Our last day of groomed cross country and snowshoe trails rapidly approached on April 3rd, 2022. Looking back at the winter season, October brought a couple of teaser snowstorms before returning to Indian Summer for November and early December. Then in mid-December, the tide turned, and we received over 4 feet of snow. Now we were off to the races and our opening day was December 17th, 2021. More big storms arrived at the start of the holiday season, and we closed for a day on December 27th due to hazardous deep snow conditions. The sun eventually came out before the New Year, and so did the excited skiers, snowshoers, sledders, and tubers. Additional trails kept opening, and by mid-January, we were 100% open with 60+ kilometers of groomed trails extending all the down to Tamarack.
January and February brought several high wind events but little snow. These conditions caused hard and icy trail conditions. Fortunately, we have a trick up our sleeve by implementing the "Renovator ."This device replaces a snowcat blade, aggressively breaks up the snow before it is tilled, and rejuvenates the snow surface back to packed powder. This technique was instrumental before our Bjornloppet ski race on February 13th, where racers from across the west visited Bear Valley and were pleasantly surprised at our excellent ski conditions. Our groomers got a lot of Renovator experience this winter.
March continued dry, and the trail system got smaller. The snowcat drivers became creative and found route alternatives and even some new trails. At the end of the month, a small storm of 8 inches was just enough to revitalize the snow surface to provide excellent skiing on the final weekend of April 2 & 3. While we wanted to keep the trails open awhile longer, the "meadow has spoken," and it was time to close. While each year is different, this winter still provided excellent skiing and adventures in Bear Valley. Now it's time to get excited about summer; more on that later. Cheers!
PS - don't forget that our Spring Season Pass Sale ends on April 30th.
