Skiing / Bob Lochner : More Snow, Such as It Is, in South Than Sierra

When was the last time there were more ski areas open in Southern California than in the High Sierra--in December? It was before our time, anyway, but that’s the current situation as a big blob of high pressure continues to smother most of the state, diverting storms to the north and south.

Snow-making has enabled Goldmine, near Big Bear Lake, and Mountain High, near Wrightwood, to join Snow Summit, another Big Bear resort, in opening for the season. And Ski Sunrise, across the road from Mountain High, hopes to have enough coverage to start operating Saturday.

Of course, we’re not talking real skiing here, in the sense of being able to take mile-long dives down a thousand feet or so of vertical. All that’s available now are some short beginner runs covered with 12 to 24 inches of man-made snow.

But driving north won’t help. At the moment, only Boreal, 500 miles distant, is open, and again that’s only because of snow-making.

A Mammoth Mountain spokeswoman said Wednesday, “We have four inches of snow, and we need a couple of feet to get going. We’re making snow at June Mountain, and there’s a chance we’ll have one beginner hill ready by Friday.”

Three other Sierra resorts--Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Heavenly Valley--also are making snow and may be able to begin extremely limited operations by this weekend. But no promises.

Meanwhile, with the start of the big Christmas-New Year’s holiday period less than 10 days away, it remains cold and sunny in the Tahoe Basin, with the sky almost as blue as the lake and only thin splotches of white here and there on the surrounding mountains.

Anyone for the Rockies?

Taos Ski Valley, down New Mexico way, may have the best skiing in the West this week.

Ernie Blake’s playground opened Nov. 26, and with 20 inches of fresh powder since Saturday, it has a total of 65 inches on its slopes.

“The entire mountain will be open by the weekend,” a spokeswoman said Wednesday. “They’ve been up bombing away potential avalanches on Lorelei and Longhorn, our steepest runs. The skiing everywhere is fantastic, with virtually no lift lines.”

Ski Country USA, also known as Colorado, is open for business as usual. Some sample reports Wednesday included the following: Aspen Mountain, 46 inches total, 48% open; Keystone, 3 inches new, 44 inches total, 80% open; Steamboat Springs, 4 inches new, 28 inches total, 36% open; Telluride, 3 inches new, 49 inches total, 75% open, and Vail, 2 inches new, no total given, 62% open. All said they had powder and packed powder.

As for Utah, Alta listed 52 inches Wednesday, Brighton 39, Brian Head 41, Park City 23 (but with only the gondola and Prospector running for on-top skiing), Solitude 37 and Snowbird 38.

World Cup update: Because of lack of snow at Arosa, Switzerland, and Puy St. Vincent, France, the women’s races this weekend have been shifted to Val d’Isere, France, where two downhills and a super giant slalom are on tap.

The men are in Italy, as scheduled, for a downhill at Val Gardena Saturday, and two slaloms, at Alta Badia Sunday and Madonna di Campiglio Tuesday.

Swiss teammates Erika Hess and Vreni Schneider are 1-2 in the World Cup women’s overall standings with 51 and 46 points, respectively. Tamara McKinney, the top American, is fifth with 29. Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland leads the men with 75 points, 13 more than runner-up Markus Wasmeier of West Germany.

Honors: Ernie Blake, who founded Taos Ski Valley, is one of four skiers who will be inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame Feb. 6 at Ishpeming, Mich.

Also named Wednesday were Doug Pfeiffer of Big Bear Lake, who helped found the Professional Ski Instructors Assn. of America and also served as editor-in-chief of Skiing magazine; Dr. Frank Howard of San Rafael, Calif., who has lectured on skiing throughout this country and Canada, and Ernest Robes of Etna, N.H., a noted ski-jumping judge.

The three finalists for the 1987 AT&T; Skiing Award, given annually to “an individual (who) . . . has profoundly enriched the sport,” are Billy Kidd of Steamboat Springs, Colo., 1964 Olympic slalom silver medalist and 1970 World Alpine combined champion; Warren Miller of Hermosa Beach, perhaps the world’s foremost ski cinematographer, and Andrea Mead Lawrence of Mammoth Lakes, 1952 double Olympic gold medalist.

The winner will be announced during the World Cup races at Aspen, Colo., in March.

And last, but not least, Dave McCoy, creator of Mammoth Mountain, was honored last Friday by the Dept. of Water & Power for 50 years of service to the City of Los Angeles and Southland skiers.

Skiing Notes Bob Beattie will be the host of “Subaru Ski World,” a 13-week series starting Sunday at 4:30 p.m. PST on ESPN. The network will show the 90-meter ski jumping at Lake Placid, N.Y., on a one-day delay Sunday at 3 p.m. . . . Last Friday’s World Cup men’s downhill at Val d’Isere, France, was taped by GGP Sports for showing Saturday at 3 p.m. on Channel 7. . . . Mt. Bachelor, near Bend, Ore., has a 47-inch base and all lifts running. . . . Ben Rinaldo, former publisher of Southland Skier and now with Jet-Age Travel Service of North Hollywood, will lead the first of four 17-day ski trips to China Dec. 26-Jan. 11. “The ski area is about 1,500 miles north of Shanghai and has a vertical of about 2,000 feet,” Rinaldo said. “It is the first time that a general skier has had the opportunity of taking such a trip.” . . . Now, there’s a ski music video, “World of White,” on the market just in time for holiday parties. Created by Bob Wickline of Cascade Mountain Music, it’s a first-rate combination of six skiing-oriented pop songs and some spectacular film footage by Joe Jay Jalbert, Dick Barrymore, Lynn Aitkens and Gregg Stump. More information is available by calling (213) 538-5476. . . . Officials of the 1988 Winter Olympics at Calgary, Canada, will be interested observers of the action on the newly created slopes of Nakiska and Mt. Allan today through Sunday as Marjoe Gortner stages the Western Airlines/Mouton Cadet Celebrity Ski International. The celebs will be sort of like guinea pigs to see if everything works as planned at the Games’ venues. . . . For cross-country skiers, Royal Gorge Nordic Resort is open near Soda Springs, in Northern California.