Skiers and Sightseers Flock to Mountains; New Storm on Way

Skiers and sightseers flocked to Southern California’s mountains Saturday, taking advantage of a brief lull in the persistent winter storm that is expected to bring substantial additional rain and snow to the Southland today.

Despite a few intermittent rain and snow showers, travel was pretty much back to normal Saturday, with traffic moving freely over major mountain highways that had been blocked Friday by ice and snow.

Mark Dickerson, a dispatch officer with the California Highway Patrol, said the only routes requiring chains Saturday were the Angeles Crest Highway between La Canada Flintridge and Wrightwood and some local roads west of Gorman in the Tejon Pass area.

The open roads meant easy access to mountain recreation areas, and local ski resort operators said thousands of visitors took advantage of the first major snowfall of the season in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

“We’re having a ball,” said Richard Conger, a spokesman for the Mountain High resort near Wrightwood, which received up to 18 inches of new snow Thursday and Friday.

“We got fresh powder; it’s 30 degrees; there’s some blue skies and sunshine. This is a good as it gets,” he said. “There is a Santa Claus.”

It has been little more than a week since hot, dry Santa Ana winds whipped wildfires that raced across the base of the mountains, but officials said Saturday that precipitation from the storm had reduced the fire danger enough to permit the lifting of campfire restrictions in the Angeles National Forest.

The only downside to the storm Saturday was the loss of phone service to about 6,200 Pacific Bell customers in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys.

Lissa Zanville, a spokeswoman for the company, said that while Pacific Bell “seemed to be getting a handle” on the situation, service to some of the customers might not be restored until sometime Tuesday.

Dave Beusterien, a meteorologist for WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the rain and snowfall should begin to intensify late this morning as the storm, which has been stalled since Thursday over the Pacific off Point Conception, begins to move inland.

“We should get rainfall amounts in the (Los Angeles) Basin of a quarter to half an inch, with up to an inch in some places,” he said. “There’s a threat of heavy snow in the mountains above 3,500 feet--4 to 8 inches in most places, but a foot or more is possible in some areas.”

High temperatures today should be mostly in the upper 50s in Los Angeles and the coastal and intermediate valleys.

Beusterien said the storm system should move out of the Los Angeles Basin for good at about midnight tonight, with thermometers plunging to the upper 30s in some of the colder valley areas as skies clear before dawn Monday.

“Monday should be mostly sunny, with highs in the 60s,” Beusterien said. “It’ll be a little cooler on Tuesday, with a slight chance of showers.”

No new measurable rain fell at the Los Angeles Civic Center by nightfall Saturday, and the storm total remained at 1.32 inches. The season’s total was 2.11 inches, compared to a normal seasonal total for the date of 3.41 inches.

The high temperature at the Civic Center on Saturday was 63 degrees, after an overnight low of 49.