This review is specifically in regards to snow sport season…read more When Mt. Waterman (only 30-miles up the ACH) opens, that's a very special occasion because they really only get to open for skiing once every 3 to 5 years because of a wide variety of factors; they do not make any snow and rely fully on mother nature, the winter can be very harsh on the mountain roads, which cuts them off a lot of times, one year a forest fire took out their phone lines, etc etc etc... it's always something. Therefore, you can't plan to go to Mt. Waterman, you just have to be ready to run when they do open! This resort may not share the polish of the other local resorts, but the entire staff is a class act and they're all just ON IT when it comes time to opening with very little notice. The people who come out are all so appreciate of the staff and you can hear everyone telling the staff thank you, etc all day, as well as chatter amongst themselves. People are generally very, very happy to be there and don't worry about the minor inconveniences that they might bitch about at the other resorts. Everyone has to get there and enjoyment while they're there because you really never know when you might be there again. The chairs are older and slower, but extremely well maintained and they get you up the slopes! Come and enjoy it anytime you can. As far as summer, the hiking trails and views are awesome and they have summer recreational sports as well, but winter is the special time to visit.

Boarded here on a snowy day with my friends, empty lift lines, friendly staff, very rustic feel, on…read morea nice snowy day it's definitely worth the trip up.

This is just a partial review since we only tried the snow play area. Tickets were $25 per person,…read moreand the process was smooth with almost no wait. They're pretty thorough about checking waivers, which I appreciated for safety. The snow play space is small with a short slope, but they provide a bunch of plastic sleds, so it's still fun to mess around. I just wish tubing was included for the price. The staff was super welcoming and attentive, checking in on the area often. Overall a good time, especially for kids or a quick snow day activity.

Two events lead to this 1-star review…read more First, I had just loaded onto lift 13 when the lift stopped. I looked back to see 2 snowboarders fighting on the ground in front of the lift. The fact that some people can be A-holes isn't what bothered me, what bothered me is the incredibly slow and lackadaisical response from the staff. The attendant from the lift was doing her best to separate them while I watched 1 staff member slowly walk over. Second, and this was the most troubling, was the lack of attention to beginner-level skiers on lift 2. My wife took our 6-year-old, first-time skier on to lift 2 while I followed right behind. We both let the attendant know it was his first time on the lift to which she just responded "chase the chair and you'll be fine". As the chair came around I watched my son almost fall off the seat. My wife and I both yelled stop as she pulled him back on. Without even turning to look, the attendant nonchalantly said "he's fine, he was on". When we reached the top of the lift, there was no assistance to help them and they ended up taking a big fall off the chair, both hitting their heads and my wife injuring her tailbone. They stopped the lift just long enough to get them to the side before resuming again. They let us know in the future we should give them a thumbs down on the approach and they'll slow down the lift. It would have been REALLY nice if the attendant at the bottom of the hill had let us know that. As we gathered ourselves on the benches, we watched beginner after beginner fall as soon as the chair pushed them forward. Often times there were 4-5 people on the ground, creating obstacles for other skiers to avoid as they exited the lift. Several times we watched the exiting skiers fall over previous skiers that weren't able to clear the area. All this to say, the concern for safety and level of professionalism left a lot to be desired and we do not plan on returning.

