By Agatha Wasilewska, Transworld Business

Resorts and their marketers dream of big dumps and lots of them to befall their mountains; the press is fabulous and it brings the crowds out in droves and makes for fantastic photo opps. This year the ski areas around Lake Tahoe must have been praying extra hard because they got more than anyone could have imagined or bargained for.

As the season winds down and the mountains start closing, Transworld Business thought it would be interesting to pay Tahoe a visit and find out how this record breaking snow season has affected the resorts and local retailers from both the good and bad sides of the fence.

2010-11 was an epic ski season in Lake Tahoe. Photo/LTN

Lake Tahoe is perfectly situated to attract the San Francisco Bay Area crowd and keep a steady stream of visitors from far and away coming to this unique ski destination. With so many resorts, all of which set record breaking snowfall amounts this year despite a drought-ridden January, at such close proximity to each other, the competition for customer loyalty is steep, and each resort has uniquely branded itself with that in mind.

Here is an overview of a selection of resorts we visited and their reflections on how the season went down.

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