Snow has been slow to arrive in Big Bear this year, but the long-range forecast calls for big changes.
The Bear Mountain resort in Big Bear is adding its first new chairlift in 30 years, a six-seat high-speed lift that will transport its first customers Thursday.
The new Midway lift (also known as Chair 5) can accommodate six skiers at a time. Its features include a short conveyor belt that takes skiers and snowboarders to locations where the lift will pick them up for a ride of approximately 2,500 feet.
“This is our shiny new toy for the season,” Mark Burnett, the resort's vice president of facilities, said at a recent test.
Although Bear Mountain opened chairlifts 7 and 9 for the season on Dec. 13, management waited until the end of the month before opening the Midway chairlift, hoping for more snow that hasn't arrived yet. Skiers can get updates on Big Bear weather, trails and lifts here.
Meanwhile, Alterra Mountain Co., the company behind Bear Mountain, Snow Summit, Snow Valley and several of the West's largest winter resorts, continues to inch forward on a bigger idea: uniting Bear Mountain and Snow Summit with a Couple of ski lifts and other amenities. This would allow skiers and snowboarders to move between resorts without having to drive or board a shuttle bus.
Under the plan, still under review by the U.S. Forest Service, the resorts would build a pair of “Big Bear Connect” lifts. For the plan to work, the two ski operations (known together as Big Bear Mountain Resort) would need to add about 300 acres to the nearly 1,500 acres they now use with Forest Service permits.
The Forest Service, which owns the land, began collecting public input on the proposed expansion plan in 2023.
“We're in the analysis phase,” said Janelle Walker, U.S. Forest Service Mountain Resorts program manager, confirming the project is still moving forward. He said, “We had additional analyzes that were necessary and we are planning to make the draft environmental assessment public in spring 2025.” Even after approval, resort officials noted, the project could take years to complete.
Meanwhile, skiers and snowboarders can try out the new lift at Bear Mountain's.
How the new elevator works
Bear Mountain officials said they have spent about $10.2 million on the new Midway lift, which replaces the now-defunct 1, 2 and 5 chairlifts in the resort's central base area.
Designed by elevator specialist company Leitner-Poma, it is expected to carry passengers 2,494 feet uphill in just 2.5 minutes. The elevator will be able to transport up to 3,200 people per hour, say those responsible for the complex.
“Now all we need is snow,” Burnett said.
Construction, which began in May, included helicopters transporting a dozen towers to their new locations on the slopes, while other workers dug a large hole to hold the lift's many moving and stationary parts at the base of the mountain.
Bear Mountain, known for its terrain parks and halfpipes, has operated under various names in the San Bernardino National Forest since the 1940s. For many years, the resort has relied heavily on artificial snow production, which attracts to many beginner and intermediate skiers and snowboarders.
Burnett estimated that over the past eight years, management has invested $30 million in improvements to Bear Mountain, with larger investments in Snow Summit and Snow Valley.
How Bear Mountain and Snow Summit Could Be Linked
Like many ski resorts, Big Bear includes large tracts of U.S. Forest Service land, where resort businesses operate under long-term special use permits, build improvements and share a portion of their revenue with the Service. Forest.
Bear Mountain, whose permit covers 818 acres, operates seven chairlifts on 198 skiable acres.
Snow Summit, whose permit covers 656 acres, operates 10 chairlifts on 240 skiable acres.
The permits are valid until 2057, resort officials said, and linking them would require another 300 acres of Forest Service land between the two. Within that area, the “disturbance footprint” would be relatively small, Walker said: less than 100 acres.
The main way to travel between resorts now is to drive or take one of the free Intermountain Shuttle buses that leave every half hour for a 10-minute trip between resorts.
Although Bear Mountain and Snow Summit have been under common ownership since 2002, talks about linking them did not intensify until they were purchased by Mammoth Mountain in 2014 and then absorbed in 2017 (along with Mammoth) by the Denver-based company. now known as Alterra Mountain Co.
Alterra, one of the biggest names in the ski industry, operates 19 resorts in the western U.S. and Canada and uses its popular Ikon season passes to market them together.
The company's proposed link between Bear Mountain and Snow Summit is part of a broader improvement detailed in a Big Bear Mountain Resort Development Master Plan, filed by resort officials with the Forest Service in 2020.
In addition to adding acreage and two lifts, which would have an average length of 4,250 feet, the plan would include construction of a Goldmine Mountain Lodge (including a restaurant) on Bear Mountain; creating 60 acres of trails in and near the expansion area; cut down trees; and construct a ski bridge so skiers and snowboarders can cross over an existing mountain road, 2N10, that runs between Snow Summit and Bear Mountain.
Other elements of the proposal: incorporation of a zip line system; 12 new mountain biking trails; a “roller coaster” attraction on land already covered by permits or owned by Alterra; and the addition of around 1,400 parking spaces. Resort officials said the cost of these projects has not yet been determined, pending reviews and approvals.
To put the connection between the resorts in simpler terms, Big Bear Mountain Resorts director of advertising and public relations Justin Kanton said, “we're talking about a narrow ravine with two lifts going in and out.”
“And there's already a path in and out,” Burnett added.
In the month after Alterra's proposed plans were released in August 2023, more than 40 local residents weighed in with letters to the Forest Service, expressing a mix of caution and support.
Mitchell Chivetta warned that “local infrastructure cannot support the current influx of winter visitors.” Even when Highways 330 and 38 are in good condition, Chivetta wrote, “the traffic on these roads caused by inexperienced drivers in winter creates difficulties for local residents and frustrates all drivers.”
By contrast, Justin Kohlas wrote that “it is long overdue to upgrade the resorts and enjoy the mountain experience. Being able to get from Bear Mountain to Snow Summit and back without needing to wait in a shuttle line makes a lot of sense.”
