I was at Baldy this morning (Wed., 4/5/06). It was still snowing at a convincing rate when I got there at about 7:45. I believe the 10" at the parking lot they reported. The road was well-plowed, but still a little slippery.
It was completely winter up there - cold and windy. Chair 1 didn't start loading until 8:35.
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I got to Chair 3 and it seemed deserted, without anyone shoveling or any activity at all. I decided to climb up after a couple of snowboarders set a boot track. I figured I'd climb under the lift until I saw it start turning and then ski down.
So I climbed and climbed and climbed. Eventually, I passed the snowboarders who decided they'd climbed enough. I finally got to the road that passes under the lift near the top. There was a guy hammering ice off the lift sheaves and it looked like a very slow process. Since I figured that thay'd have to do that for each tower, I lost confidence that Chair 3 would open at all today. I also decided I was tired of climbing and the last pitch to the very top was not worth the effort, so I skied down through the trees to the skier's right of the chair. The snow was about boot top or deeper and reasonably light. Not blower, but much lighter than last Wednesday. Visibility was challenging, but not impossible if you stayed near the trees.
I got to the bottom of Chairs 3 and 2 and neither were turning. At this point it was about 11 AM and I had to get out of there since I had to be in my car leaving at about 12:30. OK, more climbing, this time back up to the Notch.
I skied down to the parking lot, traversing about as far out to the skier's left before dropping down. The snow was pretty good, but unbreakable crust lurked beneath, along with rocks, so you had to try to stay light. I decided I had time for one more, so up Chair 1 I went. I wish I had just skied Chair 1 all morning, instead of doing all the climbing, although the run down Thunder was great. The second run down to the parkling lot was a line much closer to the chair, and it was sweetly untracked, although I was still hitting bottom from time to time. There were at least 4-5 inches of wet snow on my truck that accumulated between 7:45 and 12:30.
All in all, it was a "Mt. Baldy experience". I'm glad I went, and I had fun playing in Winter while the Sherman Oaks homestead is in Spring. However, without a doubt, tomorrow (Thursday) is going to be the really great day up there.
