1999-2000 California Detail


Updated May 30, 2000

Mammoth had 25 inches natural snow in November and only 9 in December. With the limited snowfall skiing had been confined to the 300 acres under snowmaking. Mammoth received 165 inches in January, and has been in full operation since Jan. 21. February snowfall was 160 inches, plus 40 inches in early March. After a dry month, there were 39 inches in mid-April and another 4 inches last week. Despite some rain in early May, Mammoth was good through Memorial Day on a 3-6 foot base, and will last a couple of weeks into June.

Southern California's 1999-2000 season can be compared to the past 24 years in History of Southern California Snow Conditions.
November: The season had its usual limited opening at Thanksgiving on snowmaking at Snow Summit, Bear Mt. and Mt. High.
December: This month was also completely dry, but there was a good week of snowmaking just before Christmas.  Only Snow Summit had more than half its terrain open for the holiday.
January: The first week had good snowmaking, temporarily restoring packed powder to the limited open terrain which had turned to spring conditions by New Year’s.  The rest of January was dismal, as it rained over MLK weekend to 10,000 feet, and again the last week of January.  At this point SoCal had received 1 inch of natural snow all winter and was on track to match the worst-ever 1983-84 season.
February No new runs were opened after two small storms in early February, as efforts were devoted to restoring good surface conditions. Skiing finally kicked into gear with the 3 feet of snow over President's weekend. All SoCal ski terrain was open the rest of the month and there was another foot+ of new snow.
March: With another 1.5 to 3 feet in the first week, skiing was good for the first half of the month with all terrain open. By the end of the month, only a few natural snow runs were left, and snow was very sloppy near the base of all local resorts from mid-March onwards.
April: Continuing warm weather closed all areas by April 16.  During the next few days it snowed 18 inches, so Mt. Baldy and Mt. Waterman partially reopened to April 23

I consider the local areas worth visiting according to the following criteria (1999-2000 summary):
Snow Summit: The Wall, Log Chute and the full length of the Westridge Terrain Park open. Since before Christmas, the full length of Westridge, plus the new Ego Trip super park (requires a once-a-season $5 pass) have been open, plus chairs 7, 10 and Log Chute. The advanced chair 6 (The Wall) finally opened on the President's weekend new snow. For the final week of April 10-16 the upper mountain parks and the main top-to-bottom runs are open.
Bear Mt: Silver Mt. and/or Bear Peak open. Much of the lower mountain and Goldmine Peak were open for the holidays, plus one run on Silver since New Year's. Bear Peak opened President's weekend and closed during the last week of March. Limited terrain open until April 16.
Snow Valley: Slide Peak open. About 30% open before President's weekend. The entire mountain including Slide Peak opened Friday 2/25 and was open through the end of March.
Mountain High: East as well as West open. About 1/2 to 2/3 of West was open before President's weekend. The new snow opened the rest of West, and East opened Friday 2/25. East closed March 20 and West April 9.
Mt. Baldy and Mt. Waterman: A natural snow base of at least 4 feet. Mt Waterman opened on President's weekend and Baldy the following Tuesday. After the early March storms the base reached 6 feet in many places. As of March 20, Baldy's sun-exposed runs on Chairs 1 & 4 closed, but most of Thunder was still skiable for another couple of weeks. Waterman's last day was April 2. Baldy reopened most of Thunder April 18 after 12-18 inches new snow. Other parts of the mountain are not open because there is no base underneath. Mt. Waterman opened for the Easter weekend.

I highly recommend Southland Ski Server skier-submitted reports for local conditions.

Return to 1999-2000 Ski Season Analysis for North America.