SoCal Kick-Off

[406]

Went to check out Mt. Baden Powell yesterday. Found perfect spring conditions on the east summit face. Cold snow powdery turns in north facing trees down to avalanche crown. Got a little too far east trying to get creative/exploring. Plenty of slide for life zones, and I was near the point of maxing out my aluminum sharps due to my non typical route.

The New Years NE gully avalanche is truly massive, will get some photos and more details up.

[1000-oaks]

guy at the top lift shack burning nag champa and playing spacey music from a huge sound system while overlooking whatever part of LA that is 7000 feet below -- never experienced anything like that.

Check out the scene at the top of chair 3 at Baldy on a warm sunny Spring weekend, overlooking the LA basin and the Pacific.

[406]

pov video from yesterday...

East face:


short upper trees:


tree skiing old powder

[1000-oaks]

Nice work, gotta love potato chip touring skis on firm sun cups.

[Long duc dong]

Nice!!

It's funny because in some of those vids you can really hear where the snow changes.

[406]

My camera really picks up ski sound, never seems that loud in person, although the carbon skis do seem to make more noise. The east summit was soft, but yeah, sounds firm in the video. I didn't record many of the slide for life zones, but it does sounds extra brutal. Jumping off the crown onto the slide surface is really shocking.

[406]

Having skied the NE gully of Mt. Baden-Powell dozens of times, I was very interested in the large New Year's avalanche. I haven't seen a detailed write up or many good photos on the internet. It has been awhile and I'm no expert, but sharing a few observations from Sunday February 13th. From watching the weather, the xmas-ny storms ended warm after a good amount of snow and wind loading, but started out cold. So guessing that triggered a r4d4 storm slab at deep weak layer. Month and half later, snow settled crown heights of ~2 ft found between 8500-7900 ft and almost all aspects running the entire NE massif. Based on photos found online taken early January, significant melting of debris, but still several meters deep and runs down to around 6000ft elevation, containing a significant number of old growth and younger trees.

Oh, and the summit cornice is starting to crack.

Last photo is from Jan 5th @socalsnow post.



Standing at location of dirt road to mine:














video pan, full resolution:
https://umtgriz.com/forum/2022/ski/P..._211255725.mp4

[bry]

Couldn't motivate to get out to baldy today I bet it's going to be a good day.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

[Long duc dong]

I was actually hoping to go this afternoon, but I had a 2 pm zoom meeting. Friday afternoon zoom meetings should really be illegal.

I will almost definitely be there tomorrow and then on Sunday if it is good.

Did anyone make it up today? It would be great to hear a report.

[1000-oaks]

Baldy did not suck today. Groomers are holding up great. Tube received some drifted snow and was quite decent. Heard the same for Goldridge. Didn't try Herbs or Andy's. South Bowl is closed until we get more snow, heard the upper half is really rocky, and some minor dry hiking on the exit.

[406]

Nice.
I'm in Big Bear with wife and kids for ski week. Brought my AT gear, but lot less snow in San Berdo's than Gabe's.

[priapism]

Nice.
I'm in Big Bear with wife and kids for ski week. Brought my AT gear, but lot less snow in San Berdo's than Gabe's.

What’s your beta for Big Bear? After relocating to SoCal last year I’ve only been to BB once but keep going back to Mammoth…it’s just the one time I went (a month ago) the conditions were icy and the lift line etiquette was terrible—made the extra 2.5h drive seem worth it (granted I cheap out on lodging and camp near Mammoth)

Also, anyone have a good rec for a bootfitter? I need a punch and even in Mammoth, Footloose is saying they currently work on only boots they’ve sold

[406]

Priapism, I wouldn't bother with big bear resorts(or mammoth) if not for young kids. But do love skiing with them and good work out for me tele skiing the groomers. Spring conditions are best bet.

[Long duc dong]

Baldy was fun on Saturday.

I got there around 1215, did my standard 10 laps and headed home.

First two were groomers. I followed with Emile's Bowl, Andy's, Robin's Trees, Emile's (the part right under Thunder), Herb's and Goldridge. I ended with two more laps in Emile's bowl.

Emile's Bowl and Andy's were by far the best. The only line I repeated was Emile's bowl, but I thought about doing another Andy's lap.

Emile's bowl was fun. It was wintery, but the stuff in the sun that was a bit crusty loosened up to the point where it could be fun.

Andy's was also fun. The new snow from last week had not really set up, so it was a bit sticky and could use some consolidation, but it was still fun. There are some crusty spots getting in.

The area under the Thunder lift had some good turns, but also some bare and crusty spots. Like lots of the off-piste it could use some skier traffic.

