No-Frills Mt. Waterman Caters to Serious Clientele : Skiing: Area in Angeles National Forest is accessible and challenging--without the trendy set and crowds.

Skis poking out of an open window, a small car whips around a curve, traveling northeast on the Angeles Crest Highway, which winds through mountainous terrain deep in the Angeles National Forest. The driver’s destination is Mt. Waterman, a ski area 45 minutes from La Canada.

For the first 30 minutes, the driver sees no signs of winter, only the dull brown cast to the San Gabriel Mountains. But, suddenly, he is on an Oregon scenic drive: Ponderosa pine and incense cedar line the road, mountains are painted with snow.

Just as abruptly, Mt. Waterman pops into sight as the car rounds another curve. Ski resorts are usually monuments to commerce, a place where nature collides with neon motel signs, sprawling condos and wall-to-wall skiers outfitted in the latest fashions.

But Mt. Waterman is just another bend in the road. No large signs mar the natural setting. A parking lot in a turnout on the west side of the highway holds maybe 40 cars. Cars also park on the shoulder on the east side, where the entrance to a chairlift is located.

One of the oldest ski areas in Southern California--it began with a rope tow in 1939--Mt. Waterman has a small but devoted following. On a busy weekend, it accommodates about 1,400 skiers a day. This year, the dry winter prevented Mt. Waterman from opening until Saturday, March 2--the day after the first big snowstorm of the season--but even on short notice, about 600 skiers showed up to inaugurate the fresh powder.

After parking his car on the shoulder, the driver climbs into polyester overalls, lugs his skis up a slight incline to a small booth and pays $30 for an all-day lift ticket. Clicking on his skis, he hops on a chairlift, getting off after an 830-foot elevation gain and hitting the snow on the run. Quickly, he disappears over a rise, schussing like a madman.

With only three chairlifts and 25 trails, Mt. Waterman is small in comparison to highly developed areas such as Mammoth. But skiers swear that Mt. Waterman’s expert runs are equal to anybody’s.

“You’ll find just as good skiing here as in Mammoth,” Dawn Trask of Altadena said.

What’s missing besides hotels and sushi bars are crowded slopes--fewer than 200 ski on weekdays--and the hip crowd. Mt. Waterman is for no-frills, serious skiers. “There’s not the big fashion show here,” Trask said.

Trask is sitting in the Warming Hut, a comfy building with a big space heater, a blazing fire, a kitchen serving thick hamburgers and hot chili, and a row of picture windows that look over the mountains and into the Antelope Valley.

Trask has been skiing Mt. Waterman for three years, taking advantage of its proximity. “I could curse myself for not realizing it was here sooner than I did,” she said.

The Warming Hut stands on Mt. Waterman’s original ski base, less than halfway up the mountain and below the easiest runs. Unlike a lot of ski areas, Mt. Waterman’s beginner and intermediate runs are located above most of the expert runs. The runs parallel to the first chairlift are among the toughest on the mountain. Only the best skiers are advised to ski down to their cars. A sign at the top of a run by the Warming Hut reads:

For expert skiers. If you’re not an expert--and you don’t want to die--please ride the chair.

The expert runs are at the bottom of the mountain because Lynn Newcomb built them for himself. Newcomb, the 70-year-old owner of the facility, had the rope tow installed in 1939 so that he could ski, and he wanted to ski a difficult, challenging course. “I was a young, crazy guy who liked steep mountains,” Newcomb said.

As a hobby evolved into a career, however, Newcomb had to consider the needs of less skillful, more cautious skiers. “Beginners make up a basic part of the business,” he said, “but I had made no provisions for them. Who knew the business back then?”

Even today, Mt. Waterman is not beginner-friendly. “The problem here,” Newcomb said, “is that there are too many expert runs and not that many expert skiers. This is a skier’s--not a beginner’s--mountain.”

The runs might be tough, but the personnel are caring, according to skiers. “There’s a nice family-type atmosphere here,” Trask said.

With his daily presence, the silver-haired Newcomb is certainly the patriarch of the slopes. And he generally has nothing but high praise for his customers.

“We don’t have the druggers,” he said. “We don’t tolerate any monkey business. . . . We have a very special clientele. Most of ‘em have been coming here for years. By and large, they’re the nicest bunch of skiers.”