Ski season in Utah was a PR dream

SNOWBASIN — Ski Utah, the public relations arm of Utah's snowsport industry, hosted its annual end-of-the-season media luncheon at this northern Utah resort Saturday with the perfect backdrop. Outside Earl's Lodge about 150 inches of the white stuff sat on the ground, belying the sunshine and 50-degree temperatures that had April skiers and boarders looking for places to ditch their parkas.

"It's been a great year for snow," said Kip Pitou, Ski Utah's longtime director, "and in this business, the snow's the thing."

When you've got it, you flaunt it, "and we have been flaunting it," said Pitou, reflecting on all the ways Ski Utah has publicized Utah's abundance of snow this season. Recently, when the deepest mountain snow totals exceeded 600 cumulative inches, Nathan Rafferty, Ski Utah's director of communications, conducted media interviews from the sixth floor of the Sheraton Hotel, creating a visual of just how much snow has fallen (see photograph on Page B8).

By the time the final tally is in, Pitou said he expects that more than 3.5 million visits by skiers and snowboarders will be in the books at Utah's 13 resorts, relegating last year's best-ever total of 3,384,000 to second place.

The Greatest Snow on Earth has never had a greater run.

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Rafferty pointed out that there have been years with bigger snow totals at Utah's resorts but none so consistent or in greater contrast to the rest of the country.

"This isn't a record in terms of snow," he said. "But all year, it's been like a perfect storm. We got early snow that stayed, other places didn't get snow, and we're really starting to hit our stride after the Olympics. Add it all up, and we got A's across the board."

"I think the comment I heard that sums it up better than any other," said Rafferty, "came from Rick Rockwood, the manager of the repair shop at the base at Park City Mountain Resort. He told me that he hadn't received one request for edge repair all year. That's because we haven't seen any rocks since October."

Rafferty compared that to a trip he took two weeks ago to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, for the annual meeting of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association (NASJA).

He noted that cities and states compete vigorously to host the influential NASJA group, and that Idaho had gone to a lot of work, and expense, to secure the 2005 event.

But there was one big problem. The Couer d'Alene area received such a small amount of snow this winter that none of the area resorts were open.