posted by Jim Gentling

OK, so I have been remiss in maintaining an up to date blog – now its catch up time. Let’s start with the Lower Mountain, Grizzly and Kodiak rumor control. Now that the lower mountain & Griz lift are open, the rumor that the USFS will not let us open it, should be dispelled.

SOOO what takes so long to get it open? The ski patrol as well as BVM Management and Owners will always err on the side of safety in opening the lower mountain. The opening procedures require a diligent and prudent AC (avalanche control) plan to work the lower mountain into submission. That generally takes 2 days of snow safety work. That work has to be done by the ski patrol before we can send any other depts. or staff into the area. Once the Ski Patrol gives the all clear, other depts. respond with their respective tasks. The patrol then starts putting up tower pads, stringing perimeter ropes and setting up the signage at the gates. The Lift Dept has to build ramps and a maze for Grizzly & the Grooming Dept sets up the roads. ONCE AGAIN - NO – THE GRIZZLY BOWL WILL NOT BE GROOMED!!!! We will however work on Snow Valley once we have sufficient coverage.

As you can imagine this is a very exhaustive and tedious process for all involved. Now for all of you data driven skiers the Grizz opened this year in Dec for the 1st time in the last 3 years .

As to the future of Kodiak - Yes - Kodiak is in the process of being decommissioned.

Just as important – Section 5 – Home Run/Lunch Run opened Friday Dec.26th the earliest opening in the last 3 years and our intentions are to groom Lunch Run, at a minimum, on Friday nights for Saturday morning. So take a cruiser down Lunch Run to Headwaters in the Village for lunch or just make a “bus run” or two!!

The grand opening of the new terrain park was delayed by mass quantities of snow (170% of the monthly December avg). But it did open on Saturday the 27th. SO, “what’s up with having a terrain park again” (you ask) – “we all thought you were against them, over the last few years all you did is trash talk them”. WELL, all I wanted was the proper equipment & talent to create a park with unique features, elements and in the right location…and then build one. NOW we have the Park Bully, Jon Mahanna, Mike Schimke and crew, $10,000 in new hits and West World as the trail – so here we go!!. Build it and they will come and you did!! Opening day in the park saw at least 500 users, unbelievable!!

You may notice that some of your favorite trails are not being groomed, we are trying something new – if it works BVMT just may end up with couple of bump (mogul) runs. We intend to leave Lone Pine, Tigers & Mokelume ungroomed in order to let the bumps build up. This is a work in progress, there will be some trial and error as we go – we will monitor it and see if it works or how well it works. If it does work and then bumps get ugly we may groom and start over.


Let’s talk Koala – the rumor is Koala is going to be closed Monday through Friday. The Facts: Over the last 3 seasons and with the installation of Polar, we have operated Koala as visits require and this season is no different. Polar has changed the traffic patterns and Koala use. When skier/boarder visits warrant running the lift - the lift will run, other wise it is on hold but available and if enough skier/boarders are here we will run it. Typically over the last few years there have been some days in January, a few more in February and in March where Koala did not operate but always available. The days at the highest risk of having Koala on a standby basis is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and on an occasional Monday. You can count on it operating Friday, Saturday, Sunday and most (not all) Mondays.

As a reminder, the trails are all open and the terrain is easily accessible from the Tuck’s Run and we even groom a trail in that area. Yes it takes a little longer and slightly more effort to get there but think of it as your own private ski area when you get there, and enjoy the serenity.

Well that’s enough for now, as I need to get this to the presses for launch. Its been a great beginning of the season after a short & brief rocky start. Get out and enjoy your home away from home as there are only 89 days of skiing left!!!

New Blogs coming soon.....

We are excited for the 2008/09 season too, but we are busy with construction both on the moutnain and in the lodge. We'll get to our offices soon to get you up to date on what's new. Bring on the snow.....stay tuned for more soon.

Opening - December 8th

First - Yes, I am still here as the COO and General Manager of the Mountain and I now report directly to Martin the CEO, (no longer to someone in Colorado) of the Bear Valley Resort Group. As Martin builds our company for 2010, he will keep me on the straight and narrow - focused on continuing to improve your service experience and the nuts and bolts of the operations. Now that we have cleared that up!

