With its concentration for park features, Bear Mt. generally attracts more people than Snow Summit. Like Garry, the local couple Bob and Pat tend to avoid it for that reason. I'm a variety junkie and in normal years I'm at Big Bear only one or two days, so I tend to ski both places on the same day. This season that's not a great idea due to the shuttle bus between the areas.
So our first two days have been exclusively at Snow Summit. Bob and Pat thought we were now far enough past the holiday period that Bear would be manageable so that's where we went today. We arrived about 8:15 and got close in parking, though now that the holiday period is past the lifts don't start until 9AM. The mazes are set up spaced but once they merged Bear Mt. was not doing a great job of social distancing.
Liz at lower right is wearing our new 2020 solar eclipse mask.
The Bear Mountain Express chairs were generally occupied by parties of two or three. While this created a 5-10 minute lift line, it reduced the normally high density on the Park Run.
I have to give kudos to the impressive grooming job I observed at Bear this morning. It has not snowed in the week since we last skied yet morning surfaces were actually better today. I know there are grooming attachments that can pulverize hard snow and they must be used intensively here.
We noticed the sign at the top of the lift, a bit of a ripoff of Baldy's slogan, "Real Mountain, Real Close."
We also think the sign is a bit of a double entendre in view of the predominant clientele at Bear Mt. :lol:
Bob and Pat tend to avoid Park Run, just use the Bear Mountain Express once to get over to Silver Mt. Silver was empty and also impeccably groomed so you could really let 'em rip here.
We skied 4 runs here before going to the base and taking Access Express to Geronimo.
Geronimo was also in excellent shape but tough for pictures on the lift because of sun glare on the chair line.
On my 5th and final run here I got this pic of the upper pitch.
Snow Summit has good cell service but Bear's is marginal. This was a problem as Liz had to call Florida during eastern working hours. She tried from the Geronimo base while I took that last run but the call dropped.
Bob and Pat only skied to 11:30, so I suggested we take a chance on relocating to Summit. The lower part of Bear became abruptly slushy around noon with temps in the mid-50's. Bob and Pat aren't the only locals who just ski mornings because we scored this vacated parking spot at Snow Summit at 12:45.
Liz made her call successfully from the top of chair 1 and then skied the Wall a couple of times. Snow Summit has a few chairs on the upper mountain where you can stay if the lower part gets slushy. I've been skiing the SoCal locals for 40+ years so I have a high tolerance for spring snow. In January the sun is fairly low so by 2PM you can ski at least 80% in the shade which helps a lot.
I skied twice on chair 10, once on 7 and 2 runs each on Wall and Olympic. I finished with a nice run on Ego Trip with a very sketchy exit beyond the chair 3 base to lower Summit Run. I totaled 14,200 on Bear Mt. and 9,000 on Snow Summit by 2:50. We were home by 5:30 with a takeout Chinese dinner from Arcadia.
So our first two days have been exclusively at Snow Summit. Bob and Pat thought we were now far enough past the holiday period that Bear would be manageable so that's where we went today. We arrived about 8:15 and got close in parking, though now that the holiday period is past the lifts don't start until 9AM. The mazes are set up spaced but once they merged Bear Mt. was not doing a great job of social distancing.
Liz at lower right is wearing our new 2020 solar eclipse mask.
The Bear Mountain Express chairs were generally occupied by parties of two or three. While this created a 5-10 minute lift line, it reduced the normally high density on the Park Run.
I have to give kudos to the impressive grooming job I observed at Bear this morning. It has not snowed in the week since we last skied yet morning surfaces were actually better today. I know there are grooming attachments that can pulverize hard snow and they must be used intensively here.
We noticed the sign at the top of the lift, a bit of a ripoff of Baldy's slogan, "Real Mountain, Real Close."
We also think the sign is a bit of a double entendre in view of the predominant clientele at Bear Mt. :lol:
Bob and Pat tend to avoid Park Run, just use the Bear Mountain Express once to get over to Silver Mt. Silver was empty and also impeccably groomed so you could really let 'em rip here.
We skied 4 runs here before going to the base and taking Access Express to Geronimo.
Geronimo was also in excellent shape but tough for pictures on the lift because of sun glare on the chair line.
On my 5th and final run here I got this pic of the upper pitch.
Snow Summit has good cell service but Bear's is marginal. This was a problem as Liz had to call Florida during eastern working hours. She tried from the Geronimo base while I took that last run but the call dropped.
Bob and Pat only skied to 11:30, so I suggested we take a chance on relocating to Summit. The lower part of Bear became abruptly slushy around noon with temps in the mid-50's. Bob and Pat aren't the only locals who just ski mornings because we scored this vacated parking spot at Snow Summit at 12:45.
Liz made her call successfully from the top of chair 1 and then skied the Wall a couple of times. Snow Summit has a few chairs on the upper mountain where you can stay if the lower part gets slushy. I've been skiing the SoCal locals for 40+ years so I have a high tolerance for spring snow. In January the sun is fairly low so by 2PM you can ski at least 80% in the shade which helps a lot.
I skied twice on chair 10, once on 7 and 2 runs each on Wall and Olympic. I finished with a nice run on Ego Trip with a very sketchy exit beyond the chair 3 base to lower Summit Run. I totaled 14,200 on Bear Mt. and 9,000 on Snow Summit by 2:50. We were home by 5:30 with a takeout Chinese dinner from Arcadia.
