Big Bear Lake businesses grapple with tourism wipeout

Nick Stebbins stood in the middle of the Brown Bear Gift Shop and eyed his merchandise. It was Thursday afternoon and the place was empty, save for a clerk sitting behind the store’s checkout counter.

Big Bear T-shirts and sweatshirts lined the back wall, while sunglasses, bear figurines, personalized signs and scores of other gift items sat on display throughout the store.

“This is pretty typical for a Wednesday or Thursday, but we’ll get a lot more people this weekend,” said Stebbins, the store’s assistant manager. “Hopefully, they’ll reopen State Route 330. That’ll make a make a huge difference.”

Brown Bear Gift Shop has managed to keep its doors open throughout the winter storms that have blanketed the area, buoyed by locals who have stopped in to buy hats, beanies, jackets and other winter gear to keep warm.

Despite the challenges, a sense of optimism is rising among businesses in The Village, a hub for shopping, sightseeing and dining in Big Bear Lake that relies heavily on tourism.

Hammered by snow storms that initially closed all roads leading up to the mountain community, businesses have been whittling employee work hours, dealing with leaky roofs while keeping sidewalks clear for the few customers who venture in.

Highway 18 through Lucerne Valley, commonly known as the “back way” into Big Bear, was reopened to the public Wednesday and two other routes leading up to the mountain community were expected to open in the coming days.

Businesses have spent much of the past week digging out of snow drifts on rooftops and driveways.

“Financially, we’ve definitely taken a hit,” said Tamara Picciolo, who co-owns The Village Sweet Shoppe and serves as its chief operating officer. “People just couldn’t make it up here because of the roads, so we knew we just had to hang tight. I know it will come back as soon as all of the roads are open.”

One of the biggest challenges, according to Picciolo, has been keeping snow off the roof. The store’s back door is blocked by a wall of packed snow standing more than 6 feet high in places.

“We spent an entire week shoveling snow off the roof because it just kept coming,” she said. “I have a photo of me standing up there, and it came up to my waist.”

Visit Big Bear CEO Michael Perry said the heavy snowfall and blocked roads have eaten into the revenues of restaurants, gift shops and scores of retailers in the mountain community that depend on tourism.

“It’s been very difficult,” he said. “We’re going on two weeks with no tourist business — locals only. We’re encouraging residents to get out and support our local restaurants and other businesses. A lot of them make 70% of their annual revenue during the winter.”

Visit Big Bear promotes overnight lodging in the community, something that has been especially hard hit, Perry said.

“Vacation rentals, including Airbnbs, account for about two-thirds of our overnight stays,” he said. “But we also have lodges with cabins and about 10 traditional hotels. A lot of people at these places people aren’t working. They’re living paycheck to paycheck.”

Still, some guests have squeaked through. Jenny Brown and her family are among the few who managed to secure overnight lodging at an Airbnb.

“We rented a cabin a couple weeks ago and were going to cancel because of all the snow, but then they reopened Highway 18,” the Riverside resident said Thursday.

Brown said the drive up to Big Bear Lake was surreal.

“Getting up here wasn’t hard, but it’s the most snow we’ve ever seen on roofs and cars,” she said. “We came up to do some snow tubing and sledding.”

If there’s a silver lining to be found in the record snow levels that have blanketed Southern California’s mountains, it might be an extended ski season for Big Bear Mountain Resort.

But that’s a maybe.

“We haven’t made a determination on that,” said Justin Kanton, a spokesman for the resort. “Even though we’ve had record snowfall — and it’s exceeded 100 inches in some areas — we don’t know how long it’s going to stick around.”

Big Bear Bear Mountain Resort includes Bear Mountain, Snow Summit and Snow Valley with a combined 678 acres of skiable terrain. The resort’s ski season typically runs from mid- to late-November through late March or early April.

With all of the extra snow that has piled on, the season could run longer. But Mother Nature will have the final say, according to Kanton.

“As we get into spring, temperatures begin to warm up and people begin planning activities elsewhere,” he said. “Plus, we have operational costs in getting things ready for the summer when we have mountain biking, golf and other activities.”

The resort makes its own snow. But as the season moves forward, that process isn’t as effective, according to Kanton.

“Conditions don’t permit for very good snowmaking this time of year when humidity and temperatures get higher,” he said.

More rain arrived in Southern California on Friday, and additional rainfall was predicted for the coming week. As temperatures warm up, some fear roofs may collapse as rain adds more weight to the snow.

Meanwhile, Big Bear locals are doing what they can to support the business community.

Helen Walsh and a friend stopped in at the Oakside Restaurant & Bar on Thursday.

“We come in once a week,” the 82-year-old resident said. “My favorite meal is the beef tenderloin with a blue cheese crust.”

Walsh, who serves as historian for the Big Bear Lake Rotary Club, also chairs the organization’s Million Meals food pantry program. Deliveries to the mountain community, she said, haven’t happened because of road closures.

That’s about to change.

“We’re renting a large U-Haul truck in Riverside on Monday, and we’ll be bringing up a lot of food,” she said.

Oakside Restaurant & Bar employs about 70 workers, and the lack of tourism has hit some of the employees hard. Some have been off work while others have had their hours cut back.

“The tipped employees get hurt the worst,” owner Mike Hastings said. “We had to close down two days in March because of the snow. We’re offering $9.99 lunch specials to try to get the locals in. It seems like (the county) was overreaching by shutting down all of the roads and locking people out of town. And I don’t think the city was prepared for this.”

Businesses continue to grapple with the fallout from the snow conditions and lack of tourism.

Dawn Pribnow, who manages The Bath Workshop, spent much of Thursday afternoon eyeing the deep drifts along Village Drive. The small shop sells everything from bath lotions and perfumes to oils and atomizing diffusers.

“There are two new water leaks in the ceiling and I’ve had some flooding from water coming in the back door,” she said. “I’ve been using a Shop-Vac to pick up the water as it comes in, and my husband will be bringing some more sandbags.”

The shop hadn’t had a customer in a week. But Pribnow, whose hours have but whittled, echoed the optimism among businesses that things will soon be better.

“People will start to come up on the weekend,” she said. “Highway 18 is already open to anybody.”