New SoCal Storm Track

Aukai":2v06d1ym said:
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I'm definitely going Friday and expect it to be amazing.
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I may go up Friday as well. I wonder how long it will take them to get going? I suppose it's best to get up there early in case the road gets interesting, and to avoid long lines. I'll take a look at the weather in the AM. I'll be busy this weekend, so Friday is my best shot.
 
Agree that everywhere will be a fustercluck this weekend- may possibly go Sunday.

Too bad Waterman's not available, it'd be an absolutely perfect weekend for it.

We shall see what tomorrow will bring at Baldy- hopefully they can at least get Chair 1 rolling early enough, I don't mind if it takes a while to dig out Thunder as long as I can get reacquainted with my good friends Morgan and Bentley...
 
Im curious about Baldy today too. I gambled my reservation for tomorrow Sat. the 23rd about a week and a half ago....so maybe the dice will hit. Im sure it will be an absolute mosh pit up there, but may be worthy. We'll see. My legs only have a half day in them after riding the massive amounts of pow up in Mammoth all week
 
ski-the-face":2urgrt36 said:
so who went today? any luck?
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I went, and thoroughly enjoyed the skiing. I didn't get a very early start, though, so I hit some freeway traffic. I got up past the village by 9:15 or 9:30, then got turned around by the police a little further up the road. Apparently there was a big accident closer to the resort. I parked alongside the road until they let us go up at around 11:00. A fair number of cars were ahead of me, so I had to park down the road about .2 mile (although it was less since I climbed up across the switchbacks instead of staying on the road). The line was fairly long for tickets (maybe 30-40 min.), then another half hour or so to get on chair 1. Chair 3 was running by the time I got to it, but I only missed about 1 or 2 runs, according to those who were there earlier. I went down near the lift on my first couple runs. There was about 18" of new snow on Thunder Mtn., on average. It was somewhat windblown, though, so I headed for the Goldrush trees. The snow there was very nice (not Utah powder, but it skied very well). I did laps there for most of the afternoon, and hit a lot of fresh. It isn't all tracked out, though it is more than halfway there (you can find some fresh, though not very long stretches of it, but the rest should ski pretty well). I tried to see if South Bowl was open; it was not, but the time was after 3, so it may have been open earlier? (possibly not, though). I went back to chair 1 and skied down as far along the ridge as I could, then headed further that way once I got down past the cliffs. The snow was a little heavier there, but still not snowball wet. I skied down to my car and found about 5" of fresh snow on it. Even that snow wasn't wet enough to make a snowball. I enjoyed the day, despite early delays and fairly brutal conditions at times (wind, snow, sketchy visibility, chilly temps). I would expect it to be decent on Saturday, esp. if they did not open South Bowl today (I don't know). The crowds will come though, so a good plan would be come very early and leave early. I don't know if Chair 4 was open today or not.

Maybe pics tomorrow; I don't have time today. With the conditions the pics probably aren't so great, anyhow.
 
I'll post a full TR later, but will agree with the above and add: The Tube is excellent and still mostly untracked, and the Goldridge trees are indeed halfway tracked and phenomenal. Chair 1 runs were much better than I expected- first tracks all over the place, and it was filling in well. The snow quality could have been better, sure, but for a SoCal powder day, it was as epic as expected.

Chair 4 and South Bowl remain untouched...

Also, the roads were unbelievably hazardous today, especially driving down in the PM. I'm glad I got out intact (and my car as well).
 
Garry Klassen was up there too, but not until 2PM. He thinks coverage and snow quality on Thunder are pretty good, and he's been skiing there for 40+ years. At the end of the day he came down the same way as baldyskier (far on the ridge past Bentley's) and commented favorably on snow quality there also. Directly under chair 1 he saw quite a few rocks. Garry did not think this was a great day to be up there overall considering the road situation and partially plowed parking lot. He plans to be there VERY early tomorrow.
 
