Bear Valley news

[~mikey b]

BV is a fun ski area - PM me if you are thinking about going there - I'll see if'n I can set you up with a voucher and a bit of a tour

[davieboot]

unofficial gossip, rumor and innuendo alert!
from a reliable source
Bear Valley will operate winter 2012-2013

I hope so, but who is actually going to staff the place? Didn't all the old staffers scatter, including lift maintenance folks?

[~mikey b]

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/News/Lo...pen-for-winter

Bear Valley spokeswoman: We'll be open for winter
Written by Sean Janssen, The Union Democrat October 10, 2012 04:27 pm

Bear Valley Mountain Resort will open this winter for normal ski operations, a resort spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Speculation about the resort’s future and whether or not there would be a ski season at the popular slopes just east of the Calaveras-Alpine County line ran rampant in the wake of unprecedented layoffs of the majority of the year-round staff in June.

“We’re opening for sure,” said Bear Valley Mountain Marketing Manager Rosie Sundell.
Sundell said she recognized rumors were running wild while the mountain remained largely silent this summer.

“The layoff created a lot of uncertainty coupled with discussions with our owners and no news coming out. There just really was no news worthy of generating any kind of press release or anything like that,” she said. “But there was no reason for us not to open. What happened with the layoff was just something that has never happened here before under this management.”

The resort’s ownership had been planning in recent years for an expansion of condominium housing in Bear Valley Village and a lift directly from the village to the ski resort. The plans were hampered by a weak economy and possibly insufficient sewage-treatment capacity.

Developers hoped the project could bring in as much as $200 million once completed.

Sundell said the resort has scheduled its annual job fair for Oct. 28 at the Meadowmont Shopping Center, 2182 Highway 4, in Arnold. She said the plan is to hire between 200 and 300 workers for the ski season.

Sundell said the mountain is planning for “a regular year” of an average 300-inch snowfall. By comparison, last season only offered 227 inches and the prior year blessed Bear Valley with 567 inches by the end of the season on April 21 and more than 700 inches by the time snow stopped falling late June, she said.

“There will be no expansion (this year) in terms of terrain...and no scaling back,” Sundell said.

At about 2,000 acres of skiable terrain, that puts Bear Valley “a little bigger than Sugar Bowl, a little smaller than Kirkwood,” she said.

“If we could plan it to snow on Wednesday and Thursday every week and be sunny on Sunday, that’d be ideal,” Sundell said.

She said she does see the potential for lasting impacts from the uncertain summer.

The 19 laid off employees are not yet back and “I think with any layoff, you run into...people have moved on to other things,” Sundell said.

“I think it’s going to impact a portion of our business,” she said. “Rumors travel fast. But when adversity happens...you hope you come out bigger, stronger and faster.”

The resort is operated by Colorado-based Dundee Resort Development under contract with the Stanislaus National Forest. It is required to submit a yearly operations plan by Monday with the Forest Service.

U.S. Forest Service officials had maintained until Wednesday that while they fully expected a plan to be submitted by the deadline, they had not yet heard anything official. Patty Clarey, public service program leader for the U.S. Forest Service on the Calaveras Ranger District, said Wednesday that she had spoken to the resort’s ownership by phone that afternoon.

“At this point in time, the ski area is opening,” Clarey said.

“We want people to come up and enjoy this place just as they always have,” Sundell said.

[TomCrac]

Glad to hear that they wil be open. Great news for all of those that have houses up there (I would imagine)... Hope it's a great season.

[ex-powderbroker]

Great news. Hate seeing places shut the doors. Let the snow be plentiful and the crowds be spendy.

[powdrhound]

Good news. Bear Valley will always be my home hill. Has been since that first November day of bottomless powder, in 1967.
And they have always allowed RV parking, too.



Let it Snow!

[~mikey b]

Ski Bare!

[Hugh Conway]

That ad is awesome.

[TomCrac]

by far, the best ski mountain brochure I have seen!... I had to save it.

