Baldy TR Monday March 21 -- March Madness

J

jojo_obrien

Member
First of all, I apologize folks about having no pics. But believe you me, if you would have seen the pics you probably would be kicking yourself you didn't tell your boss that you suddenly came down with (fill the blank here)....

Wasn't quite sure if I was going to burn a vacation day and risk losing employment if I went up. But I figured it was going to be pretty epic. Sometimes "calling it" at Baldy is much like coitis interruptus, or Russian Roulette -- it's a gamble, and you take your chances.

I estimated it would be pretty gusty up there and that Thunder wouldnt open until 11 am. SO...I left the LBC around 915 and after quick stop I arrived at the ticket booth at 10:30. I parked in the second tier. No line to get ticket. Good sign.

Rode up chair 1 -- not snowing, but as always, as I got closer to the top, less visibility.

Skiied directly over to Thunder, 10:45 am. Line was about 6 minutes long. Immediately indulged myself in the Goldridge Trees. As I was saying all day long, "welcome to the goody room." :drool:

For the next 2 hours I basically ripped Thunder to shreds. Went in the tube, South Bowl (maybe 3 laps), Goldridge Trees (3 laps), underneath the lift, ...probably 8-10 laps. Just blasting through the stuff when possible. South Bowl was SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK. I mean...it was really really sick. And I'm not joking...Goldridge Trees were virtually untouched. Thigh to waste high pow pow all lap long.

Went back to the lodge to grab a 10 minute lunch. When I went into the Notch, the line on 4 was starting. When I came out, they were loading.

Proceeded to lap chair 4 about 6-7 times. Like a frickin merry go round for grownups... :drool:

Virtually all untracked, face shots. They say 3-4 feet fresh on the snow report....it's possible that it is 4 feet in some places. Just non stop. I was getting cold, however, as the wind was probably up to 15-20 knots blowing sideways, but, in the valleys/gulleys, it was very pleasant. I told my feminine side to take a back seat, and proceeded to man up for the rest of the afternoon.

The wind completely stopped around 2:15 and the clouds parted to reveal glory. It was beautiful.

Proceeded to go back to Thunder to get some goods. Dropped into South Bowl, and it was arguably the best run of the day. I was the only single soul out there and I thought to myself, there aren't words to describe this. Epic...maybe. Sick..maybe. Just gratitude to God for just glorious, amazing turns and fresh snow. Just thankful to be alive. Baldy will do that to ya!

Went back for another lap and South Bowl was closed (2:45). Utterly frustrated I went back to the Tube for some more sick lines. It had nearly all filled in, as I'd say they got almost 6 inches to a foot of snow today. Tomorrow should still be pretty good.

Did about 4 more laps through the untracked Goldridge lines. Brought a buddy over there and his response -- so f'n sick!!! Couldn't stop saying it. Everybody had gone home by then.....we had the mountain to ourselves.

Went back for my backpack at the Notch and then shot down the runs to the parking lot. Probably the most uninspiring part of the day, but, still.....beautiful. No snow at this time, just a tad foggy.....

Got to the parking lot around 4:30. Non stop for 6 hrs (minus a 10 min lunch break).

Roads are perfectly plowed (they were when I shot through at 10:00 am).

Baldy comes through. Big time.

Should still be some stashes tomorrow morning.....might check it out in the AM and make the call.

See ya on the hill!

jojo
 
Garry Klassen got up there around noon. He only skied Thunder (except end of the day) because it was so good. Similar report of not too bad crowds, only 3 levels of parking lot with cars and those not at full capacity.

Most of chair 1 does not have a base under the new snow. So Garry advises skiing in the few places (Nightmare, Morgan's) where he observed some leftover base before this storm.

Baldy is usually a surprise, and sometimes the surprise is on the upside.

Today is the 20th anniversary of my best ever Baldy day, and one of top 3 lift served lifetime anywhere.
 
It's dumping outside my window right now in Snowmass. Skiing today was garbage, but tomorrow is going to be good!
 
Now there's two things you can count on here on FTO, Tony comparing everything to Mammoth (not that I mind but it's true) and egieszl commenting on every Mt Baldy thread and making it sound like it's worse that the Pocono's (I'm from Philly). egieszl you do realize that Monday was likely an amazing day of powder skiing 60 minutes from Los Angeles right?
 
If I could have gone back today for seconds, I would have. Maybe this weekend. I wonder if even some of the seasoned powder hounds will stay away given it's getting toward late March. Even being Monday, I expected more people yesterday.
 
