Ski Areas Get Their Wish

If there were any doubts about the return of an El Nino winter, they were whitewashed this week.

“Here we go again,” Nicole Belt, spokeswoman for Sierra-at-Tahoe, said Thursday morning as the ski area’s staff was bracing for Round 2 of a season that may go 15.

From Dec. 13 through Tuesday, the Lake Tahoe-area resorts received five to 10 feet of powder. Another storm was expected Thursday night and yet another was spiraling shoreward from the Pacific.

“Christmas certainly came early to Lake Tahoe!” exclaimed John Wagnon, vice president of marketing at Heavenly Ski Area.

It came early elsewhere as well. After slamming through the Tahoe region, the storm almost buried the Mammoth Lakes area. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, at one point Monday, was getting three inches of powder per hour and was left with a blanket up to six feet thick on the higher slopes.

So fast and furious was the swirling wind-driven storm that the California Highway Patrol temporarily closed the 40-mile stretch of U.S. 395 between Bishop and Mammoth.

“We had a lot of accidents, but fortunately none of them were very serious,” Officer Brian Donnelly said.

With more wild weather expected this weekend and beyond, Donnelly said skiers and snowboarders en route for the holidays should “bring chains and have enough supplies in your car in case you get stuck at a closure or in the snow itself.”

Anyone getting stuck should also make sure the exhaust pipe is clear to lessen the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

As for conditions on the mountain, resort spokeswoman Kellie Hines said Mammoth would be operating at 100% beginning today, with a base depth of seven-plus feet.

Nearby June Mountain opened Tuesday and all but the lower black-diamond runs will be open.

Locally, storm totals have been measured in inches rather than feet but that could change this weekend. Resort operators are braced for a white period leading up to Christmas.

“We’re looking to receive a foot to a foot and a half,” said John McColly, spokesman for Mountain High in Wrightwood. Mountain High’s East Resort opens today, giving skiers and snowboarders two mountains for the price of one, but with only 13 open trails covered with a one- to two-foot base of mostly machine-groomed packed powder.

In the Big Bear Lakes area, Snow Summit and Big Bear Mountain, which are now operating under the same ownership, are reporting similar conditions and expect being 100% operational by Christmas Day.

Snow Valley has two trails open but expects to expand operations soon.

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No boys allowed: A “Girls Learn To Ride” snowboarding clinic will be held Saturday at Mountain High. It’s open to girls and women ages 12 and up and includes a two-hour lesson, a full-day lift ticket and equipment rentals. Sessions are at 9 a.m., 10, 11 and noon. Cost is $29 and a portion of the proceeds will benefit breast cancer research. Details: www.girlslearntoride.com.

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Stocking stuffer: Actually, “Mammoth: the Sierra Legend,” would be a better fit under the tree. The book, written by Martin Forstenzer and due in stores this week, gives a comprehensive history of the Eastern Sierra community and region -- and their many personalities, including ski-area founder Dave McCoy -- in a coffee-table-book format that also features stunning photography. Cost is $49.95.

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For what it’s worth: Weather.com’s ski section, located at www.weather.com/ski, provides forecasts and condition reports for 600 domestic and 180 international resorts. New this year is a feature highlighting the resort that receives the most new snow on a given day.

A ‘Rosie’ Discovery

The future of long-range fishing out of San Diego got a little brighter the last two weeks, thanks to the discovery of an uncharted bank by Capt. Roy Rose of the Royal Polaris.

Unable to fish Mexico’s highly productive Revillagigedo Islands, which remain closed under new rules imposed by the government, the skippers have had to search for alternatives this season, meeting with mixed success.

Rose, during an 18-day trip that ends this morning when the vessel pulls into Fisherman’s Landing, traveled first to an area above Alijos Rocks off Baja California, where his 15 passengers caught 37 wahoo and a few large tuna before nightfall.

Rose then left for Hurricane Bank, a chancy move considering the location of the seamount: 1,000 miles south of Point Loma and more than 300 miles west of Mexico.

It’s a hit-or-miss spot and Rose and his group mostly missed, catching only a smattering of tuna, the largest weighing about 180 pounds.

Then Rose headed for Morgan Bank 100 miles northwest of Cabo San Lucas “and found nothing,” according to Frank LoPreste, the boat’s owner.

“Then they went west and found a shallow area that we’ve never known about,” LoPreste said. They struck a long-range fisherman’s equivalent of gold: giant yellowfin that bit over a period of 4 1/2 days.

The fish came over the rail at an average size of 140-190 pounds, with several topping 200. All 15 passengers caught at least one fish weighing at least 180 pounds. Two tuna estimated at 300-plus pounds were lost at the rail and another that wasn’t seen as closely was lost after a 3 1/2-hour fight from a skiff.

There is one catch to the discovery of “Rosie Bank.” Rose isn’t telling anyone where it is.

“And it’s going to stay that way until [the other captains] catch him there,” said LoPreste, whose next trip, to Clipperton Island by way of Rosie Bank, starts Jan. 1.

Spirit of the Season

Tuesday’s inaugural Fish for the Homeless event was canceled by Mother Nature, whose high winds kept seven party boats and perhaps hundreds of private vessels at bay.

However, it was hardly a lost cause. Organizer Philip Friedman of www.976tuna.com said Southland fishermen came through by making donations of about 100 pounds of fish they had in their freezers, along with “a few turkeys, canned goods, rice, flour, beans and other staples.”

The biggest donor was Mario Ghio of Sportsman’s Seafood in San Diego, who offered 300 pounds of filleted bluefin and yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and mahi-mahi.

The food was delivered to three Southland shelters. A similar event is scheduled for April 15.

Winding Up

Orange County developer Al Baldwin recently returned from the bowhunting trip of a lifetime.

After scouting for 11 days on Mexico’s Tiburon Island, Baldwin, of Fountain Valley, spotted a huge ram about 10 a.m., then spent several hours getting into position before letting his arrow fly.

The arrow went straight through the heart. The measurement of 176 3/8 inches makes the ram one of the largest ever taken with archery gear.

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FISH REPORT: D14