Ski and snowboard season is lastly winding down at Massive Bear resorts after a winter that noticed a sequence of storms dump lots of of inches of recent snow on runs.
“We’re right down to our closing hill,” mentioned Jason Kanton, a spokesman for Massive Bear Mountain Resort, which operates the Snow Summit, Bear Mountain and Snow Valley resorts.
The snow not solely supplied nice circumstances for skiers and snowboarders, but in addition the sheer quantity allowed the resorts to remain open for much longer than traditional.
By late March, the resort had between 75 and 100 inches of recent powder on the bottom after having obtained 210 inches for the reason that begin of the season.
However the intense storms additionally blocked residents’ entry to necessities like meals, water and medical consideration with some individuals trapped of their properties for days at a time. At the least 12 individuals died in the course of the storms within the San Bernardino County Mountains.
Bear Mountain’s final day of the season was Sunday, and Snow Valley closed final week.
Snow Summit is anticipated to function by means of not less than the top of April, with operators nonetheless deciding whether or not it is going to stay open into Might.
Snow Summit isn’t the one California mountain nonetheless providing snowboarding and snowboarding nicely into spring; Mammoth Mountain introduced final month that its ski operations would function by means of not less than July with present snow.
Mammoth officers instructed The Occasions it had by no means earlier than introduced such an extended extension so early within the season.
“I’ve been up right here eight years now … and we’ve by no means been open this late for so long as I labored right here,” Kanton famous.
Final 12 months, Bear Mountain closed on April 10, practically two weeks sooner than this 12 months, in keeping with Snowpak.com, a snow resort reserving website.
The circumstances added as much as a banner 12 months for the resort even with intense snowfall stopping skiers and snowboarders from accessing the slopes for days at a time.
Alterra Mountain Co., which owns Massive Bear Mountain Resort and Mammoth Mountain, doesn’t disclose attendance numbers, however Kanton mentioned it was “a really robust season.”
“I believe we’re on monitor to have considered one of our strongest seasons during the last 10 years,” he famous. “And that’s not even together with the enterprise quantity at Snow Valley since that property didn’t come into our administration till mid-January.”
And the snow is hanging round, for now.
“There’s nonetheless respectable protection,” Kanton mentioned, noting that all the trails at Snow Summit are nonetheless open. “However the snow is getting softer.”
Temperatures reached practically 70 levels Monday in Massive Bear, making snowmelt inevitable.
“As soon as it will get going, it’ll go fairly rapidly,” Kanton mentioned.
Now, the resorts are literally hoping for the snow to dissipate as spring kicks into gear and the ski slopes are set to transition to mountain biking trails.
“That is sort of a bizarre, completely different scenario than we’re used to,” Kanton mentioned. “We’re normally making an attempt to carry on to the snow so long as we are able to. Now we’re sort of flipping that swap, like, OK, when can we begin preparing for summer season?”