SoCal Kick-Off

I skied the resort at Baldy the last two days. It was fun, the groomers on Thunder are in great shape. Off the groomed it is a mixed bag. I skied under Thunder a bunch, it got okay as it softened up, but it was still firm in some spots. A lot of the off-piste stuff is till unconsolidated. I ended up skiing Gold Rush a bunch of times both days, that was the best I found. The snow on Gold Rush is a big more packed down and edgable, though it is still firm in some spots. Gold Rush and the groomers were the best I found. Skiing down to the lot at the end of the day is getting pretty bony, but still very doable. They have Bentley's closed right now, so going down under lift one is the only option. All-in-all the coverage is great right now, and the conditions pretty fun. It has been a great start to the year.

Yep, super variable but the groomers are fantastic, and still some soft areas (and some residual crowns from storm avi's) in shaded lee aspects.

Last weekend was pretty much a copy of the weekend before. The coverage is good, groomers are great. There are some good, and some bad turns off the groomed, but it is great to ski Baldy with this kind of coverage.

Hopefully Thurs/Friday will refresh the snow a bit?

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Conditions on North aspects of the Angeles Crest were pretty good yesterday. 4 inches of snow from the recent snow did not refreeze. I did 3 laps at Krakta in the morning and got a lift ticket for Waterman in the afternoon. With only around 25 rider tracking it out, there were a lot of fresh turns to be had. And it’s only an hour away. Lots of good tree skiing.


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Baldy was lots of fun today. We skied a bunch of laps on skyline, which was nice, then we lapped the line under the chair and the,area to the skier's left of the lift for the rest of the day.. it softened up, although it was firm in spots. I did not hit Herb's or Gold Rush. It is still skiing very well, although I would wait for it to soften up. The lot runs are closed.

Baldy is skiing nice today, coverage is better than expected. A couple guys are even skiing shirtless, if you're into that.

My wife is originally from Redlands and I have hiked Baldy and other locales pictured in this thread. Really cool to see it with snow. Would love to ski there some day. Thanks for the Socal ski stoke!

Anyone have plans to get out this weekend, backcountry or otherwise? Thoughts on what might be skiing well?

I'm up in Big Bear for a 3-day weekend with the family skied Snow valley yesterday using free lift ticket from baldy pass and got the 4-year-old on the chairlift for the first time. at Bear mountain today tele skiing and the groomers are fun they got soft midday anything in the trees is stayed firm. Had planned to do back country on Sugarloaf tomorrow but forgot skins (dad brain) and coverage does not look that good. With how warm it is I'm a little surprised the non groomed is not getting soft.

I don’t have much free time this weekend but I am either skiing at Baldy Resort or touring around Waterman for a half day. More for the uphill since I expect the snow to be terrible. Maybe it’s softened up from warmer temps.


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Fun turns on Badin-Powell today. Ski to the road and plenty of old good powder to be found. But also some patches of firm snow :-)

Down the main drainage, or the gully to the back of the parking lot? How much snow is on Hwy2 behind the gate?

NE gully down to mine trail. 2 looked plowed for the 100 feet I could see.

I was going to ski that today but I broke my binding and UPS wasn’t quick enough Hopefully next weekend. Was the road closed at Grassy Hollow? God to know it wasn’t 100% boilerplate


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Signs all said closed at grassy hollow but when we got to the gate it was open to Vincent Gap, thankfully.

Hitting Baldy, the resort, today for some afternoon laps. I will probably get there around noon and ski until a little after 3. Hopefully some of the rest of you will be around.

If anyone is interested Baldy is now selling passes for next year for 299. They are good for the rest of this season too.

Today was really fun at Baldy. I got up there around 1245, did about 10 laps, mostly Emile's and Gold Rush, and called it a day. It was pretty slushy by that point, I would go a bit earlier if you want to head up. They do need more snow, but if you have big skis and wax it is a blast.

https://www.facebook.com/dan.lunt.75...889937308/?t=1

Above is a video I shot yesterday skiing Gold Rush. It will give you a feel for what Baldy is like right now. I would fast forward over the first minute, I just got the gopro hooked up and I suck at using it.

