When Mother Nature doesn’t deliver, it’s up to technology — and a dedicated crew willing to work in freezing cold weather while the rest of the world sleeps — to bring winter to the slopes.
There has been an unseasonably warm start to this winter, with local ski resorts cranking on their snowmaking machines to blanket slopes for enthusiasts eagerly awaiting the start of the ski and snowboard season.
It’s nothing new for resort operators in Southern California; winters can be fickle and unpredictable for the mountain towns wedged between desert landscape and the Pacific Ocean. Some seasons, the mountains are a winter wonderland blanketed in deep snow, while other years, the season doesn’t get started until after the holidays. And some winters, snow hardly shows up at all.
“There’s a reason why Southern California is such a desirable place to vacation and live: the good weather,” said Dan Nielsen, senior director of mountain operations for Big Bear Mountain Resort. “Then put a ski resort there that relies on a mountain environment; we just have to work around the weather, basically. We’re not getting the substantial, sustained amount that Mammoth gets. We gotta make it on our own.”
But keeping the slopes open and covered in snow isn’t just a matter of flipping a switch. There’s a science to snowmaking, and it still requires some help from the weather.
Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) The machines were cranking to make snow at Bear Mountain ahead of opening day on Dec. 3, 2025, with resort crews taking advantage of the cold temps. The weather has to be just right for snowmaking, a serious science to bring snow to Southern California during warmer winters. (Photo by Laylan Connelly/SCNG) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) The machines were cranking to make snow at Bear Mountain ahead of opening day on Dec. 3, 2025, with resort crews taking advantage of the cold temps. The weather has to be just right for snowmaking, a serious science to bring snow to Southern California during warmer winters. (Photo by Laylan Connelly/SCNG) The machines were cranking to make snow at Bear Mountain ahead of opening day on Dec. 3, 2025, with resort crews taking advantage of the cold temps. The weather has to be just right for snowmaking, a serious science to bring snow to Southern California during warmer winters. (Photo by Laylan Connelly/SCNG) The machines were cranking to make snow at Bear Mountain ahead of opening day on Dec. 3, 2025, with resort crews taking advantage of the cold temps. The weather has to be just right for snowmaking, a serious science to bring snow to Southern California during warmer winters. (Photo by Laylan Connelly/SCNG) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) Show Caption1 of 17Snowmaking at local snow resorts is a serious science, and a must for Southern California with fickle and unpredictable weather. This year, with warm weather lingering, the machines have been cranking at Snow Summit and Bear Mountain to keep the slopes covering in snow for visitors. (Photo courtesy of Max Yusko/BBMR) ExpandSystems have improved in the more than two decades Nielsen has been in the snowmaking biz, with greener technology and millions in investments poured into the operations, touted as among the best in the country.
Mostly, the resort relies on two types of guns for layering the mountainside with snow: air and water guns and fan guns, he said.
The resort’s three properties, Snow Summit, Bear Mountain and Snow Valley, have 700 hydrants, 330 snow guns and 40 fans, with the ability to transform up to 6,000 gallons of water into snow every minute.
High-pressure air and water guns draw from water lines embedded in the hillside, so they are in a fixed position. Fan guns, on the other hand, can be moved around to disperse the snow.
The air and water system works in marginal temperatures, but is not as energy efficient as fan guns.
“We do like to have both of those products, the old school air-water guns work good when it’s marginal, and the fan guns take over when the temps are good,” Nielsen said.
Fan guns only work well when it’s cold enough, about 25 “wet bulb” degrees, which takes into account the temperature and humidity mix, Nielsen said.
The wet-bulb temperature is determined using a thermometer covered with a wet cloth. This damp cloth measures the cooling effect of evaporation, providing a more accurate reading of the actual cooling conditions.
In the past decade, resort owner Alterra Mountain Company has invested about $6 million in snow-making guns, repairing water lines and improving compressors in Big Bear. A new substation put in recently at Snow Summit to reduce dependence on diesel fuel cost another $10 million, said Justin Kanton, spokesman for BBMR.
“We’re putting in some serious investment and we will continue to do so, just to make sure they are efficient and economical, and environmentally sustainable, as possible,” he said.
The best days to make snow are when nighttime temps reach the low 20s, combined with low humidity and light wind.
The crews work through the night to take advantage of when those temps get just right, often around the clock into the next day. Sometimes, they only have a window of a few hours to work with when the temperature drops.
Once the snow is placed onto the slopes, it takes a physically demanding effort to move it all around, using snowcats and shovels, to make sure the snowy pathways are smoothed out and just right for riders.
Chris Winslow, director of mountain operations at Snow Summit, started working at the mountain resort 30 years ago and quickly found a passion for making snow.
“Once it’s in your blood, it’s hard to get rid of. You get to see what you do for a day’s work in feet — some nights you make 5 or 10 feet of snow, it’s just so fulfilling. It’s wonderful,” he said. “We make so many people so happy with what we create.”
There are no chemicals used in the process, only compressed air and water pressure that shoots moisture to the sky, where it crystallizes before reaching the ground.
