Skiers Sharpen Skills Down Artificial Hills

Skiing in Anaheim in early September may sound about as possible as ice boating on the Nile, but that’s exactly what dozens of early snow birds are starting to do.

While the rest of Southern California tries to keep cool in the late summer heat, those eager people who refuse to allow a lack of snow to keep them from their favorite sport are showing up at the California Ski Center to firm up their legs and sharpen their technique on a pair of artificial skiing hills that are unique in Orange County.

In addition to being a large ski shop, the California Ski Center offers an indoor alternative to the skier who doesn’t yet have the time, the money, the experience or the equipment (or the snow) to make a trip to the mountains. In two separate sections of the center’s chalet-like building are the two hills where, says manager Paul Mittmann, nearly every condition found on an actual ski hill can be duplicated.

“We call it the world’s largest indoor ski resort,” said Mittmann.

The larger of the two hills, on which most of the center’s classes are conducted, is covered in a white plastic material with a brush-like nap called Pro-Snow (the center holds the patent on the material). Skiers are pulled to the top of this gentle hill by a tow line and on the way down can perform all maneuvers and techniques that can be performed on actual snow, Mittmann said. For the student who wants to learn to turn through slalom gates, poles can be inserted in the surface of the hill. Also, at one edge of the hill, an artificial mogul--simulating bumps frequently found on ski slopes--has been added as an aid to teaching the technique of skiing over and turning on such a formation.

The mogul also is used in the center’s ballet ski class as a jump, said Mittmann.

The second, smaller hill actually is a large conveyor belt. A thick carpet-like material, stretched between two large rollers at the bottom and top of the hill, forms the surface of the artificial slope and moves beneath the skis of the students as they face downhill.

The effect allows skiers to perform turns on the moving carpet while remaining essentially motionless. A long rectangular mirror at the bottom of the slope allows them to see themselves as they perform each technique.

For handicapped skiers, or skiers who are recovering from leg injuries, a bar placed at waist height near the bottom of the hill allows them to support a part of their weight with their hands as they learn.

On the roller hill, Mittmann said, skiers can travel the equivalent of eight miles in half an hour, a distance that could take as long as six or seven hours at a crowded ski resort. In fact, Mittmann said, skiers often will drop into the center on their lunch hours for a quick half-hour or more of practice.

In addition to scheduled group and private lessons, the center screens skiing films on Saturday nights and offers public practice sessions on the slopes on Friday nights with an instructor in attendance to offer tips.

Mittmann said that the center gives about 5,000 lessons each year, which include students enrolled in ski classes at several area colleges.

“Our facility is creating more new skiers, I believe, than any other facility in Southern California,” he said. “Here, they learn much faster than they would on an actual ski hill because they spend more time actually skiing. And there are no transition problems from our hills to actual snow. Besides, here you don’t have snow going up your gloves and down your parka.”

THE CALIFORNIA SKI CENTER

AT A GLANCE

Where: 1011 N. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a..m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday.

Lessons and rates: Novice and ballet classes, $55; beginning, children’s, intermediate and parallel classes, $45; cross-country classes (held in adjacent La Palma Park), $35; private lessons, $45; semi-private lessons, $35. Hours of instruction vary. All equipment is provided.

Information: Phone 776-7669.