The second storm was more substantial than predicted. When Mt. Baldy reported "18 inches and still snowing" Wednesday evening, I made the last minute call. These are potentially the ideal logistics for Baldy. They had a break Tuesday to get open and dig out from the bigger storm, but 1-2 feet after that should be enough to resurface with powder, yet not cause enough trouble to delay opening. This was all true, yet I still had to dodge a few bullets to get a good day out of this.
I did not roll out the door until 7AM, and the hairpins above the village were slick enough to cause some problems. I observed one car (An Audi S4 With cables on the front wheels yet!) sliding backward and fortunately coming to rest in a snowbank just in front of me. I squeezed through the opening beside it, made it to the parking lot 8:15, and the upper lot was already full. The very low snow levels from this storm had temporarily closed I-15 in Cajon Pass and also the roads into Big Bear, thus deflecting more people to Mt. Baldy. The usual Baldy ratio of 2 skiers to 1 snowboarder was thus reversed, though I will say that some of the boarders could really rip in the variable and windpacked snow.
I thus had time for just one run on Chair 1 before Thunder opened ~9:30AM:
Patrol track in slot skier's right of Nightmare.
With the usual ticket-and-first-chair-jam at the bottom Thunder rated to be wide open for the first hour or so:
Skiers dropping into Emile's are illuminated by morning sun. That drop in was the only windy area. However much of the snow in that area was wind-packed. The prevailing winds during the cold Wednesday storm came from the northeast. So the Fire Road drops like Herb's and Andy's had deeper snow.
Here's a view to the northeast of the high desert covered in snow:
Now for the day's potentially more serious SNAFU. Thunder was stopping chronically, so they tried loading 1/2 or 2/3 of the chairs to keep it going. But it kept stopping, and even though the early crowd wasn't huge I only had 4 runs in when they finally shut Thunder down ~11AM. Very frustrating as South Bowl had opened at 10:30, and no surprise had excellent powder on the run I got before the shutdown. So up the beginner chair 2 I went, and here's the view of empty Thunder while they were working on the lift:
I skied a couple of runs between Nightmare and Morgan's on the lower chair:
I did have to watch my step some down here, as more exposed areas tended to be thin. My Chubbs are now relegated exclusively to Baldy duty, and while I hit bottom several times, it was never forceful enough to cause a fall and the marks on my ski bases were all superficial.
After 2 runs down there they finally got chair 4 going about noon. Since it was a sunny day the snow was already soft on those south facing runs even though temps were probably in the 30's. Spring Ridge was a smooth cream cheese consistency, and when I dropped over the edge to Holumac, that steeper area was heavier and will be totally masochistic today after overnight freezing. From Holcumac here's an overview pic of the chair 1 runs from Windslab to Bentley's, with the upper parts of Thunder and South Bowl visible behind.
With the cold storms the base of chair 1 is wider than normal as there has not been time for a creek to form:
It's now about 1:30PM and it looks like the chronic "Baldy cloud" is on its way to envelop the area in the afternoon.
This time up chair 1 I was surprised to see that Thunder was loading again and even more surprised to see no lines. Some of the Mt. High and Big Bear refugees must have given up and gone home. Too bad for them. :-({|= I got in 6 more powder runs, 3 in South Bowl, 2 in Robin's trees and one in Goldridge trees. Here's a view off the boundary ridge of South Bowl:
The snow was of average+ quality for Baldy. Undoubtedly it was much drier than usual in the cold storm, but the wind did pack it some. On the upside any windpack skied smoothly, and there were no breakable crust or hard spots, though there will be some starting today in places that were sunny. While I did hit some rocks, I'd say that 90% of what inbounds at Baldy has adequate coverage. And of course this is exceptional this early in the season. The average 4 feet of SoCal snow this week is already tied for third highest December in my 33 years of records. The snow was just thin enough that I was not tempted to go out of bounds this time. At any rate I was getting a workout with 21K vert, 13K of it fresh, and I didn't want to burn out with a weekend at Mammoth ahead.
The Baldy cloud was only patchy, so here's view from Morgan's Grove area on the last run down to the parking at the end of the day:
As far as I can tell the lift issues at Baldy are nearly always related to snow and ice on the cables or elsewhere on the lift, and the motors are not strong enough to overcome it. So I do probably tend to see more of it since I'm there mainly on fresh snow days. So there should not be any near-term implication for those planning to go this weekend. Just don't expect much powder left, and get there early.
This was a very analogous Baldy opening day for me to January 13, 2001: http://bestsnow.net/TRsFTO/20010113baldytc.HTML
I would note to the easterners that the argument about distance cuts both ways. The value of Mt. Baldy to an L.A. resident is greater than Stowe or Jay is to a Bostonian, due to the 1 hour proximity offsetting the greater snow reliability in Vermont. For the lucky minority who actually live in Vermont it's different story, as we've seen many times on FTO.
