Drought? Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!

T

Tom Moriarty

New member
Well our season passes to Mt. High were a total waste of money this year. They are closed and opening the frisbee golf course this weekend while Bear and Snow Summit just keep on going a couple of weeks later. As for our passes we never even got on a lift as our trips were spent working with our 4 year old son in the beginner area on the magic carpet. He is ready to get on a lift now and they closed.

Makes it worth wondering!

While you are closed, is it really worth being able to say "we are the first to open for the 17th year in a row (or whatever number it is)" when you have to close so early for the second season in a row. Better to take a few extra days of snowmaking while you can and build up an untouched base like Big Bear does and stay open.

With Karl at Stevens Pass now his concern doesn't seem to be Wrightwood. They didn't even try to open EAST while Big Bear has opened both their resorts and kept them open. Dick Kun, Brent Tregaskis, and Karl Klouzer are true ski resort professionals and know how to get their resorts open and stay open even during difficult snow years. CNL may need to make a change of operators to get their ROI in Wrightwood.

I kind of wish I lived in Victorville 45 minutes from Big Bear rather than Lancaster a stones throw from Wrightwood so I can get my monies worth for what I paid for.
 
To no surprise Mt. Waterman has not been open even ONE DAY in the past 3 seasons.

As for Mt. High, they do not have the water source that Big Bear has (a substantial lake) and could not keep up with Snow Summit and Bear no matter how competent they were.

The shocking part of this SoCal season was not Mt. High's premature closure IMHO. It was that Snow Summit never got past 50% open. This has not happened since 1984, and by my records Snow Summit has attained full operation every year since 1988 until this one. And I agree by the way that Snow Summit is one of the most competently run ski areas I've ever seen.
 
Many years ago while Terry still had Mt. High I believe they lost several of their producing wells in an earthquake. To get the mountain open and customer base happy they trucked up water from wells in the desert I believe. Did they make money doing this? Probably not, but kept the customers happy somewhat and that is what sold season passes the next year.

I know though...I'm just ranting because I bought season passes to MH this year and the $700 was a complete waste while I watch BBMR continue to operate.

As for Mt. Waterman...........................Oh well, I don't know what to say. RIP Lynn Newcomb (the snow went with him).
 
Potential for low snow year ? Big Bear is a no brainer.........but yes, the drive sucks if you live anywhere west of the 15.

Sorry about your pass.........I bought two season passes at Baldy I never used.........although I was only out $150 ;)

I lived in Claremont from 1990 to 1996. It sure "seemed" that it was colder in the early 90's.....seems like its in the 80's every day there now, even in the winter!
 
The early 1990's were a good period in the overall history of SoCal skiing:
http://bestsnow.net/scalhist.htm

jojo_obrien":1lda2a7i said:
Potential for low snow year ? Big Bear is a no brainer.........
Click to expand...

Is Mt. High more convenient than Big Bear?
Absolutely

Does Mt. High have more interesting terrain than Big Bear?
Yes, in my opinion

Nonetheless I think it makes no sense to have a pass there. The snowmaking is far inferior to Big Bear's no matter how much effort they make. They just don't have enough water to open AND maintain that much acreage with normal winter SoCal daytime temps.

SoCal seasons either get a reasonable amount of natural snow or they don't. When they do, Mt. Baldy is in a completely different class for advanced skiers than everywhere else, in addition to being shortest drive time. When they don't Big Bear is the consistent call due to the snowmaking. Mt. High occupies the infrequent "middle ground," and by my experience the days when it's my area of choice are few and far between.
 
What's the status of Waterman and Baldy? How do they stay solvent (whatever that means in this context) after multiple years of what one would imagine to be virtually zero revenue?
 
jamesdeluxe":ix85tpyw said:
What's the status of Waterman and Baldy? How do they stay solvent (whatever that means in this context) after multiple years of what one would imagine to be virtually zero revenue?
Click to expand...
Family ownership with no debt, something the geniuses at Starwood Capital should have considered when they bought Mammoth in 2006 and leveraged it to the max. Once again (like 2 years ago) Mammoth had to layoff people in January and force unpaid leave on remaining employees in February. Mammoth projects only 850,000 skier visits in 2013-14. :-({|= The 2 seasons before the Starwood purchase were big snow years with July 4 closings, pre-recession and drew ~1.5 million skier visits. Mammoth needs to draw north of 1 million visits just to service that debt.
 
Interesting. I used Wayback Machine a lkittle bit after EpicSki Forum was shut down. I got the impression it degrades over time, so It might be worth some time to survey it for content you might want to save.

Shifty's first link above dates to spring 2014, which is when the forum was cut loose from Mammoth's website, closed to new entrants and not actively administered. I'll make a SWAG that easternsierraforum content since then might not be available.

The 2012 layoffs and closing of June Mt. were discussed here on FTO: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... =3&t=10086 The June closing thread on Mammoth Forum reached 73 pages.
 
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