^^^Looks like late March or April...


POV video of a few turns on BP Saturday. Mostly soft snow, but hard to see firm spots kept it interesting.
https://youtu.be/5cS_GpNBSbY

I took a lap at Kratka today. Snow was way more fun than expected, nice and soft, a tad slushy but coverage was perfect.

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Originally Posted by 406

^^^Looks like late March or April...


POV video of a few turns on BP Saturday. Mostly soft snow, but hard to see firm spots kept it interesting.
https://youtu.be/5cS_GpNBSbY

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"That's not soft!" :)

It does look like March or April at Baldy, but the skiing is still fun and the coverage on Thunder is still good. It would be really nice to see at least one more system.

Well, Baldy still has decent coverage on Thunder. We went yesterday, Saturday, and it was fun. We got to Thunder around 1 and skied until around 330. It was not super warm, so it softened up in the sun but stayed firm in the shade. There were some good turns and some firm turns off the groomers. The groomers were nice. I skied a couple of groomer laps, then alternated between Emile's and Gold Rush for the rest of the day. I guess I would say that I liked Gold Rush best, but even there the turns were hit and miss. Still, I love being able to ski terrain like this 1.5 hours from Newport Beach.

Here is a small video of me skiing Gold Rush. It will give you an idea of what the coverage is like. We really could use more snow, but it might well make it a couple more weekends even without a big storm. I have a nine day trip to Mammoth coming up in late March, but I might not get there before then so I really hope things are doable at Baldy for the next couple of weekends. The video makes it look softer than it actually was, there were some soft turns and some firm turns off-piste. I think the high at the summit was something like 45 degrees, so it did not get THAT warm.

https://www.facebook.com/dan.lunt.75/videos/10157060229537308/?t=177

Wow, looks pretty good still.

It is still fun. It really should be good for the next couple of weeks at least. It would be really great to get another solid storm and push things into April.

EDIT:

Supposedly they got 6 inches from the last storm. It certainly helps. They are saying they will open on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully some of you guys will get to ski it. I definitely can't get there until this weekend.

Hey Santa Monica resident here. New to the forums (been in SoCal 1.5 yrs), found this thread and wanted to introduce myself. I've skied up at baldy twice, mt high, and have gone to Mammoth 3 times this year and squaw once. Going to get avy I and want to get into touring more, and would love to come along with some of you, and ski together wherever as well!

Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline is on the verge of being closed and traffic diverted to Tortilla Flats, which is holding up nicely. Coverage on Emilies is still good, but you have to hunt for an entrance (unless you walk across the dirt along the top). Shortcut is still very good, bottom of Robins is good but thinning. Goldridge is in great shape (especially the soft snow on skiers right), with some bumps developing just above the last pitch. For the beginners, the Gulch is holding up really well. The automatic snow gun just above the bottom of chair 2 is really helping make snow that can be pushed to cover thin spots as they appear. Most of the stuff off the groomers never softened and remained coral reef all day, but it's good practice.

Kept an eye out for Long duc dong's skis, but didn't see him.

Thanks for update. Hopefully storms this week produce at least a foot of high density snow.

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Originally Posted by 1000-oaks

Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline is on the verge of being closed and traffic diverted to Tortilla Flats, which is holding up nicely. Coverage on Emilies is still good, but you have to hunt for an entrance (unless you walk across the dirt along the top). Shortcut is still very good, bottom of Robins is good but thinning. Goldridge is in great shape (especially the soft snow on skiers right), with some bumps developing just above the last pitch. For the beginners, the Gulch is holding up really well. The automatic snow gun just above the bottom of chair 2 is really helping make snow that can be pushed to cover thin spots as they appear. Most of the stuff off the groomers never softened and remained coral reef all day, but it's good practice.

Kept an eye out for Long duc dong's skis, but didn't see him.

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I ski in grey pants, sometimes a red sweatshirt sometimes a grey jacket. My wife is sometimes there, blond hair, champagne colored jacket and black pants.

