SKIING : Ex-Champion Joins Pros for Snow Summit Meeting
Edvin Halsnes, who dominated pro ski racing along with his older brother, Jarle, in the mid-1980s, will come out of retirement this weekend to compete in the $50,000 Seagram’s 7 Winterfest at Snow Summit. Jarle will also rejoin the U.S. Pro Tour, but not until the next event, at Winter Park, Colo., Feb. 2-4.
The Norwegians said they hope to reach their peak by the start of the three-meet Million Dollar Plymouth Super Series in early March.
“I will be happy if I qualify for now,” Edvin Halsnes, 29, said Wednesday. “But I should be back in the groove by March.”
He injured his back in a fall at Heavenly Valley last winter and left the tour, but said he has completely recovered from the accident.
Jarle Halsnes, 32, retired after finishing fifth on the tour in 1988, but apparently the recent pro success of Phil and Steve Mahre, who are only six days younger, convinced him he wasn’t over the hill.
Jarle and Edvin, who have been living in Steamboat Springs, Colo., were 1-2 overall in 1987 and ‘85, and reversed that order in ’86. They each won titles in 1984, when the tour was split--Jarle taking the East and Edvin the West.
Phil Mahre will attempt to improve his fifth-place position in the current U.S. Pro Tour standings during the two races at the Big Bear Lake resort.
After losing to Austrian Bernard Knauss in the final of Sunday’s slalom at Mt. Bachelor, Ore., Mahre has 161 points and $16,225 in earnings. Ahead of him are defending champion Jorgen Sundqvist of Sweden, with 236 points and $19,750; Tomaz Cerkovnik of Yugoslavia, with 210 and $19,800; Knauss, with 200 and $25,875, and Torjus Berge of Norway, the winner of Saturday’s giant slalom, with 194 and $16,175.
Mahre, who was second overall last season, didn’t help himself when he fell and went out in the first round Saturday. His twin brother, Steve, underwent knee surgery earlier this month and did not race at Mt. Bachelor.
The competition at Snow Summit will start at about 11 a.m. both Saturday and Sunday, after qualifying on Friday.
One pro racer who is happy merely to be around this weekend is Hansi Standteiner, who was aboard the Sky West airliner that crashed into a Nevada mountainside on Jan. 15.
Although all 16 people aboard the flight from Salt Lake City to Elko, Nev., survived, several had broken backs and legs. Standteiner, 29, of Squaw Valley, said he suffered minor injuries to his back, face and hands, but he raced at Mt. Bachelor, losing in the first round each day.
“My first run, I was out of it,” Standteiner told Terry Richard of the Portland Oregonian. “But it got better every run as I concentrated on racing. I’m still pretty sore.”
After the crash, he flew back to Salt Lake City, then took a flight to Reno. While in the air, Standteiner said, “We had a couple of beers and talked a lot to keep our minds off it.
“The next day, and even now, sometimes I would laugh hysterically, or else cry. . . . An experience like this makes you appreciate certain things a lot more.”
Ski areas in the Southland and the High Sierra are in virtually full operation as a result of last week’s storms.
Snow depths are as high as 48 inches in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains. At Mammoth Mountain, the base ranges between 60 and 72 inches, with mostly packed powder on the surface, and conditions are similar clear up to Lake Tahoe.
Skiing Notes
Persistent spotty snow conditions in the Alps have forced another drastic revision of the World Cup schedule this weekend. The men, who were to have competed in the classic Lauberhorn event at Wengen, Switzerland, will instead be at Val d’Isere, France, where downhills are set for Friday and Saturday, followed by a super-G Sunday. The women, who were supposed to have raced in West Germany, will be at Bormio, Italy, for a downhill Friday, a super-G Saturday and a giant slalom Sunday.
Three-time overall champion Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland leads the men’s standings with 212 points, followed by Ole-Christian Furuseth of Norway with 180 and Armin Bittner of West Germany with 144. . . . Defending champion Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg is slow in recovering from his hip injury and may not race again this season.
Defending champion Vreni Schneider of Switzerland has moved into fourth place in the women’s standings with 141 points, within striking distance of the top three--Anita Wachter of Austria, with 208; Petra Kronberger of Austria, with 190, and Michaela Gerg of West Germany, with 166. . . . Edith Thys of Squaw Valley, the No. 1 U.S. super-G racer, is out for the season after undergoing surgery for a torn ligament Monday. Thys was injured when she fell in the downhill on Jan. 13 at Haus, Austria. . . . Catharina Glasser-Bjerner of Sweden won the slalom and the giant slalom last weekend at Stowe, Vt., and leads the Women’s Pro Ski circuit after four races. The seven-event schedule includes a stop at Sierra Summit March 9-11. . . . World Cup freestyle action resumes at Calgary, Canada, this weekend.
Three “skiing legends”--Pete Seibert, founder of Vail, Colo.; Bill Marolt, former U.S. Alpine director and current director of athletics at the University of Colorado, and Linda Meyers, former U.S. racer--will be among those honored at the eighth annual Governor’s Cup and Pioneers of Skiing Invitational this weekend at Telluride, Colo. The Smirnoff Video Tour, which offers skiers an opportunity to watch themselves on videotape, will be at Snow Valley today through Sunday. . . . The first of three races in the Ski Classic, a series open to all corporate teams, will be held Friday through Sunday at Bear Mountain. The other regional dates are Feb. 23-25 at Snow Summit and March 23-25 at Mammoth Mountain. The national finals are set for April 6-8 at Snowmass/Aspen, Colo.
The fifth annual International Firefighters Winter Games will begin a six-day run Sunday at Heavenly Valley. . . . Jeep/Eagle Ski Challenge recreational races are scheduled Saturday at Tahoe Donner and Sunday at Sugar Bowl. . . . Squaw Valley will play host to a World Cup Snowboarding Tour meet Friday through Sunday. . . . The new ATOMA Cross-Country Ski Area, a forerunner of Alpine Meadows’ proposed Galena resort, has opened between Reno and North Lake Tahoe, just across Nevada 431 from Mt. Rose. . . . Alpine skiing returned to Yosemite last week as Badger Pass began its season. . . . Brian Head, in Southern Utah, finally opened its entire mountain on Saturday with a base of more than three feet. . . . ESPN will show taped highlights of Sunday’s World Cup men’s slalom at Kitzbuhel, Austria, Friday at 5 p.m., PST, following “Subaru Ski World With Bob Beattie” at 4:30. . . . On Sunday, ESPN will go head to head in a ratings war with a pro football game in New Orleans, offering taped highlights of the Jan. 13 U.S. Pro Tour giant slalom at Telluride, Colo., at 2 p.m., PST.