For the base, heavier snow is used to pack it down, and a lighter layer is used for the top to make it fluffy and soft.
“It’s a serious science,” Winslow said. “It’s hard to make snow in Southern California. We literally would not be able to ski or ride in Southern California without snowmaking.
“You just can’t survive without it, it is the lifeblood of our ski resort.”
Miles of pipeline run underneath the city to the resorts, tapping into the lake to pull water to transform the liquid to snow.
It’s more like “renting” the water, with 75% returning to the lake through groundwater and run off, Kanton said.
The amount of water used equates to about 4 inches off the top of the lake, much less than naturally evaporates each year, he added.
Snow Valley uses a different system, tapping into deep water wells to help keep its slopes snowy.
When that resort, about 30 minutes down the hill, was acquired and became a sister resort a few years ago, the crews had no idea how different the climate was just a short distance away.
“Snow Valley is a whole different entity on how the storms hit, how moisture comes in, inversion levels, moisture, everything,” Winslow said. “It’s really interesting to see how dynamic it is and how different it is. It’s really fun.”
While sledding is open at Snow Valley, the slopes remain closed – just needing the temperature to drop to get it just right.
“When we open something, we never want to close, we pride ourselves deep on that,” Nielsen said. “The hard part is, they’re so close. We just need one mediocre night down there and we’ll be off to the races.”
There are a few factors out of the crews’ control, such as a growing number of power outages that can impact snowmaking operations. High traveler numbers can also strain the power infrastructure, potentially affecting the ability to produce snow.
Also, strong winds can complicate the process, interfering with the precise placement of snow, making it challenging to control where snow accumulates on the slopes.
When asked if climate change is a factor — if dry winters are becoming more of a norm — Winslow said he’s been doing this long enough to know that there’s always been a range of weather patterns that can fluctuate year to year.
“We’re skiing in Southern California — it’s high desert skiing — it’s always going to be warm, always going to be beautiful,” Nielsen said. “We will get the weather, we will get the snow. It’s just a matter of time.”
The key is to be ready when it does show, Winslow said.
“Who knows, in two weeks it could be 5 feet (of snow),” he said. “We just react to it.”
The resorts blow snow throughout the winter, until about February. Even if a big storm rolled through and dumped 3 feet of snow, they would still be aggressively making snow, said Nielsen.
The ultimate goal is to achieve a base depth of about 4 feet.
“It gives you that guaranteed snowpack for the customers that we just can’t rely on Mother Nature for,” Nielsen said. “We want to just provide that good base throughout the entire year for the customers, so we’re not skiing on rocks or having a bad surface.”
Snowboarder Jack Thompson traded Huntington Beach’s waves for the mountain slopes a few years ago. He’s kicked off the season with a challenge to do 10 runs each day, starting when the resorts opened in early December.
He’s never seen the resort struggle to open this late in the season, he said, and can see the crews working hard with the small windows they have for snowmaking, warm weather making it challenging.
“Nature is moody and can’t decide if it’s winter or summer,” Thompson said.
Mountain High in Wrightwood has also been making snow to keep its runs open, following one storm just ahead of Thanksgiving that allowed the resort to open.
This year, the resort invested $150,000 in new snow guns at the mountain’s East Resort and a low-energy fan gun that improves the mountain’s ability to make snow using less energy.
The resort also automated the snowmaking “pumping system” at its West Resort, a multi-year effort that now allows resort operators to make snow completely remotely, leading to quicker start-ups and later shut-downs.
Over the past few years, the installation of new low- and mid-energy snowguns has reduced Mountain High’s annual diesel consumption, according to the resort, allowing it to use about 1% of what it did a decade ago.
“This is something we are always adding to,” said John McColly, vice president of sales and marketing. “Over the years, we’ve retrofitted existing, outdated equipment with new technology. There’s two reasons for having the best equipment — it’s more efficient and makes more snow with less diesel, so it’s more environmentally friendly.”
In the past, the resort used below-ground systems that required a lot of energy, powered by big diesel generators. The new ones use guns that are on poles that stick 20 to 30 feet high, using less pressure to push the moisture out, allowing it to fall to the ground.
“It is really efficient, uses less energy and is not as impactful on the guests,” McColly said.
They also still use fan guns, which are automated and portable to move around the mountain, he said.
Mountain High lucked out with the big storm that rolled through in November, dropping about a foot of snow, allowing it to open weeks ahead of the Big Bear resorts. But then the temperatures warmed up, so crews have been waiting for cold-weather windows to fire up the snow making.
“Every year is stressful when you have warm conditions. We live in Southern California, we deal with this every year, so it’s not like it’s new for us,” McColly said. “If you’re going to have skiing in Southern California, you have to have snow making.”
There’s good news on the horizon for those wishing for snow: a big, 3,000-mile wide storm system making its way through Oregon and Washington is poised to hit Southern California late next week.
“It’s a big winter storm heading our way,” McColly said. “It’s still a week off, so a lot can change. If it delivers, it’s going to be right on time and great for business, and those who want to have a white Christmas.”
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