I made it to Waterman around the 9AM opening, and socal pulled into the parking space next to mine. We met baldyskier not too long thereafter, and added Ben Solish ~11AM. By the time we booted up, went through a modest but slow ticket line and chair 1 we were skiing by 9:30.
Chair 1 is not quite MRG, but its single predecessor was one of only 3 chairlifts in California before World War II.
The main face runs Robin's (formerly #3) and Bros Alley (formerly #1) were fairly well tracked, but Jack's (formerly #2 1/2) only lightly, so we made our first run there with powder turns all the way
socal in Jack's
From then on we were in the trees. Skier's left of Robin's was excellent. Nearer the chairline terrain is more irregular with fallen logs, gullies, etc. This is a reminder that since the face of Waterman is steep and fairly rough the current 50-inch reported base is about the minimum if you want to wander around off the trails. Ben got some good powder skier's left of Bros Alley before we met him, but by 11AM the remaining open lines funneled into a tracked-up gully. Skier's right of Robin's was a different story. First run was very lightly tracked down to a traverse line back to the lift. The next 2 runs before lunch, led by baldyskier we pushed farther right and scored untracked all the way to the road. Why? Because of a modest 5 minute walk along the road to get back to the lift. Pics below of these runs:
socal in the untracked. No pics of baldyskier and Ben in action as they are half my age and nearly always ahead of me. They may post some better pics later.
More light tracks
baldyskier and Ben at the road with our tracks and socal above
After lunch it was time for me to show this crew Mt. Waterman's piece de resistance, the 1,400 vertical out of bounds runs down to the highway 1+ mile below the ski area.
Overview of this area viewed from the road just short of the parking lot.
Ready to drop into Avalanche. Sufficiently untracked even for icelantic. Waterman is to Baldy what Solitude is to AltaBird, for those who put a premium on elbow room.
Bottom of Avalanche. The place we started skiing is where the thickest cloud in this picture is rolling in.
baldyskier and Ben left after this run ~3:15 but socal and I went back for one more.
Top of second run into Avalanche, skier's left of the bowl and a quicker traverse/step-up from the top of chair 2. The fall lines are better on the other side where we had our first run
Nice steep tree lines back here. One of my guest Baldy skiers called it "South Bowl on steroids."
socal in one of the upper gullies. In general you want to make periodic traverses to delay ending up the bottom of the main gully too early.
Many thanks to CWHappyRN for the road pickups. In the old days I was often out there by myself and would take my chances on thumbing back to the ski area, but that could take a long time with a bigger group, especially since Mt. Waterman is way more under the radar now.
We had dinner at Newcomb Ranch and ran into one of the Metcalf owners at the bar. The current owners have other full-time jobs and really can't be on the scene midweek. I told him I thought the midweek closing was smart anyway, not only to save money when few people would be there but to attract powderhounds on Fridays and Saturdays. He was rather disappointed that they had only 250 people today after having 150 during the storm yesterday.
I also asked why Mt. Waterman was not at SkiDazzle. He said having their own booth would cost $8,500 so they had arranged to have a small slot in Sport Chalet's booth. But then Sport Chalet decided to pull out of the show at the last minute. I have noted that SkiDazzle seems noticeably smaller than the ski shows of 20-30 years ago.
Chair 1 is not quite MRG, but its single predecessor was one of only 3 chairlifts in California before World War II.
The main face runs Robin's (formerly #3) and Bros Alley (formerly #1) were fairly well tracked, but Jack's (formerly #2 1/2) only lightly, so we made our first run there with powder turns all the way
socal in Jack's
From then on we were in the trees. Skier's left of Robin's was excellent. Nearer the chairline terrain is more irregular with fallen logs, gullies, etc. This is a reminder that since the face of Waterman is steep and fairly rough the current 50-inch reported base is about the minimum if you want to wander around off the trails. Ben got some good powder skier's left of Bros Alley before we met him, but by 11AM the remaining open lines funneled into a tracked-up gully. Skier's right of Robin's was a different story. First run was very lightly tracked down to a traverse line back to the lift. The next 2 runs before lunch, led by baldyskier we pushed farther right and scored untracked all the way to the road. Why? Because of a modest 5 minute walk along the road to get back to the lift. Pics below of these runs:
socal in the untracked. No pics of baldyskier and Ben in action as they are half my age and nearly always ahead of me. They may post some better pics later.
More light tracks
baldyskier and Ben at the road with our tracks and socal above
After lunch it was time for me to show this crew Mt. Waterman's piece de resistance, the 1,400 vertical out of bounds runs down to the highway 1+ mile below the ski area.
Overview of this area viewed from the road just short of the parking lot.
Ready to drop into Avalanche. Sufficiently untracked even for icelantic. Waterman is to Baldy what Solitude is to AltaBird, for those who put a premium on elbow room.
Bottom of Avalanche. The place we started skiing is where the thickest cloud in this picture is rolling in.
baldyskier and Ben left after this run ~3:15 but socal and I went back for one more.
Top of second run into Avalanche, skier's left of the bowl and a quicker traverse/step-up from the top of chair 2. The fall lines are better on the other side where we had our first run
Nice steep tree lines back here. One of my guest Baldy skiers called it "South Bowl on steroids."
socal in one of the upper gullies. In general you want to make periodic traverses to delay ending up the bottom of the main gully too early.
Many thanks to CWHappyRN for the road pickups. In the old days I was often out there by myself and would take my chances on thumbing back to the ski area, but that could take a long time with a bigger group, especially since Mt. Waterman is way more under the radar now.
We had dinner at Newcomb Ranch and ran into one of the Metcalf owners at the bar. The current owners have other full-time jobs and really can't be on the scene midweek. I told him I thought the midweek closing was smart anyway, not only to save money when few people would be there but to attract powderhounds on Fridays and Saturdays. He was rather disappointed that they had only 250 people today after having 150 during the storm yesterday.
I also asked why Mt. Waterman was not at SkiDazzle. He said having their own booth would cost $8,500 so they had arranged to have a small slot in Sport Chalet's booth. But then Sport Chalet decided to pull out of the show at the last minute. I have noted that SkiDazzle seems noticeably smaller than the ski shows of 20-30 years ago.