Mt. High East, Feb. 16, 2023

Tony Crocker

Tony Crocker

Administrator
Staff member
After the last week+ of manmade groomers in Europe, our skis were badly in need of a tuneup. Garry passed through our area and picked them up last Friday. Today I met him and his friend Craig at Mt. High East to retrieve them.

Garry lives ~45 minutes from Mt. High and has been making many short trips the past two seasons since he turned 70 and got a free pass. I am on my first year of this and so spent 4+ hours at Mt. High West Jan. 18. That was after a 1+ foot storm Jan. 14-16, and at that time there was no activity at East. But East opened Jan. 26 while we were in Europe.

It's a minimalist opening, as it does not include lower Goldrush.
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The only way down is Upper Goldrush to Sundance/Wildcard. The bottom of those runs is visible here.
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This is the first time I've seen East open without lower Goldrush.

We are having a cool week in SoCal with overnight lows at home getting just below 40F and some wind. While it was windy driving up the 14 freeway and across Pearblossom Hwy, there was no wind at Mt. High. Temps were in the 30's at the base and probably upper 20's up top with thin clouds. Snow was groomed hardpack but easy to get an edge due to freshly tuned skis (Thanks, Garry) and lack of people.

View cross the desert from upper Goldrush:
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Note lower Goldrush at left is roped off, so every run we veered right to Sundance/Wildcard. The hazy circled snow capped mountain is 11,000 foot Telescope Peak, west of Death Valley and 135 miles away. Craig is the skier in orange.

Here's Garry carving Upper Goldrush.
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Note at noon most of the corduroy is still visible. There were less than 10 people skiing Mt. High East while we were there, which may explain why East is only open Thursday - Monday. FYI Slide Peak at Snow Valley is on this same Thursday - Monday schedule now.

The Discovery beginner chair up top was open so we skied once there. Due to be being at the top of the mountain, this is probably SoCal's best beginner terrain, though it faces west and was quite firm today.

We skied 8 top to bottom runs. Though there are only two variations, the run is 1,600 vertical and is arguably the best groomer in SoCal.

I skied 13,100 vertical from about 10:30 - 1:30.
 
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Kind of amazing that they have a detachable lift at East given the 'crowds' that are skiing it. Surely it must have been much, much busier in the past to justify such a lift?
 
That was SoCal's first detachable back in the mid-1990's. Updated chart (I first posted this 3 years ago) of number of weekends Mt. High East is open:
97-98
21​
98-99
12​
99-00
4​
00-01
12​
01-02
12​
02-03
6​
03-04
3​
04-05
19​
05-06
3​
06-07
6​
07-08
15​
08-09
10​
09-10
16​
10-11
11​
11-12
6​
12-13
4​
13-14
0​
14-15
0​
15-16
2​
16-17
4​
17-18
0​
18-19
4​
19-20
6​
20-21
4​
21-22
11​

As discussed before the 2012-2015 drought years reduced the wells that supply water for snowmaking and Mt. High has since prioritized West much more than before. The 11 weeks last year were an aberration, as a late December storm hit Mt. High harder than the other SoCal areas, which is very unusual. I was surprised East opened this season since it had not when I was at West Jan. 18. This will be East's third weekend for 2023 and I doubt there will be a fourth without more natural snow, though the ongoing cold weather is helpful.

The deterministic models are showing a big storm for all of California a week from now, but that's still a bit far out for much credibility,
 
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Interesting. I've never seen them do that either (closing Goldrush and still being open). It's also interesting that that is the direction for Telescope Peak. It would seem to be further east (right) to me, but it could just be the angle and my lack of memory the direction East faces.

I agree that East has the best groomers in Socal as you know I lived in Wrightwood from about ~2006-2012, and that was my sanity when I couldn't go to Mammoth. You also probably remember (and they're buried somewhere in forum) all my complaints about those days midweek (that I was off work) that they had perfectly good coverage and chose to keep East closed all week and cram everyone into West.
 
I was taking Garry's word on Telescope Peak.

I have tracked the weekends East has been open but did not track if/when there were days of the week it was closed. I was essentially never there midweek when I was working. I skied a Tuesday in 2011, Wed&Thu in 2020, 2 x Thu in 2022, Wed&Thu in 2023. I believe current practice is daily operation when first open for a while, then a couple of weeks with limited days before East closes.
 
Has anyone here noticed how Mt High East almost never runs the MH Express at more than half speed? And it's not really fully attributable to the scenic ride foot traffic from the Yeti Snow Play, as the MH Express was in slow mo and start/stop mode after 3:00 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 5th, when scenic rides end. Several posters on liftblog.org have pointed to potential sheath problems setting off slow down/stop sensors. The MH Express is chronologically ~~ 33+ years old, but hasn't been run more than 12-15 years when considering total operating days. It also stops more than one would expect, if stops only resulted from scenic riders having trouble getting on and off. The lifties cranked it up to about 4m/sec, 80% of rated speed, for about 90 seconds before it slowed down again. 12+ minutes is a very long ride without footrests!

As a Slopetime Passholder [$299 if one has an Epic or Ikon Pass], I'm disappointed, as I much prefer cruising East. MH East was a blast in the 1990s and early aughts when it was an under 6-minute ride. I first skied MH East around 1965-66, occasionally afterwards, the D-Quad was a real gamechanger compared to the old, slow doubles.

MH is treating East like a forgotten stepchild re: MH Express maintenance. I fully understand the water issue, which was likely exacerbated by the Bobcat Fire, when MH soaked MH West down as the flames grew nearer. Now that there's tons of snow, it'll be very interesting to see how often MH runs East during the midweek periods.

