Skiing : Conditions Are Excellent for the Holiday Weekend

Conditions in the mountains of the Southland and the High Sierra are ideal for the big Presidents’ Day weekend, which normally signifies the start of spring skiing.

This year, however, skiers will find packed powder, relatively crisp temperatures and, if all goes well, plenty of sunshine.

California snow depths range from three feet on up--to as high as 12 feet in the north--and all systems appear to be go everywhere at least through Easter, March 26, and probably well beyond.

Jimmie Heuga, the Olympic bronze medalist at Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964, will be at Snow Summit Saturday, along with many of his friends for the next stop on the Jimmie Heuga Express.

The event is one of 22 in North America this season, which are expected to raise about 45% of the budget for the Jimmie Heuga Center for the physically challenged.

Under the Express’ format, each host resort recruits as many co-ed teams of three skiers each as possible, in an attempt to ski more than a total of 1 million vertical feet on a designated run on the same day.

To participate, each team must raise a minimum of $1,000 in tax-deductible sponsorship donations. Then, the team at each resort that accumulates the most points--a combination of dollars raised and vertical feet skied--will earn an expenses-paid trip to the Heuga Express Championship finals April 5-9 at Vail, Colo., where the center is located.

Teams are still being formed for the Snow Summit event, and more information is available by calling (213) 697-8941.

The Express’ other California stops are at Mammoth Mountain Feb. 24 and Squaw Valley March 10.

Snow Summit will also be the site of the Vuarnet Vertical Airshow Sunday, when some of the nation’s top snowboard competitors will display their skills.

The field is headed by Santa Monica’s Bert LaMar, a two-time World Cup champion in the sport, which is kind of a combination of skiing and surfing.

Skiing Notes

World Cup ski racing resumes Friday, after a break for the World Alpine Ski Championships at Vail, Colo. The men will compete in a downhill, super-G and giant slalom at Aspen, Colo., and the women will go in a downhill and a super-G at Lake Louise, Canada. ESPN will show the Aspen races at 5 p.m., PST, on Friday, and 2:30 p.m., both Saturday and Sunday. . . . The U.S. Pro Tour will stop at Angel Fire, N.M., Saturday and Sunday.

Nick Badami, chairman and president of Alpine Meadows of Tahoe, which also owns the Park City Ski Area in Utah, said this week that his company “is nearing completion of the environmental impact statement” for the new Galena resort, near Reno, which it plans to open for the 1991-92 season. . . . Richard Steadman, one of the world’s foremost orthopedic surgeons, is considering an offer to head a new sports medicine center in Vail, but said this week that any decision “is at least a year and a half away.” He added: “For the remainder of this season and all of next, at least, I will continue to be at South Lake Tahoe.”

Cindy Nelson, former U.S. ski team star, was chief of course for the women’s giant slalom at Vail last Saturday, becoming the first woman to have this responsibility in a world championship race.