California: Mammoth or Big Bear?

If you like park skiing the SoCal resorts can be pretty good, but they get very crowded on weekends (they will sometimes "sell out" and not allow any more people on the hill). If you're not in a park the rest of the SoCal resort terrain will seem slightly better than backyard skiing. Mammoth is big with a lot of diverse terrain and would be heavily preferred by a non-park skier with intermediate or advanced ability.
 

Mammoth is way bigger obviously...and I've never been.  However I did a couple days at Bear Mountain and Snow Summit (10 Minutes apart and I think 1 ticket is good at both).  I really liked them.  I went in the spring time of 06 or 07.  Bear Mountain had all the biggest Terrain Park features, and Snow Summit felt like I was skiing through a campground...in a good way.  They do limit ticket sales to control crouds.

If you want to get a feel for Snow Summit before you go, get an Xbox and play Amped 2 Snowboarding.  "The Summit" mountain, is Snow Summit, and it's quite accurate for a video game.  Timberline @ Mt. Hood is on there too.

The detachable quads at Summit and Bear can be busy on weekends, but the lifts higher up on the mountain, like chair 7 at Summit, never get too crowded - I don't think I've ever waited more than 5 minutes on chair 7, on days when the lines at the quads were about 30 minutes long.

Everything else being equal, Mammoth wins hands down, but the drive alone is not equal.  As Fujative says, the ticket is good at both, and there's a free shuttle between them.  Both resorts are owned by the same parent company, but they have distinctly different flavor.

Summit has more greens and blues, Bear has more blacks, but surprisingly, Bear has better area for absolute beginners.

Also, if you have the flexibility to ski midweek, there are no lines at all, and the restricted season pass is dirt cheap.

I know several people with season passes for Big Bear and Mammoth.

Bottom line, don't dismiss Big Bear resorts until you at least give them a try.

Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions - I'm at Bear Mountain mostly every weekend, so I have a lot of experience to share.

I think if I lived in LA, I would choose Bear/Snow Summit over Mammoth.  That drive to Mammoth would get old in a hurry, and I'd be to tempted to stop and buy some 333Skis every time I went.

You might check out Mt. High as well, north of Los Angeles.  I had a friend that grew up in Burbank (Arnolds voice from the Hey Arnold cartoon) /name drop .....  Anyway he always preferred Mt. High over Snow Summit/Bear.  I've never been though.

It's an apples to oranges comparison. You should try both areas a few times. I live in Orange County (just south of LA) and ski Mammoth 50+ days per season. The drive doesn't bother me and I think it's worth it.

BTW - Mammoth already has a 4-7' base

NYC Jim:

If you really like to ski, jdswim is dead on the money.  I live in LA and could be at Big Bear in 2 hours (and have gone there many times over the years when in need of a quick one-day ski fix), but the drive to Mammoth isn't really that bad (especially with the road at 2 lanes in each direction for almost the entire desert section--I'm sure that many of you remember when it was only 1 lane for over 50% of the Mojave-Bishop stretch) and the skiing is awesome with traditionally great snow coverage over an extended season, an incredible variety of terrain (especially a lot of long+steep stuff, which is really nonexistent in SoCal), and tons of lodging and dining choices.  If you can get away from LA early Friday (or early on Saturday with a stay through Monday), you can get 2 1/2 days of skiing in on any weekend (which is what we are planning for this weekend after Turkey day--hard to resist 7' of new snow, which is what has fallen this week).

Have fun!

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYCJIM 

I'm moving to L.A. from New York and am looking forward to skiing at Mammoth, but that's a plane ride or a five hour drive away according to Mapquest.

 

I notice there's a closer place called Big Bear, near LA.

 

Is it a very crowded place?   I'm wondering what it will be like.  Is Mammoth much better?

First of all Mammoth is actually well named. The place is huge and has awesome skiing. They have been spinning lifts for a couple weeks now. Big Bear isn't really that big and I doubt it is even open yet. With this year being a La Nina year, Big Bear may not open for a while. If you want to be closer to skiing and have to live in a big city, there is a town called San Francisco that would work. 

Mammoth for real skiing conditions. I've haven't had a bad day there that I can remember. Come to think of it.

Big Bear for what reminds me of Midwestern icy hard pack skiing conditions.

Also to be remembered !

 Closer to LA = More crowds of "people " ?.........that aren't necessarily skiers.  And the drama / ignorance associated with that condition.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FujativeOCR 

I think if I lived in LA, I would choose Bear/Snow Summit over Mammoth.  That drive to Mammoth would get old in a hurry, and I'd be to tempted to stop and buy some 333Skis every time I went.

 

You might check out Mt. High as well, north of Los Angeles.  I had a friend that grew up in Burbank (Arnolds voice from the Hey Arnold cartoon) /name drop .....  Anyway he always preferred Mt. High over Snow Summit/Bear.  I've never been though.

Just about some of the worst advice I have read here on where to go and skis to buy The local mountains are only to be considered on a pow day, mid week. I drive 6+ hours each way to Mammoth from San Diego many times a year to get in my 30 days there. It is totally worth the drive, as I just got home today after 3 days up there. Just have a bunch of good tunes for the drive, someone to talk to helps, but isn't really needed when you know what is in store.

Southwest sold airfares to Reno for all of the season for only $40. How much is a tank of gas? 

You're coming from the east. It's what, 5 hours to Killington? For the same amount of time you could be at an amazing mountain - Mammoth. Big Bear would be more for kicks or shooting videos in the parking lot.

