SKIING / BOB LOCHNER : Sun Valley, With Revamped Look, Continues to Improve With Age

It has been nine years since Sun Valley’s 50th-anniversary celebration, and the grand old lady of American skiing has probably undergone more changes in that span than in the previous half-century.

She’d rather you wouldn’t call the procedure a face lift--maybe a chairlift would be more appropriate, or perhaps a quadruple bypass.

In fact, the operation has involved both: Replacing old, slow, double chairlifts with seven new, high-speed quad chairlifts that launch skiers along the 3,400 vertical feet up Bald Mountain in no more than 10 minutes. In all, old Baldy now has 13 chairlifts and four full-service day lodges, including relatively new ones on Seattle Ridge and at Warm Springs.

Other improvements made by oilman Earl Holding since he bought Sun Valley from Bill Janss in 1977 include the complete but sensitive renovation of historic Sun Valley Lodge and the installation of snow-making equipment.

There has been little need to make snow so far this winter. The season started shortly after hefty snowfalls in late November, and the top of Baldy now has a base of 90 inches. More than 200,000 skier-days had been logged through the end of January, an increase of 20% over a comparable period in 1993-94.

Changes are also evident at Warm Springs, in nearby Ketchum and throughout a 15-mile stretch of the Wood River Valley south to the Hailey airport, where new condominiums and million-dollar second homes are intermingled with older cabins and less expensive tracts housing the full-time “locals.”

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Skiing’s second-busiest holiday, the Presidents Day weekend, is almost here, and Mammoth Mountain, for one, is ready to play host to the anticipated throngs. A whopping 24 inches of fresh powder fell early this week, boosting snow depths there to 180 inches in places. Neighboring June Mountain reported an additional 15 inches for a total of 120 inches.

Lake Tahoe resorts are also in a powder and packed-powder mode, with 20 inches of new snow at Squaw Valley, 14 inches at Heavenly.

Southland ski areas expect near-record numbers, as well.

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Julie Parisien, slalom silver medalist in the 1993 World Alpine Championships while competing on the U.S. ski team, closed within 20 points of defending champion Camilla Lundback of Sweden in the Women’s Pro Ski Tour standings by winning the giant slalom last Friday at Mt. Snow, Vt.

Parisien defeated Frenchwoman Sarah Hemery, who in turn beat Austrian Birgit Hussauf in Saturday’s slalom.

The women will race at Squaw Valley this weekend, at Kirkwood the next.

Bernhard Knauss won the giant slalom and slalom last weekend at Vail, Colo., boosting his earnings on the U.S. Pro Ski Tour this winter to $99,712. He leads the men’s troupe with 422 points, 98 more than runner-up Sebastian Vitzthum, a fellow Austrian who won the title last season.

Skiing Notes

Alpine World Cup racing resumes for the women with a downhill and giant slalom Friday and Saturday at Are, Sweden, and for the men with a giant slalom and slalom Saturday and Sunday at Furano, Japan. . . . The World Freestyle Ski Championships continue through Sunday at La Clusaz, France. . . . Andreas Goldberger of Austria clinched his second World Cup jumping championship by winning the large-hill competition Sunday night in the Holmenkollen Ski Festival at Oslo. Goldberger, who was also the 1992-93 titlist, leads runner-up Janne Ahonen of Finland, 1,271 points to 502.