My last 2 days of Baldy skiing have been on Saturdays to beat predicted rain Saturday night. For this one I did not know about previous rain last Tuesday while I was in Utah. Fortunately there was about 6 inches snow Thursday, though the wind blew it around and there was quite a bit of exposed hardpack. The most conspicuous evidence of Tuesday's rain was that the trees were coated with ice rather than snow, and there was nearly constant background noise of ice chunks falling off trees (due to sun or wind) and rolling down the slopes.
I was on Thunder by 8:30AM and the groomed Fire Road/Bonanza and upper half of Robin's were soft packed powder. Skyline was a mix of soft and hard pack. A judicious choice of lines down Emile's and its trees could be done with about 80% of turns in the wind sift rather than the hardpack. Liftline and other areas exposed to wind during the storms were mostly hard. Of the ungroomed runs on Thunder only Goldridge had no hard snow. South Bowl was closed.
Weather was hazy clouds until 10AM, when it cleared for 2 hours. So I moved to Chair 4 despite Garry Klassen's warning that it was getting thin last Monday. Surprisingly, the new snow had restored most cover and the few thin spots could be easily avoided. And the rain-packed snow turned to silky corn in the direct sun, both on the trails and in the trees.
Spring Ridge was so good that by 11:30 I though it was worth a shot at the similarly exposed but steeper Holcumac even if I had to bushwhack my way out to Chair 1 at the bottom. The exit was easier than I thought, so I went back to Holcumac for seconds after lunch.
By 1PM it clouded over again, and within half an hour the wind picked up in advance of the impending storm. At 1:30 the ridgeline between Eric's and Holcumac had crusted over, so I changed my plan to ski the former and took a 3rd run down the still soft Holcumac. Back up for a couple of runs on Thunder. At 3PM it started snowing sideways and anything previously sun-softened was firming up, so I skied a careful run down Morgan's to the car.
It was very uncrowded for a Saturday. I doubt there were ever more than 15 people in a lift line. And not many snowplayers down below because there is no snow on the ground whatsoever below 6,000 feet.
We know there was a varying snow level with more rain today. By midweek it's supposed to warm up, so I would then expect excellent corn snow to emerge quickly on the consolidated surface.
I was on Thunder by 8:30AM and the groomed Fire Road/Bonanza and upper half of Robin's were soft packed powder. Skyline was a mix of soft and hard pack. A judicious choice of lines down Emile's and its trees could be done with about 80% of turns in the wind sift rather than the hardpack. Liftline and other areas exposed to wind during the storms were mostly hard. Of the ungroomed runs on Thunder only Goldridge had no hard snow. South Bowl was closed.
Weather was hazy clouds until 10AM, when it cleared for 2 hours. So I moved to Chair 4 despite Garry Klassen's warning that it was getting thin last Monday. Surprisingly, the new snow had restored most cover and the few thin spots could be easily avoided. And the rain-packed snow turned to silky corn in the direct sun, both on the trails and in the trees.
Spring Ridge was so good that by 11:30 I though it was worth a shot at the similarly exposed but steeper Holcumac even if I had to bushwhack my way out to Chair 1 at the bottom. The exit was easier than I thought, so I went back to Holcumac for seconds after lunch.
By 1PM it clouded over again, and within half an hour the wind picked up in advance of the impending storm. At 1:30 the ridgeline between Eric's and Holcumac had crusted over, so I changed my plan to ski the former and took a 3rd run down the still soft Holcumac. Back up for a couple of runs on Thunder. At 3PM it started snowing sideways and anything previously sun-softened was firming up, so I skied a careful run down Morgan's to the car.
It was very uncrowded for a Saturday. I doubt there were ever more than 15 people in a lift line. And not many snowplayers down below because there is no snow on the ground whatsoever below 6,000 feet.
We know there was a varying snow level with more rain today. By midweek it's supposed to warm up, so I would then expect excellent corn snow to emerge quickly on the consolidated surface.
