It's a good year ski- and snowboard-wise if Central and Southern California slopes are open by Thanksgiving.
Mammoth Mountain outside Bishop opens today.
A storm Sunday dumped a foot of snow, and temperatures have been low enough to make manmade snow each day since.
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Mammoth is reporting a 13- to 30-inch base, and enough coverage to ski from the top of the mountain to the bottom.
Four lifts are scheduled to be open today: Discovery Chair, Broadway Express, Face Lift Express and Thunder Bound Express.
The resort is offering ticket and lodging discounts through the weekend, and the Swedish new wave
band The Sounds are scheduled to play Saturday night in the Canyon Lodge. (Check out mammothmountain.com for more details.)
Meanwhile, Mtn. High in Wrightwood may open today–for season-ticket holders.
“If we open tomorrow, it will be from 12pm to 4pm for SEASON PASS HOLDERS ONLY,” states a message on mtnhigh.com.
“If we open Friday, it will be from 8:30am to 4pm for EVERYONE. Limited terrain and services available.”
Translation: bring your rock skis. Early season tickets at Mtn. High are $40 for adults, $25 for children ages 7 to 12 and free for children 6 and under with a paying adult.
Snow Summit and Bear Mountain, the Big Bear resorts accessible with one lift ticket, previously indicated they would open Thanksgiving weekend, but they have been making snow thanks to the ideal conditions of cold air and high winds in the flatlands.
As of 9:24 a.m. Tuesday, this message was posted on snowsummit.com: “Opening day is still unknown but we'll keep you posted as more information becomes available. Go get your wax on friends!”
Here's was Tuesday's 10:53 a.m. message at Bear Mountain (snowboarders sleep in): “I know the anticipation of opening day is killing you but we'll let
the cat out of the bag soon. . . . maybe. Are you filed, waxed and ready to go
yet? Well get started! . . . Any guesses on opening date?”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.