SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah ski industry officials can hardly imagine a better scenario for this winter:

Constant references to Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Olympics during the games in Turin, Italy. Well-above average snowfall blanketing the state's ski areas. And, an unexpected bonus, relatively little snow in the Salt Lake Valley to slow travel.

"There's no delays at the airport, and easy access to the ski areas," said Krista Parry, spokeswoman for Park City Mountain Resort. "It makes it that much easier for people to get up here."

Midseason indicators suggest Utah could see its third record-breaking ski season in a row, said Hilary Reiter, spokeswoman for Ski Utah, an industry group.

"I was watching the games the other night, and I wish I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned Salt Lake City," Reiter said. It also helps that the coverage often mentions that many members of the U.S. Olympic team choose to live and train in Utah for the slopes, trails, ice rinks and other facilities used in the 2002 games.

Utah's reputation for good skiing has grown steadily since then, and the current games provide a welcome boost, industry officials said.

"It's so rare that skiing is so much in front of a national audience like this, I have to believe it's got to help," said Nathan Rafferty, president of Ski Utah. Utah's had 3,429,141 skier-days in the 2003-04 season and 3,895,578 last winter -- both records.

Deer Valley and Alta-Snowbird helped draw additional attention to Utah's trademark "Greatest Snow on Earth" early this season when they were ranked the nation's top ski areas in separate ski magazines.

Meanwhile, as some ski regions around the country are experiencing a snow drought, snow continues to pile up at above-average rates in the high peaks.

As of Tuesday, Alta had recorded about 400 inches -- more than 30 feet -- of snow. Resorts along the Wasatch Range are as much as 160 percent of average for snowfall so far, according to the National Weather Service.

The Cottonwood canyons were crowded over the Presidents' Day weekend.

Business during the weekend was up about 15 percent over last year at The Canyons ski resort, spokeswoman Katie Eldridge said. Deer Valley was up 6 percent, said communications manager Erin Grady.

At Park City Mountain Resort, bookings were up about 8 percent from last year's Presidents' Day, Parry said.

Retailers also reported brisk business.

At Jan's Mountain Outfitters in Park City, it was a holiday of record sales. General Manager Jack Walzer said the store is up at least 5 percent from last year. He said February vacation week is nearly as important to business as Christmas vacation week.

But the snow that's been a boon for ski resort towns has spared communities along the heavily developed Wasatch Front just a few miles away. So far this season, Salt Lake City has recorded 30.6 inches of snow, well below the average of 44.5 inches, said Linda Cheng, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Salt Lake City.

That's good news for people who don't like to shovel or drive in snow, but who also want easy access to the slopes, Parry said. It also helps boost Salt Lake City's image as a good place for skiers to live.

Utah tourism officials are encouraging residents to wear their Olympic-logo attire from the 2002 games. They credit the games for boosting year-round tourism and tourism spending as well. Last year, Utah saw 18.2 million tourist visits, a 4 percent increase from the previous year, according to the Governor's Office of Economic Development. In 2005, traveler spending rose about 9.9 percent, the office said.