It's finally happening - the snowmaking crew has made a mountain of snow - (litterly). They have created enough snow to open a couple of trails thanks to a cold Thanksgiving Holiday and now our OPENING DAY is upon us. As we approach Saturday the 8^th, it's only getting better - because it's currently snowing as well. While we all have high hopes for this storm being the "big one," the kind of dump that the Sierra's are famous for, the reality is that it is the FIRST storm of the season.

Now the big question is "how much do you need to open Grizzly"? Well let's table that discussion until we have a settled 70" base and get back down to opening day.

Opening day will have at least Moke West and Lodge Run on Saturday, with a couple of terrain features scattered about, but, we are also poised to expand terrain and lifts as the snow accumulates.

Again, the reality of the situation is that this pending storm will be the first appreciable precipitation that we have had since October. If this is the "the big one" we have a plan to open as much new and additional terrain as possible as soon as possible. BUT - we will march forward in a methodical and prudent manor to manage a sustainable opening and not be just a flash in the pan.

So what the H--does that mean? Well you can look forward to us - effectively & efficiently managing the snow. The first 12" to 15" will need to be track packed where ever the snowcats can go, this is to establish that initial base. Track packing is the compressing the snow as close to the ground as possible by using just the tracks of the snowcats no tillers, compactor bars or rollers. The next snows can then be groomed with the implements mentioned above.

Priority wise we intend to work the Cub and Super Cub areas first as they take the least amount of snow and are integral to the beginner portion of our business. Next we want the Back Side - at least to POOH chair (yep, I know, I know we should run Pooh all the time - another blog). Well, what about Koala? Not to worry it's in the mix also.

Our goal is to open as much terrain as possible, as soon as possible in a reasonable and prudent manner. We want to be open as much if not more than you want us open. One significant storm may set us for our next big push to open Cub/Super Cub. Next substantial storm after that - the Backside & Koala lifts would be a strong possibility.

May Ullr reward us all with a great winter & let the games begin!!! - gentling

Bear Valley Gears Up for the Season & Welcomes New CEO

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NEW SNOW - COME AND GET IT!

Today I indulged in an hour of powder pleasure to capture images (for the marketing office) of the latest offering from Mother Nature. Over a FOOT of new snow, 15 degrees, light to moderate winds and a mountain nearly all to myself. Normally when I go out to take care of on-hill work :-) it's a quick boot up, scoot out the back door of the admin building, take a couple runs solo and get back to the office! Today, I was lucky enough to run into friends as I was heading out... friends I rarely, in the 15 years I've worked here, get to ski with! Today, I twisted their arms and asked them to ski for me so I could snap a couple pics of them tracking up the new snow! My instructions were simple. "Ski fast, ski right at me, hug the tree line... oh, and most importantly SMILE"! Thanks Rick and Graz for humoring me!

My advice, if you can work it into your schedule, make time to get up and enjoy the fantastic Mid-winter snow conditions this week/weekend at Bear! ps - Grizz & Snow Valley were on hold today (closed due to high avalanche activity)... should re-open tomorrow after Patrol conducts safety measures... check the website or call the main line 209.753.2301 x0 after 8:30am Wednesday for the lower mountain opening schedule.
Enjoy - Arch

Blogging Polar

Well it's been two weeks since March 2, 2007, a day permanently etched on my brain, the day Polar Express went down for the entire afternoon. I have been agonizing on how to best address all of you regarding the cumulative effects of the day and the connected actions (or non-actions) of the 3(+/-) hr ordeal.

After writing pages and pages, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing I can do is communicate why it happened and what we are going to do to avoid such incidents in the future. The initial failure of the lift going down was somewhat of a fluke - a simple procedure that went awry. That's one thing, but the chain of unfortunate circumstances that followed, well, bottom line - there are just not enough words to effectively communicate how we failed you. The number of "should haves" and "why didn't we" is just plain unacceptable - we could have, and should have been better prepared to respond, and for that I owe all of those impacted by the incident a sincere apology and a "Thank You" for your patience through it all.

