Driven by a passion and love for Mount Waterman Rick Metcalf stepped up to the plate and saved the day. It was the summer of 2004. The forest service was going to remove all the equipment from the hill and restore this historical mountain back to the National Forest. He immediately contacted four Waterman enthusiasts, Craig Stewart, Brien Metcalf, Robin Hoffner and Roberto Martinez. They formed Mount Waterman LLC and began to transform the mountain into the great skiing and snowboarding mountain that it is known to be. It is a local’s paradise, with the most challenging runs south of the Sierras. With three chairs and over 100 runs there is plenty of beginner and intermediate terrain.
Thus began the next chapter in Mount Waterman’s glorious history!
Much land in the San Gabriel Mountains was leased from the US Forest Service in 1888 to a master trailblazer and cabin builder by the name of Loise Newcomb. The official name of the hill is Waterman Mountain. Robert B. Waterman, pioneer mountain man and a ranger in the San Gabriel Forest Reserve. Waterman, together with his wife Liz, and their friend Perry Switzer, completed a three week hike from La Cañada-Flintridge, California La Cañada to the Antelope Valley and back again May 1889. With this epic feat, Liz became the first white non-Indigenous peoples of the Americas Indian woman known to have crossed the San Gabriel’s. Along the way, she placed a cairn on this summit and it was thus christened Lady Waterman's Peak. However, then current attitudes toward the "weaker sex" didn't deem this a fitting name. The peak has subsequently been called by different variants, all of which leave out the "Lady". To his credit Robert Waterman made numerous futile efforts to have the full original name restored.
Humble Beginnings
Lynn Newcomb Sr. and his son Lynn Newcomb Jr. built the first rope tow at the area in 1939.
Mount Waterman claims to have had the first chairlift in California, opened by the Newcomb’s on January 1, 1942. The chairlift broke down during the opening day and riders had to jump off, but the resort continued operations.
Lynn Newcomb Jr. took over the operation when his father passed on, and ran the ski area for all but a two-year period, when it was sold to two San Gabriel Valley businessmen in the 1990s. Those new owners returned the resort to Newcomb when their ambitious plans for snowmaking and other improvements at the ski area fell through.