tl,dr: Experienced much false hope with Mt Baldy…read more + I had obtained a free all-day ski ticket to Mt Baldy. I was ecstatic. [img 1 of 4] Sat, Mar 7 -- When I finally make plans to go, the resort closed. Not just that, they (unintentionally) pulled a bait and switch a couple times. My complaint isn't the weather. My complaint is the repeated false hope from their announcement approach. Seeing how bad the weather had been, wish they had just announced early that they will not open the next day, well before the dilettantes had already gone out and rented ski gear the day before. Save me the trouble of repeatedly refreshing their mountain report webpage every hour beside my expensive snowboard rental eagerly waiting to shred. - "WIND HOLD - UPDATE AT 10AM" For a while it had already been well past 10AM and no update yet... - "We are planning to open Chair #1 at 11AM ... with full operations by 12PM" almost made me start the ~2hr drive to their resort already. Imagine the infuriating waste of gas that would've been. - "Snow Play will be open Saturday" Sounds like an assurance... - Finally! Around 1pm, "Closed Due to High Winds". ¡No me digas! - lol below that, still "Snow Play will be open Saturday"... [2/4] Sun Mar 15 Round 2 of Mt Baldy disappointment after having already eagerly rented the expensive snowboard package a 2nd time, here we go! - "Snow Play will be open Saturday" ok, the assurance again. - "We'll be open through Monday" so we're for sure for sure now, right? - "... tomorrow March 16. Unfortunately we will not be open" Again?? Mer alors! + Silver lining: Thank you Mt Baldy at least for notifying me before I already started driving up the mountain. - "we're still hopeful!" (at this point, ) lol suuure -- "bring any unused tickets to the mountain for a gift card" ....uhhh what? After EVERYTHING, I'm now being encouraged to drive allll the way up to the mountain?? Gas prices must be an all-time low these days... [3/4] -- Prepaid parking disappointment. Their website kept saying "Please select at least one rate type to continue", so I kept selecting the single parking ticket rate, but the website wouldn't relent. - Occasionally it'd give me a tease by loading a new page... only to reveal "Not Confirmed" or "404 Page not found". . Note: I eventually realized by "rate" the website meant to buy an actual ski ticket, meaning you can't buy a parking ticket without buying a ski ticket... Well that defeats the purpose of a free ski ticket, innit? (lol I did slang in Spanish, French, and British) - lol so much for the online marketing tease "prepaid parking is discounted!" [4/4] Wed Dec 3 - Their email correspondence seems to have technical difficulties. After 5 days without response, I tried again. ~ Finally, 13 days since my thumb-twiddling had begun, they finally get back to me. Kinda. Ultimately, Mt Baldy's free ticket wasted me +$60 and much time and emotional energy. Mt Baldy? More like Mt False Hopey. lol just send me $120 (ticket price) flat and we'll probably be good.

I took my teen boys up on Thanksgiving weekend. I adjusted expectations as I have heard a lot of…read morenegative reviews but Mount Baldy is much nearer to us than other SoCal resorts and so we decided to check it out. The lift tickets and rentals are significantly cheaper than the bigger resorts in the area but you will need to book both online in advance. You can also book parking in advance and it is cheaper to do so. I wish there was more information on the website to tell us what to expect. So here is my experience. Once you arrive at the parking lot, they will ask for payment. If you have booked in advance, you just tell them and they will wave you through. Just follow the staff's directions to park. We arrived at about 8:30am on a Saturday morning and there was plenty of parking available. You will then walk up a short but steep hill into the check-in hut. At this point, the will request that you fill in a waiver, which you should fill in online prior to arrival to speed up the process. You only need to fill this in once per season. Then you will be handed your parking ticket (for proof when you exit - but no one checked, as well as your lift ticket. You will be directed to the sugar pine chairlift #1, which is about a 20 min ride up to the resort area. This was probably the coldest part of the trip in the morning as the sun had yet to reach into the valley and the wind was quite strong. Once we got up onto resort level, we headed to the right which was the renal hut. The rental fitting process was quite smooth. You had to complete a form to, and when it's your turn, you hand the form to a member of staff who would send the relevant size to you. You start with the ski boot and then skis (or board). While you are waiting, you can grab helmets off the shelves in the waiting area. The last piece of equipment would be your poles (if needed) as you exit). On the day we went, the snow was packed powder and pretty good to ski on. As the day wore on, it got a little slushy in places but still very nice to ski on. It was quite warm and there were people who removed their jackets. The trails are not well marked so we spent quite a lot of time staring at the map. Turns out we went onto a wrong trail at one point! There were barely any lines at the lifts, nor was it super crowded, so we could get our runs in quite quickly. On the other hand, there isn't a wide variety of beginner runs. As for food, well, the food is standard ski lodge food - not great and quite expected. There was a line but unlike other ski resorts, we were able to get seating pretty quickly and the line was not too long. I imagine it could get worse in peak season when you have more folks coming up for snow play. So maybe bring some food. Talking about bringing food, there aren't any lockers for your valuables. We were told we could leave our bags in open cubbies. I carried my bag since I wanted water on my, but in hindsight, since the mountain wasn't big, I could have left it and just carried my wallet and phone. Overall, it was a lovely first experience skiing here. I would like to check it out in peak season when there's more traffic to see how the infrastructure handles the crowds. It's really nice to be able to ski without my toes and fingers freezing up or waiting in long lines.

