Jason B. Smith

Off the Beaten Path, the Adventure Begins at Bear Valley

December 6, 2012 by Jason B. Smith Leave a Comment

The wind picks up and blows the falling snow sideways into Mattly Trent’s face as he tries to locate a buried avalanche beacon in the snowpack somewhere beneath his feet. Trent, a veteran mountaineer and assistant director of Bear Valley Mountain’s Ski Patrol remains calm and focused as he follows the beeping signals on his chest mounted transceiver. He is emphasizing the methodical practice required to become efficient at locating buried avalanche victims, and that every second counts. Today though, he’s fairly relaxed, for we’re standing in the middle of Bear Valley’s Avalanche Beacon Training Park, just to the side of the resort’s bunny slopes. When his beacon signals that he has neared his target, Mattly drops his backpack and removes the avalanche probe, a nine foot folding aluminum pole, much like a tent pole, that he’ll use to gingerly slide down into the snow, hoping to locate a solid object. In a moment, we hear a dull thud as the probe strikes the piece of wood that is strapped to the electronic transceiver and we have located our “victim.” This training park is a jointly sponsored project between Bear Valley Mountain and avalanche equipment supplier BCA, and is provided to encourage safe skiing and riding in the backcountry and in Bear Valley’s ever-expanding sidecountry terrain.

Sidecountry is a term that’s been heard a lot around ski resorts in recent years, and refers to ski terrain that is outside the boundaries of a resort, yet accessible from the resort via chairlift, snowcat, or a combination of the two. Backcountry, on the other hand, is probably a more familiar term, as it conjures up images of being removed from the human world of infrastructure and chairlifts, on one’s own among the elements. In other words, you’re responsible for getting yourself into the mountains, up to the top and down again without any help. And that’s always been an easily accessible experience in the Bear Valley region, as it’s surrounded by two large Wilderness Areas and National Forest with many ski descents awaiting just a few hours hike from the car.

What all this means for those looking for great skiing and riding is that just about any mountainside within site of Bear Valley is open for recreation. Many consider it one of the best “secret” stashes in the Sierra, here south of Lake Tahoe at the end of a road. The increase of winter travel in the back and sidecountry in recent years throughout the US has greatly increased the probability of avalanches. This has prompted companies like BCA and ski resorts committed to opening access to their sidecountry such as Bear Valley to step up and provide opportunities to learn the skills necessary to be a prepared out-of-bounds rider. The resort has also partnered with local guide service Mountain Adventure Seminars to offer courses in mountaineering, avalanche training and guided off-piste tours. It’s common here to see people sporting the standard avalanche backpack—equipped with a small shovel, electronic transceiver and snow probe. But knowing how to properly and quickly use these tools, as Trent reminds me, takes practice. The training park will be open and available for use this season, with periodic clinics, or through private arrangements made through the ski patrol.

Sidecountry is the perfect progression for skiers and riders ready to expand their Sierra adventure, and Bear Valley is a place made for sidecountry access, with wide-open slopes of intermediate and expert terrain on National Forest land surrounding the resort on all sides. This year Bear Valley is opening the access gates to yet another long held favorite stash of bowl and tree skiing, a sweeping western ridge known as King’s Realm. Two winters ago over 400 acres were added to the resort’s patrolled area with the Dardanelle Vista Bowl, and this year with the addition of the 300+ acres in King’s Realm, there is literally an adventure in every direction. “Bear Valley continues its commitment to provide our guests with the best terrain, (Bear Valley) has pulled out all the stops to offer a new product that will provide advanced and expert skiers and riders a new and exciting adventure,” said Aaron Johnson, Bear Valley Mountain Snowsports Director.

Johnson, owner and founder of Mountain Adventure Seminars, brings an unprecedented level of mountaineering and snow safety education experience to his new role as Snowsports Director. In addition to his company’s continued partnership with the resort to provide guided ski tours and technical clinics, Johnson will be offering avalanche lectures this winter at regional REI stores. Bear Valley’s partnership with MAS has also resulted in the formation of a new kind of youth ski team, one focused on learning technical backcountry and avalanche safety skills as well as all-mountain riding.

The new terrain will be accessible via an entrance gate and snowcat road at Corral Ridge on the resort’s intermediate backside, which is serviced by the high speed quad chair Polar Express. A short hike or snowcat ride will bring you to the ridge top and the beginning of King’s Realm, and riders will exit the area via the Polar Express quad. The area is predominately east facing and features steep chutes, open bowls and gladed tree-skiing.

