SKIING OPTIONS IN L.A. ????

The closest ski areas for LA are Mt High and Big bear (snow summit also).  Mt high being closer (located in wrightwood) of the two I think depending on what part of LA county you are in.  Mt High is really small, especially if it's a crappy year and they only open the west resort.  See Mt high is is broken down into 3 small resorts (west, east, and north).  The west is the main resort that has the park and all the jumps and rails.  The park isn't that big (they are always adding new features though), but depending on the snowfall they do sometimes build some pretty good sized jumps on a couple of runs.  Prepare for massive snowboard crowds if you go on the weekends....it is jammed pack.  It really is a small mtn.

The east resort is bigger and has one lift to the top.  The east is known as the skier side, with pretty decent longer runs.  Can get some great speed and have fun over here (but no real features are built).  They don't seem to care as much about east as west (afterall they cater to snowboarders), and sometimes it doesn't even open during a season.  Last year it was fully open though with good snow coverage.  But still not a powder area at all.  East is usually pretty baron also (being bigger and all the boarders being at west).

The north is mainly small beginner/intermediate quasi tree runs.  But its main purpose is their new tubing park.  You will find the family element here and I'd advise you to stay away, lest you be bombarded with 5 yr olds and dumb parents getting in your way.

I believe big bear has a bigger park than Mt High,but  it's still a small mtn compared to mammoth. 

Sorry bub....LA sucks for skiing.   But these are your best bets.  Look them up and you can see how far of a drive they are from your location.  But for anything more serious I'd get some friends and make trips to mammoth atleast.

Any snow is better than none though.

http://www.mthigh.com/

How can you forget about Baldy? Unfortunately, it's completely hit or miss. In a good year, it's steep and deep. I've seen years where the base exceeded 100 inches. In a bad year, it's a white strip of death. I know they have a couple of park features, but thats not why anyone goes there. It's the only "real" skiing in SoCal and it's 45 minutes from downtown. Hopefully the off years will be better now that they've improved their snowmaking.

http://www.shopbaldy.com/

the dump

what school do you go to? USC and UCLA and probably some other schools have ski teams. People go to Mammoth every weekend. Granted, it's a decent drive, but it's completely worth it.

Bear had some pretty "real" skiing last February. I went and it was waist deep. Sure I went to go jib around and hit the soso jump line, but rode powder all weekend instead. haha. awesome.

Funny, I had the same experience upon moving to LA for school two years ago.

I skied Baldy the first year hoping for some sorta decent big mountain terrain, but they only have like one run that should actually be classified as a west coast double black. The rest of the technical terrain at Baldy is only techy because you have to jump from bare patch to bare patch. BUT, if you can throw a 5 or 7, you'll quickly have a following of twenty little kids who think you're a pro. If you can backflip, people will buy you endless drinks at the lodge. I kid you not.

Mountain High is about the same distance to me as Baldy (about 50 mins), and Horizon's depiction pretty well summed it up. Shit ton of snowboarders, and a handful of pretty good 20 - 40 foot jumps. The do a decent job maxing out the West resort with rails.

In my opinion, if you can afford to drive to Mammoth every week, do it. If you can afford to drive to Bear every week, do it. If you're a starving college student who wants to live out of his car 3-4 days a week at a shitty LA resort, I can tell you all the tricks of the trade.

Skiing in LA is a lot better than it is in georgia so be happy.

dude i'm in the same situation as you. What i tried to do though is find like 5 other friends that wanna ski or snowboard as much as you and then you guys can split the driving time or gas money each trip. Just curious, where do you go to school?

Drive to Mammoth. Leave at 3:30 in the morning and you'll be there by 8. Ski all day, then have a friend drive home. I lived in LA for the first 18 years of my life and this was the program for a longggg time.

buy a june pass it is only $125 and is 20 min from mammoth.  i go to cal poly pomona and was on the team last year.  the team thing is fun but is cost a few hundred dollars to be on.  the best part was $46 lift tickets on race days at mammoth. seanpistol is right about the 3:00 runs.  i usally leave friday mornig at3 then ride friday sat sun and then drive home for school.   mt high is a good option if you have afternoon classes or work to get back for.  bear is far better then high but i never get back for anything when i go to bear.

I came to LA almost 5 years ago to attend film school at Loyola Marymount University.

I promptly proceeded to realize that 1.) the babes were amazingly hot and 2.) I was living in mexico, and the skiing would suck.

here's a breakdown of the local anthills, based on closeness;


1.) Mountain High
I fucking hate this place. But I always end up going a handful of times. It's close, and the rails are OK, and if theres enough snow they have a couple flip-able jumps. Totally jam packed with snowboarders. The lifts here have turnstyles, as if you were cattle being lined up at a dairy farm. It's  a small hill broken up into 3 pieces, that are rarely ski-able in between. Last year we had a big dump though and three unprepared snowboarders died in an avi.
Drive time from downtown = approx 1 hour

2.) Baldy
This place doesn't try to hang with its neighboring park hangouts MT high and Bear. However, once every three years or so, it gets dumped on (usually not until march /april, and then it holds for about 2 weeks) and offers great backcountry and steep glades. I know, it sounds rediculous, but some of the chutes off the north face are WORLD class.  you will need skins and u will ruin your skis on rocks. Check out this incredible article:
http://www.sierradescents.com/skiing/san-antonio/2006/girly-man-chute.php
Drive time from downtown = approx 1:15.

3.) Snow Summit
Big Bear's sister mountain, this place is loaded with gapers who used to ski and ended up taking a job that forced them to be in Los Angeles. Big bear, with the park, attracts all the no-polers and snowboarders, and this place is usually less crowded, mostly older skiers. Similar terrrain overall. Pretty below average.
Drive time from downtown = approx 2:30

4.) Big Bear
If you're into jibs, this place is definitely worth it. They have super creative setups, and the sunny warm weather guarantees a fun park day. On the 1-5 "powder" days, head up to the eastern side of the resort and the fixed grip trip for some of the steepest glades in CA. Other than that, be sure to calculate your speeds because in the morning, you might be clearing a 40 footer from an easy run-in, but by lunchtime, the lips get so slushy you will need to haul ass or else you're casing.
on the weekends jibs get rutted out by snowboarders.
Any skiers that are there will not wear poles, and beware of "tight pants wide stance tall tee" steez, it's the only one accepted at BB.
DT = approx 2:40

5.) Mammoth
Win.
enough has been written about it so i dont need to. It's worth the trip if you can find consistent carpools.



also dont miss the rail jam at USC in the coming weeks

word word, thanks guys, that is exactly what i needed. Im kickin it as USC this year, and it looks like ill be leaving 3:30am every friday morning!!!!  so stoked!!!! big difference from snowmass 6 min away. fuck. FUCK.

USC? you gotta look into the ski and snowboard team. abek on here is the secretary of the team, message him. the team has a sick house in mammoth for the whole season. it's like 400 bucks to join for the season and use the house as much as you want. people drive up and back pretty much every day, except maybe mondays and tuesdays. ski/snowboard team is by far the best thing about USC.

So they went hipster? Last time I skied in Socal, maybe 6 years ago. Everyone there was trying to be gangster as possible. I saw multiple people with grease pencil graffitiing the chairlifts, fucking tough upper middle class white kids from wrightwood, palmdale and san bernadino.

How long does it take to get to Big Bear from San Diego without traffic.

not sure, a while.

google map it. there is always traffic.