We had a nice day though it didn't start well being relegated to the far end of the remote and muddy Sandalwood parking lot, resulting in getting on the moutain half an hour later than from the on site parking. Getting paid parking at the hill used to be a matter of getting there early enough. Now it requires an advance paid reservation. This procedure is in effect Dec. 16 - Jan. 8 and Friday-Sunday the rest of the season. View of Snow Summit from Sandalwood
We got on the first Sandalwood bus available which took us to Bear Mt. arriving 9:15. This was early enough from a skiing perspective. The Goldmine lift did not have much of a line until our third and last ride on it. We moved to Silver Mt. for three runs, then to Bear Peak for four.
Temperatures soon reached the mid-40s and there was no wind though some had been predicted. While nearly all the snow was manmade, surfaces were close to packed powder with no frozen granular at all. This was particularly evident on Geronimo. Usually we ski Summit morning and Bear afternoon, so Geronimo's lower pitch in particular can be quite firm in mid afternoon. But it was very nice at 11AM. Liz on upper pitch with Big Bear Lake in background:
Lower pitch with dry Baldwin Lake in background:
I'm on lower pitch here.
View of San Gorgonio from Bear Peak:
We took the 12:15 shuttle to Snow Summit, skied a couple of top to bottom runs during the lunch lull, then spent the next two hours mostly on chairs 6, 7, and10. Liz sking one of the chair 10 runs:
There were more spring conditions in flatter and sunnier areas at Summit, and a few more firm spots scraped down. Most of that is afternoon vs. morning. Maybe today was warmer than earlier days this week, but Big Bear's grooming is intensive and that includes mitigating morning hardpack.
We skied 11,000 vertical at Bear and 11,500 at Summit. The base areas and beginner lifts and runs at both areas were very busy, but the lifts we used for 3/4 of our skiing had no lines. The base of Summit has this new statue of Dick Kun.
Dick Kun owned and operated Snow Summit starting in 1965. Snow Summit achieved its dominant position in SoCal skiing after building a snowmaking pipe into the lake in 1979 and bought out its neighbor Bear Mt. in 2002. Kun sold both areas to Mammoth in 2014 for $38 million.
We got in line for the Sandalwood bus at 3:35 and to our car in about 20 minutes. I knew going home through Running Springs and Hwy 330 would be a traffic nightmare, so we drove out the back way and had a good Thai dinner in Redlands. Big Bear is a full day commitment for us: we left home 6:30AM and got home 8:15PM. Garry does some shorter days as he lives 45 minutes closer to both Big Bear and Mt. High.
I get free skiing at Mt. High this year as I turned 70, but I still may not get there this season. We have had consistent cold nights through much of November/December, allowing Big Bear to get 78% open with its world class snowmaking. As far as storms are concerned Mt. High has had two totaling all of 9 inches snow but also 4 days of rain. With its limited water supply, there's no way Mt. High will attempt to open East without significant natural snow and they are probably struggling to maintain the 39% of West now open through the warm holiday period.
We got on the first Sandalwood bus available which took us to Bear Mt. arriving 9:15. This was early enough from a skiing perspective. The Goldmine lift did not have much of a line until our third and last ride on it. We moved to Silver Mt. for three runs, then to Bear Peak for four.
Temperatures soon reached the mid-40s and there was no wind though some had been predicted. While nearly all the snow was manmade, surfaces were close to packed powder with no frozen granular at all. This was particularly evident on Geronimo. Usually we ski Summit morning and Bear afternoon, so Geronimo's lower pitch in particular can be quite firm in mid afternoon. But it was very nice at 11AM. Liz on upper pitch with Big Bear Lake in background:
Lower pitch with dry Baldwin Lake in background:
I'm on lower pitch here.
View of San Gorgonio from Bear Peak:
We took the 12:15 shuttle to Snow Summit, skied a couple of top to bottom runs during the lunch lull, then spent the next two hours mostly on chairs 6, 7, and10. Liz sking one of the chair 10 runs:
There were more spring conditions in flatter and sunnier areas at Summit, and a few more firm spots scraped down. Most of that is afternoon vs. morning. Maybe today was warmer than earlier days this week, but Big Bear's grooming is intensive and that includes mitigating morning hardpack.
We skied 11,000 vertical at Bear and 11,500 at Summit. The base areas and beginner lifts and runs at both areas were very busy, but the lifts we used for 3/4 of our skiing had no lines. The base of Summit has this new statue of Dick Kun.
Dick Kun owned and operated Snow Summit starting in 1965. Snow Summit achieved its dominant position in SoCal skiing after building a snowmaking pipe into the lake in 1979 and bought out its neighbor Bear Mt. in 2002. Kun sold both areas to Mammoth in 2014 for $38 million.
We got in line for the Sandalwood bus at 3:35 and to our car in about 20 minutes. I knew going home through Running Springs and Hwy 330 would be a traffic nightmare, so we drove out the back way and had a good Thai dinner in Redlands. Big Bear is a full day commitment for us: we left home 6:30AM and got home 8:15PM. Garry does some shorter days as he lives 45 minutes closer to both Big Bear and Mt. High.
I get free skiing at Mt. High this year as I turned 70, but I still may not get there this season. We have had consistent cold nights through much of November/December, allowing Big Bear to get 78% open with its world class snowmaking. As far as storms are concerned Mt. High has had two totaling all of 9 inches snow but also 4 days of rain. With its limited water supply, there's no way Mt. High will attempt to open East without significant natural snow and they are probably struggling to maintain the 39% of West now open through the warm holiday period.
