OCR Text |
Show Page 9 Once upon a time there were three little ski areas. One lived in the wild and wooly west where there was "always" plenty of snow from October into May. The second little ski area lived in the Rocky Mountains where deep powder "always" covered its slopes from at least Thanksgiving until un-til Easter, and throngs of vacationers deserted the West and the East to come visit it. The third little ski area was not uncommon to seebrown covered hills as late as January 10th and sometimes... oh, no.. .you could even ice skate on the snow. The first little area in the West was a very smug little ski area. It had been about 15 years since it was bypassed by enough snow not to warrant a Thanksgiving opening. And, it had hired all its employees and its full compliment of ski instructors. All the condominiums and lodges were sold out and, as always over the holidays, the first little ski resort expected to race to the bank on January 2 with about one-fourth of the season's gross in hand. The second little ski area was equally smug.. .but a. little bit smarter. They had installed in-stalled a very few little hoses on their beginner slopes just in case the snow didn't arrive in time for Thanksgiving... perhaps even Christmas, no matter how unlikely. The second little area was expecting a very important Christmas guest and perhaps worried about the newspaper photos showing this guest' skiing on grassy knolls. An understandable feeling. The third little area was very, very industrious in October and November and had worked around the clock.. .every day. It never glanced up at the sky to see if snow was falling... only at the thermometer ther-mometer to see if it was cold enough to begin manufacturing snow. It was a very determined little area. This particular winter found it very, very cold in the East... even in the cozy Berkshire Mountains Moun-tains where the little resort resides. By late October, the third little ski area had lots of cars pulling into its parking lot. Its lifts were running all over its mountain. Skiers (those wonderful folks who pay the bills) were plunking down dollars for lift tickets and skiing on, oh my goodness, man-made 'Snowvr.hee hee;..and LOTS of it. They were skiing from the top to the bottom and not noticing, nor caring, about how it got there. Every night, the" little ski area would turn on its many snow machines and blow magical white particles into the air, settling onto the slopes. Soon, there wasn't a bare spot anywhere except for the parking lot. The depth was close to two feet. And, nary a "proper" flake had fallen from the sky. In the West, where the first little ski area lived, Thanksgiving came and went. No snow. In the Rockies, where the second little ski area lived, Thanksgiving came and went, too. No snow. In the East, where the third little ski area LIlMTKiIrilTi uTT FTi fttftitinTlflril'i Li swith Craig' Altschul lived, Thanksgiving also came and went. No "real" snow. But, a daily record number of skiers came and went. A better gross intake of money than anytime in the resort's history was the result. The third little resort owner shook his head. "Woe is me," he said. "Won't my brother resorts in the West and the Rockies ever learn from mv past experiences? Oh, my, we are so stupid i our industry." Christmas, too, came and went in the Sierra, and the chairlift stations usually watching merrily as 40 minute liftlines developed, looked on in disbelief now as only an occasional squirrel sat down and laughed away as if it were an idle spring day. No skiers. No hordes of Los Angeles singles blithly spending money. No business at all. That very important guest really didn't have much to do back home in his little white house, so he decided to visit the second little ski area in the Rockies despite the conditions of the famous slopes. He and his family arrived to a scene they couldn't fathom. There had been snow dances, church prayers on Christmas Ever, and even newspaper editorials appealing to the better senses of Mother Nature. No snow... to speak of... anyhow. The second little resort's publicity department (usually the best in the business) was busy. "Even our poor conditions are better than skiers would normally find in the East," they said as if nothing were wrong. Sour grapes? "Oh, no." "The snow is excellent," said the famous visitor who then sat by the fire reading budgets. The snow was not really very excellent. The famous guest was just being nice. At the third little area, the owner was getting richer and richer by the day. There were so many cars the parking lots couldn't begin to hold them. They flowed out into Route 7. The phones in the lodges were ringing off the hooks with callers who had planned to visit the first and second little ski resorts and