We chose Bear so my 9-year old could have his second snowboard lesson. (His first during the Super Bowl day storm at Mammoth was encouraging). The new Access Express lift provides a longer beginner run than Snow Summit or Mt. High. We arrived at 9AM to find all children's lessons sold out. One run on Access confirmed he needed a lesson, so I waited 40 minutes for the privilege of buying him a $60 private starting 1PM.

While there was a fresh layer of snowmaking evident, there were widespread patches of boilerplate underneath, which were quickly exposed by the heavy skier traffic. The groomers at Summit and Mt. High have somehow learned to break these up, as evidenced by other Southland reports and my 2 other local ski days these season, both of which occurred BEFORE the only significant natural snow in late January. One could also ask why, with the same Big Bear Lake water source as Snow Summit, they haven't tried to cover Outlaw or Quicksilver in the last month, when temperatures have been favorable after the several small storms.

A final management note: Despite the 15-minute lift lines, virtually every quad chair headed up the hill with only 2 or 3 occupants. Although crowds are to be expected on a holiday weekend, I skied about half the vertical today as on the Saturday of MLK weekend at Mt. High.