Mt High 12/27/08

[jojo_obrien]

Left Claremont at 6:45.....arrived at Wrightwood at around 7:40 AM. There was a short 10 minute delay once I got about 0.5 miles from Mt. High East. The upper parking lot (Mt. High West) was already full, so everyone was being diverted to the Mt. High East parking lot. Got my ticket and headed up the mountain.

All in all, pretty good conditions. Groomers were definitely the call today. It never got really packed, but every time I looked down at Highway 2, I saw bumper to bumper cars going west towards Mt. High West. I asked a few people on the lifts about the conditions over there and they said "good" but "very crowded." I also heard it took about 1 to 1.5 hours to go from the 138/2 Freeway intersection to Mt. High East. CRAZY! No thank you!

I was pretty content getting my first season's turns on the groomers at Mt. High East. DId most all of the groomers on Mt High East (left side and right side). Conditions were pretty clean, and I thought that they had about 2-3 inches of decent snow on top of the hard pack that permitted me to dig in and put the skiis on edge and carve some real nice lines.

I was the only person (that I saw) attempt Olympic Bowl. It was all extreme bullet proof ice with patches of pow, but extremely inconsistent. It was all roped off and said "experts only" which -- for the sake of people's safety, I'm glad they did. It required substantial know-how of how to ski bullet proof ice. It was a good little challenge, but I was more concerned about taking some base off of my skiis, so I only skiied Olympic Bowl once. My guess is that the conditions on Olympic Bowl matched South Bowl of Baldy. Actually glad I left Baldy early yesterday and didn't attempt. Just wouldn't have been that much fun. Must be what skiing a glacier is like!

I left at 2:15 on the dot. A solid 5+ hours of intense, fast, carving. I was satisfied. I figured if I left at 3:45 PM....it would be H*ll on earth.....LOTS of folks up there. Lots of snow players. I will upload pics tomorrow.....

Cheers,

jo

 

[Tony Crocker]

Useful info. I'm taking a pass this weekend. I figure that many people see all the snow on the high peaks, remember the 2 days of rain last week in L.A. and think it's great up there. Plus being the traditionally busiest weekend of the year.

My guess is that the conditions on Olympic Bowl matched South Bowl of Baldy

Probably matched everything on Thunder except Fire Road/Bonanza and maybe Shortcut/Robin's. Sun-softened Chair 4 and Holumac (if covered and timed right) are the places to ski if you must go to Baldy in these conditions.

Nice to see that they did a decent job of grooming at Mt. High, but if the ungroomed is as bad as everyone says Big Bear is still the best bet. Maybe next week with less traffic I hope.

 

[jojo_obrien]

Here are some additional photos. Groomers, not too bad for Dec. Not quite "packed powder" but definitely carvable. Non-groomed runs tended to be very hardpack/icy underneath w/ 1 - 2 inches of fresh snow. All pics are from Mt. High East.