I had originally intended to go to Snow Summit today, but something came up in the afternoon in LA, so had to stay close. I have the next week off, and Summit is on tap for Monday, and a Mammoth powfest (fingers crossed) from Thursday through Saturday this week. So I figured I'd head up for some mellow turns, and scout out what base Thunder has before the possibility of snow later this week.
Convenient Baldy measuring units are either Manzanita Units, second to Buried Snowcat Units. While we don't have a yardstick cat buried under 3 this year, we can see that the current base on Emile's measures about 0.75 Manzanitas. This was all hardpack that wouldn't soften, there were no takers.
Here's the last face of Skyline, well covered after a week of good snowmaking. Still, grooming was surprisingly variable and not as smooth as I've come to expect from the place. I suppose it's a good measure of how much they've stepped up their grooming in general the last two years, since I would have considered this par for the course a few years ago. Bonanza was groomed absolutely awfully, with a big line of death cookies down the middle of the run. I overheard that management was not at all happy with this and that the responsible cat driver would be getting an earful in the near future.
Herb's and Andy's are still doable, or would be given the right conditions.
West face of Goldridge burned off.
Looking back up at one of the exits from the Goldridge trees. Still good coverage in there.
Entrance to South Bowl. Dirt patches block the entrance, but apparently good coverage inside. Only saw 2 skiers give it a shot, they said it was too hard, even at noon.
Baldy Bowl, getting ugly.
Telegraph, one thin line connects to the top.
Ontario peak, well covered north-facing aspects.
Robin's was decently groomed, and rode well all day.
Downloading, remnants of Nightmare. Bentley's was equally done.
They pushed around some earth at the very bottom of 1 to fill in the considerable ruts all the rains had carved out earlier this season. Now all they need is some snow to cover the newly-smooth dirt.
Not much to speak of, but if any substantial snowfall does come, now you know what will be lurking underneath!
Drooling over the prospects of Mammoth later this week!
Convenient Baldy measuring units are either Manzanita Units, second to Buried Snowcat Units. While we don't have a yardstick cat buried under 3 this year, we can see that the current base on Emile's measures about 0.75 Manzanitas. This was all hardpack that wouldn't soften, there were no takers.
Here's the last face of Skyline, well covered after a week of good snowmaking. Still, grooming was surprisingly variable and not as smooth as I've come to expect from the place. I suppose it's a good measure of how much they've stepped up their grooming in general the last two years, since I would have considered this par for the course a few years ago. Bonanza was groomed absolutely awfully, with a big line of death cookies down the middle of the run. I overheard that management was not at all happy with this and that the responsible cat driver would be getting an earful in the near future.
Herb's and Andy's are still doable, or would be given the right conditions.
West face of Goldridge burned off.
Looking back up at one of the exits from the Goldridge trees. Still good coverage in there.
Entrance to South Bowl. Dirt patches block the entrance, but apparently good coverage inside. Only saw 2 skiers give it a shot, they said it was too hard, even at noon.
Baldy Bowl, getting ugly.
Telegraph, one thin line connects to the top.
Ontario peak, well covered north-facing aspects.
Robin's was decently groomed, and rode well all day.
Downloading, remnants of Nightmare. Bentley's was equally done.
They pushed around some earth at the very bottom of 1 to fill in the considerable ruts all the rains had carved out earlier this season. Now all they need is some snow to cover the newly-smooth dirt.
Not much to speak of, but if any substantial snowfall does come, now you know what will be lurking underneath!
Drooling over the prospects of Mammoth later this week!