[eshed]

I have one of the original posters. My grandfather was first head of ski patrol there, back when it was Mt Reba. Helped name some of the runs. My dad patrolled there too. Glad to hear they are making it work. It's a super fun place.

[eshed]

If I recall correctly, the woman in the photo was the wife of the original owner, or the head of marketing. Local talent. Dated a tall blond the short time I lived up there and we talked of recreating the photo. Never got around to it. Unfortunate.

[~mikey b]

very cool

[agwat1111]

Just saw this thread and I am glad to see that Bear will be opening this winter. As a native of Lodi I have fond memories of the 8+ years of skiing a Bear most weekends when I was a kid. It is the hill I leaned to ski so it will always have a warm place in my heart. That poster was awesome and it used to be sold (and several other variants like it) in the Ski Shop. Everyone used to score the SKI BEAR stickers and then cut them up to read BARE...pretty rad when you are 9! Lloyd Bridges was a longtime resident and I rode on few chairs with him and his family as a kid. They were pretty cool people considering that they were Hollywooders. I'll never forget trying to snow plow on day 6 of my ski career down ice moguls in Snow Valley, accelerating to terminal velocity as I skipped off of the top of those things head first and having some lady yell at me to stop. I am stoked that the mountain will live again so I better head up there this year and buy a ticket...

[GiBo]

Man, a closed Bear would suck. Not only because Bear itself would be closed, but Dodge would be a cluster fuck.

agwat, I remember those altered stickers. So '80's!

Robert Conrad was a famous resident of BV, but that didn't end well.

I see Sharon Stone's ex, Phil Bronstein, up there too. Must have a cabin or something.

Glad it'll be spinning this year!

[~mikey b]

I talked to a friend of mine who works at Bear Valley for about an hour tonight.

Everything is going to be just fine. They are planning to operate as usual.

Ski Bare!

[SkiBall]

I learned to ski at BV. It was a cool lil hill, and $20 weekdays made it affordable.

[NatEE]

Glad to hear that things will be going as usual. Used to be my go to place when I was mostly day tripping, and the spur closed.

Anyone know if they are planning on doing that semi-casual rando-race again this year? I was really excited that they did that last year, but wasn't able to make it up. Hope it goes down again this year, in which case I will definitely try and attend.

[davieboot]

Everything is going to be just fine. They are planning to operate as usual.

Ski Bare!

The lesson learned is that you can completely shut down operations all summer, lay off most of your staff, save all that money and stress, and still do just fine. It will be interesting to see how smoothly everything goes. I predict some funny hiccups.

[~mikey b]

butt weight theirs moar!


Group appeals Bear Valley plan
Written by Sean Janssen, The Union Democrat October 31, 2012 12:26 pm

A Twain Harte-based environmental group filed an appeal Tuesday to a decision by the Stanislaus National Forest to approve expansion plans for the Bear Valley Mountain Resort.

The Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center is challenging the Sept. 21 finding of Forest Supervisor Susan Skalski that an environmental assessment shows no significant impact as a result of the expansion plans.



The plan calls for the addition of two lifts to provide service between Bear Valley Village and the resort, an increased daily capacity of 810 people, upgrade of the Super Cub chairlift, 174 more parking spaces, construction of the 12,500 square-foot Bear Top Lodge and the addition of 85.5 acres of developed trails.

CSERC is not opposing the majority of the expansion plan actions as approved by the U.S. Forest Service but is appealing the decision because it doesn’t require mitigation measures to reduce impacts to sewer infrastructure, forest habitat and greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Tuesday statement from the group.

The environmental assessment of the project lowballs the number of added visits to the mountain the bigger resort will generate, does not address the strain the added guests will have on the local sewer system, includes a “major amount of clearing and loss of old forest habitat ... to affect ‘at-risk’ wildlife species” and calls for no mitigation of “a huge amount of emissions” to be created by the project, according to the group’s appeal.

Stanislaus National Forest spokesman Jerry Snyder said CSERC’s submittal of substantive comments in a 45-day public comment period prior to the decision allow the group’s appeal.