I made it up to the parking lot at about 9 AM on Mon. The ticket line was about 45 min. long, but there was no line for Chair 1. I hit Bentley's on my first run. The snow was a little dense, but not at all wet and coverage was good. I traversed a little too high, though, and hit some rocks in the areas unprotected by trees near the bottom. I was able to avoid the rocks on my second run by skiing down toward the lift once I got past the steep part. I heard chair 3 had just opened and headed over there. The line was about 5-10 min. initially, then disappeared later. I went down near the lift on my first run. The snow was decent, but the real treat was in the South Bowl Chutes. There was about 30" of great powder on the chutes. It skied really well, as good as I ever remember at Baldy. After a couple runs I hit the Goldridge Trees, which had similar snow. At about 1:00 I went to the lodge for a few min., then on to Chair 4. The powder was good. I went back to South Bowl after a couple of runs, but the snow had already started firming up. I went up chair 2, then headed back down the parking lot run. The snow had gotten a little wet and heavy, so that last run was a bit of a chore. It was nice to be able to ski right to my car. Overall, I had a great day, and logged almost 15000 vert. ft. of powder with minimal lifelines (for the most part). I'm glad I didn't go to Snowmass! I'm also glad I didn't wait until Tuesday, as I'm sure Baldy's conditions weren't nearly as good. I'll post a link to pics later.
Link to pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/Baldyskier ... nflq_aoAE#
 
socal":gkvkra5y said:
egieszl you do realize that Monday was likely an amazing day of powder skiing 60 minutes from Los Angeles right?
Click to expand...

Yes it possibly was, but I wasn't there, so the place still sucks. BTW, I think I missed a few Baldy threads, so if you insist I can go back and add some comments to those that I skipped.
 
I was there this past Monday. (my third time ever to baldy, second time actually boarding it)

When I woke up, my gf/fiance felt bad that the entire day I spent two weeks ago teaching her to board (literally I was walking down with her holding both hands..... ) so Monday morning she tells me "hey why don't u go today? "

I thought....... SWEET!!!!! why not? it was a thunderstorm all weekend. haha I woke up around 10am, bought ticket online, got dressed, left by 10:50 in midwilshire LA, got to Baldy by 1220 ish. I had to put on chains on my 2WD RX 330. For some reason I did it really fast! Took me like less than 5 minutes. Anyways... barely made it up the last hill to the parking lot.Thank goodness for my snow driving skills from Tahoe. I did not know it can get that crazy. I had to park in the lower level parking lot. I was surprised so many people came.

I got to the top by around 12:50ish, and I noticed Chair 4 was open. I went straight there, no wait. Little did I know it was just opened (as according to the reports before me). I went right, and got nice tracks in the trees. Stayed there for a few runs, then headed to chair 3. in my laziness, i refused to take off my backfoot boarding and swiveled all the way through the notch area... got to chair 3 went right... I think in my newness I forgot where south bowl started, so I ended up going down skyline. At that point, I was wondering, hmmm... I dunno anyone here, I want to go south bowl, but what if there is avalanche danger there? (I only been on south bowl once), so I went along mullins mile which I don't think anyone went through there. took some great pictures up there when the sun shone for a few minutes. got to chair 4 again. Went on a few more tree runs. I saw some guy going through the ski boundary on the right from chair 4. I was sort of in awe, couldn't believe people knew the mountain THAT well. Anyways... for some time, it was amazing. I thought... how come there's so much untracked stuff here? baldy is crazy!! I had one of those "The mountain is all mine" moments and incredulous that so much of it was still untracked earlier. By now, it gotten more tracked, so I realized more and more how lucky I was. Went back, tried to find south bowl, but I saw it was closed by then. I wasn't sure whether that meant you can still go (cus that guy from chair 4 went into closed area), but i decided to play it safe. and went down. Went all over trying to find powder.

I went down to teh parking lot for the first time ever. I heard some guy to my left in the trees yell " OWWWWWWWWWW" for about 20 seconds. Two boarders came by, I told them what I heard, we told the patrol, and the guy didnt' answer at all again when we called for him. I saw another guy further down later who said it was probably his friend. Hope nothing bad happened. I got to the beginning of the parking lot where it was very slushy, i almost fell, but stayed my balance in the water slush, and a crowd said "NICE!" to me. HAHA BAldy rules. One of my best powder days ever. (btw, i missed about 4 seasons because of ACL surgery in 2006.) I've had awesme powder days in Kirkwood, but for some reason, yesterday will stick out as one of the best days I've had.
 
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