Skyline Bear Valley Resort

Bear Valley seems to have improved quite a bit this season! They were struggling a lot with the first big storms of the season, understandably it’s hard to deal with feet of snow at a time.I skied there the last weekend of February and it was operating super smoothly. All of the lifts were running and the bottom of the mountain was open too. Conditions were amazing.I used to be a bear valley doubter, but they really got things going well.

Update. I was up there Monday after a storm and they had the whole mountain open. Looked like they were making some progress on getting a park built on super cub as well. Still wish they would bring back the park on the backside with the half pipe like they used to build, but progress is progress.This place used to be so awesome. Grew up coming here in the 80's and 90's. Not sure what happened, but this place is no longer run well. It seems like they have an excuse for not opening the lower mountain, which is where the best terrain on the mountain is, more often than not. I was up there yesterday and they still didn't have the tiny little set of features they call a park dug out from the storm that ended over a week ago. They used to have a really fun park on the backside that you could lap and ride the chair straight back up, but they stopped running that lift and building that park a long time ago for some reason. They even used to have a border cross track and a half pipe. Wish they could get back to running this place like they used to run it and how it deserves to be run.

I did not stay in the lodge. I visited the area for the weekend. Being new to the area, resort, and location, I asked the staff questions. I asked about events, times, equipment, and lessons, and I could not get a straight/correct answer from the staff. I was disappointed with the lack of information they could provide. Food was very unexpected. Burgers and fries, and a buffet dinner. The dinner consisted of sticky pasta with splashed on sauce (2 types). This was the very sad to see and purchase.Food drinks: Burgers and fries. Bring your own food and drinks.

Currently waiting in line to finally access our 1st lift of the day and it's 11:30, will probably be noon by the time we make it on the chair. Extremely poor staffing for the holiday weekend. It should not take 2 hours to get rentals and then another hour to get onto a lift. The website is horrible and is in desperate need of being updated and functioning. Sad to drop a grand for a day for the family to probably only get 2-3 runs in. Unacceptable!!! Do better Bear Valley.

The lift tickets are somewhat pricier than they used to be, but that’s just inflation. If you plan to visit regularly, consider buying a season pass; after just five weekend days, it pays for itself.