SKIING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : No Kidding, Free Lessons Are Available

The skier who collapsed in a tangled heap at the feet of the great Billy Kidd had not, to that point, so much as wobbled on his skis all day.

Someone pushed me.

Honest.

“I only have one rule,” Kidd reminded a group of skiers Monday on an unnerving stretch of terrain known as Heavenly Daze. “I don’t want you to run into anybody . . . especially me.”

Welcome to ski school.

For 20 years now, snow or shine, at 1 p.m., Kidd lowers the brim of his trademark Stetson and leads a caravan down the resort mountain that has almost become synonymous with his name.

Kidd leads and others follow.

Kidd leads big people, short people, tall people, clumsy people.

Monday, he set the pace for Gloria, a 65-year-old grandmother who had to tape her ski pole to her left hand because of partial paralysis caused by a tumor at the base of her neck.

Within the hour, grandma was hot on Kidd’s heels as they traversed a slalom course designed for junior racers.

Once, in a blizzard, only two skiers showed up for the school.

So, he conducted a semi-private lesson.

Once, during peak season, 440 skiers waited for Kidd at 1 o’clock.

“I knew I couldn’t fall down with that many people coming down behind me,” he said.

You can take a private lesson at Steamboat Springs for $55 an hour.

Or, you can show up at 1 on most days and ski with Billy Kidd, the legend.

Free.

To Kidd, leading a party down the mountain is not unlike showing you around his house. He can, in fact, ski to his front porch.

Tough life, huh?

He came to Steamboat Springs in 1970 as America’s hot-shot skier.

He fell in love with Steamboat and stayed.

He might have been more famous had ankle and back injuries not curtailed his career. Or, had there never lived a contemporary named Jean-Claude Killy.

But Kidd was famous enough. He was the first American male to win an Olympic medal in skiing, claiming the silver in slalom at Innsbruck. He was also a two-time world champion.

His business card says that he is director of skiing at Steamboat Springs.

“It’s basically a fancy title for hanging around,” he said.

He discovered Steamboat Springs, in the northwest part of the state, while attending the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Most assume Kidd was another in a long line of skiing natives who grew up in Steamboat, which has produced 30 Olympic skiers, more than any other mountain in the country, perhaps the world.

“I don’t know that there is a skiing town in Austria that has produced as many Olympians,” Kidd said. “I don’t know that there’s one in Norway.”

The man credited for making Steamboat a skiing Mecca is the late Carl Howelsen, a Norwegian immigrant who introduced recreational skiing to the area in 1912.

Kidd, who is a kid no more at 49, is proud to carry on the tradition. He grew up in Stowe, Vt., another skiing hotbed, but ultimately his name belonged to the West.

Kidd started donning his now-famous feather bedecked Stetson because in Steamboat, a ranching town for more than a century, it’s almost the law.

“With a name like Billy Kidd, you almost have to wear a cowboy hat,” he said.

Billy Kidd. Someone’s bright idea at the William Morris Agency, right?

Nope. He is, in fact, a descendant of Capt. William Kidd, a sailor who turned pirate and was hanged by the English in 1699.

Those expecting Kidd to live up to his notorious name are disappointed.

This Kidd is soft-spoken and unaffected.

This Kidd is a vegetarian.

This Kidd never considered charging skiers when he started giving public lessons in 1973. When Kidd was growing up in Stowe, some of the best ski racers in the world let him tag along on runs. He remembers what it meant to him.

So, Kidd returns the favor.

“If I’m here, I’ll go skiing with your group,” he said. “It keeps me in touch with the people.”

There is no denying the rush that comes with skiing in Kidd’s wake, although the separation factor is probably comparable to chasing A.J. Foyt around Indy in a Hyundai.

Lecturing above a mountain face with Monday’s group, Kidd illuminates a lesson on the finer points of slalom skiing with remembrances of his past.

“I lost the gold medal in 1964 by .13 of a second,” he says. “That’s the blink of an eye.”

It was Austria’s Pepi Steigler who nipped the Kidd that day at Innsbruck.

No sense holding a grudge against a clock.

“It’s not like having a judge, where you know you did well but the judge didn’t like it,” he said. “I had my chance and did my best. I wasn’t quite as good as the other guy. I can live with that.”

And life didn’t turn out so bad.

“It’s absolutely ideal,” he said. “I have been so lucky.”

So are those who show up at 1.

Skiing Notes

Monday’s storm has made for great skiing in the Southland mountains. Here’s a brief recap: In Big Bear, Snow Summit reports up to 2 1/2 feet of fresh snow. Conditions are mostly packed powder and fresh powder. All trails are open. Reservations are not necessary.

Bear Mountain reports nearly two feet of new snow, making for some of the best early-season skiing in history. It reports soft powder and packed powder with a base of nearly four feet. Snow Valley reports up to three feet of fresh snow on a 2 1/2- to four-foot base of powder and groomed soft-packed powder. Snow Valley had six lifts operating Tuesday on 12 trails.

Mountain High reports a base of two to four feet with packed powder and fresh powder. Mountain High West is open to the top with trails for all levels available. The resort suffered some power problems Tuesday, so call ahead to see if night skiing is available, (714) 972-9242. Mountain High East will open Friday.

Mt. Baldy received two to three feet of fresh snow. Chairs 1, 2, and 3 are open and Chair 4 might open today. Baldy reports that 75% of the mountain is open. . . . The storm caught Mt. Waterman by surprise. It hopes to be open today. Call ahead to make sure, (818) 790-2002. . . . In the Sierra, Mammoth reports four feet of new snow with a two- to four-foot base.

World Cup leftovers from Steamboat Springs. . . . American Julie Parisien doesn’t have time to mope about her disappointing weekend in last weekend’s World Cup stop, at which she failed to finish in both giant slalom and slalom races. This week, Parisien is off to Vail to compete in a super giant slalom and downhill. Because of changes in the scoring system, Parisien needs to compete in these two new disciplines to have any chance of winning the World Cup overall championship.