Early season snow spells holiday weekend relief for Tahoe ski resorts

Heavy snowfall is coming early this year, and area ski resorts couldn't be happier on the eve of some big holiday weekends.

“There's never enough snow — we always want more,” said Kirstin Cattell, Northstar-at-Tahoe's communications manager. “But I think last year proved that skiers and snowboarders who want to come out will come out.” A year ago, the Lake Tahoe Basin didn't see its first significant snowstorm until around Christmas, and not much fell the entire season after that.

This year, two major snowstorms hit the Tahoe/Truckee area the past two weekends, leaving many downhill resorts with as much as 60 to 75 inches at upper levels. All but Diamond Peak, Homewood and Tahoe Donner Downhill — which open this week — are open for the season. Savannah Cowley, spokeswoman at Squaw Valley USA, said the resort is optimistic about the early snow and already have more bookings than last year.

“As a lot of the locals know, the past four winters have been pretty late, and we have always been scrambling to get the resorts open,” she said.

From December 6-13 this year, Cowley said Squaw accumulated 78 inches of snow. While this year's early-season snow is appreciated, Cattell said the month of February — the ski season's typical highest snowfall month — will decide if this year will be a prosperous.

According to the National Weather Service in Reno, after a likely chance of a rain/snow mix Wednesday, high temperatures should hover around 40 degrees into next weekend, with little or no snow in the forecast.