Skiing / Bob Lochner : Mammoth Winter Funds a Summer Boom for McCoy
Mammoth Mountain, enjoying its best season, has already figured out a way to plow back some of the proceeds.
Among other projects planned for this summer are three new quad chairlifts, which will boost uphill capacity to 42,000 skiers an hour, tops in the United States.
One of the lifts--called quad because each chair (or couch?) seats four skiers--will replace the old Chair 2. The others, Chairs 24 and 25, will be built in the vicinity of the present Chair 15.
Construction won’t start until the end of this season, which from past experience, has about another four months to run. Mammoth had 86 to 102 inches of snow on its slopes Thursday, with another storm in progress.
Attendance thus far in 1984-85 is a few percentage points ahead of the pace for Mammoth’s best season, 1981-82, when more than a million skiers showed up at Dave McCoy’s mountain north of Bishop.
Up to 48 inches of new snow has fallen in the High Sierra so far this week, and depths now range from 60 to 204 inches. Southland ski areas, meanwhile, continue to operate on 12 to 60 inches, plus several inches of powder.
The World Cup heads into the homestretch this weekend at Aspen, Colo., where the men will compete in a downhill and a giant slalom, and at Sunshine, near Banff, Canada, where the women will mix it up in two downhills and a super giant slalom.
Aspen will provide the next-to-last opportunity for Bill Johnson to salvage his season with a downhill victory. It will also see a continuation of the battle for the overall title between Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg, who has 240 points, and Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland, the runner-up with 207.
The rest of the men’s schedule: March 16-17, downhill and super giant slalom at Panorama, Canada; March 20, slalom at Park City, Utah, and March 21-24, slalom and parallel race at Heavenly Valley.
Michela Figini remains in command of the women’s overall chase with 221 points, 34 ahead of Swiss teammate Brigitte Oertli. From Sunshine, the women will proceed as follows: Wednesday, giant slalom at Lake Placid, N.Y.; March 16-17, slalom and giant slalom at Waterville Valley, N.H.; March 19, slalom at Park City, Utah, and March 21-24, slalom and parallel race at Heavenly Valley.
Skiing Notes The fifth annual Corporate Ski Challenge, running through Saturday at Alpine Meadows, includes 163 teams from throughout the country. The downhill was called off because of the turbulent weather, but the giant slalom is set for today. . . . The second of two Far West freestyle competitions will be held Sunday at Snow Valley, with both mogul and aerial events scheduled. . . . The fifth of seven stops in International Speed Skiing’s SPRINT series, originally scheduled for Kirkwood this weekend, was postponed until April 17-20 due to too much snow. The next event for advanced skiers who don’t like to bother with making turns will be next Wednesday through Saturday at Mt. Rose, Nev. . . . Kratka Ridge, which plans to reopen for the weekend, will play host Sunday to the third of four races in the Southern California Telemark Series. . . . The men on the Peugeot Grand Prix circuit are at Stratton, Vt., this weekend for the U.S. Pro Finals, but the Women’s Pro Ski Racing tour is taking a break until March 30-31, when it will visit Kirkwood. Former U.S. Ski Team racer Cathy Bruce, who won the giant slalom and placed second to Muriel Dalmais of France in the slalom at Snow Summit recently, leads the women’s standings with $8,125 and 213 points, 54 more than runner-up Bente Dahlum of Norway.