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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Spring Break Visitors Pack Ski Apache, Ruidoso
By Jim Kalvelage
Ruidoso News
RUIDOSO — "I think everybody's happy," says Ruidoso Valley Chamber of Commerce office manager Becky Brooks about a town full of visitors this spring break week.
"It's one of our best weeks in a long, long time," said Brooks. "It's the best year snow-wise in about 15 years."
It was Ski Apache, still blessed with abundant snows that lured many to the Ruidoso area.
The skiing and snowboarding Mecca was jammed much of the week. More than 6,144 people took to the slopes just on Tuesday this week.
"This is one of the best in 10 years," said Justin Rowland, director of operations at Ski Apache. A winter accumulation of 222-inches of snow has brought the best skiing conditions in years.
"It's interesting," Rowland said. "We had lines pretty much everywhere. The parking lot was full."
In fact the parking lot overflowed, with police forbidding people from parking along Ski Run Road (New Mexico Road 523) because of its narrow gauge.
The New Mexico Department of Transportation and State Police worked together on traffic issues at times, said DOT spokesperson Manon Arnett. It was a record number of people," said Arnett. "Our traffic engineer said the average daily count for (State Road) 523 is 614 vehicles a day."
Police were also on Ski Run Road enforcing the prohibition on traffic going up the mountain from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.
"Nearly all of Texas and New Mexico schools had their spring break this week," said Brooks. "That's unusual. Usually it's spread over a couple of weeks."
Brooks said the one-week deluge of visitors had lodgers happy.
"Lodging is full for the most part," she said at midweek. "We are finding a few things here and there, but it's full."
Rowland said what is good for Ski Apache is also good for Ruidoso.
"This is great," Rowland said. "Our team members are tired, but they're smiling. This is our business. We're part of the lifeblood of this community, and we all prosper."
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