SKIING / CHRIS DUFRESNE : Talk About Extreme, Local Resorts Have It

People who enter the ski business should have their bindings adjusted.

Is there a more torturous, unpredictable, weather-dependent profession?

Local operators suffered through years of drought waiting for a winter like this, only to spend much of January cursing when too much of a good thing turned into a bad thing.

Despite a six-foot snow base, Mt. Baldy was forced to close for eight consecutive days in mid-month when a warm, tropical storm turned the snow to mush and made the road to Baldy inaccessible.

When a ski resort closes for eight days in January, you almost want to send flowers.

The unexpected rain washed down the mountain a precious commodity.

“Cash,” said John Koulouris, a Mt. Baldy spokesman. “Operating cash. It just hurts. It slows everything down. The runoff is what killed us, on the roads. That’s the main reason why we closed. The snow level was going down and up, from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. It even went up to 10,000.”

The ski operator tries to rationalize his fortune. Koulouris convinced himself that the storms were so severe they probably would have kept people at home anyway, rain or snow.

Fortunately, the tail end of last week’s storms turned cold again and dropped about three feet of snow at Mt. Baldy.

With clear skies this week, conditions are reportedly excellent again.

The Big Bear resorts also were hit hard by the last series of storms.

Because of the severe weather, Bear Mountain reported that it did one-third of the business it was expected to do in that period.

“The business is very volatile,” Anne Horton, a spokeswoman for Bear Mountain, conceded.

Horton figures the resort lost a lot of one-day January skiers who are not likely to return next month.

The snow levels also teased the resort no end. Some days, the level fluctuated from 7,000 to 8,000 feet. Bear Mountain is 7,140 at the base and 8,805 at the peak.

During the worst of it, several skiers arrived in the morning but then turned around and went home because it was raining at the base of the mountain.

In fact, it was actually snowing on most runs on the mountain.

Try explaining that to skiers while you’re holding an umbrella.

“What skiers need to understand is that Alpine skiing is an outdoor sport,” Horton said. “Once you’re on the mountain, you can expect any kind of weather. But we market it as a sunny, outdoors sport.”

Bear Mountain is back up to speed this week after receiving two feet of snow last week.

So, wouldn’t you know it, the local resorts now have to compete with the Super Bowl Weekend.

It isn’t a battle ski resorts expect to win.

Horton said the demographic profile of an average skier, a male between the ages of 18 to 34, just so happens to fit the description of the average football fan.

Bear Mountain is trying to lure skiers to the mountain for a day of skiing and football. Horton reminds that the game doesn’t start until about 3:15 p.m.

There are two TV sets in the resort’s bar, if anyone is interested.

Alberto Tomba update: In this week’s episode, the wacky but temperamental Italian slalom star whacks a ski resort employee in the back with his ski poles, apparently because the man opened the gondola doors too slowly for our man Tomba.

He was riding up the car to survey the slalom course in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, before a World Cup race there.

Tomba later shattered a window when he drop-kicked a desk in the cable car station.

Race organizers demanded an apology from Tomba within 24 hours, but the deadline passed without comment from the Olympic gold medalist.

Two years ago, Tomba had a run-in at Lake Louise, Canada, when he reportedly pushed a woman to make his way to the front of the lift line.

Translation: Me Tomba. Me big star. Me need to get to start gate.

Me push lady.

Tomba sorry.

Question: Is John McEnroe advising this guy?

Olympic gold medalist Donna Weinbrecht is on the comeback trail after undergoing season-ending knee surgery. Weinbrecht, who won a gold medal in freestyle moguls at Albertville last February, suffered a knee injury during a training run on Nov. 17.

The anterior cruciate ligament had to be reconstructed, but the injury wasn’t as severe as first feared.

Dr. Richard Steadman, the U.S. Ski Team surgeon, removed bone chips at the upper end of her tibia and was able to shave cartilage from the knee instead of removing it.

Weinbrecht, 27, a five-time national moguls champions, reports that her rehabilitation is going well and that she expects to be on her skis this summer. She also has every hope of returning for the 1994 Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway.

“I actually think this is a blessing in disguise,” she recently told the Associated Press. “I believe this is where I’m supposed to be right now. I believe I’ll become stronger from it, that I’ll be able to do everything I’ve done before. I feel like there’s no stopping this uphill climb. I don’t want to finish my career like this.

“I’m focused again on the Olympics in ’94. I want to repeat, and I think there will be less pressure on me because of my injury. Then I’ll probably ease out of the sport.”

Skiing Notes

Bear Mountain in Big Bear has begun a bungee-jump operation on the east end of its parking lot. The resort was recently granted a permit by the city after being approached by a bungee-jump company. An elevator takes you up to a 130-foot drop. Spectators have a great view from the nearby chalet. The cost per jump is $69, or $49 with purchase of a lift ticket. Jumps can be made daily, weather permitting.

After failing to finish a slalom in December, American Matt Grosjean is showing signs of life. He finished in the top 25 in his last three races. Sunday, he placed 19th at Veysonnaz, Switzerland, giving him a three-week World Cup run of finishes in 19th, 14th and 19th place.

Olympic downhill silver medalist Hilary Lindh suffered ruptured ligaments in her right knee in a fall during a World Cup downhill race last Friday at Haus, Austria. Lindh will undergo surgery Friday and will miss the World Alpine Championships, which begin Feb. 3 in Morioka-Shizukuishi, Japan. Lindh is reported in good spirits and has little recollection of the crash. She is probably out for the season. A week before the crash, Lindh had her best outing of the World Cup season, a fifth place at Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. . . . Dianne Roffe-Steinrotter slightly injured her shoulder in the slalom last weekend at Haus but is expected to compete in Japan.