Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe normally sees a large wave of tourists during Christmas, and Tuesday the crowds came out earlier than usual.
A fresh 10 to 12 inches of snow overnight sure didn't hurt, either.
"Altitude is our friend," Mike Pierce, Marketing Director for Mount Rose says. "Because starting here at 8,260 feet, we had all snow."
Pierce says with Christmas Eve on a Monday and Christmas on Tuesday, it's almost like an extended holiday weekend.
"The mix this week will definitely tend heavier on the tourist side," Pierce says. "We get a lot of people driving up from the San Francisco Bay Area as well as a lot of people we call destination tourists that fly in."
Conditions were clear on Tuesday, but the storm came in earlier around lunchtime on Monday, and skiers I talked to who were on the mountain Monday say it was pretty nasty.
"We started skiing yesterday and there was like a blizzard," Justine Du says. "It was a really heavy snow storm. And we only skied like three times up this lift right here because the other one was closed due to snow conditions."
"Yeah, it was still fun," Tracey Du, Justine's sister says. "It was a new experience, haha, let's go with that."
While the mountain is one of the main attractions for tourists in the area...
"The locals who know how to play the game best, they know the go to park over at Winter's Creek," Pierce says. "They'll park at some of the other lots, it really works well together."
Other than the slopes, casinos are a popular hangout spot on Christmas while so few places are open. One woman got married on Monday, and Tuesday she's just kicking back.
"Today just relaxing," Jessica Hall, from Oregon, says. "Going to try the hot tub and the swimming pool because it's kind of cold outside so that will be interesting."
It's her first time in Reno, and she fell in love with the city.
"Reno's amazing," Hall says. "Never been here, everybody's super friendly. Coming from Oregon, everybody's pretty friendly in Oregon, but I think they're almost friendlier here."
Pierce says regarding the 2018-2019 winter season, visitation is up, and snowfall is about average.
