Summer Work At Central Sierra Resorts Focus On The Essentials
Sitting between Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles, the central Sierra Nevada attracts some of the state's heaviest snowfall to a half-dozen ski and snowboard mountains of all sizes.
This past offseason, improvements to these winter resorts centered on snowmaking, snowmaking and more snowmaking -- plus base facility upgrades, terrain expansion and improved traffic flow on and off the hill.
The owners of Mammoth Mountain (3,080 a., 3.100 vert.) turned their fiscal muscle toward snowmaking this offseason. Thousands of feet of pipe got replaced all over the mountain, and fan guns got upgraded. On a mountain with fickle weather, the ability to make more snow more often is expected to keep conditions skiable at the Ikon Pass resort.
The renowned Unbound Terrain Parks got serious love this summer with steel features all around. Beginners get beveled boxes while advanced riders can hit on new features in both Main Park and South Park.
There's a new zipline at the Woolly's Adventure Summit, winter camps added sessions, and now United Airlines flies from Denver and San Francisco to Bishop.
Bear Valley (1,680 a., 1,900 vert.) sits in the central Sierra above Sacramento and Stockton. Now owned by the Cali Pass group along with China Peak, Dodge Ridge and Mountain High, crews cranked up snowmaking around the lower mountain, especially off the new Koala high-speed quad.
Also, resort management has streamlined parking with a new shuttle system, put more into the terrain park, and remodeled the base lodge.
Another Cali Pass member, China Peak (1,400 a., 1,679 vert.) leaned heavily into base facility improvements this summer. Mainstream got a new deck, and new furniture went on the Daylodge.
Snowmaking crews at Fresno's favorite ski and snowboard day-trip destination called up their creative sides to get early cover onto the upper mountain under Chair 2.
Small and cozy Alta Sierra (80 a., 485 vert.) is the southernmost ski and snowboard mountain in the Sierra Nevada range. Located above Bakersfield, the resort got new trail maps and upgraded training from local rescue operations, and a few partners through the Cali Pass.
Known for its gnarly cliffs and extreme terrain, Kirkwood (2,300 a., 2,000 vert.) turned its attention the past two offseasons to getting more snow sooner on the lower mountain. A totally revamped snowmaking system went in this summer at the Vail-owned resort just south of Lake Tahoe. Plus a rope tow went in at the Timber Creek base area to give terrain park-ers more laps.
Also south of Tahoe, Ikon Pass member Sierra at Tahoe (2,000 a., 2,212 vert.) continues to come back from a devastating wildfire in 2021. Two new blue trails have been cut on to pitched access from front side into the West Bowl.
There should be more beginner terrain around the base area this season, as well as expanded terrain park features on Upper Main and Aspens. Plus, more reforestation will bring more contrast to the trail map in the future.