With my wife out of commission for the season and some of her friends in town looking to hit the slopes, I decided that Mtn High would be the best choice for our relatively wide mix in skill levels. Though tempted by Baldy, I figured that low intermediate resort skiers wouldn't be able to appreciate it perhaps as much as I would. Besides, I was in a loaner car with only all-season tires and I didn't feel like braving what was sure to be madness on the Mt. Baldy road. We left Studio City at 6:40 and decided to try the front way in via Cajon Pass. Bad idea. Got to the exit for 138 in 75 minutes and then crawled up to MH over the next 2 hrs. Bad times. Everyone in Southern California was there. Few of them knew how to drive on surfaces that weren't bone dry. Hilarity ensued. People were chaining up in every location possible, despite the fact that 138/2 has little in the way of incline and the road was almost entirely clear. They chained Scions, they chained minis, they chained minivans, they chained umpteen Tahoe/Yukon SUVs for the love of God!! Too funny.

By the time we got to the checkpoint near East, they were just running out of parking and people were starting to park well down Hwy 2. Luck shone on us that morning, as it turned out the CHP manning the check point and my wife's friend were old buddies for the last 20 years - total serendipity. Ended up in a nice spot in the lot at West around 10:00. Spent most of the day at West, as I didn't want to waste time taking the shuttle to East on the still jam packed Hwy 2. Played all over the mountain, ducking into tree shots here and there and just stretching out the legs for what was my second day of skiing this year. The views on the front side were nothing special, but those off the backside were special. And absolutely gorgeous bluebird day in the San Gabriels, with Baden Powell and Baldy dominating the skyline in their white mantles while an undercast hid the lowlands to the South. As the day wore on, I started to get a feel for the place, and I must say that when the snow is good, I respectfully disagree with Tony Crocker regarding the extent to which MH can keep a good skier interested. A simple look at the topo for the area would indicate that there is an extensive amount of easily-accessible sidecountry from both resorts, especially if Hwy 2 West of the resorts hasn't been cleared yet. I sampled West of West for a few runs, using the road to traverse back down to the base. It was only towards the end of the day that I ventured into the vast expanse between East and West. I had seen many tracks going in from East and just a couple from West. I took a run from each side and, suffice it to say, it was epic. If you are smart with the terrai and aspect you choose, sustained 1000 vert runs of untouched pow are easily available. Given MH's location an hour closer than Big Bear and relative easy of access, it's a no-brainer for me on the days when Baldy is inaccessible or we've got mixed abilities on board. I'll be back.
 
Mt. High West does have decent tree skiing between the runs and in the sidecountry. But it's exceedingly rare for it to have the natural coverage and conditions that you saw Saturday as it normally gets about 2/3 the snowfall of Baldy/Waterman.

Terrain quality at Baldy is much better too. Nonetheless anyone who actually got into a resort in time to get powder turns Saturday did very well indeed. I'm quite impressed you did so well on your first try at it on one of the worst traffic days I've ever read about.
 
Yes, the avy deaths were in Sawmill Canyon between the 2 resorts. Baldy has more obvious avalanche potential and has had its share of sidecountry deaths over the years. Those were probably the first at Mt. High.
 
Tony Crocker":1yx1snbv said:
Mt. High West does have decent tree skiing between the runs and in the sidecountry. But it's exceedingly rare for it to have the natural coverage and conditions that you saw Saturday as it normally gets about 2/3 the snowfall of Baldy/Waterman.

Terrain quality at Baldy is much better too. Nonetheless anyone who actually got into a resort in time to get powder turns Saturday did very well indeed. I'm quite impressed you did so well on your first try at it on one of the worst traffic days I've ever read about.
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All true - there are likely only a handful of days each season where Mtn High is skiing like that. We knew Baldy would be a junk show, and the girls I was going with wouldn't have been able to handle it anyway. It made sense that a bluebird Saturday after 4-5' of snow would bring out the hordes, so we started at what we though would be an early hour - 6:40 from Studio City. Turns out that Angelenos are early risers, and we hit traffic almost as soon as we got off the 15 (perhaps the back way is the better play next time). Since I had an AWD vehicle with M+S rated tires, and more importantly b/c I grew up in New England, I didn't waste my time chaining for a modest incline with just a bit of snow on it. Also, Wrightwood has a number of convenient parallel streets to Hwy 2 that no one seems to know exists. There weren't that well plowed but they were plowed enough. Got a bit lucky at the checkpoint with my wife's friend being old buddies with the CHP. That saved a good 20-30 minutes.

The sidecounty is pretty obvious from both sides of West. With a modest pitch and stabilizing snow, you just wanted to avoid anything obviously stupid. Lots of terrain traps in Sawmill Canyon, but several options to avoid them entirely.
 
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