My California - Snow Valley

derekrichardson (67)adminin SoCal Steemit • 5 months ago

For this weeks Show Us Your California contest by @socalsteemit I headed up into the San Bernardino mountains for a really fun day of snowboarding at...

Snow Valley!!

At the end of last winter Snow Valley became part of the Big Bear Mountain Resorts which also includes Snow Summit and Bear Mountain. I haden't skied/snowboarded at Snow Valley in many years since the season pass I usually get didn't work there... until now! So I had to go and check it out. I actually learned how to ski there when I was a young child, but a lot of the runs there I had never skied so it was really exciting to get to explore some new terrain. So I headed up highway 330 to highway 18 through Running Springs and Arrowbear to the base of the mountain. One nice thing about Snow Valley compared to the other Big Bear resorts is that the drive to get there is actually quite a bit shorter which was nice. I arrived early and was surprised at how few people were there in the parking lot. And not dealing with any crowds was another plus. As soon as they opened the gates I headed over to chair 1, the Snow Valley Express, which provides access to all the runs on the front side. The conditions in the morning were great. Nice smooth groomed snow. Firm, but not icy at all. I started out by taking "The Edge" to "East Bowl", and then to "Little Bowl", and just kept working my way across the mountain with a goal to try to ride every run on the mountain. So I did several runs from chair 1 with the best ones being "West Run", "Surprise Run", and "Big Bowl".

Snow Valley trail map

Waiting for the gates to open

Heading to chair 1

The San Gorgonio mountains and the Santa Ana river drainage from the top of chair 1

Riding down "The Edge" on my first run

The ski patrol hut at the top of chair 1

Looking at the almost empty slopes

Views looking west from chair 1 with the San Gabriel mountains in the distance

Overlooking the base of the mountain from "Race Peak"

Views from "West Run"

After I had rode all the runs from chair 1 I headed over to the backside. I rode chair 9 a few times, getting off at the mid point to ride "Bobcat Alley" and "Richards". After that I rode chair 9 all the way over to the Slide Peak area where I started riding chair 11 to get to all the runs there. I started on the west side of Slide Peak riding "Nord Valley" and "West Slide" and then went to the east side riding "East Slide", "The Face", "Show Me", and "Snake Run". The latter two were a bit thin and had lots of bushes and small trees poking out through the snow. So I only rode them a couple times, but both "West Slide" and "East Slide" were really nice and I rode them both several times. And with all those done I had achieved my goal of riding every run at Snow Valley! It was a really beautiful day, sunny and warm with a few nice puffy clouds, but as it got into the afternoon the warmer temperatures made the snow start to get wet and sticky which made riding a bit more difficult.

At the bottom of chair 9 on my way to the backside

Selfie on chair 9

Chair 9 mid station

Slide Peak from chair 9

At the base of chair 11

Views from chair 11

Views west from the top of Slide Peak

Riding chair 11

"West Slide"

Views east from the top of Slide Peak

Riding down "Snake Run"

Looking back up "Show Me" with all the little trees and bushes sticking out creating an obstacle course

"East Slide"

After taking a bunch of runs on Slide Peak I decided to head back down to the base of the mountain for a lunch break at my truck in the parking lot. During my lunch the clouds really started to build up and when I got back from lunch the mountain was almost totally shaded which made visibility a bit more difficult. And after a few runs off chair 1 the poor visibility and increasingly rough snow conditions led to me having a big wipe out near the top of "The Ladder". As I've gotten older recovering from wipe outs has become harder and after this one I decided it should probably be the end of my day. So I made one last run down "Big Bowl" and then called it a day. And despite ending with a big wipe out it was really great day and I'm hoping to get in at least one more ski day before this season comes to an end.