Snow Summit, 1952-Present
(Info courtesy of Snow Summit)
In 1950 avid sportsman, Tommi Tyndall, recognized skiing as a growing sport in Southern California. With the help of his wife, Jo, and her father, the Reverend Doctor Alfred Hughes, he persuaded friends, relatives, local businessmen, and ski enthusiasts to invest in his new company, Snow Summit, Inc. After two years of intense effort with the Forest Service, construction began in 1952 of a half mile access road and a mile-long chairlift. Also, the clearing of Log Chute ski run and some base area slopes for rope tows and the basement of the Summit Inn.
By January 1953, the first chairlift was completed and had become the nation’s first detachable chairlift. The original chairlift was replaced with a modern, high capacity fixed grip double chairlift. Following the completion of this and the Summit Inn, Tommi encountered yet another challenge. The lack of adequate natural snow limited the amount of days business was open per season putting the survival of the company at risk.
By 1960 Tommi was convinced that snowmaking was possible and essential in Southern California. By the fall of 1964 snowmaking covered slopes served by three rope tows on the Bear Bottom beginner area and the lower part of Miracle Mile served by the chairlift. The chairlift became the first to be served by snowmaking in the West!
Tommi would never see the success of Snow Summit that he both started and saved. On December 27, 1964 Tommi was killed in a tractor accident while dragging a chain to remove dirt berms on the slopes. At only 52, Tommi did not live to see that his snowmaking system proved to be the critical turning point and ultimate success in Snow Summit’s history.
Jo Tyndall, Tommi’s wife, was appointed by the Board of Directors as the General Manager of Snow Summit. After becoming General Manager she chose her son, Dick Kun, as her assistant.
Meanwhile, thanks to the newly installed snowmaking system, Snow Summit entered a period of stability making just enough income to maintain the resort and gradually reduce its debt.
The 1960s brought the take-off of the modern U.S. ski resort industry both nationally and in Southern California. This time also saw huge improvements in grooming, ski equipment and snowmaking systems. With little capital for physical improvements, Snow Summit needed a way to satisfy customers so they would return. This was done with exceptional snowmaking, grooming operations and the famous limited ticket sales policy.
By the 1968/1969 season, the Board of Directors and long-time attorney had gained enough confidence in Snow Summit’s future to install a second chairlift. In the fall of 1969, Westridge Run was cleared becoming the first major new run since the late 1950s.
Finally, during the 1972/1973 season Snow Summit hit the jackpot, receiving the most natural snow in its history. The snow brought more than double the customer visits from previous seasons and its gross annual income more than doubled. After operating for more than 20 years, Snow Summit was finally on its way.
Following the 1972/1973 season, Snow Summit embarked upon an enormous facility improvement program. Chair 3 and its runs were constructed, and Chair 1’s snowmaking system was almost completely rebuilt. The lower water storage pond was assembled with new buried steel air and water pipelines for snowmaking. The Summit Inn was also renovated.
By the 1975/1976 season Chair 4, the beginner lift, was installed and the snowmaking system had been expanded. The following summer snowmaking had been installed to the top of Summit Run, a 10-million gallon reservoir was built at the top of the mountain, and more air compressors were installed.
Demand was so great by the winter of 1976, people with sleeping bags would line up in front of the ticket windows at 2:00 a.m. By January, Snow Summit introduced the ski industry’s first reserved ticket system, helping people avoid the early morning lines.
During the summer of 1979 Chairs 6 and 7 were installed, and the first two floors of Bear Bottom Lodge were constructed. The concrete basement housed the largest diesel power generating plant of any ski resort in the nation, along with more air compressors for snowmaking. A 1-mile waterline and pumping system from Big Bear Lake was also installed, assuring adequate snowmaking water for the future.
In 1980 Jo Tyndall retired. Sadly, that same year she passed away from cancer. Her son, Dick Kun, then assumed the presidency.
To continue the growth of the company, management looked to acquire another resort. By late 1981 Snow Summit gained China Peak, renamed Sierra Summit, a ski area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Fresno. Between the two resorts 680,000 skier visits were generated and the future looked bright.
During the summer of 1988 Snow Summit began taking mountain bikes and their riders up the chair so they could ride down the trails off-site beyond permit boundaries. Big Bear has some of the best mountain biking in Southern California accessible by the Snow Summit Scenic Sky Chair with more than 40 miles of cross-country forest service roads and trails.
The greatest impact on business in the 1990s was the advent of snowboarding. By catering to snowboarders and putting in terrain parks and halfpipes, the sport grew like wildfire. Snow Summit has led the industry in the design and operation of freestyle parks and has one of the largest amounts of terrain dedicated to freestyle snowboarding and skiing in the country. Snow Summit has been named in various polls as having the best parks in the nation, if not the world. With the parks at Snow Summit and their reputation, several high caliber events have been held at the resort including ESPN’s Winter X Games, Vans Triple Crown of Snowboarding, MTV Snowed In and several others.
On October 10, 2002, Snow Summit purchased Big Bear Mountain Resort, including the Golf Course, from Booth Creek Ski Holdings, Inc. Today Big Bear Mountain Resorts, Snow Summit and Bear Mountain, combine to form Southern California’s number one ski resort.
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