Mountain High Winter Sports School is top notch. Super patient and effective instructors. The day I…read morewent with my 4 year old, it was a relatively low crowd day and warm (70 F). My daughter's first time on a snowboard and the snow was a success thanks to the skill and professionalism of Instructor Trevor D. Her two hour lesson flew by thanks to his ability to make the activity interesting, low-stakes, and super fun! I highly recommend private lessons for the smaller kids here especially since they are 1:1. On another note, the runs that day were well-groomed and decent conditions for an afternoon. There's a current flex lift ticket deal where for each adult ticket a child ticket is complimentary is a sweet deal. While you do have to pay $30 for main parking lot at West Resort, much of the quality and excellent service has held up. The dirt lot before the main ramp is still free. You just have to walk up the hill or take the stairs.

This was my first visit to Mt. High this year, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. I…read morecame on a busy Saturday right after back-to-back SoCal storms, so I expected the resort to be packed -- and it was -- but it honestly didn't feel prepared for the crowd. One of the most-used lifts on the west side wasn't working, which caused a lot of congestion. Traffic getting into the resort was rough, and the transport buses from the east to west parking lots weren't operating. There was no announcement about this, so my friends ended up walking from east to west parking, which was frustrating. On top of that, we experienced a fireplace being out of gas. They eventually got it lit, but by that time it was late, really cold, and we were about to head out because our lift tickets had expired. Overall, the resort has potential, but I felt unprepared for the crowd and the logistics were poorly communicated. Hopefully, they can improve operations and better handle busy days in the future.

4+ My recent visit in early 2/2026 was the first time I've been to area in over a decade and this…read morewas my second snowboarding excursion in the last decade as well...so I was a bit rusty. I spent my morning over at Snow Summit to get runs in and shake off the cobwebs. I had a free day during the week and drove up in the morning by myself. The cast that I purchased you access to both this part and Snow Summit so I had to at least get a few runs in here after lunch. There was free parking that was easy to find and gear up at. Like the other park, I feel like some of the trails and lifts were shunt down for the day. No biggie. It was not crowded at all. I don't have any scientific basis for this, but it feels like this park has a few more obstacles or is more friendly to some of the more seasoned folks that come through. Overall, my experience was pleasant. Even though I didn't spend a lot of time here since my body started getting tired. A fun park that isn't too far for people in the LA or SoCal area. Definitely a good experience when the park isn't crowded.

When you're heading up to Big Bear during the week where it has a lot of snow you know your in for…read moremadness. My son wanted to go tubing, which I was not opposed to so you book online the night before and lock your spot in. It's about $56 per person to tube which is a little steep but then again we're in the mountains so you pay for everything. Parking for the hill, getting to the hill, navigating the chaos on the hill. All the above is a mission on its own. Be prepared to wait, to walk, and to deal with the craziness. The employees they are cool, just overworked and I feel like there needs to be more than to navigate through the BS. Fun little place to go tubing and the run is pretty cool. Just be prepared to pay and struggle with the parking situation. Hire more people guys probably help you guys out tremendously.

