Jepson Peak (San Gorgonio), May 25, 1983

Tony Crocker

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I may have mentioned a couple of years ago that I had some old slides digitized. Some of these slides were from a backcountry ski day in the San Gorgonio Wilderness during the huge 1982-83 El Nino season. Pictures were with a Brownie camera so resolution is far from modern standards.

I was skiing with Lance Meyer, who led a classic ski bum lifestyle at Mammoth from 1974-1985. He was a ski instructor and waited tables at Whiskey Creek, and was by far the best skier I had encountered personally in my formative ski years. The reason for the connection? His mother was a bridge teammate on our winning National Amateur Swiss Team in March 1977. Lance lived in their A-frame vacation home on Davison St. for those 11 years and I would stay there on some of my Mammoth trips from 1978-1984.

We drove from Glendale/La Canada and started hiking from Poopout Hill at 7,700 feet about 7:30AM. The map below shows the 1980-1983 hiking route in red with my 4 ski routes of those years in black. The shorter black line at right is from 2011.

SanGorgonioTopo.jpg


The first two miles are mellow trail to 8,200 feet where the snow began.
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First view of the alpine from ~10,000 feet:
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San Gorgonio 11,500 is at far left. Jepson Peak 11,200 is the closer peak at right.

View NE from between Charlton and Jepson Peaks:
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View NW from Jepson Peak over Charlton:
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At left San Bernardino Ridge continues over 10,000 feet for 5 miles.

View down Little Draw from Jepson:
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Jepson Peak is almost a clone of chair 23 at Mammoth.

Lance drops in.
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I’m skiing the apron lower down.
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Lance:
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View back up across Little Draw and Big Draw toward San Gorgonio:
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I’m skiing now at tree line.
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View straight up at Jepson Peak:
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This is also similar to Snowbird’s Upper Cirque.

We crossed under Charlton Peak on the way down.
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The open slope above is what I skied by myself in 1982.

Lance skiing Christmas Tree Hill above Slushy Meadow:
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Lance as we got back to the trailhead about 6PM.
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Camera underexposes the San Gorgonio sign while overexposing the high alpine background.

I’m on the aptly named Poopout Hill sign.
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Even at age 30 San Gorgonio hauling skis was at the limit of what I could handle on a day hike. Drive from sea level, then hike 7,700 – 11,200, most of that in snow. It also means that I don’t start skiing until past 3PM. Skiing in high alpine was still decent, but not the ideal corn it might have been late morning.

To no surprise Lance was relaxed waiting for me on Jepson Peak for well over an hour. One of his summer activities was riding his bike from Mammoth to San Francisco over Tioga Pass.

As I've mentioned before, this was my last time skiing the San Gorgonio alpine because the Poopout Hill Trailhead was closed in 1985. The approach from this direction is now 3.5 miles farther.
 
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I assume the Poopout Hill / Horse Meadows road was unmaintained / closed in winter? It looks like it would have made for ideal access to San Bernardino ridge: a road along a forested north facing slope above 7000 ft.

At present that lower 3 miles of low altitude, variable aspect terrain are the main reason I've never skied San Gorgonio or the other peaks at the headwaters of the South Fork.
 
San Bernardino ridge
runs from 5 miles over 10,000 feet, with Charlton Peak being its eastern end. My first time up there in July 1979 I hiked from the Forsee Creek trialhead at 7,000 up to San Bernardino Ridge near Anderson Peak 10,400, along the ridge to Dollar Saddle, then down to Poopout Hill where I hitched a ride back to Forsee Creek. There is no road along the top of San Bernardino Ridge (would not be allowed inside the wilderness), just a hiking trail. There were several snowbanks as 1978-79 was a big snow year.

San Bernardino Ridge is continuously forested to the top. Only Jepson Peak and San Gorgonio are high alpine above tree line. They were probably glaciated as the tree line under them is below 10,000. Zoomable topo map with some details. The blue lines on that map are ski routes, including all 5 of the ones I have skied.
 
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