SKIING : Heuga’s Express at Big Bear

Big ski doings are on tap for Big Bear this weekend, but the benefits should be felt throughout a wider area for months to come.

Snow Summit will play host to Jimmie Heuga’s Mazda Ski Express, in which skiers raise money to help individuals with multiple sclerosis, while neighboring Bear Mountain will be the site of the ninth annual Steve Kanaly Invitational Celebrity races, with proceeds going to the March of Dimes’ “Campaign for Healthier Babies.”

Heuga, slalom bronze medalist in the 1964 Winter Olympics who has been fighting MS for more than 20 years, founded the Jimmie Heuga Center at Avon, Colo., where people with the disease may enroll in an intensive five-day program of counseling by doctors and specialists in neurology and exercise physiology.

The main action at Snow Summit will be Sunday, when co-ed teams of three skiers each, who have obtained contributions of at least $1,000 a team, ski a four-hour marathon, then race in a dual giant slalom. The top team, based on points awarded for dollars raised, runs made and total time, will earn a trip to Vail-Beaver Creek, Colo., where it will compete against the champions from 32 other sites in the national finals April 8-12.

Last year, the Ski Express produced more than $1 million in contributions, according to its spokeswoman, Tamara McKinney, 1983 World Cup overall champion and combined gold medalist in the 1989 World Alpine Ski Championships.

At Bear Mountain, skiers donating $250 each can become part of a seven-member team, headed by a television or movie celebrity, and participate in the weekend program, which includes a professional race clinic, a giant slalom and a mountainside barbecue. A party Saturday night at 7, at the Big Bear Convention Center, requires a separate $25 admission ticket.

Alpine World Cup racing comes to North America for the next two weekends.

Saturday and Sunday, the women will compete in a downhill and super-G at Vail, Colo., and the men will follow a similar schedule at Panorama, Canada.

On March 14-15, the women will switch to the British Columbia resort, while the men will race at Aspen, Colo., again going in a downhill and super-G at each location. Then it’s back to Europe for the finals March 17-22 at Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Petra Kronberger of Austria, with 942 points, holds a 40-point lead over Vreni Schneider of Switzerland in the women’s overall standings and, barring injury, should win her third consecutive title. Kronberger is proficient in both the downhill and the super-G, but Schneider has only one more chance to display her technical ability, in a giant slalom on the final weekend.

Italy’s Alberto Tomba also faces an uphill struggle to overtake Paul Accola of Switzerland, who leads the men’s standings with 1,470 points. Tomba, who has 1,162, must enter and out-finish Accola in at least one super-G--an unlikely occurrence--then shoot for a sweep of the slalom and giant slalom at Crans-Montana.

Rob Parisien, who placed 20th in the Olympic giant slalom at Val d’Isere, France, has left the U.S. ski team and will join the U.S. Pro Ski Tour for this weekend’s event at Loon Mountain, N.H.

Parisien, who turns 22 on March 19, is an older brother of Julie Parisien, winner of the World Cup slalom Monday at Sundsvall, Sweden.

“It was time for me to make a change,” said Parisien, of Auburn, Me. “The U.S. Pro Ski Tour operates on a different schedule than the World Cup and is better suited for what I want to do. I can call the shots now.”

With five pro events remaining, Bernhard Knauss of Austria, who has won 42 races in less than four seasons on the tour, has amassed 635 points for a commanding 165-point lead over Ove Nygren of Norway. Knauss has earned $154,616 to Nygren’s $70,970.

Skiing Notes

The California Winter Special Olympics are expected to attract more than 300 athletes to Northstar-at-Tahoe Monday through next Thursday. . . . North Lake Tahoe’s annual Snowfest concludes with various festivities this weekend. . . . The 12th annual Alpine Meadows Corporate Ski Challenge begins a week-long run Saturday.

The Race to Beat Cancer, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, will be held Saturday on Mammoth Mountain’s Lower Fascination run, with a $100 entry fee that includes an all-day lift ticket, an awards ceremony, prize giveaways and refreshments. . . . Mammoth will also play host to the Jeep Challenge Series this weekend.