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SKIING : Resorts Plan for a White Christmas

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It’s beginning to look a lot like skiers will have a white Christmas, after all--at least where they’ve been able to fool Mother Nature.

No natural snow has fallen in California since late on Thanksgiving weekend, but persistent cold temperatures have enabled those resorts with snowmaking capability to expand lift operations and enter the big holiday week in relatively good shape.

Five Southland ski areas--Bear Mountain, Snow Summit, Snow Valley, Mountain High and Snow Forest--are open and ready for the hordes expected between now and New Year’s Day. Snow depths, all man-made, range from 10 to 36 inches.

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In the High Sierra, Mammoth Mountain is offering skiing on about one-quarter of its terrain, while using portable snowmaking machines to augment the 12- to 36-inch base created by two early-season storms. Owner Dave McCoy called the chances of getting through the holidays without another snowfall, “Nip and tuck.”

Farther north, it’s a similar situation: Where there’s snowmaking, there’s fairly good but limited skiing. Elsewhere in the Sierra, the hoped-for white (and green) Christmas may turn out to be more of a tattle-tale gray.

Recent storms have resulted in improved ski conditions throughout much of the Rocky Mountains.

The best bets for the holidays, at the moment, include Steamboat, Vail and Summit County in Colorado; Snowbird and Alta in Utah; Big Sky and Big Mountain in Montana; Grand Targhee in Wyoming, and Taos in New Mexico.

The Alps, on the other hand, are presently more suitable for mountain-biking than skiing, and this has made a shambles of the Alpine World Cup racing schedule, which has been placed on hold until the first weekend in January.

Three men’s races were canceled in the last week because of poor snow conditions--one of two downhills at Val Gardena, Italy; a slalom at Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, and another downhill that had been tentatively moved from Saalbach-Hinterglemm to Schladming, Austria.

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Three-time champion Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland won last Saturday’s downhill at Val Gardena to move ahead of Christian Ole Furuseth in the overall standings, 126 points to 118. Armin Bittner of West Germany is third with 79.

All of the early women’s action was staged in North America, during a four-week span that ended with a pair of downhills last weekend at Panorama, Canada. Petra Kronberger of Austria won both races at the British Columbia resort to move into third place in the overall standings with 98 points, 15 behind leader Michaela Gerg of West Germany and five in back of runner-up Anita Wachter of Austria.

Hilary Lindh, 20, of Juneau, Alaska, finished sixth Sunday, 1.15 seconds behind Kronberger--and just ahead of Swiss aces Maria Walliser and Michela Figini, who tied for seventh place.

Skiing Notes

As a result of his victory over Tomaz Cerkovnik in the final of last Sunday’s slalom at Nashoba Valley, Mass., Phil Mahre of Yakima, Wash., took over the lead in the U.S. Pro Tour standings with 115 points, two more than defending champion Jorgen Sundqvist of Sweden. . . . The pros will resume racing Jan. 5-7 at Heavenly Valley, and are scheduled at Snow Summit Jan. 26-28.

ESPN will offer viewers two doses of skiing this weekend. On Friday at 4:30 p.m., Bob Beattie’s “Subaru Ski World” will include sequences on powder skiing in the Canadian Rockies, movie-making with Greg Stump and racing by disabled ski champion Diana Golden. . . . Then on Sunday at 3 p.m., the network will air taped highlights of the recent World Cup 90-meter jumping at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Steve Gaskill of Burnsville, Minn., has resigned as head coach of the U.S. cross-country ski team because he did not want to work out of the team’s office in Park City, Utah, according to Nordic Program Director John Bower. No replacement was named. . . . Jim Galanes will continue to coach the men’s squad, and Torbjorn Karlsen will remain in charge of the women’s contingent.

Direct air service is being offered on a limited basis from Los Angeles to several ski resorts, including the following: Sun Valley (Hailey), Ida., Saturdays on America West Airlines; Aspen, Colo., six times a week on United Express Airlines; Telluride, Colo., Saturdays on StatesWest Airlines, which will also operate flights out of Burbank and Orange County, and Mt. Bachelor (Bend), Ore., daily on Alaska Airlines.

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