Rain May Only Be Temporary Setback

Just when it appeared that spring was about to take charge of California’s ski season, another major Pacific storm has blasted its way onshore and restored winter to its rightful place in the mountains.

So, put the suntan lotion and shorts away for a few more days, and keep those down-filled parkas handy.

There’s only one problem: While the High Sierra was receiving several feet of snow early this week, the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains were being drenched with rain.

As a result, all Southland ski areas were closed Tuesday. However, the forecast was for the freezing level to drop Tuesday night and today, meaning the rain would turn to snow--and the colder temperatures should also enable the resorts to resume making their own snow.

Snow Summit, Bear Mountain and Mountain High hope to reopen today; Snow Valley is aiming for a Thursday restart. Obviously, anyone planning a trip to Big Bear or Wrightwood should call ahead before loading up the ski rack.

In the Eastern Sierra, Mammoth Mountain had picked up 24 to 30 inches of new snow by Tuesday morning, and it was still coming down. Around Lake Tahoe, Heavenly reported an additional 18 to 22 inches, Kirkwood 18 to 28 inches, Squaw Valley six to 17 inches, and so on.

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Picabo Street and Hilary Lindh gave the U.S. ski team a couple of shining moments in the World Alpine Ski Championships at Sierra Nevada, Spain, Sunday by finishing first and third in the women’s downhill. Together with Street’s bronze from the super-giant slalom, that made three medals for the Americans.

Don’t expect any more.

Kyle Rasmussen’s 14th place in the downhill will probably end up being the best U.S. men’s showing, unless Matt Grosjean can get lucky and come closer to the top 10 in the slalom. The women’s technical squad is even weaker, if that’s possible.

Still to come on the schedule are the downhill half of the men’s combined today, the women’s giant slalom Thursday, the men’s giant slalom Friday, starring Italy’s Alberto Tomba; the women’s slalom Saturday, and the men’s slalom Sunday, with Tomba again in the spotlight.

Asked this week about his plans, Tomba, 29, said at a news conference: “I’ll tell you after [the World Cup finals March 4-10 in] Norway if I’ll keep skiing. Some people have asked me to leave the World Cup, but everyone expects me to ski. Two years ago, I had said I would stop. I don’t know now.”

Tomba was apparently referring to a proposed series of 10 to 15 races in Europe next winter that would offer up to $10 million in prize money. So far, there are no definite plans for this breakaway tour, mainly because of opposition by the International Ski Federation, which conducts the World Cup circuit, but many racers have expressed interest in signing up.

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Eric Bergoust of Missoula, Mont., is trying to fill the aerials void left by the absence of Americans Trace Worthington and Kris Feddersen in Freestyle World Cup competition. And he’s not doing a bad job of it.

After winning earlier this month at Kirchberg, Austria, with the highest score ever achieved, 247.51 points, Bergoust placed second behind Frenchman Sebastian Foucras last weekend at La Plagne, France. He’ll get his next chance to improve on his own record March 1-3 at Lillehammer, Norway.

Bergoust, 26, who missed most of last winter because of a back ailment, moved into the No. 1 spot on the U.S. aerials squad after Worthington took time off to recover psychologically from a couple of spills and Feddersen retired in midseason.

Skiing Notes

The third event of the Bud Light Pro Snowboard Tour, scheduled this weekend at Snow Summit, has been canceled because of the uncertain weather. . . . The finale of the Jeep King of the Mountain Ski Series will be held Saturday at Heavenly, where the U.S. team of Doug Lewis, Phil Mahre and Bill Johnson will try to overtake the first-place Austrian contingent of Leonhard Stock, Peter Wirnsberger and Franz Klammer in the season standings. . . . “Ski World” with Bob Beattie on ESPN will feature Bear Mountain on Thursday at 1:30 p.m., in a rerun, and journey to Jackson Hole, Wyo., next Tuesday at 10 p.m.