Ski slopes are bare in eastern U.S. while Whistler, Colorado bask in powder

While many western U.S. ski resorts are thriving with packed powder measuring in feet, not inches, resorts back East are hoping to turn a terrible season around. Dozens of resorts in the Midwest and Northeast remain closed. . A cold snap this week gave Eastern resorts a fleeting hope of covering their barren slopes in time for one of the biggest weekends — the three-day Martin Luther King holiday. But the chill didn't last nearly long enough to build up much of a snowpack before springlike temperatures return for the weekend.

"If winter ever arrives, they can finish out the rest of the season. It will be far from a banner season, but they can position themselves to bridge over to the next season. The critical part is the next eight weeks," said Michael Berry, president of the National Ski Areas Association, based in Lakewood, Colo.

Industry trade groups didn't have estimates on potential losses. Berry said stories he heard at a recent meeting with Eastern resort representatives were "all over the place."

In ski-crazy Vermont, four resorts and 17 cross-country ski centers were temporarily closed Thursday, and none of the 19 open resorts had more than half their trails open.

Mad River Glen in Waitsfield, Vt., closed Monday and laid off dozens of workers. After 2 to 4 inches of snow fell Tuesday night, the resort vowed to reopen for the holiday weekend.

At Seven Springs, Pa., more than 530 truckloads of snow were recently moved to high-traffic areas and officials postponed the debut of an 18-foot-high half pipe at the resort's snowboard park.

"You need a lot of snow to carve that pipe," said resort spokesman Bob Duppstadt Jr.

In Colorado, however, ski resorts were running close to full capacity, thanks to three storms in as many weeks. Sales of ski vacations were "very strong," said Molly Cuffe, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Ski Country USA.

"Those who were already skiing extended their vacations by a day or two," she said.

In Canada, ski resorts across the province of Ontario have had to improvise, blowing manmade snow across their ski slopes. The neighboring French-speaking province of Quebec is faring better, since temperatures there are typically colder, and ski resorts are reporting good conditions.

In Western Canada, however (and at Washington state resorts) , the snow is abundant. B.C.'s giant Whistler-Blackcomb resort said 345 inches of snow has fallen so far this season, which is the most the resort has seen by this time in January based on 27 years of snow data analysis. The current mid-mountain base is 120 inches.

"This has been the most incredible season here, and we've been extremely lucky compared to other resorts on the East Coast and throughout Europe," says Stuart Rempel, Whistler Blackcomb's senior vice president of marketing and sales.

.