Upcoming openings

It looks like some of the Colorado front range resorts are going to open up this weekend, based on the heavy snowfall they've had recently, and their ability to draw local metro Denver visitors to their mountain. The more western resorts in Pitkin and Eagle counties, reliant on destination visitors, seem to holding on for more normal opening dates.

I can't really tell what's going on up in Vermont; it seems like its been cold but not super cold. Normally we start to get a little snow up at the cabin by late October, so we'll see how it's going when we go up there tonight. I still need to get more firewood delivered, especially before the lawn gets covered in snow.
A quick peek over to some Swiss bloggers sites revealed that some of the die hards have started to get out on the smaller local oriented mountain running drag lifts and the what not. Most of these seemed to be tilted toward locals testing new gear they had purchased. Unfortunately, fall is one of the times it is most expensive to buy new gear. However, if you need things this is the most obvious time to go shopping for it, unless you have to test gear/clothing on the mountain. Some on mountain stores justify their prices because they let you test things and return/exchange them if you don't like the way it feels on the hill. That can make sense for some things. The internet is great for low prices and a wide spectrum of things, but mission critical gear like boots/jackets etc has got to be inspected in person and tested. If they don't fit/feel right , it will just cause problems all season, and the time/money investment in getting those right is really worth it. Hopefully that gear will last a long time too; I've used my boots for ten seasons and my jacket for eight.