chucked those plans. They were told to twiddle their ski poles, because the loyal Eastern skiers came first... the ones who have skidded on ice all these years. We skied. On powdery slopes. With a quite sufficient suf-ficient base... sometimes even deep. All lifts were running over the whole mountain at the third little lit-tle resort and almost all its neighboring New England .resorts. Even with the big .crowds, liftlines lif-tlines were tolerable. Skiers laughed again. Smiled again. Were beguiled again. When they saw the happy Irish face of the red-headed manager in the base lodge or checking on his lifts, they shook his hand. They thanked him. A few even kissed him. He was "King" for the holidays. The first little ski resort sniffed. "It couldn't happen to me," it cried, as it tacked up the "closed" sign until sometime in the foreseeable future. Mother Nature huffed and she puffed and she blew... every thing but snow. The second little ski resort in the Rockies bravely opened its lifts, and the very important guest ana otners wno Dravea trie conditions dodged rocks and twigs and pretended to enjoy themselves. Mother huffed and she puffed and blew a little consolation snow at the second little area and it survived the plague of 1976-77. Not. probably uuiy uecuase id-o naa Deen sucn a nice year. The little Eastern area beamed. It had planned carefully and worked hard. It had been burned before. It had said, "We won't disappoint skiers because ot capricious weatner. we n invest ana borrow and scrape. But, come November, we .will be open with plenty of snow. And, we'll make it ourselves no matter what Mother Nature decides to do." And, when Mother eventually huffed and puffed puf-fed and blew some snow, it only made the third little area's base grow and its skiers happier. In fact, the real snow was even anticlimatic. The moral of this little fable is, the little ski resort in the West that is not so little, and, the little lit-tle resort in the Rockies that hosts very important impor-tant people and is perhaps the most famous resort in the world, had better heed a varning. It had better follow the lead of the little Eastern resort that planned ahead. Next October, Little Sierra and Rocky resortj why not be prepared to say, in no uncertain terms.. ter-ms.. ."Please, Mother. I'd rather do it myself." And, we will all ski happily ever after. Keep your SKI TIPS up. corjial 'Myites LjOj to otter. ne-rnan ho'" b4 )t qui? Peck Watered ors Pebrucrij 20, 1977 through March (Reception unJia, f ebrutfr 2 0- 1:00 p. M ners The Park High Miners finally registered a win Friday night with a lackluster 44-38 victory over the Utah School for the Deaf. Facing the traditionally weak USD squad, the local cagers seemed to suffer from overconfidence at the outset, quite a feat for a team that has lost its last six league games. But with wins coming as often as snow storms, each one should be savored. Perhaps a little awed by USD's 6'8" center Eddie Foster, the Miners managed to trail 16-10 with 6:10 remaining in the second quarter. Foster used his height effectively both on the boards and at the high post position where he acted as the hub of Eagles offense. Park City finally pulled even at the 4:55 mark when Brad Goff scored on a fast-break, fast-break, making it 16 all, and the Miners were never headed. Another fastbreak with Howard Davidson on the scoring end and a jumper by Goff against the Eagles' 2-3 zone defense put the Miners up by four. After a three-minute scoring drought, Foster muscled for a hoop but the half ended with Park City ahead 22-18. Bruce MacNaughton grabbed the second half tip and raced to the basket un Locals Place Well At Highlands Park City residents Rody Larson and Steve Rezendez placed fourth and fifth respectively in professional freestyle competition held last weekend at Aspen Highlands. The weekly competition consists of a continuous mogul, aerial, ballet run with only overall points awarded. NASTAR Skiers Vie For Awards Nastar skiers at Breckenridge, Copper ML, Crested Butte, Keystone, Steamboat and Vail. Co. are setting their goals not only on medals and handicap scores but on an arrary of special prizes as well. When recreational skiers enter Nastar at any of these Colorado resorts this winter, they are automatically signed up for the season-long Hanson. NASTAR centennial Series which offers a wealth of prizes to be awarded in March. At the conclusion of the Centennial Series, 24 skiers will qualify for prizes which include Hanson boots for the first place, a one-week lift ticket at one of the six participating par-ticipating areas for second and a Head tennis racket for the third-place finisher in each of four age groups -29 12, 1977 m. to 5:00 p. molested. In fact, it was so easy that MacNaughton