Mount Waterman In the Angeles National Forest, California | Image: Mount Waterman Facebook Mount Waterman, Southern California’s historic ski area in the Angeles National Forest, is back on the market for $3,275,000 after a proposed purchase by Angeles Mountain Partners fell through. The asking price is $1 million higher than the $2.275 million listing in 2024, when the prospective buyers announced plans to transform the long-struggling ski area into an exclusive members-only club called Waterman100. The sale never closed, and the listing agent now says he is seeking a buyer committed to keeping the mountain accessible to the public. Related: Mt. Waterman, Closest Mountain Resort to Los Angeles, CA, Finds New Buyer & Continues the Family-Owned Tradition In 2024, Angeles Mountain Partners (AMP) announced in a press release that it had acquired the long-shuttered resort. The release also noted that the resort would reopen to the public for the immediate 2024-25 winter season. AMP co-founders Joshua Shelton and Scott Towsley launched a website for the Waterman100 project with the slogan ‘More Powder. Less People.’ Their plan for a private club at Mount Waterman centered around making use of an existing helicopter pad and ferrying 100 members to the mountain on coveted storm days. According to business plan details laid out in The Los Angeles Times, the blueprint for Waterman100 was built on a tiered pricing structure designed to pull in upfront revenue. The initiation fee for the first 25 members was pegged at $100,000, escalating by $50,000 for each subsequent block until the final 25 members paid $250,000 each. On top of the initial buy-in, members would then pay $5,000 in annual fees. In exchange, AMP promised an inheritable, country-club style legacy membership that included, in addition to private powder days, a shared equity pool with liquidity options to sell or transfer on exit. Related: Southern Californian Ski Resort for Sale for Less Than $2.5 Million Capital from these exclusive memberships was intended to bankroll an infrastructure overhaul that would benefit all visitors. Under the original plan, all major construction projects were slated for completion by 2026 ahead of a grand reopening in 2027. These ambitious upgrades included adding a modern snowmaking system, a glamping village, an alpine mountain coaster, a tubing hill with a magic carpet, enhanced entertainment and dining options, along with plans to double the size of both the historic warming hut and the mid-mountain clubhouse. The historic Southern California ski area is once again listed for sale. | Image: Mt. Waterman Facebook There was an immediate problem with the developer’s plans for an members-only alpine country club. Mount Waterman’s infrastructure sits within the Angeles National Forest under a Special Use Permit from the U.S. Forest Service. By law, these federal permits mandate public, inclusive utility of national forest lands, explicitly prohibiting discrimination based on wealth or affiliation. The friction between AMP’s marketing presentation — including phrasing like “private,” “exclusivity,” and “limited legacy membership” — and federal guidelines triggered alarms. When the resort reappeared for sale, an SFGATE reporter reached out to listing agent Marc Ramirez. Ramirez, an employee of the resort in the 1990s, has spent over three years trying to find a new steward for Southern California’s first ski resort. He recalled the fallout when the underlying organizational fractures became clear. “My phone rang off the hook with the Forest Service asking, ‘What the heck is going on?’” Ramirez said. Ramirez listed a number of fractures in the AMP deal that dragged the timeline across nearly all of 2025. Lagging federal timelines, the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, and federal DOGE cuts that removed agency personnel mid-process were all contributing factors. The local community also experienced the tragic passing of owner Rick Metcalf in 2025. In 2006, Metcalf famously rallied friends to rescue the ski area from extinction. A separate group of private businessmen had failed to navigate the federal red tape, resulting in several years of closure before Metcalf stepped in. It would appear that the federal agency’s stance left little room for negotiation from the start. In their 2024 article, The Los Angeles Times interviewed Justin Seastrand with the Angeles National Forest who commented, “I’m pretty confident we would not allow … any kind of exclusive use.” In an unexpected twist, the Forest Service approved the 20-year transferable special-use permit in December 2025, but the deal had already unraveled in escrow. As Ramirez summarized to SFGATE: “But what it really comes down to is they didn’t have the money.” Mount Waterman warming hut. | Image: Mount Waterman Facebook What is on offer for $3,275,000 is a piece of Alpine history. A buyer will receive a 20-year federal permit and the resort’s physical infrastructure, which remains in the Metcalf family trust. The layout includes three double chairlifts, a 2,161-square-foot warming hut with a commercial kitchen, a storage building, a ski patrol facility, two employee trailers, three Piston-Bully snowcats, and five snowmobiles. The mid-mountain helipad – that AMP had designated for a private club taxi service – remains restricted to emergency search-and-rescue operations. The true magic of Mount Waterman is its terrain. This is the exact landscape that inspired Warren Miller, who first learned to ski here with his Boy Scout troop in 1937, long before his iconic films introduced millions to the sport. When a winter storm hits the San Gabriels, the mountain transforms into a powder paradise, famously prompting the original operating policy: “Open when it snows!” Because it faces north and sits shaded by dense pine canopies, the natural snow stays dry and preserved. While adding a modern snowmaking system would seem like a logical step to bring the resort into the future, engineering a project of that scale through federal environmental red tape and securing a reliable water source has historically been an uphill battle. The immediate gamble for any buyer is the access road itself. In a twist of geographic fate, the scenic stretch of the Angeles Crest Highway had just fully reopened in August 2025 after a years-long closure, only to be damaged by severe storms and landslides months later. A multi-million-dollar repair project to fix deep washouts and buckled asphalt won’t be completed before 2028. Powder day at Mount Waterman | Image: Mount Waterman Facebook To add to the unfolding saga, local rumors suggest Newcomb’s Ranch – minutes down the road – has sold to a buyer planning to turn it into a gated, members-only destination. The 10-acre roadhouse property frequented in recent years by gear-head celebrities like Jay Leno and Keanu Reeves, is famously the only privately owned land inside the national forest boundary, originally settled by the very same family who went on to establish the Mount Waterman ski resort. Related: Is Los Angeles, CA, a Ski Town? Ramirez confirmed to SFGATE that the strategy for the ski hill has shifted away from any discussions of exclusivity. He is seeking a public-minded steward who wants to preserve access for everyday skiers. Until a buyer closes escrow, and while the highway remains closed, Mount Waterman is left entirely to the backcountry skinners and hikers willing to earn their turns inside this monument to the golden age of Southern California skiing. The post Historic Mount Waterman, CA, Back on Market for $3.3 Million After Plans for Private Club Collapse appeared first on SnowBrains.