Snow Valley 3/13

Headed over to SV. One thing that's certain about skiing in SoCal. Decent conditions often don't last long. When it snows, the sun comes out shortly thereafter, which causes the temperatures to reach above 32 degrees. Well, considering this is a big desert, it often drops below 32 at night. Can you say, ice?

Conditions today were almost bulletproof. Big change from yesterday. The wind came up last night and stripped all the moisture out of the snow. The only runs that were not bulletproof were the very low angled runs -- which would be described as machine groomed hard pack. Typical SoCal skiing conditions. Slide Peak groomed last night but closed / wind hold today.

Nevertheless, the views were outstanding. Couldn't see to Catalina because of the haze, but great views to San Jacinto and Baldy today. Beautiful, windy spring day in SoCal.
 

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The norm in SoCal is perpetual spring conditions. When coverage is good most runs have a window of cornish snow (how good depends on skier traffic) because of sun and midday temps in at least the 40'sF.

So yes, if you get a cold and windy day if it hasn't snowed in awhile, it's certainly unpleasant. Your 3/12 day seemed OK. I would not have skied 3/13 if there was an accurate weather forecast.

As for this month it rained all day March 2,3 and 6 with only 4 inches snow after that. So I would be looking for a warm day to soften things up to consider SoCal skiing now. In a similar scenario in 2017 I got a fairly good March day at Baldy: viewtopic.php?t=12365
 
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