Taos Ski Valley expects to sell at least 4,800 tickets today -- the last day of winter and the first day the family-owned business will open its slopes to snowboarders, The Taos News reported.

Until today, Taos Ski Valley was one of just four ski mountains across the United States to ban snowboarders -- only Alta and Deer Valley in Utah and Vermont's Mad River Glen remain as holdouts, the News reported.

"We've been talking about this since December," lift attendant Sam Oberholtzer told the News after the lifts closed Tuesday. "Anyone who has a problem, they're over it now."

For information on events and activities on the new era at Taos Ski Valley, go to www.ridetaos.org. 

The Ski Valley hopes to attract students -- many of them from Texas -- who are on spring break this week, according to the News.

The ski resort's rental shop has 175 snowboards ready for renting, and all 10 boards on hand at Terry Sports already have been rented, the News reported.

And all 55 slots for snowboard instruction have been filled, according to the paper.

The Albuquerque Journal's Raam Wong wrote earlier this month that ski area employees were training for this day -- the day, Wong wrote, hell would freeze over, pigs would fly and Taos Ski Valley would be open to snowboarders.

Boarders will likely drool over the rails, boxes and jumps in a modest terrain park as well as the hike-to chutes and bowls beneath 12,481 Kachina Peak, the Journal reported.

Taos expects to spend about $35 million over the next seven years to expand the rental and repair shop for snowboard equipment and to make other changes to accommodate a new era of boarders, according to the Journal.

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