RIVERSIDE — Just as Southern California ski operators were preparing to write this season off as a total loss, a series of storms began dropping the best snow of the year.
After suffering through an unusually warm and rainy mid-winter, the welcome snowfalls began last week and culminated in a major storm that rolled over the mountains during the weekend, dropping two to three feet of the white stuff, ski operators said Monday.
Still, the "Big Four" ski resorts--Snow Summit, Goldmine and Snow Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains and Mountain High in the San Gabriel Mountains--do not expect to reduce their business losses by much. Business is running 25% to 50% below normal for the season, which ends in mid-April.
"This (snow) has really helped," said Richard Kun, general manager of Snow Summit at Big Bear Lake, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. "It has taken a terrible year and made it a very bad year."
