Last fall I gambled on the El Nino (which doubles the odds of a good SoCal ski season from 30% to 60%) and bought Mt. Baldy season passes for $169 each. I decided to pick up our passes Monday and see if the 7 inches new snow could be skied anywhere. My expectations were low, and let's just say I overestimated conditions.
The early morning report said Thunder would open by 10AM, the update said noon, so I left home then and arrived at 1PM, finding to no real surprise that it still wasn't open. No surprise because everything had been coated with ice after it rained most of the day Sunday.
Pictures tell the story that Baldy has along way to go.
Base of Chair 1:
Bentley's is the usually the safest way to get down the mountain if it hasn;t snowed in a while.
Of course there needs to be a base first.
The upper part of Chair 1 approaching the Notch with ice-glazed trees.
Chair 4 was never open even after the early January 2 foot storm.
Skiing down the Beginner Gulch with Goldridge in background.
This was all hardpack and half the normal width.
Looking up from the bottom of Thunder ~2:00PM
Shortly thereafter the chair started moving slowly so the lifties could whack ice off the chairs with shovels.
Here's an overview of Thunder from the top of Chair 2.
From this distance Robin's and Skyline look decent.
At 2:50 Thunder finally loaded.
There were maybe 10 people in front of me, and I'd be surprised if more than 20 people skied Thunder on Monday.
On the ride up the sun illuminated some of the ice-glazed trees to sparkle brilliantly.
Liftline is still very thin and brushy but there appears to be blown in snow in upper Emile's.
When I got up there, everything was roped off except Fire Road/Bonanza. Most of that was as hardpacked as the beginner area. So after the rain it appears most of that 7 inches was blown away to Nevada. It was also blowing quite hard Monday, though in the opposite of usual direction, north to south.
Next time up I ventured into Skyline as it looked like windpack. I soon found out why all but Fire Road/Bonanza were closed. It was very hard boilerplate at the top, almost impossible to hold an edge, but fortunately my partially out-of-control sideslip ran into some loose windblown snow. Here are my only good tracks of the day.
Below these tracks the boilerplate surface returned and I gingerly sideslipped down to an opening in the fence where I could traverse into the trees and Emile's. Between the bushes and the lurking boilerplate subsurface it was strictly one-turn-at-time getting down from there. But at least there was some new snow in the trees and gully, and I didn't feel I was taking my life in my hands as on parts of Skyline. I have some respect for the easterners skiing on rain-glazed snow, much scarier than steep chutes in good snow IMHO.
I rode Thunder one more time. This time the chair stopped 5+ minutes near the top in the howling wind. At the top of Thunder I took one pic of Palos Verdes/Catalina framed by the icy trees.
I contented myself with another Fire Road/Bonanza, then rode Chair 2 up and Chair 1 down, reaching my car well-chilled about 4:30PM. Vertical was a modest 4,500 for the afternoon.
I do not criticize Baldy management much for this one given the widespread icing. Anyone who bought a day ticket was given a voucher for another day. I was able to pick up our season passes so either Liz or I can be direct-to-lift if the skiing ever becomes worthwhile.
In my case the El Nino Baldy gamble is not panning out. All the forecasters say we'll have a big high pressure ridge and dry weather for the first half of February. Liz may have more opportunity later in the month when I'm in Canada. A "March miracle" like 1991 won't help either of us as we won't be at home hardly at all in March.
The Sierra is having a nice season, as are Arizona and New Mexico, but so far El Nino is a bust in SoCal.
The early morning report said Thunder would open by 10AM, the update said noon, so I left home then and arrived at 1PM, finding to no real surprise that it still wasn't open. No surprise because everything had been coated with ice after it rained most of the day Sunday.
Pictures tell the story that Baldy has along way to go.
Base of Chair 1:
Bentley's is the usually the safest way to get down the mountain if it hasn;t snowed in a while.
Of course there needs to be a base first.
The upper part of Chair 1 approaching the Notch with ice-glazed trees.
Chair 4 was never open even after the early January 2 foot storm.
Skiing down the Beginner Gulch with Goldridge in background.
This was all hardpack and half the normal width.
Looking up from the bottom of Thunder ~2:00PM
Shortly thereafter the chair started moving slowly so the lifties could whack ice off the chairs with shovels.
Here's an overview of Thunder from the top of Chair 2.
From this distance Robin's and Skyline look decent.
At 2:50 Thunder finally loaded.
There were maybe 10 people in front of me, and I'd be surprised if more than 20 people skied Thunder on Monday.
On the ride up the sun illuminated some of the ice-glazed trees to sparkle brilliantly.
Liftline is still very thin and brushy but there appears to be blown in snow in upper Emile's.
When I got up there, everything was roped off except Fire Road/Bonanza. Most of that was as hardpacked as the beginner area. So after the rain it appears most of that 7 inches was blown away to Nevada. It was also blowing quite hard Monday, though in the opposite of usual direction, north to south.
Next time up I ventured into Skyline as it looked like windpack. I soon found out why all but Fire Road/Bonanza were closed. It was very hard boilerplate at the top, almost impossible to hold an edge, but fortunately my partially out-of-control sideslip ran into some loose windblown snow. Here are my only good tracks of the day.
Below these tracks the boilerplate surface returned and I gingerly sideslipped down to an opening in the fence where I could traverse into the trees and Emile's. Between the bushes and the lurking boilerplate subsurface it was strictly one-turn-at-time getting down from there. But at least there was some new snow in the trees and gully, and I didn't feel I was taking my life in my hands as on parts of Skyline. I have some respect for the easterners skiing on rain-glazed snow, much scarier than steep chutes in good snow IMHO.
I rode Thunder one more time. This time the chair stopped 5+ minutes near the top in the howling wind. At the top of Thunder I took one pic of Palos Verdes/Catalina framed by the icy trees.
I contented myself with another Fire Road/Bonanza, then rode Chair 2 up and Chair 1 down, reaching my car well-chilled about 4:30PM. Vertical was a modest 4,500 for the afternoon.
I do not criticize Baldy management much for this one given the widespread icing. Anyone who bought a day ticket was given a voucher for another day. I was able to pick up our season passes so either Liz or I can be direct-to-lift if the skiing ever becomes worthwhile.
In my case the El Nino Baldy gamble is not panning out. All the forecasters say we'll have a big high pressure ridge and dry weather for the first half of February. Liz may have more opportunity later in the month when I'm in Canada. A "March miracle" like 1991 won't help either of us as we won't be at home hardly at all in March.
The Sierra is having a nice season, as are Arizona and New Mexico, but so far El Nino is a bust in SoCal.
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