I did not roll out the door until 7AM, and the hairpins above the village were slick enough to cause some problems. I observed one car (An Audi S4 With cables on the front wheels yet!) sliding backward and fortunately coming to rest in a snowbank just in front of me. I squeezed through the opening beside it, made it to the parking lot 8:15, and the upper lot was already full. The very low snow levels from this storm had temporarily closed I-15 in Cajon Pass and also the roads into Big Bear, thus deflecting more people to Mt. Baldy. The usual Baldy ratio of 2 skiers to 1 snowboarder was thus reversed, though I will say that some of the boarders could really rip in the variable and windpacked snow.
I thus had time for just one run on Chair 1 before Thunder opened ~9:30AM:
Patrol track in slot skier's right of Nightmare.
With the usual ticket-and-first-chair-jam at the bottom Thunder rated to be wide open for the first hour or so:
Skiers dropping into Emile's are illuminated by morning sun. That drop in was the only windy area. However much of the snow in that area was wind-packed. The prevailing winds during the cold Wednesday storm came from the northeast. So the Fire Road drops like Herb's and Andy's had deeper snow.
Here's a view to the northeast of the high desert covered in snow:
Now for the day's potentially more serious SNAFU. Thunder was stopping chronically, so they tried loading 1/2 or 2/3 of the chairs to keep it going. But it kept stopping, and even though the early crowd wasn't huge I only had 4 runs in when they finally shut Thunder down ~11AM. Very frustrating as South Bowl had opened at 10:30, and no surprise had excellent powder on the run I got before the shutdown. So up the beginner chair 2 I went, and here's the view of empty Thunder while they were working on the lift:
I skied a couple of runs between Nightmare and Morgan's on the lower chair:
I did have to watch my step some down here, as more exposed areas tended to be thin. My Chubbs are now relegated exclusively to Baldy duty, and while I hit bottom several times, it was never forceful enough to cause a fall and the marks on my ski bases were all superficial.
After 2 runs down there they finally got chair 4 going about noon. Since it was a sunny day the snow was already soft on those south facing runs even though temps were probably in the 30's. Spring Ridge was a smooth cream cheese consistency, and when I dropped over the edge to Holumac, that steeper area was heavier and will be totally masochistic today after overnight freezing. From Holcumac here's an overview pic of the chair 1 runs from Windslab to Bentley's, with the upper parts of Thunder and South Bowl visible behind.
With the cold storms the base of chair 1 is wider than normal as there has not been time for a creek to form:
It's now about 1:30PM and it looks like the chronic "Baldy cloud" is on its way to envelop the area in the afternoon.
This time up chair 1 I was surprised to see that Thunder was loading again and even more surprised to see no lines. Some of the Mt. High and Big Bear refugees must have given up and gone home. Too bad for them. :-({|= I got in 6 more powder runs, 3 in South Bowl, 2 in Robin's trees and one in Goldridge trees. Here's a view off the boundary ridge of South Bowl:
The snow was of average+ quality for Baldy. Undoubtedly it was much drier than usual in the cold storm, but the wind did pack it some. On the upside any windpack skied smoothly, and there were no breakable crust or hard spots, though there will be some starting today in places that were sunny. While I did hit some rocks, I'd say that 90% of what inbounds at Baldy has adequate coverage. And of course this is exceptional this early in the season. The average 4 feet of SoCal snow this week is already tied for third highest December in my 33 years of records. The snow was just thin enough that I was not tempted to go out of bounds this time. At any rate I was getting a workout with 21K vert, 13K of it fresh, and I didn't want to burn out with a weekend at Mammoth ahead.
The Baldy cloud was only patchy, so here's view from Morgan's Grove area on the last run down to the parking at the end of the day:
As far as I can tell the lift issues at Baldy are nearly always related to snow and ice on the cables or elsewhere on the lift, and the motors are not strong enough to overcome it. So I do probably tend to see more of it since I'm there mainly on fresh snow days. So there should not be any near-term implication for those planning to go this weekend. Just don't expect much powder left, and get there early.
This was a very analogous Baldy opening day for me to January 13, 2001: http://bestsnow.net/TRsFTO/20010113baldytc.HTML
I would note to the easterners that the argument about distance cuts both ways. The value of Mt. Baldy to an L.A. resident is greater than Stowe or Jay is to a Bostonian, due to the 1 hour proximity offsetting the greater snow reliability in Vermont. For the lucky minority who actually live in Vermont it's different story, as we've seen many times on FTO.
