SKI COLUMN / CHRIS DUFRESNE : All This Snow Appears to Be Taking Its Toll

You asked for it, Lake Tahoe. After seven years of drought and resulting economic hardship, the skies have opened and buried your slopes and streets with a series of devastating (wonderful) storms.

You begged for it, Mammoth Lakes. You count the cones on Ruth’s pine tree each fall, hoping for a sign of a brutal (glorious) winter.

Snow is money.

But in the double-edged life of the skier and resort operator, the same white stuff that drives the deal and pays the bills can also shut down operations, close roads, and take lives.

Last week, as much as 10 feet of new snow smothered the Lake Tahoe area, adding to an already considerable base.

Mammoth Lakes received 150 inches of snowfall in December, the most in 25 years.

Is there such a thing as too much snow?

“Can you have too much money?” Pam Murphy, Mammoth’s director of marketing, fired back over the phone.

New snow is mother’s milk in the ski business, although Mother Nature is really pushing it in the Sierra, where resorts at Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes have already had enough snow to last a ski season.

Lost sometimes in the ecstasy of new snowfall are the inherent dangers that come with it. Two snowboarders were killed last week at a Tahoe resort. A man was buried by an avalanche near Mammoth Lakes.

On the unpredictable winter landscape, there is sometimes a fine line between a memorable skiing holiday and a disaster.

In a six-day period last week, Ski Homewood, a resort on Tahoe’s west shore, received 9 1/2 feet of snow, raising its depth for the season to 14 feet.

Ski Homewood and other Tahoe resorts were transformed into powder paradises.

“It’s what all the skiers have been waiting or,” Mike Wolterbeek, a Ski Homewood spokesman, said.

Snowboarders, too.

Last Wednesday, 15-year old Christopher Zider of San Mateo County took his snowboard on a ride through deep powder at Ski Homewood, apparently fell, and became submerged in the deep snow. His body was discovered later that day and he was pronounced dead later that night.

Last Saturday, on a different part of the same mountain, 22-year-old snowboarder Isaac Goodking of Santa Cruz became separated from his friends in deep powder and apparently fell.

His friends waited for him at the bottom of the mountain. When Goodking never arrived, an 11-man search team scoured the area where he was last seen. At 7 p.m., they discovered his body.

Both snowboarders were in deep-wooded areas on ungroomed snow, but well within the boundaries of the resort.

“We were really taken by surprise by the first one,” Wolterbeek said. “I wouldn’t in a million years think it would happen twice. It’s like lightning striking.”

After the snowboarders’ deaths, warning signs were posted all over the resort: “Deep Snow Conditions, Use Extreme Caution. Don’t Ski Alone.”

Of course, it was after the fact.

“Mountains are risky places to be in the first place,” Wolterbeek said. “People love to go powder skiing, but people have to be careful.”

Wolterbeek wanted to make it clear that the deaths did not occur because of snowboards. He said skiers in the same areas would have faced the same risks.

“It was a deep-snow accident,” he said.

It was a tough blow to Ski Homewood, in its second year of operation under new owner Steve Wyler. The resort had been in bankruptcy and was closed for a year before Wyler took over.

The resort was enjoying brisk business last week despite the severe storms that, for one day, closed all roads leading into and out of the Tahoe basin.

Wolterbeek said most of Ski Homewood’s customers were Christmas vacationers who were already at the resort when the storms struck.

Down the road at Mammoth, the wind blew so hard Dec. 29 that the resort could not open. The road north to Tahoe was also closed, although the southern route, the one that Southern Californians take to Mammoth, remained open throughout.

“We’re fortunate that the drive up is through desert until 45 minutes to town,” Murphy said.

Last Wednesday, a man and his nephew were swept up by an avalanche near Mammoth Lakes. The two had reportedly walked up the face of a bowl that has been proposed as a new ski area.

The nephew was rescued, but his uncle died.

Murphy said respect is the key word when negotiating severe weather conditions.

“Whether you’re on the ocean and there’s a storm, or in the desert and it’s raining, you have to have major respect for Mother Nature,” Murphy said. “There are ways to survive that stuff comfortably, but you need to be aware. It’s known to snowboarders, that if you go into deep powder, you should always go with a friend. And when you’re out walking around, you should never walk up a center of a bowl.”

Skiing Notes

Ski Green Valley, a small ski area near Running Springs, has announced plans to become the area’s first resort for snowboarders only. Eric Schwartz, the resort’s director of marketing, said Tuesday that he plans a six-eight week test run, starting Feb. 1. At that time, Ski Green Valley will be open to skiers on weekends and holidays and snowboarders only Monday through Friday.

If all goes well, the resort will become a seven-day-a-week snowboard resort exclusively starting next season under the new name, Big Air Green Valley. Schwartz said economics were a factor in the decision. Ski Green Valley is in a tough skiers’ market, having to compete against larger area resorts at Snow Valley, Bear Mountain and Snow Summit. “It’s an uphill battle, getting the skiers to come,” Schwartz said. “The numbers aren’t growing.”

Schwartz is gambling that snowboarding is more than a fad. He will offer snowboarders complete run of their own mountain, more than 50 acres of terrain, at a lower price. The price of a lift ticket will remain $24, the lowest of any Southland ski area. Details: (714) 585-7540.

Nancy Fiddler of Crowley Lake, Calif., needs two victories in cross-country this season to match Martha Rockwell as the winningest Nordic skier in U.S. history. Fiddler will compete this weekend in the $45,000 Subaru U.S. Cross-Country Championships at Black Mountain in Rumford, Me. Rockwell won 15 titles in her hall-of-fame career.

“If I catch Martha, that’d be nice,” Fiddler said. “But I don’t have any problem with her being the all-time record-holder. She was one of my idols when I got started.”

The event is the most important domestic competition of the year for more than 200 U.S. cross-country skiers, since it will determine qualifiers for the World Championships team that will compete in Falun, Sweden, in February. The event also serves as the U.S. championship meet for disabled skiers. The event will be shown on ESPN Feb. 14.

Freestyle skiing returns to Breckenridge Ski Area in Colorado Jan. 15-17 in the Alamo Freestyle Classic. The competition will feature Rick Emerson, the 1991-92 national freestyle mogul champion. Mogul competition became an official medal event in the 1992 Olympic Games at Albertville, France, where freestyle ballet and aerial events were demonstration sports. The aerial competition has been accorded medal status for the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.