Heat Wave Throws Skiers for Loop

There is one word that local ski and snowboard enthusiasts have been using a lot lately. But it’s not snowplow, halfpipe or even slalom.

Instead, it’s slush.

The calendar says we’re still mired in winter, but at local ski resorts, snowfall is down and temperatures are hovering near 60 degrees. What snow there is on the mountains, mostly man-made, has become, under a strong February sun, the slushy consistency of a Slurpee.

On Saturday, Gretchen Walters, 43, a waitress from Corona and season-pass ticket holder at Mountain High, took her 10-year-old daughter, Hannah, to the Wrightwood resort for a day of snowboarding. But by 11 a.m., she was considering calling it a day. “It’s like mashed potatoes out there,” she said.

Although much of the snow had frozen into ice the night before, the 2-foot base seemed to be disappearing fast in the heat of the midday sun.

In a few areas, snow had melted away altogether, leaving bald patches of dirt; in others, the man-made snow had been reduced to puddles of water more suitable for summer sports. For both veterans and those snowboarding or skiing for the first time, such conditions are less than ideal.

“You can’t get much control with the snow this way,” said Kent Kvammen, 74, of Newport Beach, a longtime skier. “If you ski too fast, you are likely to catch an edge and fall.”

B.J. Yabut, 26, a biochemist who lives in Pomona, had done just that. He had a fresh scrape across his right cheek--the result of an icy encounter with a Mountain High slope. “I hit a jump, landed and caught an edge,” said the snowboarder. “I went face first.”

For ski resorts, spring-like conditions at this time of year can be a mixed blessing. Warm weather often brings out skiers in droves. But high temperatures preclude snowmaking. And without snowmaking, there has been no new snow.

For effective snowmaking, temperatures must be near or below 32, with relatively low levels of humidity. Using electric or diesel power, the snow machines spray water into tiny particles, cool them and distribute the resulting snow onto a surface. But temperature is crucial.

“You have to have an at least four-hour window of the right temperatures to make it worth your while,” said Brad Farmer of Bear Mountain, a resort that can make its snow up to 24 hours a day using water from Big Bear Lake. But the resort has made little snow recently.

Still, said Farmer, 90% of the resort’s runs are open. But he worries that “when people don’t see snow on the hills, they often assume there’s no snow on the hills.”

Brad Wilson, assistant general manager of Mountain High, said attendance there has been down for much of the last week, in part because of the condition of the snow. But he said the number of people visiting the resort for the year is higher than usual. “It’s very cyclical,” he said. “We can go up and down with the temperatures, whether it’s January, February or March. But still, this weather is unusual for February.”

Katie Gelbart and Lauren Dunlop, both 13, from Rancho Santa Margarita, said they ski in Wrightwood almost every other weekend when conditions are prime, usually in late February and March. This time, said Katie, “it’s either slush or ice packed together.”

“And then it gets sunny, and it all melts again,” said Lauren.

Wilson of Mountain High said he’s not overly concerned about the current warm weather or the spring conditions. “We’ll be back to winter next week,” he predicted.

Besides, he added, “I kind of enjoy the weather. Every time is different. That’s what makes skiing different than bowling.”