Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Despite a late arrival of snow to many resorts in Utah, the 2014-15 ski season is shaping up to be "record-breaking" for some and right on par for others.
Unseasonably warm weather in December caused many — but not all — resorts in the state to see fewer locals hitting the slopes.
“It was hard to keep skiing in the minds of at least the Salt Lake Valley folks,” said Connie Marshall, spokeswoman for Alta Ski Area.
Storms that rolled through over the Christmas holiday and earlier this week brought much-needed rain to the valleys and snow — with attendant powder hounds — to the mountains. Now, all local resorts need is for the weather to continue.
“Right now we're all just really digging in and … hoping that the heart of the winter is ahead of us, that the snow will keep coming and things will stay strong,” Marshall said.
In spite of the late arrival of snow in many areas, Utah's mountains are keeping pace with snowpack seen in the past.
“If we could maintain this all year long — this pace — we’d be just fine by the end of the year,” said KSL meteorologist Kevin Eubank.
The Salt Lake Valley saw 6.6 inches of snow from Oct. 1 through Tuesday afternoon, according to Eubank, compared with an average of 28.4 inches during the same time period in past years.
The first inch of snow fell in the Salt Lake Valley on Dec. 25, making it the fifth latest first inch of snow in history, he added.
Snowfall in the mountains has been "totally opposite," Eubank said.
"In fact, this year the mountains have done fantastic in the first 2 ½ months of the season," he said.
This year's weather has brought with it what Eubank calls "designer storms" that bring snow to the mountains and rain to the valleys.
“People don’t want to shovel it. People don’t want to drive in it. And this year is one of those years to where if we didn’t get any snow anywhere, it would be a disaster. But we have been getting significant snow in the mountains, and the valleys have been getting significant rain," he said.
Some areas in Utah have also seen more snowpack than usual, Eubank added, including some of the regions up north.
Beaver Mountain Ski Area in Cache Valley doesn't often see as much snow as the Wasatch Front and does not make its own snow.
“We just count on that blessed stuff from the heavens,” said Marge Seeholzer, president of Beaver Mountain.
This year, Beaver Mountain received "a good base early that stayed," Seeholzer said, and opened more than two weeks ahead of schedule.
Other resorts had a late start but caught up quickly in late December and early January.
“We did have a little bit of an underwhelming November … but we made up for some serious lost time,” said Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort spokesman Brian Brown.
Wet snow in late December "couldn't have happened at a better time" and formed a solid base for the resort, Brown said.
The resort was one of nine in Utah that received more than 10 inches of new snow between Monday and Tuesday. Solitude Mountain Resort and Sundance Resort boasted at least 20 inches of fresh snow.
"This past storm actually produced more snow than they were calling for," said Solitude spokeswoman Sara Valerious. “It’s all stacking up quite nicely."
Fresh mountain snow makes conditions nice for Utahns to take advantage of Ski Utah's Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month, available throughout the state in January, she said.
Down south, Eagle Point has seen its "busiest season yet," which resort co-owner Shane Gadbaw attributes in part to it being a new ski area.
It attracted a "beginner-ish" crowd from California and Las Vegas who "didn't seem to care" about some of the sparse snow conditions," Gadbaw said.
The resort has not yet seen many of the "locals or near locals … (who) have been waiting for the storms," he said.
With the recent snowfall at Eagle Point, Gadbaw hopes the holiday weekend will draw in those locals.
Business is up for Matt Farness, general manager for Powder House Ski Shops, who said this has been "a record season" for his locations.
If it's going to snow somewhere, it's going to be snowing in Utah.
–Matt Farness, Powder House Ski Shops
"I anticipate that the next six to eight weeks are going to be as busy as it gets around here," he said.
Visit Park City, Visit Salt Lake and Visit Ogden — convention and visitors bureaus for their respective cities — saw steady reservations on par with past years, even with a warm December.
On average, peak ski and resort reservation times fall during the holiday season, which was when one of the storm systems came through. Those who booked reservations for the holiday season did not cancel, and fresh snow has since drawn out more of the locals.
Shawn Stinson, director of communications for Visit Salt Lake, said a bad or average snow year in Utah is better than a good year in other areas.
Snow conditions in Utah are “still better than everywhere throughout the country, if not throughout the world,” he said. “We’re oftentimes our own worst marketers."
Some also attribute the positive performance to an upswing in the economy.
“The reason for our business being up is business is up,” said Bill Malone, CEO of Visit Park City.
With a dry and warm seven-day forecast, time will tell if weather conditions will bring in a strong finish to the ski season.
Farness is among those who are optimistic about Utah's prospects.
"If it’s going to snow somewhere, it’s going to be snowing in Utah," he said.
