I wrote a letter to Mr. Pete Olson, owner of Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts, Inc. On 01/27/08
No reply was ever received. Here is an excerpt from the letter describing their falsification of the snow conditions and rude and threatening behavior. I will likely never return:
"... Excited about the news of all the recent snow fall, I woke early today with plans to head to Baldy. I called your Snow Report Line (909-981-3344) at 7:00am this morning. The report and the web-site both stated that there was a 3-4ft. Base, with 8in. Of fresh powder over-night. I headed up, arrived at the ticket booth, and the sign outside stated:
"3-4ft. Base; Bonanza has been groomed; Entire mountain open; Top of the mountain Crazy!
I eagerly purchased a ticket and headed to the Notch. I was surprised to see that despite what the sign below read, Chair 4 was not operating. I then headed over to Chair 3, and took Robin's Run down. I am an experienced snowboarder, and I must say, I have never been on worse ice. The run was completely un-rideable. There was no fresh powder anywhere. It was absolutely impossible to hold an edge and was down-right dangerous. We spoke with the lift operator at the bottom, who agreed that the runs off the chair were un-rideable. We then rode Chair 2 back up and spoke with another Mt. Baldy employee who was patrolling on a snow mobile. He also said that all runs other than Bonanza were un-rideable. We decided to leave and headed back down to the ticket office.
I am aware of the "No Refunds" policy, and lined up with a handful of others to receive a credit Voucher. Let me make it clear now that I was not pressing the issue of the refund policy, rather just the misleading snow reports.
Christine assisted me and I inquired as to why the Snow Report was inaccurate. She abruptly replied stating that she has "no control over the weather". I knew today was a storm day, and expected the volatile weather, but was questioning why the report was so misleading. After a great deal of back-and-forth, she informed me that the report is actually recorded on Saturday night and not updated until about 7:30am. Her hostility continued to escalate, and when I said "can't you just be cool about this?" she replied, "why don't you be cool and leave!"
Without boring you with more details of the entire lengthy exchange, I would appreciate a reply to the following questions:
1. If the early morning snow report describing 8in. Of fresh powder was actually recorded the night before, why did it clearly state that is was recorded "Sunday, Jan. 27th at 6:30am"
2. If the report was actually recorded this morning, how in good conscious could anyone say there was 8in. Of fresh powder over-night and not even mention the inches of heavy rain that obviously fell all night nor the dangerous icy conditions?
3. Why was the Conditions sign so misleading at the ticket office? (No mention of Chair 4 being closed, no mention of icy conditions)?
Unable to get any reasonable reply to my inquiries, I left the office and explained to several people waiting to purchase tickets that I felt the mountain was un-rideable (a view shared by your employees at the lifts) and even dangerous. Another gentleman had returned from the mountain and also felt it to be too dangerous and could not understand why the sign at the ticket booth made no mention of the icy slopes and, on the contrary, made it seem as though conditions were epic. There was one kind brunette woman selling tickets who seemed concerned about the danger, and an "Icy" note was added to the sign.
At this point, Christine and another woman came out of the office yelling and screaming, saying I was "harassing" their customers and threatening to call the police. I encouraged them to do so as I was behaving civilly, and those people who were about to be mislead in to purchasing tickets were thanking me for the honest report and concern for safety."
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