Southern California Snow?

[ski-the-face]

Somebody seriously messed up by leaving ACH open. Anyways, doing the guinea pig...going to Baldy [-o< snow.

 

[snowave]

Don't hurt yourself!

only 1-2" at the base of Mt. high this morning... and it isn't stopping the masses from coming up. I bet 75% of those people think there's probably a foot or more of new snow, and have no idea it rained for 95% of this storm.

 

[Tony Crocker]

doing the guinea pig...going to Baldy [-o< snow.

That is plain masochistic given the reports below:

While we have 2 inches of fresh snow, our snow base needs some time to drain.

We are open for skiing and boarding with a 6- 18 inch base (with 4 feet needed to ski the good stuff) with 4-6 inches of new snow on top (that means the top of Thunder at 8,600). Snow levels began to drop early this morning. We recommend waiting the storm out before coming up.

Waterman's snow phone reports "standing water at the warming hut (that's the top of the face at 7,700 feet) and a net loss of snowpack from the 2 1/2 inches of rain yesterday."

It's mostly sunny here in Glendale. There's not going to be much more snow beyond the 2-3 inches everyone is reporting this morning.

The natural snow skiing is not even close to getting off the ground yet. My chart http://bestsnow.net/scalhist.htm should provide a reality check. The first weekend labeled "A" is usually the first time 90+% of Baldy is skiable. Note that this has occurred in December only 4 out of 34 seasons and never earlier than the 3rd week of December. Also note that it never happens at all in 11 of the 34 seasons.

Early season "B" weekends refer to those where most of the Big Bear runs are open with manmade packed powder. That would have been this weekend (about 2 weeks earlier than normal) if it had not rained yesterday. As predicted above: 2 1/2 inches of rain at Waterman probably means a little over an inch at Big Bear. In any case the base at Big Bear is manmade, more durable and no previous open runs were lost. Surfaces at Big Bear will be improved by grooming and snowmaking over the next few days. I would not consider skiing anywhere else in SoCal until the next major storm. Mt. High did not lose any runs either, but surfaces will be slower to recover with the much lower snowmaking capacity.

only 1-2" at the base of Mt. high this morning... and it isn't stopping the masses from coming up. I bet 75% of those people think there's probably a foot or more of new snow, and have no idea it rained for 95% of this storm.

Another good reason today will be masochistic.

Mammoth storm total is 54 inches and still going. Not much open today but Christmas and beyond is secure now.

 

[snowboard247]

I gotta say that if there is a somewhat decent snow pack, the canyons at bear are very very fun. I've had a blast in there a few times, but it has been a few years. It's hard to leave Mammoth when there is pow to be had (except to go to June!).

 

[ski-the-face]

That is plain masochistic given the reports

:lol: I agree. Brought the rock skis. Got the 50 dollar season pass so it was better than the usual Sunday. Lapped Chair 2 for twice before Chair 3 opened. Fresh tracks about half boot deep HA, soft underneath with spotty ice patches. Same goes for Skyline after Chair 3 opened, but snow was fantasticly (it is a word) light in the windrifts on the left side. snow was deeper in the drifts, overhead sprays if you try. I did :-o . When the good stuff got scraped off, around 12, we headed to the otherside of Thunder, we had found it! Served us freshies til closing. CH4 closed, CH1 closed, Emilies and Robins closed, Goldridge, Skyline, and intermediates only open. you had to be creative. it was fun.
I had a picture of chair 1 but can't get the file size down. It just shows little coverage and the creek.