2012 Sugar Bowl Media Placements

The Lake Tahoe ski industry received the ultimate Christmas present by way of a large storm that dumped upward of 4 feet of snow this past weekend at many locations throughout the region.

On Monday, Sugar Bowl Resort atop Donner Summit reported 41 inches of snow had fallen in the past 24 hours, and a whopping 87 inches had fallen at the mountain's peak (8,383 feet) from the storm, putting its upper-elevation depth so far this season at 138 inches.

Closer to Lake Tahoe, Vail Resorts-owned Northstar California reported 68 inches over the weekend, boasting a 100-inch snow depth at its summit (8,610 feet) and season snowfall totals exceeding 240 inches.

“The series of storms we saw over the weekend set us up nicely for the holidays, and for the rest of the season,” said Bill Rock, chief operating officer at Northstar.

As of Monday, Squaw Valley had received 55 inches of snow at upper mountain from the storm, while neighboring Alpine Meadows saw 50 inches fall in the same time frame, according to the resorts, which had seen 70 and 68 inches of snow, respectively, over a 7-day period.

To date this season, the resorts have recorded 220 inches of the white stuff, marking the second-largest amount of pre-Christmas snow since Squaw began record-keeping in 1970, Squaw Valley Public Relations Manager Amelia Richmond said Monday. The lone exception, she said, was the record-setting 2010-11 winter, when the resort had an additional 26 inches by Christmas.

Other ski resorts reported multi-feet snow totals on Monday. Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe saw between 40 and 48 inches from the storm, said Kayla Anderson, public relations coordinator for the resort that's seen 160 inches of snow so far this season.

“It's been awesome,” Anderson said Monday. “The last two days, I've had to clean a foot of snow off my car.”

“There's no doubt that Tahoe has snow right now,” Anderson later added with a chuckle.