Tahoe resorts report bustling business over long holiday weekend

Sandra Chereb

Monday, Feb. 21, 2000 | 3:20 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Blue skies, lots of snow and a three-day weekend lured hordes of skiers to Lake Tahoe resorts and helped operators make up for a slow start caused by a lack of snow early in the season.

"We had a great weekend," Monica Bandows, spokeswoman at Heavenly Ski Resort on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, said Monday.

"We hit an all-time record on Saturday. I think there's been a lot of pent-up demand from people who couldn't or wouldn't get away over Christmas and New Year's."

At Boreal Ski Area off of Interstate 80 near Truckee, Calif., parking lots were jammed and vehicles were lined up off the freeway, spokesman Jonathan Scott said.

"We had an incredibly great weekend," Scott said. "We had a threat of a big storm but it really fizzled out. And the storm threat didn't scare anybody off."

While the higher elevations of the Sierra received an inch or two of snow on Sunday, Saturday and Monday provided near picture-perfect conditions, operators said.

"President's Day is historically one of our busiest weekends. And the conditions have been terrific," said Katja Dahl at Squaw Valley USA.

"It was beautiful. Bright blue skies and not a breath of wind on Saturday. And today's sunny again.

"Definitely more people come out when the sun shines," Dahl said. "We couldn't have asked for a better weekend."

At Alpine Meadows, Saturday proved to be the busiest day in the resort's history, spokeswoman Rachael Woods said. "Sunday we did our second best," she added.

Though many ski resorts have the ability to make their own snow, a lack of natural white stuff combined with Y2K jitters and other holiday obligations kept many people home over Christmas and New Year's.

But the storm clouds began building in mid-January, when a series of wet, powerful systems dumped foot after foot of snow in the Sierra, much to the glee of resort operators.

Earlier this month, another series of storms left up to 5 feet of additional snow, bringing depth totals to anywhere from 3 feet to more than 13 feet, depending on the location and elevation.

Murray Blaney at Mount Rose-Ski Tahoe southwest of Reno said the recent snows and packed slopes this weekend were "Just what the doctor ordered."