Skiing / Bob Lochner : Happy Holiday? Not This Year as Slopes Are Bare

Skiers who want to hit the slopes over Thanksgiving are probably going to have to hit LAX first and hop on a plane to Denver.

With the start of the long holiday weekend just a week away, only one ski area is open in California, and the run is a mere 1,000 feet long. So, it figures to be a bit crowded if all of the state’s million or more skiers show up at once.

Boreal, just off Interstate 80 on Donner Summit, opened for the Veterans Day weekend, and reopened last Saturday on a daily basis. Two chairlifts are running, and the snow--all man-made--ranges from 12 to 14 inches deep, with 3 or 4 inches added nightly.

That’s it, folks. That’s your California ski report for this week.

At Mammoth Mountain, spokeswoman Pam Murphy said: “We’re not worried yet. We have some snow on the top of the mountain left over from a September storm, and if we get another one in the next few days, we could open within 24 hours.”

The last time Mammoth failed to open for Thanksgiving was in the drought winter of 1976-77.

“We barely made it in 1980,” Murphy said, “but the skiing wasn’t too good.”

Mammoth, which now also owns and operates nearby June Mountain, has only limited snow-making capacity on both hills, due mainly to its normally adequate natural snowfall.

In Colorado, which has already experienced some cold, stormy weather this fall, seven resorts are operating daily, with two more open on the weekends.

They’re using about half natural and half man-made snow, with generally less than one-third of the runs fully covered.

Now going daily are Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Keystone, Loveland Basin, Monarch, Winter Park and Wolf Creek. They are joined on weekends by Berthoud Pass and Ski Sunlight.

Purgatory hopes to open this Saturday, while Vail-Beaver Creek, Steamboat and Aspen are among those aiming at a Thanksgiving opening.

Like their counterparts in the High Sierra, the operators of Utah’s 16 resorts are also casting their eyes westward, scanning the horizon for a major storm. Brighton is currently the only one open, using a combination of natural and man-made snow.

Park City is scheduled to hold the opening women’s races on the World Cup circuit Nov. 29-30, and spokesman Eddie Bowers said Tuesday that, “Everything is go,” with or without any additional snowfall.

“We’ve been making snow on the Payday run around the clock for the last three weeks,” he said, “and now have about three feet covering the slalom and giant slalom courses.

“It’s possible that we could open the top of the mountain to the public this weekend just from snow-making, but a storm would sure be helpful.”

The World Cup competitors are due to arrive Monday to begin training.

Up in Idaho, Sun Valley also has its snow guns firing on the Warm Springs side of Baldy and is shooting for a Thanksgiving start, whether Ma Nature helps out or not. But call ahead before boarding a flight to Twin Falls.

If you decide to pass on skiing until conditions improve, there are a few vicarious thrills available from that old master film maker, Warren Miller.

Now in his 37th year of producing ski movies, Miller has been roaming the Southland this month with his latest 90-minute epic, “Beyond the Edge.”

This one includes footage of skiers jumping off cliffs and from hot-air balloons; Dr. Ruth Westheimer showing off her form on the slopes and explaining the correlation between good skiing and good sex, and visits to such resorts as Vail, Sun Valley, Zurs/Lech in Austria and Whistler Mountain in British Columbia.

“Beyond the Edge” will be shown tonight at the Smothers Theater in Malibu (7 and 9:30) and at the Canyon Crest Theater in Riverside (7 and 9:30). Then on Thursday night, it will be at the AMC Commercenter in San Bernardino (7 and 9:30) and will start a four-night run at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (8 each night through Sunday).