We actually went up on Friday. Both my wife and I have some flexibility, me more so as I work from home and rarely have any sort of meeting on a Friday, so we saw it was going to be cold over the weekend and determined that it would be best to ski Friday. It was fun, the new snow was grabby in spots, it did not get all that skied down before things warmed up, but I still had a blast. I skied Emile's, the trees between Emile's and Shortcut, not sure what those are called, some groomers and a bunch of Gold Ridge laps. I had the most fun on Gold Ridge.

The new snow helped a bit. It would be nice to get one more big storm. We had been thinking about going up to Mammoth, but with the power outage I'm glad we didn't. We will be here this coming weekend, probably getting a day or two in at Baldy, then at Mammoth the 21st to the 29th to close out the month.

One more good storm should set Baldy up to get at least into mid-April, depending on the heat. I have had lots of fun at Baldy this year, so I really can't complain if it does not make the middle of next month. The coverage is actually quite good right now. Mammoth has not had a great season, although it has been better than advertised when I have been there, but with all the Baldy days I have really enjoyed this season. It is really great to be able to just cruise to Baldy and get some laps, I wish every year was like this. Even if next weekend is my last Baldy day I can't say I have gotten hosed. The coverage is still good in the right spots though.

I

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Originally Posted by jstan4

Hey Santa Monica resident here. New to the forums (been in SoCal 1.5 yrs), found this thread and wanted to introduce myself. I've skied up at baldy twice, mt high, and have gone to Mammoth 3 times this year and squaw once. Going to get avy I and want to get into touring more, and would love to come along with some of you, and ski together wherever as well!

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Hey I'm in SaMo as well and trying to get into backcountry skiing. Do you know if Baldy has an uphill policy?

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Originally Posted by 1000-oaks

Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline.....

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Hey I saw your post on gear swap for the pata coupon, I'd be stoked to use one today if you still have any. Sorry for posting here, I just joined today and don't have enough posts for the swap section I guess.

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Originally Posted by p_hacker

Do you know if Baldy has an uphill policy?

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Baldy isn't really the type of place that has policies, or if they did enforcement would be spotty. I have seen them tell people skinning up chair 1 when it was open to skiing that they needed to turn around. But I have seen people skin past also. Regardless, I wouldn't really recommend it as a newb skinning spot...maybe if there is snow to Manker flat and you go up road and chair 4 has snow and is closed, but they do do avalanche control at times.

If I recall correctly, there is a closed ski area (Kratka) past Waterman that is low angle that would be good for a new skinner:
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.3...89765&z=15&b=f

Or go up forest road at waterman if they are not running the lift.

^ This. You could skin anywhere you want outside the ski area boundary (though the terrain makes that pretty tough), but can't be inside the boundary on skis without a lift ticket for skiing, even if it's part of the area that's closed (because then you're skiing a closed area). Mtn safety & liability.

Also check out Sugarloaf by Bear Mountain. I've never skinned it, but it looks like decent moderate terrain when covered.

Baldy's Facebook page says they closed tubing until further notice, and it sounds like they might limit ticket sales to keep the numbers of people down for adequate social distancing.

^^^that is good.

I might ski the resort Saturday if it sounds like they make progress this afternoon getting lift going.

Might do Baden Sunday if I can find someone to go with.

@406 of you go, can you provide a trip report? I’m heading out to San G


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At the notch now, storm finished warm, so the had to free 1 of ice. They are working on 3 now. Bunch of slides on 1, so no skiing yet.

Baldy was horrible, rime created a breakable crust. Maybe if it warms up tomorrow it'll get better. Good news is should have coverage for spring. Lots & lots of avalanche activity on North facing slopes of chair one. See my Strava for photos.

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Originally Posted by 406

Baldy was horrible, rime created a breakable crust. Maybe if it warms up tomorrow it'll get better. Good news is should have coverage for spring. Lots & lots of avalanche activity on North facing slopes of chair one. See my Strava for photos.

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There's always Tuesday's storm, which is supposed to be colder. thanks for the update.