Utah's '05-06 ski season is approaching a record

Elsewhere in the West, Jackson Hole in Wyoming is reporting a base of 43 to 100 inches, Sun Valley is reporting a base of 56 to 90 inches and Big Sky in Montana is reporting a base of 60 to 92 inches.

The reports posting the deepest base are in California. Kirkwood has a base from 106 to 200 inches, and Mammoth is reporting a base of 144 to 168 inches. Kirkland had the widest spread of all resorts—94 inches.

Resorts in Washington and Oregon, which had such a bad season in 2004-05, are doing well this year. Mt. Bachelor is reporting snow depths of 151 to 182, and Mt. Hood is reporting 156 to 216 inches.

Whistler/Blackcomb, another of the high-scoring resorts in SKI, had a bad year last year but is 100 percent open with a reported snow depth of 103 inches.

Resorts back east are not doing as well. Whiteface Mountain, site of the 1980 Winter Olympics, has a depth of 29 to 43 inches and is only 77 percent open. In Vermont, Killington/Pico is reporting a base of 20 to 30 inches and is only 75 percent open; Stowe is reporting a base of 28 to 38 inches; and Sugarbush is reporting a base of 6 to 30 inches and is only 94 percent open.

Last year around this time, Stowe was only 90 percent open with a 32- to 44-inch base.

Also last year, in Colorado, Aspen Highland, at this time of year, had a 54- to 66-inch base and Vail had a base range of 42 to 54 inches. Whistler/Blackcomb had only 60 percent of its ski runs open.

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