Recently, there have been a ton of people taking trips up to Big Bear and Mammoth. This is because it is one of the big activities that has continued to stay open throughout the whole pandemic. Although masks are required, it has remained mostly the same other than limiting the amount of tickets that are being sold. 

Freshman skier Matthew Idris has been taking many trips up to both mountains with the help of an Ikon Pass, which is basically a ticket that can be scanned all year in multiple resort locations. For the 2021-2022 season these tickets are $999 for the basic pass, and the pass for just Bear and Summit is $429. From his experience on trips, he claims that the mountain capacity is usually normal but it can get really busy when it snows. 

“The only thing that’s really different is there is no inside dining, and we have to constantly wear masks,” Idris said. 

Freshman Lennox Lee has had similar experiences when traveling up to the mountains to go skiing. He shares that the snow is beginning to die down due to it being the end of the season. However, Lee says that the conditions in the beginning of the season were great. This year he’s been able to go up about six or seven times. On these trips he gets to see how busy it gets depending on the times and days. 

“Ticket prices have been rising due to the higher demand and low supply, this is because they will not allow the mountain to be fully occupied,” Lee said. 

Freshman Sebastian Rangel goes up to Big Bear and Mammoth quite often for snowboarding. He has been to Mammoth twice this year and Big Bear about 12 times. Rangel shares that on the drive from Carlsbad it is about seven hours to Mammoth and three hours to Big Bear. This can also vary on the dates. 

“On the weekends it can get pretty crowded and you can wait in line for 10 to 25 minutes,” Rangel said. 

Rangel and his family have invested in Ikon Passes for the past years, but he shares some good information about ticket and rental pricing. Rangel says that Hansen’s Surfboards in Encinitas is a great place to rent. 

“The tickets are $100 for the day and the rentals can carry from $40 a day if you rent at Hansen’s,” Rangel said. 

The ski season is heading towards an end, but people can still get trips in for a little while longer. This is especially true with an Ikon Pass that can be used until the end of the year.

“There can be a lot of snow, but in Bear the snow tends to melt within two weeks. But they blow snow, so you can usually ski till early May, April,” Rangel said.