Storm Does a Real Snow Job on Mountains

We are finally digging ourselves out and the skiing is amazing. People came out of the woodwork this morning and everyone has been grinning from ear to ear. It is always great when we get storms that are measured in feet rather than inches.

Katja Dahl, Squaw Valley USA

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That sentiment is being echoed by resort representatives across the Sierra Nevada and throughout the West. The latest storm was the coldest and most severe of the season, providing a glistening blanket up to five feet thick in all but the Southern California mountains.

Said Carrie Roberts at Boreal on Donner Summit, “I was down in San Diego during the storm and when I came back it looked like a whole different world.”

At Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, an already white world was freshened considerably, putting early-week skiers and snowboarders shin-deep in powder atop a base of six to seven feet.

“It was the heavier base stuff early but by Monday morning it got really cold and the snow got really light and fluffy--it was the kind you could blow out of your hand,” said Joani Lynch, communications manager at Mammoth.

The storm was especially welcome at nearby June Mountain, which is gearing up for a Dec. 15 opening.

Locally, the storm was measured in inches rather than feet, with Mountain High in Wrightwood faring better than its Big Bear Lake-area rivals. Only a few inches of snow fell but it was extremely light by Southland standards and provided aesthetics that had been lacking beyond the trails covered with machine-blown snow.

“What a difference a day makes--the entire mountain is white,” said John McColly at Mountain High. West Resort will have about 20 runs available today, with a base of 18-24 inches. Next week, the focus will be on getting East Resort open, McColly said.

Moaned Brad Farmer at Big Bear Mountain, “We got skunked. The forecast was calling for up to a foot at one time, but we got an inch, maybe two at the top.”

On the bright side, cold temperatures have enabled full-scale snow-making efforts all week, and resorts with this capability are reporting good conditions and slowly opening more terrain.

Olympic Concerns

They no longer have to worry about getting enough snow for the Olympics, what with the preposterous amount that has fallen on Utah’s slopes recently. But safety crews are concerned about tourists, particularly Europeans, venturing beyond resort boundaries and putting themselves in avalanche danger.

“You can know your way around and be a savvy skier and all that, but you have to know the history of the terrain and what the snow has been doing to be safe in the back country,” said Dean Cardinale, assistant director for snow safety at Snowbird.

Utah, which boasts some of the best back-country skiing in the U.S., is expected to receive thousands of tourists before and during the Games, Feb. 8-24. The Europeans are of special concern because of their fondness for skiing beyond resort boundaries.

Those who favor this type of ski touring are strongly urged to call the U.S. Forest Service’s Avalanche Forecast Center beforehand, to ski in groups but never at close quarters, to carry shovels and locater beacons, and to heed warning symbols.

Said Cardinale, a member of Wasatch Backcountry Rescue, “We want to give the powder to the people, but to do it safely and not have any problems.”

Fishing and Fisheries

* Local saltwater: “What’s going on? Nothing,” said Don Ashley, owner of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach, with an answer that is pretty standard for this time of year. Passenger loads have been light and this week’s highlights include an unseasonal wide-open barracuda bite last Saturday at Huntington Flats and a fair run on the halibut in progress in Santa Monica Bay.

* Local freshwater: Best bets for the week: 1. Castaic Lake, where striped bass are feeding on stocked trout and attacking lures that resemble trout (bring a spinning rig spooled with 25-pound test). 2. Any of the local trout holes, especially Irvine Lake, Santa Ana River Lakes and Laguna Niguel Lake, where cool weather has the fish especially active at these heavily stocked pay-to-get-in facilities. Lake Casitas in Ventura is another hot spot.

* Morro Bay albacore: Stormy seas had been keeping the boats in but on Wednesday, 17 anglers aboard the Admiral, in what Virg’s Landing called T-shirt weather, boated 101 albacore in the 25-pound class.

* Cabo San Lucas: Striped marlin season is in full swing at the Golden Gate, Jaime Bank and old lighthouse, where skippers are reporting as many as seven hookups a day. Dorado remain plentiful in the area and a recent influx of wahoo has added more zip to the action.

* Funding the fight: The Sportfishing Assn. of California raised more than $26,000 during its recent Casino Night and will use the money to oppose a network of coastal and island no-take reserves being proposed by the Department of Fish and Game as part of its Draft Nearshore Fishery Management Plan.

“We’re going to use the money to try to educate members of the legislature and others about the negative impact marine reserves would have on recreational fisheries and on coastal communities,” SAC President Bob Fletcher said.

SAC, United Anglers of Southern California and the tackle industry have formed the California Sportfishing Coalition, a political action committee, to oppose a plan they consider to be an extreme and unproven approach to fishery management.

* More on reserves: The California Fish and Game Commission drew criticism from the sportfishing community during its meeting Thursday in Long Beach. Despite having announced long beforehand that it would not accept public comment on proposed reserves within the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, the commission had a change of heart and gave 45 minutes to both sides.

A large contingent of Santa Barbara-area environmentalists, arguing that the next two commission meetings--in Sacramento and San Diego--were too far away to allow for adequate representation, helped sway the commission into taking their comments, all in support of reserves as a means of allowing certain stocks of fish to rebuild.

Sportfishing interests, meanwhile, were not as well represented as they would like to have been.

“The whole thing was not well handled--we would have had four or five times as many [people] there,” Fletcher said.

American Sportfishing Assn. president Mike Nussman was on hand, to comment about the economic importance of sportfishing--notably that fishing-related expenditures in California total $2.5 billion annually.

Fletcher argued that large reserves are an unproven management tool and existing management, is allowing the recovery of several species of rockfish and bottom fish.

The commission will determine the fate of the proposed plan, with input from the Pacific Fishery Management Council. Alternatives within the plan include proposals for protection of 12-34% of the sanctuary, no change to the existing system, and an alternative to include the Channel Islands marine reserves within the MLPA’s process. Public testimony will resume Feb. 8 in Sacramento and March 7 in San Diego.

Surfing News

* Northern California: The waiting period for Quiksilver’s annual Men Who Ride Mountains event at Maverick’s off Half Moon Bay begins Saturday. The surfer to beat is Darryl “Flea” Virostko, the two-time and only winner of the big-wave classic. This year’s winner will receive, besides $30,000, the Jay Moriarty Trophy in honor of the beloved Maverick’s regular who died last June, two days before his 23rd birthday, after suffering shallow-water blackout while free-diving at the Maldives.

* Hawaii: Myles Padaca, 22, from Sunset Beach, won the Rip Curl Cup, the second leg of the Van’s Triple Crown of Surfing.... Australia’s Layne Beachley, 29, won her fourth consecutive women’s title Monday when her five rivals were eliminated before the final of the Billabong Pro Maui at Honolua Bay.... The $150,000 Xbox Gerry Lopez Pipeline Masters, with an 11-day surf window beginning today, is being televised by Channel 4 and will air Dec. 23 at noon. It’s the first time in nearly 20 years the event will be shown on network television. The Pipe Masters is the last leg of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. Defending champion is Rob Machado of Cardiff, Calif.