WEATHER ALMOST DELIGHTFUL FOR SKI ENTHUSIASTS SKIERS SAY LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW.

Byline: Lee Condon Staff Writer

Rain on New Year's Eve may have been a bummer for Los Angeles, but area mountain ski resorts were thrilled to get their first snow of the winter season over the weekend.

Very little snow actually fell near Big Bear and Wrightwood ski resorts, but skiing officials and local business owners say just seeing snow again is a big relief.

``White stuff is very psychologically helpful,'' said Jamie Wolcott, executive director for the Big Bear Lake Resort Association. ``Our phones were jammed last week when it started raining down the hill.'' Typically, local ski resorts get their first dusting around Thanksgiving. This season nothing fell from the sky until New Year's Eve.

``It's a relief to get the ball rolling,'' said Chris Riddle, director of marketing for Snow Summit Mountain Resort in Big Bear. ``Skiing and snowboarding have not been in the forefront of people's minds. But once they see the rain and the clouds and hear about snow in the mountains, it clicks off the light bulb in their heads.'' Despite the lack of natural snow, ski resorts in Big Bear have been able to use snow-making machines, softening the blow of a dry winter. Riddle said the low temperatures in the mountains have helped in the snow-making.

``We're making a tremendous amount of snow,'' Riddle said, noting that most of the mountain is open, and 10 of the resort's 11 chairlifts are up and running. Riddle said attendance has been disappointing despite the abundance of man-made snow on the mountain. In Wrightwood, Mountain High has been open since Thanksgiving, also relying on man-made snow. So far Ski Sunrise has been unable to open for lack of snow.

The snow that fell over the weekend in Wrightwood was welcome, but not enough to make a difference.

``None of it stuck. We're waiting for a big storm. This town is dead without the snow,'' said Mark Rodenborn, who works at Wrightwood Ski and Sport. ``All we need is one big snowfall.''

Bruce Rockwell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said this winter was one of the driest on record before the New Year's Eve sprinkles. So far this season only one inch of rain has fallen in the Southland, which typically gets 5 inches by this point.

Until the jet stream brings some big storms in, the ski resorts will have trouble getting skiers excited about hitting the slopes, Wolcott said.

``It's nice to look up and see the snow on the mountain. Until skiers see the snow up there, they don't think about it,'' Wolcott said.

Christy Kirkegaard, manager of the Cozy Hollow Lodge in Big Bear, said even before the snow lodges in the area were busy with families and skiers visiting the mountains for the holidays. ``We've been full for the last two weeks,'' she said. ``Almost every lodge up here has been full.''

At Newcomb's Ranch on Angeles Crest Highway, waitress Lisa Salem said some snow fell, but not enough for skiing and other snow recreation in her part of the mountains, closer to the San Fernando Valley.

``There's just a light covering,'' she said.

Up the road from Newcomb's Ranch, at the nearby Mount Waterman Ski Resort, a recorded telephone message said there had been some snow Saturday, but hardly enough to see.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1 -- color -- ran P. 1) Jessica Staehler watches her mom, Olivia, use scant snow for a snowman at Mount Baldy.

Tom Zasadzinski/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Rachel Johnson and her son Craig, 3, laugh as they sled on thin snow at Mount Baldy.

Tom Zasadzinski/Staff Photographer