Hot Attractions for Cool Customers

Now that the season has officially begun, with a little snow on the slopes and much more presumably on the way, which ski area will you be visiting?

They all want your money, of course, and some are coming up with creative ways to get you to their neck of the woods.

Squaw Valley in the Lake Tahoe area, for example, has a bungee-jumping tower.

Closer to home, Snow Valley in Running Springs is promoting, among other things, Margarita Beach, “the ongoing, on-mountain party of the century,” complete with beach chairs, volleyball and “the infamous body-bag races.”

At nearby Bear Mountain, there is the Magic Minor’s Camp, a theme-oriented ski school for children to keep them occupied and interested while their parents ski unfettered on the real slopes.

“We are the only ones to have a Magic Carpet,” ski area spokeswoman Judi Bowers said. “It’s basically a people-mover that kids get to ride up and then they ski down. It’s geared especially for the younger ones, who are [intimidated] by chairlifts.”

Bear Mountain doesn’t have a Margarita Beach, but it will soon have a Yurt. That’s right, a Yurt. “It’s basically a Mongolian or Indonesian-style grass hut with a huge deck above the halfpipe, where people can hang out, have a little food and listen to music,” Bowers said. “We hope to have the Yurt opened in time for Christmas.”

Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake is taking a less-gimmicky approach to getting skiers and snowboarders to its mountain.

“The big news this year is a significant lowering of our adult lift ticket price from last year’s $42 down to $32,” Snow Summit’s preseason press packet says.

Undercutting the competition, if only by a few dollars, is an effective marketing ploy, if not a glamorous one.

“Snow Summit’s new pricing strategy is intended to build the Southern California ski/snowboard market by increasing participation,” said Richard Kun, president of Snow Summit Ski Corp. “We’re not attempting to steal market share from other resorts.”

And all snowflakes are alike.

In any case, marketing directors at ski areas throughout California will agree on this much: Gone are the days when a little snow and a few lifts are all it takes to get people to the slopes.

“You have to realize that we are not just competing with other ski areas, we are competing with Disneyland and the beaches and all the other places people go in their free time,” Bowers said, adding that a rock-climbing wall also will be brought to Bear Mountain on an occasional basis.

All this stuff helps, perhaps, but serious skiers and snowboarders will keep coming back only if the snow is good and the experience first-rate.

To this end, Mammoth Mountain over the summer spent $18 million to help assure itself of being the destination of choice for Southland skiers, despite being 300 miles away.

Improvements include three high-speed quad chairs to replace Chairs 2, 3 and 6, but more notably, and perhaps not surprisingly, the construction of the “Unbound,” a sprawling terrain park, which not only features sculpted jumps, obstacles and a halfpipe, but on-hill music and a mid-park cafe.

“Things like this may not have been necessary before, but today skiers are fewer and more choosy and they want more for their dollar,” said Jennifer Renner, spokeswoman for Mammoth. “It’s a whole different business now.”

WET OR WHITE?

That was both the question and the concern for Southland resort operators as a major storm made its way ashore Friday morning, with forecasters calling for a snow level of about 7,500 feet.

The concern was still there Friday afternoon when the storm filtered into the mountains and forecasters turned out to be right. A misty rain began to fall at the base elevations--at or below 7,000 feet--of some of the four local ski areas that are open.

“I have to be honest with you, we are getting rain and not snow,” said John McColly, marketing manager at Wrightwood’s Mountain High.

But there was also reason for optimism. Many meteorologists on Friday revised their forecasts and were predicting a dramatic drop in the snow level today and especially tonight, to a low of about 4,000 feet in some areas.

If they are correct, the four resorts currently open on a limited basis--Mountain High and Snow Summit, Bear Mountain and Snow Valley in the Big Bear area--might get enough snow to significantly expand their operations.

What it may mean for ski and snowboard areas that do not make snow is enough natural stuff to provide a base or, possibly, for an opening as early as next week.

“We’ve been busy making last-minute preparations just in case,” said Dave Wilson, general manager at Big Air Green Valley, a snowboard park near Lake Arrowhead. “We’ve made sure our food supply is in good order and just finished stocking up on beer.”

That’s ready enough for some.