On Monday, July 7, 2014 8:48:51 AM UTC-7, Alan Baker wrote:
On 2014-07-07 02:20:16 +0000, Richard Henry said:



This has been a recurring question for decades, but things looked

brightest after 1986 when Dave McCoy bought June more or less out of

bankruptcy, and boosted June-specific income by improving customer

service and upgrading trail and lift facilities, while maintaining most

of June's distinctive flavor. The best years were probably in the late

90's, after a unique tramway lift (Yan QMC) was installed from the

parking base to the main chalet, 1000 feet above the best steep expert

terrain on the mountain, combined with the fact that Mammoth still did

not permit snowboards, and June welcomed them.



Then the QMC became unusable after the Yan lift disasters and

subsequent bankruptcy, snowboards were allowed at Mammoth without

restriction, and the recession piled onto bad snow years. When MMSA

went public by a heavily-indebted buyout, the annual income became

critical, and the weak snow/income 2011-12 year drove MMSA to suspend

June's operation for the 2012-13 season to please creditors.



This year June re-opened, but unfortunately there was another weak snow

season. The linked graphs show the June and June-Mammoth combined

skier-day and income numbers through mid-April, which was when June

closed for the season.



http://monocounty.ca.gov/sites/defau...04-13-2014.pdf





Will this weak financial year force MMSA to close June again creditors?

The Forest Service statened last year that not operating June was a

violation of the Forest Service permit, and they would declare the

permit in default and offer it to other potential operators if MMSA

does not keep June open.



I'm just hoping...



...purely for nostalgic reasons...



...that Talisman "Mountain" repopens:



http://www.thestar.com/business/real_estate/2014/05/13/bankrupt_talisman_ski_resort_to_become_hotel_and_s pa.html





That's where I learned to ski.



:-)

It's fate, really. After driving 5 to 7 hours to get to Mammoth, few want to drive another hour to ski an inferior resort. In my personal experience skiing there, the big benefits of June over Mammoth were smaller crowds on Saturdays, $10 Wednesdays, the QMC (when it was running), and cheaper (but older) hotels.

Now if the June Lake Valley had been located an hour south of Mammoth, up in the ridge west of Bishop, Mammoth might be the little brother of the pair..