Back again this year are the popular BearTracker Snowcat Tours, which transport small groups led by professional guides out to slopes of untouched powder within easy reach of the resort. These popular three-hour tours have become a great way to spend part of the day sampling the resort and the other enjoying your personal stash of fresh Sierra powder. Snowcat tours are routinely announced on Bear Valley’s website and via email subscription during storm weeks, and spots on the cat tend to fill fast. King’s Realm will be among the stops on this year’s cat tours, as well as Horse Canyon and the outer reaches of the East Bowl.

With the 300 more acres of snowcat-in and ski lift-out King’s Realm, Bear Valley is currently the only California winter sports resort offering skiers and snowboarders access to expanded terrain. While its size is similar to other mid-sized resorts like Kirkwood and Sugar Bowl, Bear Valley’s Village is a relaxed throwback to a quiet mountain town, where you can stay in the classic Bear Valley Lodge, a log and timber ski hotel with a great cathedral living room and a cozy fireplace. The Bear Valley ski community’s enduring passion for their world-class mountain continues to blur the line between in-bounds and out. It all comes down to some really fine riding on the snow, and all it takes sometimes to find that perfect powder is a little extra effort.

For more info go to www.bearvalley.com, www.mtadventure.com, www.bearvalleylodge.com, www.bearvalleyvacationrentals.com, and for discounted Bear Valley lift tickets and free avalanche lectures at Bay Area REI stores www.rei.com.

Bear Valley Mountain: The Outdoor Classroom for Adventurers of All Ages

December 4, 2011 by Jason B. Smith Leave a Comment

Interest in outdoor education and recreation has spiked significantly in recent years; cautionary stories about our sedentary digital lives abound, as do ad campaigns and editorials imploring us to get outside and explore. As more of our culture looks to reconnect with an authentic experience in nature, schools are also looking for ways to broaden the classroom walls and incorporate hands-on outdoor learning into their curricula. Mountain resorts like Bear Valley now find themselves in a unique position to respond to these needs, and are creating a new outdoor resource for school groups and adults alike.

“We recognized that by combining our year-round mountain recreation with the expertise of our local outdoor professionals, we could offer really valuable programs to people of all ages that go beyond sports,” said Rosie Sundell, Bear Valley’s marketing director. “It’s really a way for people to connect to the mountain and learn about the different ways to experience it.” Inspired by the new opportunities to combine adventure with outdoor education, Bear Valley has launched an exciting new line-up of programs for the current season.

Adventure Academy
In a partnership with local outfitter, Bear Valley Adventure Company, and mountain guide service, Mountain Adventure Seminars, the resort earlier this year inaugurated the Sierra Adventure Academy. In this program, school groups can customize their own multi-day adventures that combine environmental education and team building activities with a variety of seasonal mountain sports. A typical summer itinerary might include rock climbing, kayaking, nature hikes and mountain biking, all the while surrounded by a living classroom of Sierra geology and ecology. Winter courses will generally include skiing, snowboarding and cross-country ski instruction with hands-on workshops in avalanche awareness, building snow shelters and backcountry travel. The concept is for educators with an existing science and environmental curriculum to look to Bear as a venue and technical facilitator to help bring the courses to life in a real world setting.

Reading Challenge Program
Continuing with their efforts to reach out to the student population within their region, especially those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn to ski, Bear is now offering a special incentive to encourage literacy, outdoor education and recreation. The Reading Challenge Program, launching this fall, will award lift ticket, lesson and rental packages to elementary students who complete the month-long assignment, which will correspond to their grade level. For example, a second grader would complete 300 pages in a month, while a sixth grader would need to read 400 in the same time span. For the high school crowd, the stakes get a little higher, and instead of reading the challenge will instead be multimedia creation. Basically, students will work in teams to produce a short video piece that demonstrates how they connect to the outdoors. Winning pieces will be featured on the resort’s website and the winning teams will be awarded a comprehensive snowsports package.

While most of the schools within Bear’s immediate vicinity have welcomed the reading and multimedia programs, the opportunity is being made available to any school within Bear’s market, which includes Central Valley and Bay Area schools. Those interested should contact Bear Valley Mountain for further details.

