Skiing / Bob Lochner : Western Skiers Will Have Yet Another Mountain to Conquer

RENO — It has been more than three years since a major new destination skiing complex was proposed for a 5,000-acre site 20 miles southwest of Reno Cannon International Airport.

Galena Resort is still merely a maze of numbers and lines on the drawing board, but it is definitely alive and well, according to Werner Schuster, vice president of Alpine Meadows, which is a co-developer of the project.

“All of the necessary environmental and governmental approvals have been obtained and we are just waiting now for the final financing details to be worked out,” Schuster said. “We plan to begin construction on some of the foundations for the lifts and principal structures this summer, and snow-cat skiing will be offered next winter.

“We should have lift-served skiing, on a minimum of four lifts, by the winter of 1987-88.”

The resort, located on Mt. Rose between Reno and Lake Tahoe, will cost about $500 million and will be composed of four interconnected villages to be built in phases over the next 10 years or so.

When completed, Galena will have 13 chairlifts and one gondola serving 846 acres of ski terrain with a vertical drop of more than 2,500 feet from its 10,400-foot-high summit. Capacity will then be 12,000 skiers a day.

The plans also call for a golf course, tennis courts, a casino hotel, several lodges, both condominiums and single-family residences plus the usual assorted shops and restaurants.

Alpine Meadows, located north of Tahoe City, Calif., also owns the Park City Ski Resort in Utah.

Audun Endestad, a native of Norway who became an American citizen just before the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, won the California Gold Rush 50-kilometer cross-country ski race this week at Royal Gorge, near Soda Springs, Calif.

Endestad, 33, now of Fairbanks, Alaska, was timed in 2 hours 13 minutes 21.4 seconds, beating runner-up Pal Sjulstad of Norway by more than six minutes.

The victory also gave Endestad, who was 18th in the 50K at Sarajevo, the National 50-kilometer title.

Hanne Krogstad, a Norwegian at the University of Vermont, was the top woman, finishing 40th in 2:43:33.3.

Missing from the U.S. Cross-Country Ski Nationals, which continue through Friday at Royal Gorge, is Bill Koch. The 1976 Olympic 30K silver medalist had other commitments at the Ski Industries America trade show in Las Vegas.

Easter-week skiing in the High Sierra has been near-perfect, with spring snow conditions and generally sunny weather prevailing. Depths at Lake Tahoe resorts range between 100 and 200 inches.

June Mountain reports 84 to 180 inches, while Mammomth Mountain has 169 inches at mid-level.

In the Southland, four ski areas--Goldmine, Snow Summit, Mountain High and Mt. Baldy--plan to sweat out the warm weather and remain open at least through Sunday. Their base depths range from 12 to 40 inches.

Both Snow Valley and Kratka Ridge closed for the season Wednesday, joining Ski Sunrise and Mt. Waterman, which shut down earlier in the week.

Skiing Notes The United States finished eighth in the Alpine Nations’ Cup standings, and one immediate result was this week’s firing of Brad Ghent as coach of the U.S. women’s team by Alpine Director Harald Schoenhaar. Switzerland won the Nations’ Cup with 2,822 points, followed by Austria with 2,225, West Germany with 1,173, Italy with 969, France with 642, Yugoslavia with 579, Sweden with 485 and the United States with 443. . . . Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg won his second straight World Cup overall title with 294 points, 10 more than runner-up Pirmin Zurbriggen of Switzerland, while Maria Walliser of Switzerland moved up from third place last season to take the women’s overall title with 287 points, 45 more than runner-up Erika Hess, also of Switzerland. . . . French World Cup veteran Perrine Pelen announched her retirement this week. . . . Cathy Bruce, a former U.S. Ski Team racer, clinched her second straight Women’s Pro Ski Racing championship by winning the giant slalom and finishing second to Muriel Dalmais of France in the slalom last weekend at Kirkwood.