arik
Member
Date(s) Skied: December 20 and 21, 2008
Resort or Ski Area: Bear Valley, CA
Conditions: 3 feet of snow had fallen the week before but that was the first snow so not a huge base, it was powder, basically ungroomed (except for 3 runs). First day was really sunny and warm, second day it snowed another 10 inches. Snowguns were on one one run on backside even though it wasn't cold enough. Several of my friends struggled with the ungroomed runs.
Trip Report: Bear Valley has an interesting layout, basically a giant bowl that feeds down into a canyon. The frontside (in the bowl) and backside (over the rim and outside the bowl) of the upper mountain were open, but the lower mountain (down in the canyon, which is expert terrain) wasn't open yet. The front side had some really nice steep terrain around cliff run, yellow submarine, and national. National was real bumped up and was awesome. The backside has a new express lift, the first at Bear Valley (installed by newish owner Dundee reality who also own A-basin). All the runs on the backside were kinda similar, not too steep, sorta boring but the trees on the backside look good (there wasn't really enough snow yet to ski them).
Conclusion: awesome terrain at a little known area in california with good highway acess to bay area, but I wouldn't go back again so early in the season. In March with a good base on a sunny day it could be fantastic.
Resort or Ski Area: Bear Valley, CA
Conditions: 3 feet of snow had fallen the week before but that was the first snow so not a huge base, it was powder, basically ungroomed (except for 3 runs). First day was really sunny and warm, second day it snowed another 10 inches. Snowguns were on one one run on backside even though it wasn't cold enough. Several of my friends struggled with the ungroomed runs.
Trip Report: Bear Valley has an interesting layout, basically a giant bowl that feeds down into a canyon. The frontside (in the bowl) and backside (over the rim and outside the bowl) of the upper mountain were open, but the lower mountain (down in the canyon, which is expert terrain) wasn't open yet. The front side had some really nice steep terrain around cliff run, yellow submarine, and national. National was real bumped up and was awesome. The backside has a new express lift, the first at Bear Valley (installed by newish owner Dundee reality who also own A-basin). All the runs on the backside were kinda similar, not too steep, sorta boring but the trees on the backside look good (there wasn't really enough snow yet to ski them).
Conclusion: awesome terrain at a little known area in california with good highway acess to bay area, but I wouldn't go back again so early in the season. In March with a good base on a sunny day it could be fantastic.
