Resorts Begin the Recovery Process

California ski resorts are up and running again after some of the wildest weather in recent memory.

Some high-country roads still have problems, but the cleanup continues at a rapid pace after the heavy snow, rain and high winds that punctuated the holidays.

Squaw Valley, perhaps the hardest hit, has kept most of its lifts going while recovering from the flood that swept through the base area over New Year’s, and Chairman Alex Cushing said Tuesday: “We’ll be back in full operation by this weekend.”

Other Lake Tahoe ski areas also report the rain washed away only a small portion of the snowpack, and a subsequent storm has added 12 to 18 inches of powder, boosting total depths back into the five- to 12-foot range on most slopes.

Mammoth Mountain received rain at its 11,000-foot summit and was forced to close last Wednesday and Thursday because of the wind, but marketing director Pam Murphy said: “Everything is back to normal now. The sun is out, and we’ve got seven to 11 feet of packed powder.”

In the Southland, the Santa Ana winds are diminishing, and cold temperatures are enabling Bear Mountain, Snow Summit, Snow Valley and Mountain High to make snow around the clock, adding to the six inches dumped by Sunday’s storm.

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Damages at Squaw Valley will total about $2 million, according to Cushing, who founded the resort in 1950 and brought the Winter Olympics there 10 years later.

“The main problem was that the sewer system we installed two years ago from the top of the mountain broke during the flooding,” he said, “but we should have it fixed shortly, and after two days of testing it will be ready to go again. Also, the Gold Coast and High Camp restaurants should be open again by the weekend.

“Our last flood was back in 1955, and this was considerably worse. My wife and I were driven out of our house by two to three feet of water--the contents are ruined--when the creek overflowed last Wednesday night. We tried to take refuge in the lodge, but there was mud everywhere, and we finally wound up crawling in an upstairs window to spend the night on the third floor.”

Cushing said the flood will have no impact on plans by Intrawest Corp. of Canada to develop a 15-acre alpine village at the west end of the parking lot. “They are going through the yearlong permit process now,” he said, “and won’t be breaking ground until sometime in 1998.”

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Alpine Meadows, Squaw’s North Lake Tahoe neighbor, suffered minimal damage, according to marketing director Robert Olmer, who said flooding on the Truckee River along California 89 caused access problems. “But here at the ski area,” he said, “we just had a little mud in one of the generator areas, and that was cleaned up in a day.”

At Tahoe’s south end, access to Heavenly has been made somewhat more difficult by slides on U.S. 50, which remains closed indefinitely from Riverton to Strawberry.

The alternate route is California 88, causing Kirkwood marketing administrator Karen Ryan to point out: “Now everyone coming up from the south or west has to drive right by us on their way to Heavenly, and the snow here now--after the rain left--is terrific because of our high base elevation. Some skiers don’t go any farther.”

However, Heavenly spokeswoman Monica Bandows said: “The closure has hurt a little, but our reservations are still way up, and nearly 60% of our skiers fly into Reno, anyway.”

Of course, the most direct driving route to Heavenly from Southern California is up U.S. 395, but that means passing Mammoth Mountain on the way.

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Judging from figures provided by Mammoth’s Murphy, though, Dave McCoy’s resort is getting more than its share of snow enthusiasts.

“Through last weekend,” she said, “we’ve had more than 200,000 skier-visits since opening on Nov. 9. That’s about 40,000 more than at the same time last winter, when we had only one storm before Christmas.

“This year, after we got eight feet of snow on Dec. 21-22, the first week of the holidays saw us 30% above projections. But then we fell about 30% below in the second week, mainly because of being closed for two days.”