The unseasonable temperatures as low as -2F two weeks ago allowed both Snow
Summit and Bear Mt. to open 90% of trails on snowmaking. Temps have remained
mostly in the 20's and 30's since then, so there has been minimal melt freeze
activity, and only the most spoiled skiers would have called the surfaces
anything other than packed powder. I have observed over the years the
difference that the Big Bear Lake water source makes for snowmaking vs. Mt.
High, and the contrast with a First Tracks report from Mt. High Jan. 26 is
Exhibit A.
Today also stayed in the 30's and was overcast as often as not, so the only
softening I saw was in bottom of the mountain liftlines. My hat and sweater
remained on all day, which is fairly rare for SoCal skiing.
Today I started at Bear, where most of the blue runs have park features. I
restricted myself to the small ones, as it would be really dumb to have a
mishap before my Feb. 1-10 Canada trip. Unlike Dec. 30 the Silver Mt. and Bear
Peak chairs were open, and that's where I headed when the thundering hordes of
weekend snowboarders filled the Big Bear Express chair by 9:30AM. Silver is
900 vertical and Bear 1,100 of upper intermediate cruising. The expansive Deer
Canyon lies between these 2 lifts but rarely has enough natural snow to be
skiable.
I grabbed lunch before 11:30 and then took the shuttle to Summit. Its steepest
terrain on chair 6 (but only 500 vertical) was not open on Dec. 30 so I took 9
runs there today. I skied a few more of the less busy runs on the the east and
west sides, avoiding the busy middle Summit Run and Miracle Mile. I caught the
3:30 shuttle back to Bear and drove out the back road Hwy 38 to Redlands to
avoid traffic. It is a long day. I was up by 5:30AM in order to get decent
parking, and home 7PM after dropping off skis at Garry's (damaged MLK at
Mammoth, not at Big Bear).
It is fortunate that I audit the Vertech watch, because it appears to be
acting up this month. I was a bit suspicious at Mammoth, so I counted chairs
today. After about 7 runs at Bear it was off over 1,000. So I watched as I
unloaded at the top of Bear Peak. As I was standing still before skiing
Geronimo the altimeter reading bounced around and the watch added 180 feet to
its vertical. Today's chair count was 24,600 but the watch read 29,500