Skiing / Bob Lochner : Storm Is Start of Something Big--the Season

Ready or not, it’s time to go skiing. There’s no point in starting those preseason conditioning exercises. The only thing to do now is try to ski yourself into shape. And by this weekend there should be a grand total of 15 places where that will be possible.

Winter has arrived in the form of an unseasonably cold Arctic blast that dumped up to five feet of snow on the mountains of California. Three earlier storms that moved through the Sierra Nevada range since Labor Day were kind of like exhibition games. This one marks the start of the regular season, both up north and right in our own backyard, as well.

Three ski areas--nearby Kratka Ridge, Mammoth Mountain and Boreal (on Donner Summit)--were operating Tuesday; four others--Snow Summit, Goldmine and Mountain High, all in the Southland, and Sierra Ski Ranch, off US 50--will open today, and at least eight more plan to throw the switch Friday or Saturday.

This is not the earliest opening in either the Sierra or locally, but the snow accumulation was one of the heaviest on record for mid-November. At Boreal, for example, five feet fell in a 12-hour period starting late Saturday night. “That’s a record for here,” said a spokesman at the resort, which is located along Interstate 80 at the 7,200-foot elevation just west of Truckee. Once the highway was reopened Tuesday morning, the lifts started rolling and the season was on.

Mammoth, 300 miles north of Los Angeles via US 395, actually was the first to open, offering skiers Chairlifts 1 and 2 plus T-bar 2 on Monday afternoon. “We have a four-foot base at the lodge,” a spokesman said, “and we will have the top of the mountain and at least 11 chairs going this weekend.”

June Mountain, meanwhile, is gearing up for a Nov. 23 opening.

Elsewhere in the Sierra, Kirkwood, Soda Springs and Mt. Rose will go into operation Friday, and Squaw Valley will get its season under way Saturday, at both the 6,200- and 8,200-foot levels. “We’ll have the cable car and 11 chairlifts on line, with the Mountain Run open all the way down,” a spokesman said.

There’s no need, however, to drive more than 100 miles to find skiing. Virtually all of the major resorts in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains received enough snow to get off to an earlier-than-usual start, and the weather has remained cold enough for them to make an additional layer of powder. Here’s a quick rundown on their plans:

--Kratka Ridge, which reported two feet of white coverage Tuesday, will be joined Friday by neighboring Mt. Waterman.

--In the Wrightwood sector, Mountain High, with 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 feet, will open its west side today, and Ski Sunrise, across the road, said it will be ready by Saturday “unless the weather warms up.”

--At Big Bear, the depths ranged from one to three feet, and both Snow Summit and Goldmine, which will commence selling lift tickets at 8 o’clock this morning, said they have snow from top to bottom. The same goes for Snow Valley, opening Friday, and Snow Forest, which is shooting for Saturday.

--Mt. Baldy said it will wait until Thanksgiving, Nov. 28.

Several large complexes in the Sierra are more cautious about committing themselves, for a variety of reasons.

Heavenly Valley is still rounding up employees and will also remain shut until Thanksgiving; Alpine Meadows wants to see how the snow packs down but hopes to stick to its original date of Nov. 22; Sierra Summit will decide what to do before the weekend, and Badger Pass at Yosemite, Dodge Ridge, Bear Valley/Mt. Reba, Sugar Bowl and Slide Mountain all would like to have another storm before they open.

Werner Schuster, vice president of Alpine Meadows, said the water content of the snow in this storm was extremely low, and this has created problems in packing it. “We like to see 11% to 12% water,” he said, “but this snow was very cold and dry, with only 6% water. This means that it is compacting more than normal, and some rocks and stumps are sticking up. We may be in limited operation this weekend if we get another storm, but in any event, we should be able to move the snow around enough to open by the 22nd.”

Even closer to home, for some, there’s vicarious skiing available through the latest of Warren Miller’s annual 90-minute epic films, this one entitled, “Steep and Deep.”

What it’s all about, according to the Hermosa Beach-based Miller, is “the search for that elusive and magical sense of freedom achieved through skiing.” The search, in the high country from Europe to New Zealand, continues at 8 p.m. nightly Thursday through Sunday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, and at 7 and 9:30 p.m. next Tuesday in the Harbour Twin Theater at Newport Beach.