area in the sort-of east to open this season. Photo above shows a view of their main slope this morning, and the official word is that they’ll be opening tomorrow, Tuesday, Oct. 29th. Plans include the Front Stage slope, a terrain park and 2 rope tows, with final word on times and ticket prices early tomorrow morning. Wild says “if all goes well” they plan to add another slope and a chairlift by Friday. Kudos to the Wild Mountain team…Team USA gave a pretty darn good showing this past weekend at the FIS World Cup opener in Soelden, Austria, with Mikaela Shiffrin notching a second place finish for our gals, while Tommy Ford and Ted Ligety (!) scored top fives for the guys. Big news of the weekend was that New Zealand’s 17-year-old Alice Robinson edged Shiff and defending winner Tessa Worley by .06 and .36 respectively. This was Robinson’s first victory, and considering her age and relative anonymity, it was quite a shock for the opening day fans. The Kiwi did notch a podium last year, and her talent was sufficiently known that her competitors were a lot less surprised. Alexis Pinturault of France won the men’s competition yesterday, with teammate Mathieu Faivre claiming second place…ongoing news from Utah, there’s a new big time resort in the planning stages, tentatively called Mayflower Resort. The project, owned by Extell Development Corp., is rumored include a multi-lift, 1000 acre ski resort that will connect and possibly share a lift with Deer Valley next door. It is also slated to include a massive hotel with at least 100 subsidized rooms for active and retired military personnel. Another wrinkle: Extell owns some of the land that Deer Valley operates on. Extell founder and chairman Gary Barnett says that there are no specific plans yet for the ski area, says they are currently studying it.