In sunny, semi-arid Southern California, Big Bear Mountain Resorts relies heavily on its huge snowmaking systems to provide quality snow for hundreds of thousands of skiers and snowboarders each season. We make snow whenever we can from early November into March, even if it's a good year for natural snow, so as to ensure the best possible conditions all season long. Aggressive, large-scale snowmaking allows us to rapidly open new runs and lifts so that by the Christmas holiday period we usually have most of the mountain open with a good solid snow base with few or no bare spots. Each resort covers hundreds of acres of ski runs each season with an average of three feet of solid man-made snow, the equivalent of about ten feet of natural snow.

Large amounts of water and power are needed for big time snowmaking. Several hundred million gallons of water supplied by Big Bear Lake are converted into snow each season. In ideal conditions we reach flow rates of 5,000 to 6,000 gallons per minute (gpm) at each resort for several days and nights, non-stop. Approximately 24 ½ megawatts of power are needed for Big Bear Mountain Resorts to run the snowmaking equipment, consisting of air compressors, water pumps, fan guns and hill lights. Power is supplied both through the local electric company and by on-site diesel driven generators. Several million dollars each season is spent in producing the snow and millions more have been invested in the equipment and systems that produce it. The following provides basic information on these amazing systems that produce the snow that makes skiing and snowboarding viable in Southern California.