SAM Magazine-Rutland, Vt., Mar. 11, 2011-Despite good snow nearly everywhere for the Presidents' Day holiday, U.S. resorts saw signs of winter fatigue. Business levels were sporadic, ranging from "absolutely rockin'" in Utah and "crazy busy" in Vermont, to "not stellar' at Wachusett, Mass., "not outstanding" in Colorado, and only "decent" at Liberty Mountain, Pa.

In the west, where Presidents' Day is mainly part of a long weekend, the holiday was only "pretty good" in Colorado. "It was not outstanding, nothing like the peak years," said Jennifer Rudolph at CSCUSA. Still, it was "better than last year," said Jeff Hanle at Aspen.

Utah resorts, meanwhile, were rockin' with great snow, blue skies and big crowds. "It was very, very busy," said Nathan Rafferty at Ski Utah. Big and Little Cottonwood were both closed, because there was no more parking available at the resorts.

In the northwest, the briefly-absent La Nina returned on Feb. 15, just in time for the big holiday, and the fresh snow made for a strong weekend-in sharp contrast to MLK, which was a washout for much of the region.

In California, Mammoth had "a strong" Presidents' holiday, said Dan Hansen, PR manager.

Geography was destiny in the Midwest, with good snow and crowds up north, but rain in Ohio, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Overall, though, Feb was pretty fab for everyone in the region.

In the east, where Presidents' Day is often part of a weeklong vacation, schools took back some snow days and cut into the vacation time. "For such a stellar snow year, it was not a stellar holiday," said Tom Meyers at Wachusett, Mass. The same was true at Hunter, N.Y., and for Pennsylvania resorts Camelback and Liberty, which also lost some snow days. "Decent," summed up Anne Weimer at Liberty.

Business was better farther north: "crazy busy" in Vermont, "wonderful" at Sunday River, Maine, and "up a couple percentage points" at Waterville Valley, N.H., which is under new ownership that has been pushing hard to get skiers and riders to discover what the new management has done to improve the experience.