Bear Valley Mountain Resort — Hotel in South Lake Tahoe

I am writing regarding the experience we had here at the Cub Club. If you don’t end up reading this in its entirety, know we had a 12 to 1 ratio, the kids learned nothing and were mostly unattended, and 4 kids were lost for about an hour without anyone seeming to react much. My son spent an hour crying, confused and lost on the mountain. Also their chair lifts here have no safety rail at all - they are just open seats.

12-1 is not the ratio we paid for nor was it safe. One instructor got waylaid and they did not address the problem properly. The experience was no better than if they had gone by themselves skiing.

Due to this inadequate ratio, of his own admission, their instructor Martin had a lot of trouble keeping track of all of the kids. They took wrong turns onto what apparently were black diamonds, my daughter had to stop and help one little child down the mountain who had been left and forgotten, and, worse of all of this, my son was lost entirely along with 4 other kids.

He was totally lost. I can’t express how upsetting that is to begin with. He was scared and confused and lonely and anxious. He went to another instructor and told them he was lost. They hardly reacted and told him to ski to the bottom where he would “probably find his class.” What type of response is that?? They didn’t radio his instructor, they didn’t escort him down and make sure he was with his group again. Not to mention he should never have been left unattended up on a snowy mountain.

But no one even seemed to take it that seriously or care. His sister was extremely concerned - she kept asking her teacher where her brother was? He answered “Who is that?” She was terrified for her brother and no one seemed to be doing anything much about it.

I put a medical note on there saying one child has a knee problem, and needed close watching by the instructor so her kneecap wouldn’t pop out of its socket. I was assured she would be watched closely. She said most of the time the instructor was no where near her.

I intend to research who is the right agency to oversee your program, and file a formal complaint. This is a completely unacceptable amount of safety and accountability. I can never remove the fear and uncertainty my son faced stranded alone on the mountain, no one seeming to even be doing much about it. Thank God he did not get injured and ended up with his...

"Doubletree price & Motel 6 service"? NOT! My stays at Motel 6 have NEVER been as miserable as a weekend at Bear Valley. At least Motel 6 has free & available coffee in the morning. Bear Valley? MAYBE you can find an expensive cup SOMETIME after 8 in the morning, MAYBE! Oh, and if you beg, they might even put out an old, cold danish plate so you can get something to eat for your children, MAYBE. After a lovely day in the clear alpine air, we returned at 10:30PM on Saturday, but had to make our way through a cloud of smoke (tobacco?) at the front entrance, where "guests" were smoking (in violation of posted & verbalized policy of the lodge). As we entered & prepared to head up the stairs, and prepare for another day in the great outdoors -- for my daughter's 15th birthday Sunday -- we were blasted by disco lights & beat, discovering that the Cathedral Lounge had been converted to a disco. Approaching the DJ, and noting quiet hours at 11, and asking when they planned to stop, he stated they "are going to be jamming until midnight!" For the next hour, I attempted to contact Bear Valley staff through the various methods noted at the concierge; no living body could be found to respond. The DJ stated he was in touch with Bear Valley staff, and that they had agreed to comp' my family for our miserable experience over this weekend. We were hardly alone in our concerns. The party in the Cathedral Lounge indeed did go quiet shortly after midnight; by quarter after midnight it was now outside our window, on the lodge deck below. Soon smoke drifted into our room, as these "guests" continued to flaunt the posted "No Smoking" policy; so much for clean mountain air for my two teenage athletes. Sunday morning as we checked out, again, no staff was readily available. I wasted my morning trying to locate anyone responsible, only to finally locate a maintanence guy, who's answer to my concerns from the previous evening and lack of available staff: "Sorry! I was in the mountains." Next time that's where I'll take my children; not this disco smoke den...

We've been coming here for a few years, and will continue to do so. But I have taken to avoiding the lodge at lunch, and the ski area generally on busy days. It's just too mean a place.

Pros: Shorter drive than Tahoe (big advantage). Also, you can ski home from the top of the mountain directly back to the cabin, which helps a lot with group logistics since people can go home at different times.

Cons: Aggressive atmosphere. The staff abets a perpetual competition between guests. Signs about not reserving tables in the lodge are ignored, and by 10:00am most of the tables are piled with people's stuff with owners nowhere to be seen. Staff don't ask guests to please stop hogging a table. With about half as much seating capacity as needed on busy days, this creates a stressful situation. Today, I heard ski patrollers discussing a fist fight that broke out over a table.

The lift lines vary, with some lifties promoting orderly boarding and others allowing aggressive skiers to cut to the front.

The facilities have not been well maintained by Skyline, the present owner, compounding various challenges. Ex. You might wait 20 to 30 minutes for french fries due to inadequate cooking capacity.

I'm still deciding what to think about an incident two weeks ago when the lift operator at the top didn't notice that my 7 year old son fell. My niece stopped to look at him and the lift would have taken out her knees if I hadn't yelled at her to move. Four lift chairs went over my son's head as he slowly crawled out of the way, ducking for each chair. The liftie never looked up, so after those 4 chairs I ran over and pushed the red STOP button. One-off oops, or truth to rumors that Skyline cut costs by replacing experienced lifites with...