I'm just going to be honest. All shops near you will blow. It's almost as if the twin tip movement hasn't reached the LA area yet. Also, they will not put out their snow sports equipment until Christmas, which was just annoying. As for the skiing, nothing will compare to what you were used to in CO. Mammoth is sweet, but it is very far. Difficult to manage in a single day. I enjoyed snow summit, but each resort in the area has their own pluses and minuses. The snow when I lived in the area was actually pretty sweet year after year (relative to what SoCal is used to). But lately he snow has been pretty unpredictable and horrible in all of california, but especially in the san bernardino mountains. Spend all of his season hitting up eah place a few times and just go with the one you liked the most.