Local Mountains Dressed for Winter

You don’t have to drive to the mountains to see the effect of last week’s storms on the local slopes. You merely have to look east to the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains.

Snowy peaks are visible for the first time this fall.

“We call that our billboard,” said John McColly, a spokesman for Mountain High in Wrightwood. “People see that and they come up.”

If people go to Mountain High, they will see more than snowy peaks. The Wrightwood area was one of the hardest hit, enabling Mountain High West to open 100% of its terrain. Mountain High East, formerly Holiday Hill, will open today with about 75% availability, served by the high-speed quad-chair, Mountain High Express.

“At one point, we were receiving three inches of snow an hour,” said Brad Wilson, marketing director for the ski area.

In all, the storm dropped 12 inches at the base and 20 inches on the upper slopes. A little rain fell Sunday, but all that did was pack down the snow a bit, which is OK with Wilson.

“You don’t want Utah-type powder this early in the season,” he said. “What you want is a nice steady snow moist enough to pack down nicely on the slopes. We got that and now we have a terrific base that will get us through the season.”

In all, Mountain High will have 25-30 trails open on a base of 20-36 inches.

Mountain High wasn’t the only Wrightwood beneficiary of last week’s snowfall. Nearby Ski Sunrise, a smaller area with limited snow-making capabilities, received 15 inches of natural snow and opened Sunday with three lifts--a poma, a rope tow and a quad-chair--available to skiers this weekend, giving access to beginner and intermediate terrain.

Also opening Sunday was Mount Baldy, which claims to have received nearly three feet of snow at its higher slopes, which top out at 8,600 feet.

All four of Baldy’s main lifts, serving more than 20 runs, are open.

“It’s nice to open this early,” said Mindy Olson, office manager for the ski area. “But we’re not very busy yet. People are too busy thinking about Christmas. But when Christmas comes and all those people have all that new equipment they want to break in, that’s when we’ll get busy.”

Ski areas throughout the Big Bear area have been busy since Thanksgiving. While they didn’t get as much snow as Wrightwood, there was enough to expand their operations, and frigid temperatures have enabled the snow makers to blow most of the week.

Bear Mountain, Snow Summit and Snow Valley all report packed-powder base averages of 20-35 inches.

Anyone planning a trip to any of the local ski areas this weekend might want to call in advance, though, as Santa Ana winds could restrict operations some.

And if the local picture is a pretty one, it’s even better up north.

Mammoth Mountain reports a base of four to six feet, with 65% of its terrain open. And Lake Tahoe-area resorts are faring as well or better, some operating at close to 100%.

COME HOME IN ONE PIECE

Jim Wilkins of Wrightwood, a captain with the San Bernardino County Fire Department, has seen the darker side of many a white winter. He said the most severe accidents this holiday season will occur not on the ski runs, but on the slippery roads leading to the slopes.

“Even if you’re in a truck and have four-wheel drive, when you see the chains-required sign use the chains,” he says. “And when you pull over to put them on, make sure you pull completely over. A lot of people don’t know it, but we’ve had a lot of folks up here lose their legs in recent years, including one of our [sheriff’s deputies] who was trying to help someone else, because they did not pull completely over and he was crushed between the two bumpers.”

NOTEWORTHY

Fifty inner-city youngsters are being treated to a ski trip at Snow Summit on Saturday as part of a cooperative effort by Dolomite, Freeze magazine and the National Brotherhood of Skiers, “in the hopes of introducing them to a world they have never experienced before.”