4+ My recent visit in early 2/2026 was the first time I've been to Snow Summit in over a decade and…read morethis was my second snowboarding excursion in the last decade as well (so I am/ was a bit rusty) I had a free day during the week and drove up in the morning by myself. There was free parking that was easy to find and gear up at. This particular location doesn't feel large and since it was kind of sunny and a weekday, I think a lot of the trails and some of the lifts were shutdown during my visit. Not a big deal at all since my goal was to avoid large weekend crowds and shake off my personal cobwebs and just enjoy myself at my own speed. Getting my pass ready at the entrance using my phone, emails, and the app was pretty straightforward. Once I got that situated, I was able to start making my way to the first main lift and head up. The crowds during a weekday (early 2/2026) were so small, I was able to take my own chair up without having any traffic behind me. I can't speak for experienced skiers and snowboarders since even a decade ago, I would consider myself a solid intermediate snowboarder (that didn't do any tricks) and I will say it's a solid resort especially what I was looking for. I was able to go down the trails and constantly go up the lifts so quickly and my muscle memory all started coming back albeit with a few minor spills. After a while, I wanted to grab a beer and make my way over to Big Bear since I had the pass that allowed me to experience both parks. Definitely a solid snow resort that isn't too intense and is great for the proximity of people who live in the LA/ IE area.

For a SoCal option, this is one of my favorite mountains to take newbies and intermediate boarders…read more The terrain offers quite a bit of selections is the skillset mentioned above. I also like one of their runs being spacious and wide for ease of maneuverability. Base of the mountain during peak season also have a wide variety of food and beverage options. Their bloody marry are really good here. I would recommend you get one of these for those cold days for a light snack with a kick to move you along until the last run. I have seen the lift ticket system change throughout the decades and I'm glad that they are updating their process to move the lines along. During peak season, there are multiple locations that you can park where shuttles will take you to and from the base. Parking in the main lot does come with a fee. Slow days or weekdays are usually $25 per vehicle. Overall, it's a great place to board with a nice view of the lake. Can't wait to get back on the slope with good snow.

My happy place! It's nice, you can rent everything there…read more You can take some classes with an instructor on weekends and sometimes weekdays, which we did & John, the instructor, was very helpful. There's a few trails for different skills levels. Bev & Kerry are very professional and kind. We even got some winter merchandise there with their logo. Can't wait for the snow season to start again so we can come back.

Love supporting local, and Rim Nordic is more than deserving of that support. Great spot for cross…read morecountry skiing and snowshoeing. We recently purchased our two pairs of snowshoes from Bev at Rim Nordic, who is very knowledgeable and helpful. Their prices are on par with online, so why not support local business? We can't wait to be back after the next snow storm for a snowshoeing adventure!

**Review for the trail not the hut Such a fun hike! About a…read moremile in you'll start to see some snow and you'll want to put on your spikes and use trekking poles. It's a popular trail so even if you feel a little lost, you will eventually run into someone or see someone you can follow. My spikes weren't the best, but they got me up and down. Dogs are allowed, highly recommend they wear their shoes. Overall it is challenging but a doable solo hike. Always check the weather conditions before going, there were rescues going on the whole time I was there. Take your time and one step at a time. Once you get to the top, you'll be rewarded with awesome views.

Accessible parking and restrooms are available near the trailhead…read more As of 01/30/22, the ski hut is locked but the hiking trail is still accessible. A small portion of the trail leading up to the Ski Hut is covered in ice/snow, so I would recommend using hiking poles if you have any. Once you pass the Ski Hut, then micro-spikes are highly recommended (almost a must) because the trail is full of snow. More than half of the trail is not shaded and it's filled with loose rocks & gravels. And so, make sure to bring a hat and/or sunglasses, a good pair of hiking shoes as well as enough water and/or snacks. According to AllTrails, this a "difficult" trail so be prepared for 2-2.5 miles of incline (2000ft) heading up to the hut. There isn't a lot of signs along the trail so make sure you have some kind of offline map or navigation tool accessible.