October 2005 in NH/VT was the outlier equivalent to October 2004 in the Sierra. Of course I was still skiing on that October snow 2 months later, while the New England snow was gone in a week.
This is something I don't know anything about, but doesn't those Colorado areas open more terrain as the days go by or is it marginal 1-2 runs until the Real snow gets here?
Terrain opens very gradually in Colorado, particularly on rugged wind-exposed mountains like Loveland and A-Basin.
Loveland averages 22% of acreage open at Thanksgiving, 35% mid-December and 43% Christmas week. For A-Basin those figures are 21%, 41% and 60%.
Loveland and A-Basin are best positioned for super early season WROD's because at their base elevations close to 11,000 feet overnight freezing is common by late September.
I still always refer people to
http://people.montana.com/~jbraun/coloearly.htm for the reality check on Colorado in early season. Of the big destination resorts, Steamboat stands out as having the best early season record, though Vail is pretty good most of the time. The big areas not on this list? Aspen/Snowmass would be similar to the majority of the group listed, Telluride somewhat above average and Crested Butte near the bottom.
When Timberline first built Palmer in the 1970's it ran year round except for 2 weeks of mid-September maintenance. The 2001 drought season resulted in barely making it to Labor Day and not reopening until new season snowfall. The 2005 Tropical Punch season added to the damage and Timberline closed mid-August that year. 2006 was a big year, so perhaps they had enough snow left for the fall. 2007 was about average but most of the snow came early, so I'm sure the spring/summer snowpack was lower than in 2006.