Countywide : Lack of Snow Chills Skiers’ Enthusiasm

Local ski enthusiasts say the lack of natural snow in Southern California during the traditionally busy holiday week has caused some to go farther north, although the heartiest Orange County skiers are still heading for the artificially white hills nearby.

Without snowfall, Kokomo’s, an Irvine bar and restaurant, had trouble recently giving away a Dec. 17 trip to Snow Valley. As a result, they canceled similar giveaways planned for the Christmas and New Year’s holiday weekends.

“I think a lot of that is because conditions are marginal,” said Deanna Gilpin, Kokomo’s general manager. “We have this outrageous promotion, but Mother Nature isn’t cooperating with us.

“If it was snowing up there, we would have (scheduled this weekend). Now people want to be with their family at home.”

Had conditions been excellent, family would have come second, Gilpin said.

She said the bar gave away 50 tickets for its Dec. 17 trip, but, the following week, only 25 people showed up for the trip. She said Kokomo’s planned to give away tickets for every weekend this winter at a cost of about $23,000.

At Snow Summit Ski Area in Big Bear, the attendance on Tuesday was about 4,300, almost 3,000 less than average for this time of the year, said Greg Ralph, the vice president for marketing. He said about half of the skiers at Snow Summit come from Orange County.

Ralph added that about 65% of the slopes are open with artificial snow.

“It would be a lot better if we had natural snow,” he said. “But people who have come up skiing have been real surprised.”

The county’s major ski clubs are going ahead with trips scheduled for this week, one of the season’s most popular for getaways to Mammoth Mountain, Big Bear and out-of-state vacations to Idaho and Colorado.

Jim Fluet, manager of Sunland Skiers in Garden Grove, said a he skied at Big Bear last weekend and, even with the man-made snow, was pleased with conditions. It just took some adjustment.

“You’ll ride a chairlift up, and it’s brown underneath you,” he said. “It’s discouraging because people will see no rain here and they’ll think there’s no snow up there. But they can make snow.”

Pam Murphy, a spokeswoman for Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, said a ski clinic and race for about 150 skiers from colleges around the state--including Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa--is still planned for this week. About 80 percent of the ski area is open with a 1-foot to 3-foot base, she said.

“We’re actually in pretty good shape,” she said. “We could be in better shape, but we’re pretty good.”

For some, the urge to get on the slopes is a greater priority than ideal skiing conditions. Patricia Howard, a member of the Traveling Skiers and Balboa ski clubs, said that her husband, Cloyde, left Tuesday with about a dozen people headed to Mammoth. She had to stay in town to work.

“We understand (conditions) are very poor,” she said. “There wasn’t any way to back out. . . . But he would ski anything.”

About 40 members of the Balboa Ski Club are counting on better conditions in the north. They left Tuesday for Sun Valley, Idaho.

The last Balboa club trip was to Mammoth about three weeks ago, and conditions at times were disappointing.

“The weather was beautiful,” said Michael Hazzard, editor of the club’s newsletter, Sno Job. “But I wish I would have taken my rock skis up there. One to three feet isn’t enough.”