Badger Pass Ski Area — Attraction in Oakhurst

This place is awesome. It is a small mountain, but it has such a great vibe. If you are looking for a snooty, cliché mountain with fancy $25 cocktails where you can show off your expensive gear, there are better choices for you, but if you are looking to go to a family friendly mountain with character and charm, this place is great.

It was a perfect mountain for our kids who are somewhere between beginner and intermediate snowboarders. Bruin is really an ideal lift/run for beginner snowboarders. June Mountain is considered a good mountain for beginners as well, but their best beginner run is River Run and Badger Pass’s Bruin is superior for a beginner snowboarder. It has just the right steepness, length, and straightness.

Every single employee we interacted with was super nice and helpful including the ski instructors, the head of the ski school program, the lift operators, the kitchen staff, the equipment rental staff, and the guy working in the repair shop. Really, everyone we ran into at the Mountain seemed nice. My kids did some snowboard lessons on Friday and the instructors were great. They are definitely short staffed for ski and snowboard instructors, which is unfortunate, but I don’t hold that against them. I have my own equipment and we brought rented equipment for my kids based on the reviews and concerns over wait time. However, my wife rented ski equipment from the mountain and had no issues.

The prices here are good and the location must be almost impossible to beat - Yosemite Park. We went to the mountain on Friday and Sunday and took Saturday to rest our legs and check out the Park. It was great. It was not overcrowded on Friday or Sunday and there were no significant waits...

Had a very disappointing experience at the rental counter at Badger Pass this weekend. This was our first time visiting Yosemite in the winter, and upon arrival at Badger Pass we were directed to the counter where you can rent showshoes to see if the conditions required them.

We walked up to the counter to an older woman with chin length hair who was not doing anything, and simply asked if we needed showshoes to hike the trail we were planning on hiking, or if hiking boots would be enough. She didn't seem to know, and couldn't say yes or no to our question.

We mentioned that we had crampons with us (just the simple, small spikes for hiking/traction in the snow/on ice) and another employee with glasses and curly brown hair overheard this, and from across the counter started telling us (very loudly) that if we used crampons we would ruin the trail, and that crampons were only used for ice climbing. As someone who has been hiking for years, I know that there are situations that are not ice climbing where crampons should still be used to prevent injury. She went out of her way to make us look and feel stupid.

Even after that interaction, no one was able to say "Yes, you will need snowshoes" or "No, you don't need them and will be fine with boots" so we left and decided we would just find out for ourselves, not wanting to give them our business anyways.

Ultimately, snowshoes were not necessary, nor were crampons, as the snow was packed in, and the "trail" easily hike-able in hiking boots. Would have been nice if the employees being paid to help guests would have been able to...

Love this place! Reporting back after reading other reviews: This Saturday morning at 9am there was no line for rentals. Access rentals from the street side (they are lacking signage!). By 8:50ish the lessons were sold out. They did not have snowboard lessons for kids available on the day we visited, so our kids learned to ski. After a single 2 hr lesson my 10 yr old was ready to hit the big lifts and the blue squares. He doesn’t really know how to stop or turn but had tons of fun. My 7 year old’s skis kept popping out during his lesson and the teacher told me to take them back to rental to fix them. So test the skis before lesson! Two of the lifts have the swing down safety bar on the lift, but the bunny hill does not. There’s a wall of open cubbies store extra jackets or shoes. People just left their bags/coolers on the deck under tables. All the staff are friendly and nice! Pro tip: they sell ice cream(Hagen Daz) and snacks in the gear shop- which closes promptly at 4pm! Kids played in the snow in front of the deck, fort snowballs, etc. We skied until closing at 4pm then went to the valley floor for dinner.

Sunday, we snow shoed. We rented shoes from the Nordic center, then drove to the path opening on the far side of the parking lot where the trail sign is. (Smallest kid was having trouble trekking there from Nordic center). Honestly, did not really need the snow shoes. Boots were fine on the groomed flat path. Other families had brought sleds and were sledding about a quarter mile in on the side. The views...