With the big storm, I have many days at Baldy and maybe Waterman to look forward to!! Cheers! It does seem like Waterman is being operated as a private club these days.
 
Nokanduis said:
Has anyone here noticed how Mt High East almost never runs the MH Express at more than half speed? And it's not really fully attributable to the scenic ride foot traffic from the Yeti Snow Play, as the MH Express was in slow mo and start/stop mode after 3:00 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 5th, when scenic rides end. Several posters on liftblog.org have pointed to potential sheath problems setting off slow down/stop sensors. The MH Express is chronologically ~~ 33+ years old, but hasn't been run more than 12-15 years when considering total operating days. It also stops more than one would expect, if stops only resulted from scenic riders having trouble getting on and off. The lifties cranked it up to about 4m/sec, 80% of rated speed, for about 90 seconds before it slowed down again. 12+ minutes is a very long ride without footrests!

As a Slopetime Passholder [$299 if one has an Epic or Ikon Pass], I'm disappointed, as I much prefer cruising East. MH East was a blast in the 1990s and early aughts when it was an under 6-minute ride. I first skied MH East around 1965-66, occasionally afterwards, the D-Quad was a real gamechanger compared to the old, slow doubles.

MH is treating East like a forgotten stepchild re: MH Express maintenance. I fully understand the water issue, which was likely exacerbated by the Bobcat Fire, when MH soaked MH West down as the flames grew nearer. Now that there's tons of snow, it'll be very interesting to see how often MH runs East during the midweek periods.

With the big storm, I have many days at Baldy and maybe Waterman to look forward to!! Cheers! It does seem like Waterman is being operated as a private club these days.
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The East Express had some of those exact issues when I lived there back in the ~2006-2012. I got stuck on it for about an hour once. The only explanation I ever heard was that all the slowing down for downloading from the beginner area/scenic rides did something to the motor. I'm not a mechanical person, so no idea what that entailed.

And yes, I used to be extremely vocal about the stepchild treatment East has gotten since back in the days I lived there. I, too would prefer to ride there vs West as much as possible and had weekdays off, and was furious when it was only operated on weekends even when they had plenty of snow.
 
Several frequent guests have tried unsuccessfully to get an answer from upper management about the East Express' slow motion. Thus, we are left with conjecture. A possible reason for the slow motion is the sensors reacting to problems with the sheaves (pulleys). A second possible reason is that management is not interested in maintaining the East Express to its designed speed, ~~ 5m/sec, 1000'/minute. One frequent guest called Dopplemeyer, and was told there's no reason they know of why it can't run at its designed speed. The motor has been overhauled at least once since 1989.

I feel that if MH improved the operation at East, word would get out and more experienced skiers and boarders would return in decent numbers to justify not treating it like an ignored stepchild. Today, both areas remain closed due to Caltrans' inability to get the roads open after 10' plus snow fell. Hopefully this year's storms will replenish MH's snowmaking wells enough that more snow can be made at East next year if 23/24 is a more "typical" SoCal year..
 
Despite the abundant snowpack, Mt. High East was not open this weekend and is done for the season. It is possible that snow was getting thin at the base and they didn't want to do the work to maintain it. East was open 4 weekends from late January to mid-February and another 4 mid-March to early April. Both East and West were closed for the two weekends while route 2 below Wrightwood was closed. I imagine the Wrightwood locals were jealous of the Big Bear locals who enjoyed country club skiing during those 10 days.
 
Nokanduis said:
Several frequent guests have tried unsuccessfully to get an answer from upper management about the East Express' slow motion. Thus, we are left with conjecture. A possible reason for the slow motion is the sensors reacting to problems with the sheaves (pulleys). A second possible reason is that management is not interested in maintaining the East Express to its designed speed, ~~ 5m/sec, 1000'/minute. One frequent guest called Dopplemeyer, and was told there's no reason they know of why it can't run at its designed speed.
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The slow speed is likely because the lift is now used for scenic riders during ski operations. Because scenic rides end at 3:00 pm doesn't mean lift operations will be revised to reflect that. Does 3:00 pm reflect the last download or upload for scenic riders? It's conceivable that the lift has maintenance issues. Mountain High isn't investing any money into East ski operations.

All should take note that Mountain High has abandoned operations at North and the solo beginner hill at East. They're also no longer committed to prioritizing ski operations on East. East is now primarily snow play, tubing, and scenic rides. They had a fine tubing operation at North, but that hasn't run in several years.

My observation is the majority of guests who regularly visit Mountain High don't care about the superior terrain on East. Southern California snowboarders would be fine with a 100-foot vertical garbage dump hill. Furthermore, the ski area remains severely short of water for snowmaking and they're not committed to making snow like they were in the 90s.

There is no reason why anyone who is serious about the sport should buy a season pass to Mountain High. Alterra's IKON pass and the access to Snow Valley, Snow Summit, and Bear Mountain, plus all of the other IKON resorts and partners make Mountain High's offerings look like a joke.
 
egieszl said:
There is no reason why anyone who is serious about the sport should buy a season pass to Mountain High.
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Yes, but Mountain High is free at age 70. Thus I skied two days there this season and also got a freebie at Lost Trail because both areas are in Powder Alliance. Since Garry Klassen turned 70 in 2021 he has probably skied as much at Mt. High as at Baldy where he buys a season pass.
 
Garry lives 20 minutes from Baldy and 40 from Mt. High. In recent years most of his local ski days are about 3 hours. He thinks he's at about 20 days at Baldy this year. In 2021-22 I'm sure he skied much more at Mt. High.
 
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