This day was almost a clone of the 2 days last week at Mammoth. Weather was the same, 15-20F with some wind, normal for Mammoth but cold for SoCal. Thus I started the day somewhat underdressed and had to upgrade a layer, put on glove liners and keep my hood up. My toes got cold, but I'm not that worried about the new boots since hands were getting cold too and both issues were resolved by warmer clothing and a lunch break. The larger foot was a bit uncomfortable walking around at lunch but not bad skiing.
Big Bear's snowmaking capacity is at least as great as Mammoth's. Both Snow Summit and Bear Mt. (which we did not ski) are ~90% open with combined acreage similar to the 450 offered at Mammoth. There were probably fewer thin spots at Big Bear and surfaces were similar because SoCal weather in December has stayed cold plus Big Bear has had about 30 inches of snow in December vs. 2 at Mammoth. Big Bear's surfaces will become more variable when the inevitable warmup and melt/freeze occurs but that's not yet predicted anytime soon.
I went up there with Garry Klassen. We were a bit lazy about getting up early as it's midweek and usually the holiday crunch doesn't hit until after Christmas. So we arrived at 9AM and the free lot at Snow Summit was already full. I decided to pay the $20 for VIP parking rather than deal with the time consuming shuttle from the auxiliary lot down the hill. While there were enough people to fill the close-in parking there were not enough to create lift line issues. The longest line at Chair 2 was 20-30 people max and other lifts were ski-on. Summit Run was the usual human slalom course but we never set foot on it as there are several alternative ways down the mountain.
Most of our skiing was on the east side of the mountain on Chairs 6 and 10. 10 has 3 upper intermediate cruisers with few people so you can crank up the speed and its snow was consistent. I only took a few pictures around chair 6 (the Wall) before my camera battery died. #-o View down the Wall with Big Bear Lake in the background
Some shallow inlets near shore were freezing over. It's rare for the whole lake to freeze over though it did happen during SoCal's exceptional 1978-79 season.
Garry spraying some wind sift snow on the Wall:
The area he was skiing was a bit firmer in the morning before the wind blew some snow in. Looker's right of the lift was not groomed overnight and the small bumps had more soft snow on them than the smoothly groomed part. The steepest run, lower Olympic, was firmer so some turns there were controlled skids.
We skied a couple of runs on Chair 3 including a short venture off trail. Natural coverage is close to being adequate but not quite there yet on that part of the mountain. So it's safe to say the much larger and steeper off-trail canyons at Bear Mt. need another couple of feet at least. We also took a run through the Westridge park. Total for the day was 19,000 vertical. On the way down the hill we had a clear sunset view with downtown L.A. Skyscrapers 60 miles distant barely visible at right center.
Big Bear's snowmaking capacity is at least as great as Mammoth's. Both Snow Summit and Bear Mt. (which we did not ski) are ~90% open with combined acreage similar to the 450 offered at Mammoth. There were probably fewer thin spots at Big Bear and surfaces were similar because SoCal weather in December has stayed cold plus Big Bear has had about 30 inches of snow in December vs. 2 at Mammoth. Big Bear's surfaces will become more variable when the inevitable warmup and melt/freeze occurs but that's not yet predicted anytime soon.
I went up there with Garry Klassen. We were a bit lazy about getting up early as it's midweek and usually the holiday crunch doesn't hit until after Christmas. So we arrived at 9AM and the free lot at Snow Summit was already full. I decided to pay the $20 for VIP parking rather than deal with the time consuming shuttle from the auxiliary lot down the hill. While there were enough people to fill the close-in parking there were not enough to create lift line issues. The longest line at Chair 2 was 20-30 people max and other lifts were ski-on. Summit Run was the usual human slalom course but we never set foot on it as there are several alternative ways down the mountain.
Most of our skiing was on the east side of the mountain on Chairs 6 and 10. 10 has 3 upper intermediate cruisers with few people so you can crank up the speed and its snow was consistent. I only took a few pictures around chair 6 (the Wall) before my camera battery died. #-o View down the Wall with Big Bear Lake in the background
Some shallow inlets near shore were freezing over. It's rare for the whole lake to freeze over though it did happen during SoCal's exceptional 1978-79 season.
Garry spraying some wind sift snow on the Wall:
The area he was skiing was a bit firmer in the morning before the wind blew some snow in. Looker's right of the lift was not groomed overnight and the small bumps had more soft snow on them than the smoothly groomed part. The steepest run, lower Olympic, was firmer so some turns there were controlled skids.
We skied a couple of runs on Chair 3 including a short venture off trail. Natural coverage is close to being adequate but not quite there yet on that part of the mountain. So it's safe to say the much larger and steeper off-trail canyons at Bear Mt. need another couple of feet at least. We also took a run through the Westridge park. Total for the day was 19,000 vertical. On the way down the hill we had a clear sunset view with downtown L.A. Skyscrapers 60 miles distant barely visible at right center.