Since the events of that afternoon we have been very focused on ensuring that we do everything in our power to not have a repeat. We have held several debriefing meetings to assess our successes and failures of the day and action plans for the future. In attendance were the Lift Maintenance Director, Patrol Director, Lift Operations Manager, the Mountain Manager and Guest Services Director. We spent much of the time analyzing our errors and lack of effective communication. As a result - prevention, of course, is our highest priority. Immediately followed by a quicker reaction time to get to resolution, and improved communications to keep our guests apprized of the situation. Once again, I am truly sorry for the inconveniences we created and the heart ache we caused all those directly and indirectly affected, I'm confident we have covered and addressed every item that we can control and will be better prepared to respond the "next time". I wish I could guarantee that the lift will never go down, but I know that would be foolish, and time will tell if our efforts to improve will be successful.

Lift performance and lift down time have always been top of mind for me, we track it and chart it, and believe it or not we are always strategizing on how to reduce it. We track separately the operational downtime, mechanical downtime, electrical down time as well as the uncontrollable conditions of wind and my personal favorite, PG&E. Below is a brief summary of one of our tracking matrixes. This matrix does not include stop time for a mis-load/unload and has about a 10% margin of error. We use this information to better train our staff, upgrade our lift components, set part replacement schedules and establish service and maintenance schedules. I will let the numbers speak for themselves, but this chart compares the total for all last season to the beginning of this season to March 3rd.

As a result of the debriefing sessions, Poma is coming next week to further access the situation, train and retrain our maintenance staff and render some assistance on several nagging mechanical and electrical problems. In order to do this we need to bring the lift down and out of service for a day. So on Tuesday, March 20 Polar will be closed and Pooh will be operating for the day. Not sure yet on how to record this non operating day in the matrix.

Changing the subject - something else near and dear to all of our hearts - the LOWER MOUNTAIN - Just putting you all on notice - without a drop in temps or new snow Griz is not long for this world/season. I can't say how long exactly but it will most likely close before April 15 without a change in the weather. Get your runs in now - and let's hope for some new snow. The natives tell me, that just when we start thinking spring is here - we get a nice dumping! Would love to see it!

Cheers - Genling

Hows it goin everyone,

I just thought I might add a little bit to the blog... In fact this is my very first blog ever, so please feel free to respond to this to let me know if I am doin' it right or if you have any feelings on the topic I wish to bring up today. Hmmm... my topic...okay... steeps... I guess that word might relate to the tea aficionados out there or fellow snowsports enthusiasts. This blog is relative to the intermediate to advanced snow "riders" out there but you tea folks are more than welcome to read on.

This time of the season I get to thinking about pretty much one thing... The steeper aspects of my favorite mountain. I really think about the "closer to vertical" portions of Bear Valley all the time but this is the time of year when I really get to refine my skills in these areas. With a great base of snow underfoot and the warmer weather, it really makes for sweet conditions to slide around on the steeps down in the Grizzly Bowl. Yes, the black diamonds and the double black diamonds in the lower mountain. The snow has been perfect for challenging this terrain as it starts to soften up around 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. and the top to bottom laps that have me breathing hard, feeling challenged, probably a little sweaty, and completely amped! Riding up the Grizzly chair, looking down on the terrain which is simply known as "the Grizz," and knowing that I had just growled back at it for a bit of time.

Now for most folks out there, a forty-plus degree pitch can seem a bit overwhelming, undoable, and downright scary. I am here to say that for those of you that are feeling a bit complacent in your intermediate to early advanced levels of snow sliding, the "steeps" are a great place to expand your abilities and love for your sport. I am also here to say that with a little bit of guidance- perhaps from a Bear Valley Snowsports Instructor- and a bit of motivation, you can and should get out there and make it happen. Getting versed in these spring time conditions on the steeps will allow you to feel comfortable and excel in the other aspects of your skiing or riding... guaranteed. Plus, if you happen to "accidentally" take a wrong turn with your buddy and end up looking down a piece of steep, bumped out terrain, the look on their face is always classic... confidence always shines... and last to the bottom always buys.

Come out to Bear Valley, sign up for a "Steeps" private lesson... Challenge "the Grizz"...make your friend buy...

Tip for the steeps: Shorter, tighter turns allow us to control our speed. Skiers keep your hands and body forward down the "fall" line. Riders keep your hips parallel to the slope.

Hope to see you guys up here- and we serve Earl Grey in the cafe!