"Utah resorts saw yet another prosperous holiday period with Christmas-week storm totals climbing as high as 67 inches at area resorts and reports of visitation numbers on a record-setting pace," Ski Utah President Kip Pitou said.

Added Scott Pierpont, president of The Canyons Resort outside of Park City: "If you weren't happy with the skiing at The Canyons and in Utah over the holidays, you should probably give up the sport."

National reports about the abundance of snow falling in Utah's mountains this winter fueled a surge in visits to the Web site of Ski Utah, the marketing arm of the state's 13 resorts. Ski Utah spokesman Nathan Rafferty said 10,000 unique visitors tapped into the site during December, with page views exceeding the previous December's total by 500,000.

Visits to that Internet site are likely to attract more skiers later this season or next winter, much as the 100-plus inches of snow that fell in Utah mountains during Christmas week of 2003 helped stimulate current interest in the state's resorts.

For instance, Pierpont noted occupancy levels at The Canyons' main hotels, The Grand Summit Resort Hotel and Sundial Lodge, were strong before, during and after the holidays. "Recent snowfall has increased call volume significantly," Rafferty added, "putting them well ahead of last season's reservation numbers."

Solitude Mountain Resort has experienced similar results.

"Skier visits and lodging nights have been very strong this season," resort spokesman Jay Burke said, noting that 67 inches of snow fell at the Big Cottonwood Canyon resort from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3. "The village at Solitude was at capacity for six days during the holidays and we saw two capacity days on the mountain."

After 50 inches of snow fell at Deer Valley Resort during Christmas week, general manager Bob Wheaton said "reservations are on pace to break the resort's best skier-day totals," set during the 2001-02 season.

What made this holiday so successful, added Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort spokesman Dave Fields, was that it snowed a lot but not so much that avalanches closed the Little Cottonwood Canyon highway.

An extra benefit was that the storm system encompassed the whole state.

While high winds shut down lifts at southwestern Utah's Brian Head Resort for part of the holiday period, spokesman Craig McCarthy said 49 inches of new snow in a five-day period resulted in "excellent holiday visitation." Skier-day records likely would have been set, he added, "had the wind not interfered with our operations."

On the opposite end of the state, Beaver Mountain resort above Logan received 40 inches of snow in five days. Powder Mountain Winter Resort above Ogden experienced comparable results, with spokesman Marc Paulson noting "December revenue is up. Our snow quality and quantity over Christmas was the best we've seen in recent history."

More snow is in the forecast.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm watch for the northern Utah mountains through this evening, and is expecting snow to fall every day through Sunday.

mikeg@sltrib.com