Grown-ups will find plenty of ways to improve both their skills and snow safety awareness as well this year at Bear. New lessons and clinics being offered by the resort include Powder Progression, a group workshop specializing in powder skiing technique. “Last season we started offering these in response to the enormous quantities of fresh snow that seemed to be forever falling on the resort, and they were wildly popular,” according to Snowsports Manager Chris Moore. Since the clinics are completely weather dependent, and conditions change from one day to the next, anyone interested in improving their powder turns should sign up for “powder alerts” on the resort’s website. Powder clinics will meet in the early morning and last a couple hours. If you prefer to catch air and pull tricks in the freestyle park, there is the Park Progression series for you. Sunday afternoons, freestyle instructors will be on hand at the mountain’s beginner/intermediate park for clinics on railslides, aerials and other park techniques.

Moving beyond the resort’s boundaries, a new partnership with Mountain Adventure Seminars opens up the backcountry and “sidecountry” (terrain that is outside the official boundary, but still skiable with lift access) for special adventure tours, including half day snowcat tours accessing untouched powder for groups of up to eight people, and ski descents of the fabled “Zones,” a closed area with technically demanding chutes and steeps. Along with the great skiing these trips offer, MAS also provides a comprehensive set of courses in everything from avalanche rescue to snowshoeing to winter mountaineering, all within the vicinity of Bear Valley Mountain.

This season MAS will also be teaming up with the resort’s ski school for two programs—the Adventure Ski Team and the All Access Team—specifically for teens that want to learn solid snow safety and backcountry skills to combine with all mountain free riding. The resort’s other team opportunities are Competitive Ski Racing and All Mountain. The Competitive categories are for youth only and include Competitive Freestyle Teams. The Development teams in the Competitive category are specifically focused on preparing youth athletes for competition but do not travel. The All Mountain teams are development teams for youth and adult athletes that will cover a variety of technical skills, techniques and terrain across the entire mountain, including parks and side country.

To keep up to date with new events or to sign up for any of the above mentioned programs, please visit the Bear Valley Mountain website at www.bearvalley.com, or call their central reservations line at 209-753-2301 ext.777.
To learn more about Mountain Adventure Seminars, visit them at www.mtadventure.com, or 209-753-6556. Bear Valley Adventure Company is found at www.bearvalleyxc.com, or 209-753-2834.

Quiet Gem of the Sierras – Bear Valley

January 11, 2011 by Jason B. Smith Leave a Comment

It is a crisp winter morning in the Sierras, and the sun is beginning to peak through the trees as we wind our way up into the high country along State Highway 4 on our way to Bear Valley. A fresh layer of snow clings to the towering pines, cedars and firs, weighing down their tops, causing them to lean into one another as if whispering the secrets of this place. We are scarcely aware of our elevation gain until we come around a bend and the forest gives way to a breathtaking view across a river canyon, revealing the sparkling white crest of the Sierra Nevada. We are nearly there! In a few short miles we will be greeted by one stunning scene after another, as the highway emerges into a magical valley at 7000 feet, then points us toward the Mokelumne River canyon, second only in depth to King’s Canyon in the southern Sierra. And finally, around our last turn, the treasure we have come for lies before us – Bear Valley Mountain – some of the finest skiing California has to offer. With the drive time clocking in at around three hours from the south Bay, it is definitely our closest ski resort. So why does it feel so remote?

You could be forgiven for thinking this place is isolated and difficult to reach. In winter, it is literally at the end of the road in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. For the outdoor enthusiasts who know and love Bear Valley, this is the essence of why they have been bringing their family and friends here for years. This place is a quiet gem waiting to be discovered. It is not the bustling tourist center of Tahoe, though from Bear Valley’s summit you can easily see the Tahoe area peaks. Just subtract the crowds and the five hour ordeal on the interstate, and instead find yourself here, in the middle of the beautiful Stanislaus National Forest.

Ebbett’s Pass, as this stretch of Highway 4 is known, is a national scenic byway and was named in 2010 as among the top scenic drives in the US. It is a showcase for the best the Sierra has to offer, beginning in the rolling foothills around the 2000 foot level and later topping out at 8500 feet along the crest of the range. Major John Ebbetts, to whom the road owes its name, was a California explorer who first traversed the route in 1851. Later, business interests from the bustling mining town of Murphys turned Ebbetts’ route into a wagon trail, and a toll station in the area then known as Grizzly Bear Valley was established. Luckily, transportation has improved a bit since then, and in a short drive from the Bay, you can be on the snow. The ski resort came into being in 1967, as the sport was gaining in popularity on the west coast. However, with the much larger resort developments in Lake Tahoe gathering notoriety just to the north, Bear Valley instead became a haven for those seeking a quieter, lower key, family-style experience. Those values are still very much a part of life here.

