Mountain High Resort — Attraction in Wrightwood

This place commits crimes against humanity and needs to be shut down. Avoid at all costs. Here’s my story. I went with my girlfriend last weekend for her first time skiing to find the west lot closed to parking and all street parking closed. We waited patiently for 2 hours to get to the east lot for parking, but they had blocked that off too. I tried to ask the lady working there where I could park, and she just waved me on. I could literally SEE parking spaces available in the east lot as I went by! We ended up parking 1.5 miles east of the east lot in a nearby residential area and walked in. We grabbed a drink and waited for the shuttle bus to arrive to drive us to Mountain High West. I wanted to go there rather than the east resort because they have bunny slopes that are blocked off from the intermediate courses. It’s the only place I’ve been that has that and is why I got the tickets in the first place. One hour passed, didn’t come. I asked the lady again how long until the bus arrives and she AGAIN said 1 hour. So we ended up walking another mile to the west resort. And when we got there, it had been over 6 hours since we first arrived. We got there only to wait in another line for our tickets. We couldn’t use our digital tickets for “liability reasons”, so we had to print it out at a kiosk and wait in line AGAIN. Then we had to wait in line for our rentals, which took ANOTHER hour. There were like 10-15 people in line and only a couple staff helping us. Could’ve been way more efficient. Anyway, we got our rentals and found all the lockers were full, so I just carried everything on my back. What did we find after all we went through? The magic carpet was broken. We walked uphill in our boots to the other magic carpet to practice. I would say we got about 3 runs in that day before they shut the magic carpet off. It got dark and we knew we had to go back soon before the visibility got worse. We waited in line for the shuttle again, it never came. They could’ve put a couple grand in to build benches at the shuttle stops for guests to sit but they didn’t. I ended up jogging back in the dark and against traffic along the road for 2.5 miles to our car. Thank god the one road there was salted at least. I don’t know how I pushed myself to get back but I did. I got the car, picked my girlfriend up from the east lot (the bus arrived right about the time I had made it to our car), and we drove out against traffic. All that said, we are both traumatized and will NEVER come back here. What did we pay over $400 for? (btw non-refundable). What are they even using the money for? They could hire more staff, build more roads, expand the parking lot, pay for more shuttle busses between parks, or at least put tracking devices on their shuttles so we can know where they are and get a proper ETA from staff rather than saying “the bus is on it’s way” or “1 hour” after an hour has ALREADY passed. But that wouldn’t benefit them, just the customers. I mean, for heaven’s sake, why don’t you just set a daily limit for number of tickets bought online to avoid overcrowding? I would even argue the shuttle bus is an emergency service and they could use the emergency access road no one’s allowed to park on to shuttle guests between parks. All in all, I’m very disappointed in Mountain High but will note that we did receive some kindness from their staff member in the emergency response group. It was nice to see after all that pain that there is still some sliver of goodness in this world.

Dustin's Details:

I absolutely LOVE Mountain High and highly recommend going if you live in SoCal! I have been going to Mountain high since I was 6 years old and now that I am 23, I can say that I have never had a bad time at MH. Here are my reasons for a 5 star review and some insider tips:

1. Price. The ticket and rental pricing at mountain high is extremely affordable. -Rentals are approximately $50 bucks (You can set this up online before you go) -Lift Tickets can/should be bought online before you go. You can buy tickets individually or in a 4 pack, with the 4 pack being cheaper. -4 pack DAY passes (8:30am-4:30pm) ($80 bucks) -4 pack NIGHT skiing passes (5:00pm-10:0opm WED-SUN)($25) -Parking at the top of the mountain ($20)

2. Access. 90% of the time you don't need chains or four-wheel drive to get up the mountain. This is great if you are like me and drive a sedan! On the way out to the freeway it can be a little trafficky+ you might hit rush-hour traffic in San Bernardino.

3. Personnel. The workers at mountain high, whether they are helping you with rentals, running the lifts, or helping you with parking are nice, helpful, and even funny! They just want you to have a good time. Always appreciate the workers here.

4. Weather and Slope conditions. DAY SKING: -If you go day skiing the weather can be VERY WARM. This is a good thing, but NOT if you layered up a bunch expecting it to be very cold. Trust me if it's sunny you will be SWEATING. Temperature does begin to drop at 3:00-4:00pm and it does begin to get cold. There are usually plenty of runs open, but check online -NIGHT SKIING: It does get cold during the night time, so prepare adequately. Sometimes the runs are a bit iced out from the day time, but that is the point. Pros about night skiing is that there is plenty of lighting, less people, it's cheaper, and more parking.

Other Tips:

• If you want parking close to the top, get there BEFORE 9:30 am. It fills up pretty fast.
• Always check the WEATHER and the number of lifts open
• There are many snowboarders at mountain high, which means that sometimes someone may fall suddenly in front of you or crash next to you so be aware of your surroundings.
• ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET

I love this place and would 100% recommend Mountain High!!!

Took the family on a Sunday. This is the first time back at Mountain High in over decade, so I don't recall much from when I was a kid. We got there at a little past opening, at approximately 8:45 and the parking lot was full. We had to go to the east parking lot and take the bus back up because that's where the lessons and rentals were.

Once we got the kids squared away, which was a rather painless process atop the moving walkway, I had to get my gear down the hill. The easiest part was getting the lift tickets cause we purchased them online and printed them out at the kiosks via QR code. Compliments to both the instructor the kids had. They were good and the kids had a good time.

The RFID concept was good but the execution was shotty at times. Sometimes the gates for the lift would open just fine while other times it took multiple attempts or people to help. The line was another issue because oftentimes there wasn't really a system. There were 3 RFID gates that went into two or three lines that ended up being one for the lift. It felt like the intersection of two major freeways.

The snow conditions weren't bad at the beginning of the day when the temperature was cooler. However, as the sun continued to rise overhead the warmer it got and the wetter the snow became. The chair lift operators had to constantly shovel snow to ensure there was enough for people to get to and off the lifts.

With all that being said, having a ski resort less than 2 hours away from LA and OC is a luxury. Mountain High can get pretty crowded, but once you get up the mountain it wasn't too bad. You have to take the place for what it is, a ski resort close to home; therefore, you sacrifice snow conditions and open terrain for convenience.