Robin's Trees was probably the worst area I skied. There is a strange, crusty base layer in there, the layer is rough and bumpy. Even with the new snow it still was not fun.

Goldridge was crusty, but a few decent turns. It has a similar base to Robin's but it was not as bad.

Herb's was really interesting getting in, and then had some strange spots and some good turns. It needs skier traffic to consolidate the snow. I was more interested in going back to Andy's than Herb's.

But overall Emile's bowl was by far the best skiing I got.

Let's hope this storm adds a bit and comes in stronger than expected.

Here is a video from Saturday. It starts with an Andy's lap, then two from Emile's bowl. After that the other laps are in there, other than Robin's.

[mcski]

I was just thinking of Baldy the other day. Tahoe has been so dry for so long I was thinking Baldy must look like the high desert. Glad to see your report and Baldy still rolling

[1000-oaks]

The two early storms made Baldy's year, 100%. Wouldn't have even opened this season without those dumps of super-dense snow.

[Long duc dong]

I was just thinking of Baldy the other day. Tahoe has been so dry for so long I was thinking Baldy must look like the high desert. Glad to see your report and Baldy still rolling

It's amazing what Baldy is able to do.

1000-Oaks is 100% correct. Those first storms were very dense, and put down a solid base. There is still a fair bit of coverage, although the runs to the lot have been toast for a long time.

Another factor, I'm guessing, has been the wind. Even on some days where it has been somewhat warm, there has been a fair amount of wind to keep certain areas somewhat firm. While that is not always great for the skiing on that day, it keeps things going for the season.

The groomers have done an amazing job this year. Even on the days where things have been firm the groomers have been great.

[406]

Fun day tele skiing snow summit during the storm, couple inches of new.

[Long duc dong]

If you are there today you are there at the right time.

Snow Summit says more than a foot.

Baldy is reporting 2-3 inches. That really sucks. I guess this storm just hit the San Bernardinos harder.

If anyone hits Summit/Bear or Baldy post a report.

I do hope the Baldy report is based on the bottom of chair 1....Unfortunately I don't think it is.

[406]

Yeah, I would say about foot. Fun day. They started loading lifts early, nice change from a typical Baldy powder day :-)

[406]

Posted a few pov videos on instagram, if interested in seeing conditions. All taken after 10, having taken a few runs and cleared off a little(put camera on during chair ride).

[Long duc dong]

Very nice 406!!

I can't swing anything tomorrow, but I might have to do Friday afternoon at Summit and Saturday at Baldy.

I guess this one hit the San Bernardinos and just missed the Gabriels.

Mt. High is reporting 5 inches.

[Long duc dong]

Went up to Summit on Friday afternoon and had fun. The new snow made the groomer off of chair 1 lots of fun. We did a few laps there, then went over to chair 6 and lapped the skier's left side of the Wall. It was kind of fun, in an east coast butternut/bealleayre Berkshires/Catskills way. Some bumps, with a scraped off section between the bumps. It was better to ski the sections where the bumps were close together. Overall it was a good time. It stayed pretty cold, so the snow on the groomers was wintery.

Saturday afternoon I hit Baldy, bummed that they had only gotten 3 inches while the San Bernardinos got a foot.

It ended up being lots of fun. It stayed cool, so the only off-piste stuff I hit was Emile's Bowl. The skyline groomer was awesome. I ended up doing 3 laps on it, then 6 laps down Emile's Bowl, followed by a Toilet Bowl lap.

Emile's was excellent, as it has been. It was a bit firm in spots, but edgable, and with some really nice loose, wintery snow. It has been the goods for a while now. I didn't venture into any of he south facing spots, Andy's and Herb's, as I don't think they were close to softening up due to the wind. Overall it was a really fun day with wintery snow. I didn't head into Robin's Trees or Goldridge either. Those areas have a base that had a weird, bumpy crust. They will need either full-on spring conditions or more snow.

Here is a video with three of the lines down Emile's. The first and third are down the skier's left gully of the bowl, the second is down the skier's right gully.

It should be nice today. I hope some of you guys are out there getting after it.

[SirHeftyBoy]

Anybody know what the hell Waterman's deal is? Are they trying to sell the mountain? They haven't opened once this year, and lord know there's enough snow. I hiked Kratka a few weeks ago and skied from the top all the way to the road, no problem. They have such an absurd bag of excuses: broken lifts, not enough snow, rinse and repeat...

Obviously these owners suck, but it's a special place when it goes, and the skiing is dope. Legit would be down to try to organize some sort of co-op to buy these guys out.

[KillerMonkey]

Thinking of hitting up baldy tomorrow. Know if this past storm dropped any snow? Looks pretty light.