Pacific Southwest Regional Forester Randy Moore, in Vallejo, has 45 days to overrule, reverse or return the decision to the Stanislaus. Per U.S. Forest Service policy, Snyder declined to comment on the appeal’s merits.

“Our center is highly aware that the Bear Valley Mountain Resort is important to businesses and the overall economy of Alpine County and the Highway 4 corridor in Calaveras County,” said CSERC Executive Director John Buckley. “We believe that a solution to this legal appeal is certainly possible if the Forest Service actually wants a solution.”

Snyder said CSERC can still meet with local Forest Service representatives to see if a compromise can be reached, and withdraw the appeal.

Bear Valley Managing Partner Greg Finch on Tuesday expressed dismay.

“We are of course disappointed by (CSERC’s) actions in appealing the Forest Service approval of the Bear Valley environmental assessment. This will cause unwarranted expense and delay in our efforts to improve Bear Valley and it goes without saying that this will have negative effects on the entire (Highway) 4 corridor,” Finch said in a prepared statement.

“The Stanislaus National Forest team spent almost four years reviewing and considering all aspects of the plan … Significant mitigation measures were added to the plan as the studies progressed and several key ingredients of the initial plan were eliminated to meet environmental standards.”

“I believe that the Forest Service is confident in the thoroughness and legal integrity of its study and evaluations process and that ultimately the plan will be upheld,” he added. “Having said that, we will plan to meet with CSERC and see if there are ways to address concerns — without taking the substance away from the key improvements we consider important to moving Bear Valley forward.”

[~mikey b]

WHY IS CSERC APPEALING THE FOREST SERVICE DECISION TO APPROVE EXPANSION OF THE BEAR VALLEY MOUNTAIN RESORT?

[~mikey b]

Ski Bare!

http://www.bvmcoop.org/

July 15 deadline for voting membership in the BV Co-Op

[~mikey b]

Posted: Friday, July 25, 2014 6:00 am | Updated: 10:00 am, Fri Jul 25, 2014.

By Stephen Crane and Alicia Castro

Co-op group surpasses member goals, seeks purchase

Bear Valley’s ownership roller coaster continues to roll along, with two groups currently expressing interest in taking over the resort’s mountain assets, including the Bear Valley Mountain Cooperative.

“I think we’re going to have something to announce within the next two weeks,” said Greg Finch, president of Dundee Resort Development Corp., one of the two partners in the current ownership group and the operator of the resort.

Finch said there are two prospective buyers in the running: the Bear Valley Mountain Cooperative – which surpassed its membership goals this month – and another company that Finch declined to name.

“It’s a big company and they’re involved in other resorts in other places,” he said. “The party is serious and is qualified.”

He said the “very viable” unnamed buyer was not intimately familiar with the resort but is becoming acquainted with the mountain and village.

“They’re looking through all documents, as is the co-op,” Finch said. “At this point, I’m very confident that one is going to buy the ski area.”

At this time, Finch said he is working with the potential buyers on how to structure the purchase of the assets, which includes both the mountain property and village property. The co-op has chosen not to pursue the village assets at this time and instead, simply focus on the mountain itself.

“Our vision is to have some connection between the co-op and any sort of private entity that comes in to develop the village,” said Steve Troyer, president of the co-op’s interim board. “How that looks at any level of detail, we haven’t really gotten that sorted out.”

Finch said the unnamed party is “capable” of purchasing both entities but didn’t elaborate on purchase discussions, saying he didn’t want to discourage either party.

“There are pros and cons to each,” he said. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for what the co-op guys have done. They had a vision and performed on it really well. I think the best part – whether they’re the buyer or not – they got a whole bunch of people to pay attention.”

As of July 18, the co-op achieved 110 percent of its membership goal. Thursday’s total amounted to 888 memberships at $2,500 each, some of which are sold over time and some that are paid up front, Troyer said. Now the co-op just needs to collect the money from members.

He said the co-op is confident that it will have the money collected to close by July 31. Kimi Johnson, the co-op’s board treasurer, has been depositing a stack of checks every day, according to Troyer.