There is a local area in LA that is totally worth going to on a powder day (or lots of day in a big snow year), and it hasn't been mentioned in this thread ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by cometjo 

There is a local area in LA that is totally worth going to on a powder day (or lots of day in a big snow year), and it hasn't been mentioned in this thread ;)

Because Baldy is hardly ever open (at least compared to the others). I haven't been to Baldy myself, but I have heard that it is the best SoCal resort in a good snow year with very good, steep terrain. I think they are the only resort down here to not make snow, so this La Nina year may be a total bust for Baldy.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYCJIM 

Quote:

I just checked and see that Reno is 175 miles from Mammoth.  After a flight from LA, I would not want to drive 3 or 4 hours.  People actually fly to Reno from LA and then do a 175 mile drive?  

 

I'd rather just do a 5 hour drive.  Or fly right to Mammoth.
 

I think the point was that a cheap flight to Reno gets you to the Tahoe resorts, not to Mammoth.
 

 Oh Boy...........

 Yeah Mt.Baldy is the steepest place this far south and pretty small. Open only when it gets enough snow to be. The cousin of a friend of mine ran the rental shop there years ago. It got good coverage those years and we had the run of the place. We got away with anything we wanted = Fun !
 

 I think the only route is LA to SFO to Mammoth. The LA to Mammoth was discontinued. But I could be wrong and things could have changed......

 If you are a skier.......No amount of driving will and is going to keep you away from the good stuff.   

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melissa M Nolch 

Southwest sold airfares to Reno for all of the season for only $40. How much is a tank of gas? 

Cheapest I ever found from San Diego was about $180 round trip. Just paid Southwest $230 for the wife to fly up in Feb for our Tahoe timeshare week. I always drive up with a car full of skis, sometimes a friend and spend a few days at Mammoth before driving on to SLT. I am pretty sure just driving to Mammoth is cheapest, if your not factoring in 45 cents a mile for wear and tear on the car. If he flies to Tahoe, then he really wants to rent a car to hit the various resorts IMO. Car + Airfare > driving to Mammoth from LA.

Lax to Mammoth Lakes              Alaska / Horizon Air               It looks like three flights a day.   Great! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ske-Bum 


Big Bear isn't really that big and I doubt it is even open yet.

It isn't named Big Bear either.  The lake is.  The name of the mountain is Bear Mountain.  And if we're talking semantics, it isn't made out of Bears either.

I think you are talking about Mt Baldy

I spent four winters in Claremont, CA.  I was a student, so I had more time than money.  I found that the best arrangement was to have a pass to Mountain High for night skiing (provided that you beat rush hour traffic up and over the pass on I 15), day tickets to Baldy for powder days, and some weekend trips up to Mammoth and June.  The drive up to Mammoth isn't bad.  It is mostly high speed high desert driving on dry roads.  Helps to have a buddy or two to split gas money.  And the skiing at Mammoth is world class.  The skiing at Baldy is incredibly fun when it gets coverage.  Mountain High was convenient for me for after school.  There is even some backcountry and ski mountaineering type challenges in the san gabriel and san jacinto range if you're keen to get ambitious.  I never bothered with Big Bear.  Didn't see the point, though I'm sure it's comparable to Mt. High.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYCJIM 

What's up with the tire chains?  Mammoth's website says drivers "will need" them.  

 

It only takes a few inches of snow in California for chains to be required for 2-wheel drive vehicles. This is probably a good thing as most Californians are not adept at driving in snow. I was at Mammoth after a major storm and was in two accidents in one weekend (I was not driving either time BTW) -- people here just aren't used to it. You won't need chains if you're driving an AWD/4WD vehicle, though.
 

If you're driving from LA to Mammoth, you would chain up only for the last few miles unless something weird was going on.  You don't pay someone else to put them on for you.  You do it yourself.  It's not hard, and it's not uncommon to do out west, but you only do it to go up and over a sketchy mountain pass for a handful of miles.  You can't drive at highway speeds with chains.

If you are adept in driving in east coast snow and you have AWD or 4WD and decent tires, you will never have to worry about it.

For those that have been to other Western resorts (most of which require mountain driving), it's useful to know the lay of the land for Mammoth.

Almost the entire drive from LA (to Bishop, 40 miles before Mammoth) is in high flat desert, and other than in the rare circumstances of a major southerly storm this section does not have snow on it.

Once in Bishop, you go up from 5,000' to 7,000' on a very well maintained and not very steeply graded multilane highway.  The Department of Transportation is very aggressive about keeping this road clear during storms.  Chains are sometimes required on this section but in my experience that's quite rare.

Once you get to the turnoff to Mammoth, you are again on a very well maintained and not steep multilane road in a wide valley, and this gets you into Mammoth Village proper.

Much of the village is in the flat part of the middle of the valley, and you can in fact get to Eagle Lodge (one of the several places where you can buy lift tickets and start skiing) without ever driving up a steep hill (the road up to Eagle Lodge is very wide and straight and goes ever-so-slightly uphill).  With my Subaru, I can generally get by in Mammoth other than in the most extreme conditions without ever putting my chains on--the condos that I usually stay at, the store, many restaurants, and Eagle Lodge are all in "the flats."  Also, during storms, they are very aggressive about getting the roads clear as quickly as possible.

And in any case, Mammoth has a great shuttle system that you can rely on once you are in town if you don't want to drive, and it runs late, so you can use it to get to and from the slopes (at several of the base areas) and you can also use it to get to and from dinner/drinks/club if you don't feel like driving or if the roads are too snowed over to drive on.

I was just up there this past weekend and had a sunny Friday with 7' of snow from that week, then a stormy Saturday with 9"-14" falling (and I drove without chains and had no problems), and then a beautiful and sunny Sunday with the fresh powder to seek out all day.