Tahoe ski areas record banner season

Thursday, Aug. 5, 1999 | noon

Alpine Meadows, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Sierra-at-Tahoe and Squaw Valley USA hosted more than 3.3 million skiers and boarders in the 1998-99 season. That was 26 percent more than two seasons earlier, said Carl Ribaudo, executive director of Ski Lake Tahoe, the cooperative marketing organization comprised of the six resorts.

"We're moving in the right direction, that's for darn sure," Ribaudo told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Separate from the big six, nearby Mount Rose-Ski Tahoe and Diamond Peak also enjoyed strong seasons, but they were not records.

The report comes 2 1/2 weeks after a Denver Post article that said California surpassed Colorado last year as the top U.S. destination for a ski vacation for the first time since the 1980s. Most of Tahoe's resorts are located in California.

A study commissioned by Colorado Ski Country USA determined that Colorado's share of overnight ski trips in the United States dropped from 18.9 percent in 1997 to 16.2 percent in 1998, while California increased its market share from 13.9 percent in 1997 to 17.1 percent in 1998, the Post said. Nevada ranked third at 8.4 percent.