Best conditions in Southern California, most of the time. Best in the state, sometimes. But best conditions in the country?

    That’s a pretty bold statement, but one that Snow Summit and Bear Mountain were making during last month’s holiday period. A dearth of snow had left resorts from Utah and Colorado to the East Coast high and dry, but the Big Bear resorts boasted some of the deepest snowpacks around with all lifts running and virtually all trails open, even most of the small connectors.

    A unique and interesting start to the winter season to be sure. Yes Big Bear was the beneficiary of natural snow, particularly after one inside slider storm swooped in from the desert and just spun around the resorts for days, dropping 12-16 inches of snow in the process. But as is usually the case, the real credit went to massive snowmaking systems at the resorts and an endless supply of water courtesy of Big Bear Lake, not to mention some of the best early season conditions in years.

    “December was one of the best months, especially for early season, for snowmaking we’ve seen in years,” said Chris Riddle of Big Bear Mountain Resorts. “The combination of cold temperatures and dry humidity for an extended period made for an unprecedented run. It basically started Dec. 1 and has been almost nonstop since.”

    Usually early in the season the resorts have to settle for whatever snowmaking they can eke out. This time around the guns at Snow Summit and Bear were routinely hitting their maximum firepower capacity at around 6,000 gallons of water per minute being converted into snow. Not occasionally hitting that mark, but around-the-clock sessions at 6,000!

    “We were regularly over 6,000 gpm,” Riddle said. “That was commonplace. One morning we were at 6,500 here at Snow Summit. It was high volume, high quality snowmaking, and enabled us to have full mountains open before Christmas. Even the nooks and crannies were filled in for the most part, not just main runs.”

    Sure, natural snow Big Bear received that others did not helped. “Anytime there’s white on the ground it makes it cold and beneficial,” Riddle said. “But this was snow that was light and dry from a Nevada slider. It probably packed down to 6-8 inches once it was compressed.” Not enough to open runs, unless it was followed by subsequent blizzards of the man-made variety.

    The resorts did more than just open runs with all the bounty. By Christmas Bear had its standard halfpipe open along with its popular “minipipe” and the competition-quality Superpipe was almost filled in with snow as well (it’s probably open even as you read these words).

    As January arrives there’s 60 jibs spread about the nation’s only all-mountain freestyle park at Bear Mountain plus another 55 snow features. Snow Summit meanwhile had 40 jibs and 25 snow features in the Westridge and Ego Trip Parks with another 35 snow features as the Chair 9 Family Fun Park, itty bitty hitties the whole family can enjoy and learn on. That’s a hundred hits at Snow Summit, the resort that isn’t the park specialist!

    “We’ve had the snowmaking to build both resorts the way we want them,” Riddle said. “Snowmaking really sets us apart as to the quality and quantity of the ski experience compared to the rest of the state.”

    At Bear there’s several unique parks, each different from the others. Skill Builder Parks on Chair 6 are for those just getting into freestyle, while on Chair 5 there’s larger features plus the pipes. Chair 9 sees 1-1/3 miles of jibbing bliss with rails and boxes, pyramid box, Analog Spaceship and “He Stairs at the Rail” contest winners, and jumps of all sizes.

    Branching off The Park Run is the new Red Bull Plaza, a street inspired park with heavy stack of rails, wall and ledges. Lamp posts, street signs and planter boxes give it a definite urban feel, along with staircases and rails. Kind of like skateboarding in the city, only with snow.

    Bear offers more than just park too with four mountain peaks serving some of the region’s longest groomed runs. Like Exhibition on Silver Mountain with nearly a thousand vertical feet of descent, and Geronimo as it descends from Bear Peak—sixth highest ski peak in the state—for almost 1,200 vertical feet of double black diamond challenge. On the other side of the spectrum, the resort has Southern California’s largest beginner area with several gentle runs descending from the top of the Access Express.

    At Snow Summit all runs were open as January arrived, serviced by two high-speed quads that access the entire mountain. Recent additions included Off Chute and Dicky’s to join other Bowl runs like The Wall and Olympic, served by Chair 6 with blaring music to ride to. Chair 10’s blue square bliss has been augmented by Jo’s and Pipe Dream, while on Chair 9 Skyline Creek is now open. The only named run at Summit not open at press time was Last Chance; everything else is doing business.

     Night sessions at Snow Summit are a good way to get a ton of skiing and riding in for less money, and they’re held every evening from 3-9:30 p.m. through Jan. 7 plus Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. Get in on the tail end of day session then enjoy Miracle Mile, Summit Run and Westridge under the lights. The latter gets a fresh evening groom to offer corduroy as good as fair chair riders got in the morning. Remember a single lift ticket is good at both resorts with a free shuttle running between them every half hour.

    Call (909) 866-5766.