A note on skis:
I ordered skis for next season via Zach and Amy at
Caldwell Sport. They are definitely expensive, but skis are, and I broke a pair last year and haven't acquired any new ones since college, so it's time.
I currently have a pair grinded by them with a Purple grind, which should be good in aggressive (highly transformed) medium cold snow, including man made. To complement those, I've ordered up a pair to be a Red/Yellow type ski (warmer conditions, aiming for more Reddish, probably grind 258B, a fairly universal warm grind). They should rock at conditions just below to just above freezing. The second pair is to be a dedicated "Blue" conditions ski, for newer snow than the purple from about 10-32 F. The grind on these will probably be S10X.
That leaves gaps just at the ends of my ski lineup, with no dedicated green ski and no dedicated slush ski. As I don't have unlimited funds, those will have to wait for another time... Also helpful in the conversation with Amy was that I should contact Chris Hall at Fischer to get a place in the elite wave at the Birkie, because really, starting in wave 9 would just be silly...