What’s different now, and irresistible, is the buzz swirling around this mountain mecca. Various owners during the resort’s 43-year history have schemed and dreamed of expanding the skiing terrain to its fullest potential and creating year-round amenities that will accommodate both adrenaline junkies and leisure specialists. But the resort and village always remained in separate hands until 2005, when they were combined by a partnership of local landowner Chuck Toeniskoetter, Dundee Real Estate and two Bay Area investors, Radar Partners. Several of the new owners have life-long ties to Bear Valley and it’s their goal to build this place into a vibrant mountain community that retains the slow paced, welcoming charm that drew them here in the first place.

But let’s talk snow. The Sierras received an impressive load of snow throughout the fall, setting Bear Valley up for epic early season powder, and we are headed into the newly opened 400 acre bowl on the mountain’s eastern face. This gorgeous stash of intermediate and advanced terrain has been a popular secret among locals for many years, who use the wide open bowls and tree runs to ski into the village below. It has always been within the resort’s “soft boundary,” (an area open to skiing, though not patrolled or maintained) but this is the first year the area will be officially incorporated into the trail system. And it makes sense, after all, because it is here that a long awaited ski lift bringing guests from the village below will soon be built.

The soft boundary concept is a significant asset for Bear Valley, and one the resort is now trying to promote more widely. Anyone who knows the mountain knows Grizzly Bowl – referred to as “the lower mountain,” for its location underneath and out of sight from the more obvious intermediate slopes above – conceals some of the best black diamond terrain this side of the Rockies. However, for those with a good knowledge of avalanche avoidance and the willingness to do a little work (read: hiking through powder to get back to civilization), the mountain can nearly double in size and offer some spectacular backcountry skiing and riding experiences. Luckily, to make the out-of-bounds experience safer and more accessible, local guide service, Mountain Adventure Seminars, has set up shop inside the main lodge at the resort. With twenty years experience in guided climbing, backcountry travel and avalanche safety instruction, owner Aaron Johnson and his team offer everything from private tours of hidden powder, telemark clinics, as well as single and multiday avalanche training sessions.

When the snow melts and summer arrives, Bear Valley serves as an access point to camping, fishing, biking, hiking and mountaineering in the Stanislaus National Forest or for travel into two of California’s spectacular wilderness areas; the Mokelumne to the north, and Carson-Iceberg to the south. July brings the world famous Death Ride nearby, a 100 mile cycle race through five different passes. Or, if you are looking for something more cultural, come in August for the Bear Valley Music Festival, a two-week show of orchestras, soloists and legendary entertainers. Throughout the season, the BVSafe summer camp program offers an array of outdoor youth sports instruction, from soccer and tennis to archery and mountain biking. Athletes of all disciplines have discovered that when the August temperatures soar into triple digits in the valley and foothills below, the weather here at 7000 feet is ideal for long days training in the alpine sun.

A short drive back down the road from Bear Valley, the alpine landscape opens onto the rolling hills of Calaveras County wine country, fast becoming a renowned destination for top quality boutique wines. The county is bordered on the north and south by world class whitewater in the Mokelumne and Stanislaus rivers, and tucked away in the hills between, a year round hot spot for biking, climbing, caving and horseback riding. On the cultural side, you’ll find a patchwork of farms, state parks and small towns where you can browse antiques or contemporary art while sipping your locally roasted espresso. Agriculture has played a big role in the culture and economy of this region, and this year it will be a feature on the menu at Bear Valley as well. In a unique partnership with local food producers, the resort will be offering locally grown products whenever possible and turning its commitment to healthy foods up a notch with fresh vegetarian fare.

While these communities of the Ebbett’s Pass corridor have had their share of economic challenges over the years, they now find themselves in a unique position to offer many of us exactly the kind of experience we are looking for. The blend of year round healthy outdoor lifestyle, food and wine, and vibrant communities have created a new challenge – finding a way to stay longer.