hesitated for a second, thinking he might be at the wrong end of the court, and blew the layup. Large Eddie then tooK an offensive rebound and put it in, bringing the Eagles within two, but this was as close as USD would come for the remainder of the contest. A reverse layup by Davidson David-son on a feed from MacNaughton Mac-Naughton made it 24-20 and the Miners broke away on the strength of some quick-handed quick-handed defense. Park City had things pretty pret-ty much its own way in the final period and, leading 40-24, 40-24, coach Ron Stepan substituted sub-stituted a quintet of underclassmen under-classmen to finish the game. Foster led all scorers on the night with 20 points. High man for the Miners was center cen-ter Mike Alvey with 14 and Davidson contributed 10. J.V. ' The Mini Miner-- lsowere victorious, posting an almost identical 44-36 win. Jumping out to a 14-6 lead in the first quarter, the junior varsity found themselves them-selves ahead by only two at the end of the third period. However, a strong last stanza stan-za provided a comfortable margin of victory. Brian Yates topped the Park City scoring parade with 12 points. Larson, sponsored by Hart, Daleboot and Salomon, received $75 for his fourth place performance while Rezendez, sponsored by Hart, Spademan and" Daleboot, earned $50 for his fifth place finish. Larson said he would return next week with first place money. 30-39, 40-49, 50 and over, male and female. To be eligible for these prizes, a skier must compete in at least three NASTAR races by March 1, 1977. Participants Par-ticipants must be over 18 years old and cannot be classified as veteran class skiers or ski area employees. em-ployees. In case of tie. the skier who has competed in the greater number of NASTAR events will be declared the winner. There are some early-season leaders in line to win the awards. The list of potential winners will be updated periodically until the final winners are declared in March. The Wylia Band will i . r"; j Mf I j,Sl . 0,1 ' S t V&$M U J t & CD I I iuay, muay ana oaiuraay nignis. fi ii i wm ii 1 1 1 1 1 n Back-Country Back-Country Skiing r. J I f By Bob Bailey Utah Powder Guides Wow, can you believe it; this is really Utah and this is really February 16th and there is really only 24 inches of snow on the ground. It doesn't seem possible, does it? What's the cause of this abnormally dry winter? The culprit is the Pacific high. In normal (if there is such a thing anymore) winters this high pressure system wanders wan-ders up and down th West coast bringing periods of fair then stormy weather. For the past two winters it has hung steady off the California coast. This winter it is centered 200 miles northwest nor-thwest of San Francisco. It has the same effect as a giant wall along the West Coast causing storms to push far north of us and then drop back into the Eastern U.S. The high has moved only once on-ce this season. That was just before New Year's and we all know what happened then. That one storm is responsible for most of the snow we have on the ground now. All we can do is hope the wall will move again. Remember, this is still February and the weather can change dramatically in NASTAR racing got off to a slow start in the Rockies but now a number of resorts are showing quickly-increasing quickly-increasing numbers of participants. par-ticipants. Despite below-normal below-normal snow cover. Vail leads the nation in total NASTAR participation through mid-January with Subscribe ! be appearing at the Silver . . . a very short amount of time. It is interesting to note the changes that have occurred in the snowpack during the past week. The warm temperatures tem-peratures have consolidated the snowpack and reduced the temperature gradient within it. This means avalanche conditions are somewhat safer than they have been. Some very good skiing can now be found in areas that are grass covered and not super steep. If you do decide to go out after a few turns take a friend or two with you. You should also bring along a pack with a collapsible shovel and some basic first aid equipment. Ski one at a time and don't stop until you have reached a safe point. Make sure the person below you is in a safe position before you push off. With the lack of snow, it's , nice to see the job the resort is doing to make skiing as good as possible. The snowmaking system on Payday has made the skiing at Park City the best in the state. So come on Mother Nature, if the resort can do : it, so can you! 1,325 entrants. The Hanson NASTAR Cen-tennial Cen-tennial Series is on of several special ski industry-1 supported NASTAR events this winter. Also involved in developing awards programs are the Head Ski Co.. Sport Obermever and the K2 Corp. King Club this Thur- j n 1 1 n ii ii |