And there’s little time to spare; payments are supposed to be due today, July 25, for shareholders to vote on the approval of the business plan.

“There’s incentive for people to pay,” Troyer said. “Assuming the ratification goes through, and the money is all in the bank, then we close on the first of August.”

And if the purchase goes through, Troyer said the co-op already has plans for the slopes.

“What went into focusing on the mountain was the urgency in getting the mountain in shape for next year. It’s gone several years without the right kind of summer maintenance,” he said. “We need to get the mountain up to snuff very quickly.”

And there’s been significant support from co-op shareholders from all over, Troyer said. Some live or work along the Highway 4 corridor, and others – having heard about the effort and wanting to take part – come from outside the region, state and even country.

“We had one guy who bought during the first week who’s never even been to Bear Valley, but his family heard about it,” Troyer said. “They said they voted as a family that this was a good community effort.”

Throughout the membership acquisition process, the co-op has been in close communication with Deri Meier, a professor of business at the University of Vermont and the original chairman of Mad River Glen Cooperative, the only community-based cooperative-owned ski resort in the country. Mad River Glen celebrates its 20th year of operation in December 2015.

“The loyalty is key,” Meier said. “And I think in Bear Valley, the same thing came forward. … People on the Route 4 corridor really rallied around this and the loyalty support was coming.”

Meier said he fields a couple calls a year from people interested in forming a co-op.

“Of all the inquiries, we’ve had this was the most credible,” Meier said. “And we felt these guys actually have a shot. Where the other ones were a little dreamy, (Bear Valley Co-op) had their feet solidly on the ground – competent people working on it, the legal structure, the marketing … It’s great to see people of sort of grassroots drive like this being so successful.”

The effort came about when, in 2013, a prospective buyer with deep pockets expressed interest and the deal almost closed before falling through.

“In this case, if that happens with another buyer, the co-op is there to move forward,” Troyer said. “The people that love Bear should be assured that Bear has a future. … Bottom line, particularly for the shareholders, no matter what happens, somebody is going to buy and reinvest in it.”

Contact Stephen Crane at editor@calaverasenterprise.com or Alicia Castro at alicia@calaverasenterprise.com. Reach them by phone at 498-2053.

[~mikey b]

Written by Mike Morris, The Union Democrat August 01, 2014 01:30 pm
A deal is in the works for the sale of Bear Valley Mountain Resort.


The resort — off upper Highway 4 in western Alpine County — has two potential buyers, spokeswoman Rosie Sundell confirmed.



The potential buyer and current owners, Dundee Resort Development and Radar Partners, are “in the mode of finalizing their agreement,” she said Thursday.

Bear Valley Mountain Cooperative, one of the potential buyers, identified the other potential buyer as Skyline Investments, a Toronto-based resort developer.

“We have been in conversation with them. They really admire what we’ve done,” said Mike Wallenfels, a Bay Area resident who owns a home in Bear Valley and sits on the cooperative’s interim board of directors.

The group, consisting of Bear Valley homeowners and others, announced Thursday they have sold 911 memberships at $2,500 each.

In order to explore “collaborative possibilities” with Skyline, representatives with the cooperative said they have delayed a potential vote among its membership until mid-August.

Greg Finch, president of Colorado-based Dundee, said he couldn’t comment on details of the sale.

“Obviously, both parties seem to be interested in the success of Bear Valley,” he said.

Bear Valley Mountain Resort announced in May a change among the partners that own and operate the resort, which aimed to help streamline the sale of the ski area.

The 1,680-acre ski resort has been for sale since January 2013.

After a prospective buyer backed out last year, Bear Valley homeowners and business owners launched an initiative to run the resort as a community-owned mountain.

[TomCrac]

Thanks for the update... would love to see this be a success. Really enjoyed Bear Valley.

[~mikey b]

Ya for sure.

Anyone heard of Skyline Investments? Not 100% sold on the co-op myself, but I think it's worth a try. Interesting to me that they decided against working with Mountain Riders' Alliance and went their own way.

Hope it works out. I have a ton if friends there. They take good care of us.