Ski and snowboard season is lastly winding down at Massive Bear resorts after a winter that noticed a sequence of storms dump tons of of inches of contemporary snow on runs.
“We’re right down to our remaining 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 situations for skiers and snowboarders, but in addition the sheer quantity allowed the resorts to remain open for much longer than standard.
By late March, the resort had between 75 and 100 inches of contemporary powder on the bottom after having acquired 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 folks trapped of their houses for days at a time. Not less than 12 folks died throughout 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 predicted to function by at the least 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 effectively into spring; Mammoth Mountain introduced final month that its ski operations would function by at the least July with current snow.
Mammoth officers informed The Occasions it had by no means earlier than introduced such a protracted 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 yr, Bear Mountain closed on April 10, practically two weeks sooner than this yr, in keeping with Snowpak.com, a snow resort reserving web site.
The situations added as much as a banner yr 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 sturdy season.”
“I believe we’re on monitor to have one in every of our strongest seasons over the past 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 state of affairs than we’re used to,” Kanton mentioned. “We’re often attempting to carry on to the snow so long as we will. Now we’re sort of flipping that swap, like, OK, when can we begin preparing for summer season?”
