Lack of Snow Has Mammoth Staff Out in the Cold

In a Sierra resort that prefers to be known for BMWs and private jets, the line of hungry young men and women outside Mammoth Lakes’ first soup kitchen seemed out of place--an unlikely image of the West’s lingering drought.

At a table inside, Antonio Benitez guided a forkful of spaghetti to the mouth of his 2-year-old nephew, Ruben, and bemoaned the shortage of skiers and, more to the point, dirty condos for him to clean.

“If it doesn’t snow we’ll have to go to another place to look for work,” said Benitez, 25. “Maybe Florida or San Francisco, I don’t know.”

This was Friday night, and 120 fresh-faced ski bums and people who in better times wait on them were gathered in a donated restaurant where the community will serve free dinners until enough snow falls to turn the economy around.

For some of the diners, the experience came as a bit of a shock: Instead of doing odd jobs to ski free all winter, they have to queue up in the cold for handouts.

“I’m broke and I’m calling Mom,” said Franci Collaner, 19, who came up from Escondido for the winter but was laid off a week ago from the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area personnel office.

Ski resorts are used to lean times when nature holds back. It’s an acceptable risk that is offset by the good years. But the fifth straight year of poor snow--another manifestation of the West’s drought--has sapped merchants here of their reserves.

Snow began falling Saturday, but many restaurants and motels that carried employees through earlier dry spells have already let their help go. The ski area has put its seasonal employees--who have begun to gather from around the country--on indefinite hold and cut back on full-time staff.

“It’s getting real serious,” said Mammoth Times Publisher Wally Hoffman, who organized the dinner. “I saw my first homeless guy in 10 years in this mall (outside the paper’s offices) last week.”

The weekly paper’s staff served the first free dinner Friday night only hours after learning that their own paychecks were being cut 20%. Food was donated by the local Vons store and other businesses. About 130 people were fed, split about evenly between would-be ski mountain employees and service workers.

After work slowed down at a factory job in Chicago, Benitez left to clean condos in Mammoth with his brother. “In the daytime we go into stores looking for work,” Benitez said. “Most of our money goes for rent.”

Roberto Hernandez, 18, had a year-round housekeeping job at the Mammoth Mountain Inn but was recently cut loose. When he asks for work, Hernandez says, “everybody says ‘when it starts snowing.’ I don’t know what I’m going to do, probably move to Reno. There’s work up there in the casinos.”

One motivation for the free dinners, which will run indefinitely, is to keep workers from leaving Mammoth for more dependable jobs. California ski areas have had a tough time luring employees in recent years, many turning to Australians and New Zealanders to guarantee a labor force.

Pay has also been increased in a bid to recruit workers, and it’s not unusual for housekeepers in motels and condos to make more than $7 an hour.

Mammoth Mountain employs 2,000 people at its peak season around Christmas. All but about 400 are seasonal workers whose jobs depend on the snowfall.

James Goettel, 35, came from Las Vegas to be a shuttle driver for the ski area. He led a delegation of employees who appealed to ski area officials for a rent break to get through the snowless period.

“No soap,” said Goettel, taking advantage of the free dinner. “I’ve got 62 cents in my pocket--that’s why I’m here tonight.”

John Denault, the ski area’s human resources manager, said Saturday that employees were told their jobs would not begin until enough snow fell to open most of the runs, but that some moved to Mammoth early. Those are the ones in trouble, he said.

But with snow falling throughout the day Saturday, spirits were brighter all over Mammoth. As much as two feet is expected with the storm, and if another expected at midweek drops a similar amount, the ski mountain could be in full operation for Christmas, the make-or-break time for many Mammoth businesses.

At least, that’s what janitors and ski bums alike were hoping Saturday.

Free-lance journalist Martin Forstenzer contributed to this article from Mammoth Lakes.