Happy Holidays

Dear Friends and Snow Enthusiasts,

The holiday season is upon us and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your patronage of Bear Valley Mountain Resort. I hope you have been able to experience our friendly staff and the great early season snow conditions. Talking about staff, we have a terrific group of employees this season. I’d like to thank them for their dedication and friendly services, as I know they are working hard to make your visit as enjoyable as possible. “Thanks team”!

I want to wish you, your family and friends a happy holiday season and all the best and success for the New Year.

Martin

Dear Friends,

I apologize upfront that I have been remiss in answering my blog for a while. The focus over the last couple of weeks has been on getting the mountain open with man-made, and fortunately also natural snow (thank you all for your snow dances!).

1. As to the environmental report and discussion I very much appreciate your concerns, input (both positive and negative) and suggestions. First the SACC has replied and indicated that they might be visiting with us early next year. I will keep you posted. More importantly environmental practice and improvement is not as much about passing a grade as it is a commitment to a journey. We have done many things as I alluded to in my published letter, but we are very conscious of the fact that there are many more things we can and will do. It is my committement to all of you to keep your informed of our progress. Our ownership team began that process nearly two years ago via their public meetings along the corridor and in the bay area and we will continue to improve our communication to keep you informed on this journey.

2. Many people ask specific questions about snow conditions, runs open, etc. I would suggest consulting the website directly as we are making every effort to keep the information up-to-date and my answers might be slower in coming (and don’t forget to hit the refresh button if the information looks old).

3. There were several questions regarding lockers. Here is the current situation. There are a few East Value lockers available. If you were on a waiting list you should have been called about this (your phone number of record!). However if you have not heard from us please call 209-753-2301 and ask for Ashley.

4. We have installed a new webcam which will allow you to take control. Just don’t get frustrated because there is an electronic “first come – first serve” system. We will soon bring a second, static cam online which will be positioned at the top of the mountain, giving you a view of the backside.

As I said previously I appreciate your interest and active participation in this blog. I am sure you noticed, as I did, that opinions differ. We will do everything we can to move forward towards our vision of being the premier family resort, providing safe and fun mountain experiences for all ages and abilities. While I can not respond to every item I can assure you that your input is important and helping us to improve and move towards this vision.

Thanks, Martin

December 8 opening of ski area and San Francisco Chronicle article on environmental rating

Bear Valley Snow Enthusiasts,

So far Mother Nature has not exactly helped to cover our beautiful mountain and ski runs with snow. But our new and "best in class" snow making crew has been working tirelessly to make snow whenever temperatures allowed. The result is that we will open this weekend, Dec, 8 for the 2007/2008 season. While man-made snow allows for only limited operations, we will have some interesting and fun activities for all family members. Please check the website for details.

I am inviting you to join Jim Gentling and myself for a short 2007/08 ski season opening ceremony on December 8 at 9:00 AM at the bottom of the Kuma chair.

Many of you might have seen the article in the San Francisco Chronicle "How green is your mountain? Ski resorts rated on environment". The article is based on an annual evaluation by the Ski Area Citizen' Coalition.

Protecting and improving our environment in a sensible way is of key concern to us. We have, and will continue to increase our efforts to improve our practices in this area.

As to the SACC evaluation we believe there are some inaccuracies and have invited the coalition to visit with us and assess first hand our current status. This will provide us with accurate and valuable input (for improvement) while assuring that the public is being properly informed.

I am copying my letter to the coalition as I thought you would be interested in this. So here we go:

Sierra Nevada Alliance
PO Box 7989
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158

To whom it may concern:

Thank you for your comments. It is efforts, commitments and comments like yours that make us more aware of the details of our business.

We reviewed your report on Bear Valley and believe that several areas are inaccurate or based on old information.

For example you should know that we are supporting green policies, do not do any ground disturbing activities from October 15 to July 15 to observe spring birthing rituals including but not limited to fawning and calving. We observe all best management practices issued by the USFS for erosion control and vegetation management. We have car pool incentives, encourage public transportation to the mountain and provide employee and public bus services.

We take the environment and climate changes very serious. For this reason we have programs in place, ranging from educating our guests on how to reduce emissions to supporting PG&E in developing renewable energy sources ("ClimateSmart").

We are very interested to understand our shortfalls so we can continue to improve our environmental practices. To do so however we also want to make sure your information is accurate so it provides input of value to the customers and us. Therefore I am inviting a delegation of SACC to visit Bear Valley Mountain Resort to assess first hand what we are doing right and where we need to improve. I believe this would be in the best interest of the public, and ultimately of the environment.

I am looking forward to your positive reply.

Sincerely,

Martin Wegenstein

CEO, Bear Valley Resort Group

I hope you will visit Bear Valley soon and enjoy the Gemuetlichkeit of this beautiful area and resort.

More on Gemutetlichkeit in my next blog.

Martin