Bear Mountain , formerly Goldmine Mountain, is a ski area in Southern California

Southern California

Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

. It is the sister resort of Snow Summit

Snow Summit

Snow Summit is a ski resort that was established in 1952 and is in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. It is located by Big Bear Lake along with its sister resort Bear Mountain; these two resorts which operate under the same management are collectively known as Big Bear Mountain...

, together known as Big Bear Mountain Resorts. In 2002 Bear Mountain was purchased by Snow Summit, and the two resorts are now accessible with a single lift ticket. Snow Summit management led by Richard "Dick" Kun felt that establishing a snowboard-centric area at Bear Mountain would move the majority of snowboarders away from Snow Summit, freeing the latter to become a more family friendly mountain. Bear Mountain is also known as "The Park" because most of the runs contain terrain features

Terrain park

A terrain park is an outdoor area that contains terrain that allows skiers and snowboarders to perform tricks. Terrain parks have their roots in skateparks and many of the features are common to both. One of the first in-bounds terrain parks was the "Snowboard Park" built in 1990 at the Vail...

. The mountain is home to the only Superpipe

Superpipe

A superpipe is a large halfpipe structure used in extreme sports such as snowboarding, freestyle skiing, skateboarding, freestyle BMX and inline skating....

 in Southern California. Unlike Snow Summit

Snow Summit

Snow Summit is a ski resort that was established in 1952 and is in the San Bernardino Mountains in Southern California. It is located by Big Bear Lake along with its sister resort Bear Mountain; these two resorts which operate under the same management are collectively known as Big Bear Mountain...

, if there is enough natural snow, the tree runs are open for skiing

Skiing

Skiing is a recreational activity using skis as equipment for traveling over snow. Skis are used in conjunction with boots that connect to the ski with use of a binding....

 and snowboarding

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...

. Even the "out of bounds" territory off of Chair 8 has been opened after a big snow storm. Bear Mountain was frequented by Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White

Shaun White

Shaun Roger White is an American professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He rides regular stance, twelve and negative three degrees on his board.-Early life:Shaun White is an Irish American...

while he was very young, although White spent the majority of his time on the Snow Summit Westridge freestyle run. Bear mountain has contributed to the progression of freestyle snowboarding and skiing with the establishment of the first freestyle park in the early 1990s.

Bear Mountain consists of three main peaks: Bear Peak, Silver Mountain, and Goldmine Mountain. At 8805 ft (2,683.8 m), Bear Peak is Southern California's highest lift-served peak. Bear Mountain relies heavily on snowmaking like most Southern California ski resorts.

Bear Mountain trails

Beginner	Intermediate	Difficult	Expert
Learning Curve	Acceleration	Exhibition	Geronimo
Easy Street	Ripcord	Rip's Run	The Wedge (moguls)
Amusement Park	Upper Park Run	Outlaw	Showtime
The Gulch	Silver Connection
	Boneyard
	Expressway
	Hidden Valley
	Central Park
	Shortcut
	Backdoors
	Outlaw's Alley
	Street Scene
	Gambler
	The Park Run