Orange County brands Hurley, Volcom and Quiksilver dominate the beach. But in the mountains, Vermont’s Burton is king of the hill for snowboarding gear. (They outfitted the U.S. Olympic snowboarding team.)
So imagine my surprise when the rental shop at Central California’s Sierra Summit Mountain Resort issued me a Rossignol snowboard. As I snapped my Burton boots into the board, I thought of how in OC, Rossignol might as well be French for “mistake” instead of “nightingale”.
In 2005, Huntington Beach-based surf-inspired clothing maker Quiksilver Inc. acquired Rossignol in an attempt to expand into sporting goods and bolster sales of winter clothes.
After the buy of the struggling French ski maker proved to be disastrous, Quiksilver unloaded Rossignol in a late 2008 fire sale.
With expensive mistakes on my mind, I loaded a lift and followed signs for an intermediate run called “Boulder Alley.”
Sierra Summit is a small lodge and midsize ski area off Highway 168, about 65 miles northeast of Fresno on man-made Huntington Lake. The resort is part of the Big Bear Mountain Resorts group, which also operates South-ern California’s Snow Summit and Bear Mountain.
A weekend in Sierra Summit is two days of folks from San Luis Obispo asking you why you didn’t spend your six-hour drive from OC going to Mammoth.
Sierra Summit might have about a third of the number of lifts as Mammoth but the cheap tickets and absence of crowds certainly are a plus. The fresh powder and sunshine left few reasons to complain.
The drive through Selma, the “Raisin Capital of the World,” and the rich bovine scent of Highway 99 are added character.
—Emily Weisberg
