Snowstorm Boosts Big Bear : White on the Slopes Puts More Green in the Bank

BIG BEAR LAKE — It was 6:45 Saturday morning and the Grizzly Manor Cafe smelled of bacon on the griddle. Don Morris, the short-order cook, had breakfast going for six customers--two locals and four tourists, including a couple of guys from Anaheim who had spent the night in their car with the heater going full blast.

When they headed for the mountains Friday night, Frank Monroe and Mario de los Reyes knew they were taking a chance. The recent snowfall would mean that thousands of other flatlanders had booked and bought ski tickets in advance. Eventually they did find one vacancy.

“But that was at 4 in the morning and you had to check out by 11,” Monroe said. “It didn’t seem worth $75.”

Morris smiled, for he is also the Grizzly’s owner and a member of the Big Bear Lake City Council. “It will be so busy today you won’t believe it,” he said. “You don’t get snow, you don’t get no people up here.”

As at other ski resorts, snow is the leading economic indicator at Big Bear, this little chunk of the Rockies that somehow wound up in Southern California. The residential population is about 14,000; on a busy weekend it can swell to 100,000. Big Bear Boulevard can look like the Santa Monica Freeway at rush hour, only slower.

“This weekend we were supposed to be dead. It was looking like the end of winter,” said Cathy Geary, owner of the Cape Cod Cabins. She had been expecting 25% occupancy this weekend. Instead, all 14 cabins were full.

Thanks to the storm that began Monday, bringing 2 feet of snow, the ski season in Southern California is now expected to last through March, and possibly through April if the cold weather holds.

“It’s a funny thing,” said Celia Ralph, marketing director of the Chamber of Commerce. “People down in L.A. look up and they see snow. Our skiing has been terrific all season, but people have to see it to believe it.”

The big storm stands to turn this winter from a fair season to a good one, Ralph said. January was a record month for ski resorts like Snow Summit, Goldmine, Snow Valley and Snow Forest in the Big Bear area and for Mountain High in the San Gabriels.

Ralph said the lack of snow in the Sierra kept people away from Mammoth. “It killed them up there, and we got their business. It was great!”

Even so, many business operators, including inn keepers, restaurateurs, clothiers, gift shop and arcade operators, barely get by. The failure rate for new business is 50%. “This year we hope we won’t have quite that failure rate,” Ralph said. The effect is felt at every job.

People line the boulevards selling firewood for a night’s heating and inner tubes for use as sleds. “What does the snow mean? It means a job,” said Linda Cunningham, a cocktail waitress at T. J. Summit’s. “Last week we were all working three days. Now we are all working six or seven.”

Even though some waitresses complain that “skiers don’t tip,” Cunningham raked in $120 in tips Friday night compared to $50 the Friday before.

Most of the locals--at least those who hang out at the Grizzly Manor Cafe--take the snow and the tourists with equanimity.

Sgt. Doug Glass of the California Highway Patrol is one resident who admits to mixed feelings. His job becomes harder and he doesn’t make any more money. “It just a pain going to the Post Office. It’s 3 1/2 miles from my home, and on a day like today it can be an hour drive each way,” he said.

Residents learn to take care of chores on weekdays.

Gene Kennedy, manager of the Shell Mini-Mart, and Dave Fucile, a construction worker, sat together talking about how tourists often ask Kennedy for advice on places to stay. Kennedy refers them to friends, like Fucile, who have outfitted their homes for tourists in need.

“At 10 p.m. I might be able to get $75 for a room,” said Fucile. “If I wait ‘till 12, say it’s a guy and a chick who need a place to stay, I could probably ding them for a hundred and a half. That sort of thing goes on regularly.”

Fucile said the money helps him support his wife and four children and makes up for the low wages and short construction season in the mountains.

“This year has been good because of the big Catholic Church and the Convention Center,” he said of some big jobs in town.

At 8 a.m., about 25 people were eating at the Grizzly Manor. Among the tourists was a family from Bangkok, vacationing in the United States.

Samrit Inthapantim drove his family up from Long Beach at the behest of daughter Tanya, 6. Tanya was already having fun. “I threw a snowball at my mother!”

How did mother feel about that?

“I enjoy it very much,” she said. “I feel like children again.”