Resorts hit it big this ski season

Every year I say the same thing: I can't believe it's over.

While the 2004-2005 ski season is not over just yet, its days are numbered. Three resorts have closed, and five more will end seasons on Sunday. One week later, Utah skiing will be down to one resort — Snowbird. By then, a dozen resorts will have stopped lifts with runs still covered with tons of snow. More snow, in fact, than most resorts have had in decades.

It's the way skiing goes. After Easter and a few days of good weather, no matter the depth of the snow on the slopes, skiers put away the boards and boots, and reach for the clubs and clippers.

It's time for a change.

Taking a moment to reflect, it's been a pretty incredible season.

The big-snow resorts — Alta, Snowbird, Brighton and Solitude — have received in the area of 600 inches of total snowfall this season. The long-term average is 500 inches for the big four. Few resorts in the country ever come close to that much snow in a single season.

As Nathan Rafferty, director of communications at Ski Utah, found out last week, 600 inches is enough snow to cover a five-story building — completely. To visually show just how much 600 inches would be, he had to climb to the sixth floor of the Sheraton Hotel with his tape.

There are resorts in this country that would have claimed Utah residency if they'd gotten just a little of that mother lode. The word is, some resorts in the Northwest were unable to open this season because of the lack of a white covering, and some closed back in January and February.

The only states getting really huge storms this winter were California and Utah.

You'd never have guessed there was that much snow at the resorts looking at the ground in the valley. Very little snow survived after falling on the valley floor or even along the benches of the Wasatch Front.

Avid golfers found days to golf throughout the winter.

Snow fell in the mountains, rain in the valley, and when neither was falling, the sun was shining, skiers were skiing and golfers were hitting the courses. What a season.

A number of callers and e-mails this winter told of skiing and golfing the same day. They either putted a few in the morning and took turns in the afternoon, or visa-versa. It didn't really matter, because both schedules worked.