Shuttle off to June Mountain
With all the snowfall that’s been blanketing Mammoth Lakes, it’s easy to forget that, while Mammoth Mountain Ski Area has been blessed with enough white stuff to put it on top of all ski resorts, June Mountain Ski Area has not only done well during this wild winter, but is slowly expanding into the rest of the year as well.
Abigail Ross, JMSA Marketing Manager, says the little sibling of “the big Mountain” turns 50 this year and is already opening up some nice new birthday presents. One of the newest is shuttle service, which she said was an idea generated by new JMSA Sales Director Kent Bianca, and intended to “help bridge the Mammoth and June experience.”
The shuttle trip isn’t part of the MMSA fleet of buses, however; service is contracted through the Eastern Sierra Transit Authority, an extension of the employee shuttle service already in place between ESTA and JMSA. Pickup is at 7:15 and 9 a.m. along Red Line routes, and makes return trips at 2 and 4 p.m. Ross said the service will run all season up until JMSA’s scheduled closing date of April 24.
Fares are $7 each way, but there is a slight savings if you buy the round-trip ticket at $13.50. (By slight, Ross admits it’s pretty slight, but it’s something.) Ross said that guests staying at any Mammoth Lakes properties should ask about vouchers for the service that may be available.
So far June’s picked up more than 200 inches of snowfall. “We got about 8 feet or so during that last storm,” Ross said. Asked why it wasn’t more, she said June Mountain gets that question a lot, and the answer comes down to weather versus geography. “The storms have to get past Carson Peak, and that often means we’ll get some of what Mammoth gets, but not as much because of the blocking,” Ross pointed out. “We do benefit from a certain amount of lake effect snow, however.”
June seems poised to take advantage of some ideas that helped make for a successful summer season in 2010. Ross said the Mountain is looking to do more business as a wedding destination, and plans to expand its summer “top of the Mountain” hiking experience. “Last year we had 5,000 scenic riders that went up chair J1,” Ross enthused. And that figure was during the pilot program’s 4-day Friday through Monday schedule. “What’s odd is that Saturday was the lightest of the three days. Friday was great and it picked up Sunday and Monday, but for some reason Saturday was just off. Go figure.” Ross said JMSA plans to expand the program to 7 days this coming summer.
Not on the drawing board this year, however, are bike trails. Ross had hoped things would be in place for this summer, but alas there are still some hoops to jump through. “There are still U.S. Forest Service permits and trail maintenance issues to work out,” Ross explained. “Lifts will probably also have to be modified to accommodate riders, and that hasn’t been addressed yet.”
For the short term, however, she did say that guests venturing over to the June Lake area might want to check into some free ice-skating on Gull Lake. It’s not a product of JMSA, but Ross said that some locals have been clearing snow and when weather permits, you can lace up your skates and go out.
Back to the half-centennial birthday, Ross said that some light promotions are tentatively being put together for around the first weekend in March. “We opened on what used to be Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday weekend in February 1961, but that’s now Presidents Day and we just had so much going on getting the Mountain opened on schedule in December,” she said, addressing the delay in the anniversary commemoration.
For events, snow reports and other June Lake information, log on to www.JuneMountain.com.
