Angeles Forest Fires Waterman/Baldy

ski-the-face":33hwj83o said:
Interesting view from the Mt. Wilson webcam image right now.
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Agreed.

towercam.jpg
 
I received this email from Craig, one of the Waterman owners:

I have been attending most meetings since Thursday. Fire is on our southern ridge (Devils Canyon) and goes around to a new dozer line/fire break (from the reservoir to the ridge) and down the center of avalanche. Concern would be if it progresses to the eastern side of Avalanche and
makes it around the ridge line at Cloudburst. I have asked Div. Ops to run a dozer line down that ridge (man that would be a fun run) to stop
its eastern movement. Fire ops is confident (as the always are) about stopping it on our southern border(devils canyon) and in Avalanche I
think they have. I will hopefully speak again with Tim Harness the div. leader on the fire fighting team in that section Wed. AM. I have spoken
with him twice already. There are hundreds of people up there, dozers, 8 air tankers, and there making a stand on our properties edge.
 
Thanks, Tom! I'm planning to pen a news story tonight and that update (from Metcalf, I presume?) will be very, very helpful.

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]
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There are hundreds of people up there, dozers, 8 air tankers, and there making a stand on our properties edge.
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For the past day or two the area around Mt. Waterman has finally become the top firefighting priority. A controlled burn east of Mt. Wilson has been put off for 2 days because the aircraft are being used on the northeast edge near Waterman. On that map it's nice to see that black line (meaning control boundary) at the top of Mt. Waterman. Let's hope it expands soon.

new dozer line/fire break .... down the center of Avalanche.
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The best skiing in Avalanche is on the skier's left side, which sounds like has burned at least at the top.
 
Left side of Avalanche definetly was better than the right/middle. We got stuck in a pretty crappy gully on the right side. Guess we should have followed Tony but was too tempted by this little steep chute off to the right. Unfortunately it wasn't worth it.

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And here's 2 pics I took from the bottom in case anyone's curious of the area we're talking about.

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The zoom area of the last pic above is probably burned now. The next drainage looker's right from the road is really good skiing too, and also probably mostly burned.
 
Craig is one of the investors in Waterman and still lives in the area so is very involved from an owners standpoint with the fire issues on a daily basis. He and the Metcalfs have been friends since childhood.
 
I'm annoyed by how completely uncovered this event is in the local media. You'd think that the LA Times and local news stations would at least lend some time to the threat to a local treasure like Waterman.
 
I'm somewhat surprised as well. I can assure you that if Mountain High was under the gun you'd be hearing more.

We're a bit guilty for waiting as long as we did. But early on in the fire, the fire reaching Waterman was merely speculation. Now that it's a reality we had to publish something, but getting reliable information from this far away is challenging at best. It's not like there's a Waterman media machine is pumping out info and very little of the Forest Service and LA Fire press info even mentions the ski area.
 
Hey everyone thanks for the info. Its encouraging to know that they are really putting up a stand at Mt Waterman (and hopefully Buckhorn too) The trees , flora, and fauna will someday eventually recover but i think it would be next to impossible for skilifts to sprout up again in that particular neck of the woods. Thanks to everyone fighting this monstrous beast of a fire.

For posterity and discussion purposes, I'm adding some photos of the Avalanche area. Pre-Burn ( ugg ... from now on all our interactions with our forest are defined by this devastating event. so sad...)

Here is Cloudburst
HPIM1075.jpg

Here is Avalance Proper
HPIM1073.jpg

Here is Winston Springs
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and a link to the Youtube vid of the fire from the Mt. W Facebook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNPTd39jAlM

viewing this brings it home, i was literally nauseous. I flashed back to the early mornings driving up Hwy2. Winding our way up the mountain, the road wet and glistening from storm the night before. Wondering where the snow level was going to be. Watching the chaparral change to fir and pine covered slopes. Just the drive up was one of the things I enjoyed and looked forward to. It really was one of the best roads in the whole city . Its going to be many years for area to recover. Sheesh ..... just devastating........
 
At this mornings fire operations meeting the fire is now 71% contained, burning out and in a mop stages around Waterman and Avalanche. There is containment line from the top of Avalanche along the southern ridge of the property to a check point and t...hen down into Devils Canyon towards twin peaks. As one of the owners I'm declaring 9/9/09 the day the Station Fire was put out on Mt. Waterman. Caltrans has already awarded contracts to fix the road (guardrails, signs, etc.) and lets hope the road opens this winter so we can all enjoy the skiing this winter. Is this really going to be an El Nino year? Craig Stewart

We have a team headed up to check on Mt Waterman today. Will post an update as soon as we get word from Rick.

PS that write up here is wrong... we do not have a crew working with dozers. The USFS does, but not MW!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mt-Waterman/125403255670
http://www.mtwaterman.org
 
I'm annoyed by how completely uncovered this event is in the local media.
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Up to about a week ago, it was understandable that both the media and the firefighters concentrated upon defending Mt. Wilson. Both the communications and astronomy facilities there could have been devastating losses. But the fire first pushed into the San Gabriel Wilderness a week ago ~9/2-3 and the first mention of Mt. Waterman in the local media is 2 days ago when the fire is at its doorstep?

I'm presuming the owners of Mt. Waterman were in contact with the firefighters a week ago. I don't think the firefighters had the resources to fight agressively in the San Gabriel Wilderness until they thought Mt. Wilson was secure. The past 2 days Mt. Waterman must have been top priority as the controlled burn east of Mt. Wilson was deferred. That control burn is occurring today: http://www.inciweb.org/incident/1856/

Snowman is already doing a nice job improving http://www.mtwaterman.org

Is this really going to be an El Nino year? Craig Stewart
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Very high probability. El Nino/La Nina tends to persist month-to-month, and is most persistent from July to January.

MEI for JUL/AUG is +.978. This level falls in the "moderate" category, only about 40% of the readings during the extreme 1982-83 and 1997-98 events. Past seasons with similar El Nino strength included 1992-93 (excellent), 1994-95 (above average, wet year but too much rain vs. snow in the ski areas) and 2002-03 (not so good http://webpages.charter.net/tcrocker818/cal0203.htm). If El Nino strengthens a bit, you get into the range of 1972-73 (outstanding) and 1986-87(bad). So no guarantees, but expectation is for above average.
 
Hang on, maybe it will start next week here in So. Cal, by this Sunday 1/18/2009 mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaybeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! \:D/
 
Not that it's surprising, but Waterman's not looking good for the weekend if anyone was thinking about it.

From the article.
Don Niles, Caltrans supervisor for California 2, said the road would stay closed for the duration of the storms -- probably about a week.
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