Salt Lake City, UT – With few exceptions, winter made a late debut to most of the western U.S. this ski season. It took until the third week of January, but thanks to substantial snowfall many regions in the West are now back on track and eager to welcome guests.

Ski resorts in Utah picked up over four feet of snow over the past week. The state’s venerable Alta Ski Area in the Wasatch Mountains above Salt Lake City racked up 49 inches in the last seven days, bringing base depths to a respectable six feet on 157 inches of snowfall season to date. In fact, when the ski resort that’s known for prodigious snowfall picked up 14 inches last Wednesday it was the first time since Oct. 31 that snow fell deeper than 10 inches.

“Eager powderhounds enjoyed a perfect weekend for skiing and snowboarding featuring deep powder snow and bluebird skies,” said Ski Utah’s Jessica Kunzer.

In far worse shape than Utah before the storms, however, was the Lake Tahoe region of California where skiers and snowboarders have been enjoying deep, fresh powder thanks to four days of intense storms that blanketed Lake Tahoe ski slopes with up to six feet of new snow. This has allowed resort operators to open additional chairlifts and terrain at the seven Ski Lake Tahoe resorts.

“Thanks to the recent powerful winter storms, Lake Tahoe has been transformed into a powder paradise with world-class skiing and snowboarding options available throughout the region,” said John Wagnon, president of Ski Lake Tahoe.

“Weather in North Lake Tahoe is like nowhere else,” added Chief Marketing Officer Andy Chapman of the North Lake Tahoe Chamber/CVB/Resort Association. “It changes on a dime. This latest cold front brought snow blowing up, down and all around, but when it settled (today), we awoke to blue skies and tons of powder on the slopes.”

The new snowfall allowed cross country resorts around Lake Tahoe, which don’t have the luxury of snowmaking equipment, to finally open. Tahoe Cross Country opened yesterday, with Royal Gorge Cross Country and Tahoe Donner Cross Country opening today. Two of the region’s alpine ski resorts will also open thanks to the new snow: Tahoe Donner opened today, and the family owned Donner Ski Ranch on Donner Summit will finally open tomorrow.

Idaho’s most famous ski resort, Sun Valley, picked up nearly three feet of new snow last week, while staffers at Brundage Mountain Resort north of Boise continue to dig out after receiving more than five of fresh snow in less than seven days. A total of  64 inches of new snow has fallen since Jan. 16. The resort had only received 59 inches of cumulative snowfall season to date prior to last Monday. That means more than half of this entire winter’s snowfall at Brundage has come in the last week.

“It’s amazing to see how the mountain has been transformed in just the last seven or eight days,” said resort spokesperson, April Russell. “But we are thrilled to see it and our visitors are incredibly happy to ski it.”

Several substantial snow storms also recently rolled through Colorado, the nation’s most popular ski state, leaving resorts with fresh snow measurable in feet. The most recent storm occurred over the weekend and brought nearly three feet of snow to Silverton Mountain in southwestern Colorado.

The weekend storm was spread across the state and gave all resorts a welcome — and desperately needed — layer of fresh powder. Both Loveland Ski Area and Crested Butte Mountain Resort benefited from almost two feet of new snow; Telluride 20 inches of snow, and Copper, Steamboat and Sunlight enjoyed roughly a foot and a half of fresh snow. A little more than two feet blanketed Arapahoe Basin, Aspen/Snowmass and Eldora, while Ski Cooper and Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort were just shy of two feet. About a foot powder fell at Monarch and Powderhorn, and a solid 10 inches came down at Winter Park, an amount also reported at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone. Amounts that fell at other resorts then dropped precipitously with Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs picking up only three inches.

With the new snow, however, have come numerous avalanches. Weeks on end of cold, dry weather have resulted in faceted snow crystals that extend deep into the snow pack beneath the new snow, and stacking feet of fresh cover on top is akin to stacking bricks on top of potato chips.

“Snow safety teams are up against it right now dealing with these very hazardous conditions,” wrote Brett Kobernik, a forecaster with the Utah Avalanche Center which on Tuesday continued an Avalanche Warning for many parts of the state. “There were a couple of close calls on Monday where one patroller was caught and carried and another had an avalanche break above him and was able to retain a ‘death grip’ on a tree as the avalanche washed over him. There were no significant injuries.”

Not all avalanches in recent days, however, have left their victims unscathed. Fatal slides even struck in-bounds at both Vail and Winter Park in Colorado over the weekend, although the avalanche at Vail that killed a 13-year-old boy occurred on terrain that had been closed by ski patrol.