We took the shuttle over from Summit and skied from 12:15 to 3:45. We skied 14K in that time, much of it in terrain parks, so there is certainly enough lift capacity to get in a good day. The current layout of terrain does force you to the base area on most runs and it is pretty congested down there. It's also slushy on a warm day with flat areas and that many people.

I was curious to see the changes from Snow Summit's takeover. Most obvious is the snowmaking and grooming are now to their standards. The boilerplate and ice patches which were routine on Geronimo before (particularly after a big rain event like we just had) were absent this time.

Summit management had also stated their intent to include park features on all blue runs at Bear. This has been accomplished, and with enough spacing that there is room to use or not use the hits at one's option. As at Summit there were lots of rails and small jumps and just a few large hits due to the limited snowmaking in January. My 18-year old got to practice what he learned about rails and jumps at SMS Freeride Camp last June all day today. As for me with 50-year-old knees, it was just as well most of the jumps were fairly small.