Snow Summit, 1952-Present

In 1950 avid sportsman, Tommi Tyndall, recognized skiing as a growing sport in Southern California and 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 wide, half mile access road, a mile-long chairlift, 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.

Following the replacement of that chairlift for a modern, high capacity fixed grip double chairlift and the completion of 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 a necessity in Southern California and 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. He was only 52 years old and 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 very slowly 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 and grooming operations and the famous limited ticket sales policy.

In 1966 Snow Summit introduced night skiing, which was the first such operation in the Western U.S. Night skiing remained a huge part of business until the mid 1980s.

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. Then 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 its jackpot and received the most natural snow in its history. The snow brought in more than double the customer visits from its 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 the largest facilities improvement program. Chair 3 and all of its runs were constructed, Chair 1’s snowmaking system was almost completely rebuilt, the lower water storage pond was constructed with new buried steel air and water pipelines for snowmaking and the Summit Inn was renovated.

By the 1975/1976 season, beginner lift, Chair 4, had been installed and snowmaking systems had been expanded. The following summer, snowmaking had been installed all the way up 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 that 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 so people could 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 of the new building 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, but most sadly, passed away that same year from cancer. Her son, Dick Kun, then assumed the presidency.

In 1981 beginner Chair 8 was installed and was the last lift approved by the Forest Service. Before any more expansions could take place, Snow Summit would have to go through another development plan process that would take several years.

In order to continue the growth of the company, management and the Board looked to acquire another resort. By late 1981, Snow Summit had acquired China Peak, a ski area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Fresno, and renamed it Sierra Summit. Between the two resorts, 680,000 skier visits were generated and the future looked bright.

After the 1982/1983 El Nino season Snow Summit faced big problems. First, the drought caused a decrease in skier visits. Second, competition from the three other main Southern California ski areas, Snow Valley, Goldmine and Mountain High, increased and Snow Summit lost some of its market share. Third, the market wasn’t growing and the industry experienced no growth in skier volume. While thousands of people were being introduced to the sport, about the same number were either dropping out or skiing less. Fourth, customers started to demand improved service to get more value for their money.

Snow Summit’s response to these problems was to pay a lot more attention to who the customers were and what their hot buttons (and turn-offs) were. Thoughts of expansion to accommodate more skiers-at-one-time changed to seeking improved service. From there, a new lift was installed, runs were improved and snowmaking increased.

During the summer of 1988 Snow Summit began taking mountain bikes and their riders up the chair so they could ride down the trails on the ski runs or off-site beyond permit boundaries. From then on, Snow Summit and with the help of Team Big Bear, became heavily involved in bike racing. To this day Snow Summit and Team Big Bear host world-renowned races such as a stop on the Norba National Championship Series and several World Cup Downhills.

Also in 1988 a major competitive threat arose when a large U.S. ski company, S.K.I., bought the neighbor resort, Goldmine, and renamed it Bear Mountain. S.K.I put in millions of dollars in improvements causing Snow Summit to respond with even better marketing and services.

Then in 1995, S.K.I. sold Bear Mountain to another company, which in turn sold it to Booth Creek Ski Holdings in 1997.

During the 1990s the ski market was beginning to fragment and split into various segments with different needs and demands for services. This was also the time when snowboarding was being introduced into the scene.

In 1994 and 1995 Snow Summit replaced its two main mountain access lifts with high-speed quads, just as the competition was doing. Throughout the 1990s other facilities were also improved including paving parking lots, increasing the snowmaking system capacity and efficiency and beautifying the base area with heated brick pavers, benches, landscaping and lighting.

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.

With the various market segments, Snow Summit struggled to be everything to everyone and had attempted to purchase Bear Mountain for a number of years in order to position each area more specifically toward the various market segments.

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.

During the summer of 2006, BBMR invested an unprecedented $6.6 million dollars to guarantee a quality skiing and snowboarding surface regardless of weather conditions. Not only did this improvement better control emissions, it improved BBMR’s snowmaking ability and increased energy efficiency. During that season, California’s driest winter on record, BBMR customers enjoyed more real snow, unmatched coverage, reliable & predictable conditions and a longer ski/snowboard season.

Further snowmaking improvements continued during the 2007 summer including additional Wizzard snowmaking fan guns, which were distributed throughout both resorts.

“The Snow Summit Story” by Dick Kun is available at the Pfeiffer Sport Shop at Snow Summit. Read Dick’s firsthand experience up until the resort’s 50-year anniversary. It is a story of struggle, the loss of loved ones and the overall triumph of the business. It comes complete with newspaper clippings and photos dating back to the 1950s as well as comments from those who have endured the journey to success.