For the month of March, Alta received 151 inches, The Canyons 113 inches, Park City Mountain Resort 110, Snowbird 143 and Solitude 165.

Elsewhere around the country, some resorts have had snow and some haven't, which was the same case last year. While Utah was enjoying deep snow last season, slopes in the Northwest were nearly bare all season, Colorado was having an average season, Whistler-Blackcomb in Canada never fully opened and eastern areas were struggling.

This season, snowmaking is being given credit for saving the season for eastern resorts. Many eastern resorts have already closed.

Colorado and California areas enjoyed deep snow this year. Colorado, in fact, like Utah, is looking at the possibility of a record season, which would mean it could record more than 12 million skier days.

In contrast, Snowbowl in Arizona was three months late opening and then was only open for less than two weeks.

In a report last week, the American Skiing Company, which owns The Canyons and Steamboat Springs, reported a 12 percent rise in ski traffic at its western resorts, but a 3 percent drop in business at its eastern resorts.

Rafferty said the fact that Colorado has had such a good season has benefitted Utah.

"Even though we butt heads with Colorado, since 20 percent of the lift tickets sold in the U.S. are sold in Colorado, if those skiers leave Colorado happy then they'll come back. And, just maybe, they may decide to come to Utah, especially when they find out how easy it is to get to Utah's resorts and they find out just how good the quality and consistency of our snow is," he added.

Krista Parry, public relations manager at Park City, echoed reports from other resorts.

"We've had an excellent season. Having all this snow (455 inches) has helped," she noted. "The accessibility message on Utah resorts is getting out. That's what we're finding, anyway. People are coming back and others are hearing about Utah and coming here to ski.

"Easy access is a big thing these days. The average skier here in Park City spends four days skiing. They know they can fly in and be skiing in the afternoon on the same day. This means they can spend four full days skiing rather than driving."

Erin Grady, communications manager at Deer Valley, said the resort has had a great season so far, "and at this point it looks like we could top last season, which was a record for us."

The current reports show Alta with a base of 167 inches, Brighton 155, The Canyons 102, Deer Valley 110, Park City 124, Solitude 158 and Snowbird 150.

After the storminess that hit on Wednesday, the forecast is for good weather the rest of the week and on into next week, which will make for good spring skiing in the final days.

---

E-mail: grass@desnews.com