ChrisC
Well-known member
I had some meetings in Los Angeles for the upcoming week so I decided to lug my skis to SoCal to ski one last time at Mt. Baldy on Easter Sunday (not the most popular choice). Wanted to try spring skiing at Baldy vs. the mid-winter conditions I had 2 weeks earlier. Looks like Tony was here a couple of days before me. Not sure if it froze the night before, but things seemed to soften like during a normal corn cycle.
I was welcomed into the Baldy parking lot a little before 8:30 - not very crowded. One of the family members/owners? was wearing a sports coat (said he always does on Sundays) and directing traffic. Later in the afternoon, he would be turning all types of LA Basin snowplay patrons explaining they would need to pay $20 for parking and a certain amount to take a chairlift ride. Most just tuned around. A few seemed pissed and spun out of the parking lot.
Waiting for Chair 1 to open. Notice there is no longer any snow - guess they do not want to shovel.
Met 2 guys in the liftlines that make most people on First Tracks Forums look quite sane - even Patrick. Here are their obsessions:
Interesting way Mt. Baldy loads the chairs: one for skiers. next for skis. It was fun to note 2 brother's were working the lift at the top and bottom stations. The older brother at the top station kept complaining about how his younger brother was balancing the skis. Retro ski resort problems. I was amazed for such a decrepit chairlift, Baldy really utilized it to its max. If a safety bar/seat was broken, they simply just put yellow tape over the chair and kept everything operational.
I believe this run off of Chair 1 might be Nightmare or Chappie's Chutes or Nightmare.
Top of the Notch
View into the LA Basin. I don't believe you can see the ocean and Catalina Islands since there was a marine layer at LAX.
Waiting for Chair 4 to open. Baldy will get around to it. It's a bit like the Caribbean here - all in good time.
Riding Chair 4 for the first time. The groomers were softening into corn despite the fact it was likely above freezing. Thunder in the background.
Trying to figure out how to access Holumac since it was partially burnt off. It was still too early to be venturing off the groomed at 9:30 am.
Corn is about perfectly ripe around 10 am and skied very well since there was almost no skier traffic.
I liked some of the gnarled trees up on Baldy.
Looking north into the high desert / Mojave Desert.
More gnarled trees on Chair 4. Two weeks ago all of this was covered and skiable.
After picking my way carefully down Holumac (a little unconsolidated on Holumac making it tough) and completing the required walking/creek crossing to rejoin the Chair 1 liftline SugarPine, made my way over to Chair 3 Thunder. Chair 4 closed for the day at 11/1130 am - even on a holiday Sunday.
Thunder was skiing very well. Photos of Emile's and Liftline. I decided to knock off the groomers while they were still fresh and skiing well.
I skied Skyline for the first Thunder groomer. Not sure how high this sign below is normally, but assume being buried is a good indicator of the base on north-facing terrain.
Looking across to Mt. Baldy and Chair 4 runs
Robin's un was skiing well:
Bottom of Skyline. Perfect corn surfaces.
Mt. Baldy or Mt. San Antonio (official name). Impressive 10,000 summit. San Gabriels are quite the mountain range. Assume this is where all the hikers go missing.
Heading into the South Bowl / South Trees. The skiing was better in areas that were skier compacted. The Comeback Tail from the South Bowl/Trees/Chutes and Bill's was a bit difficult to day. Lots of stopping, stepping, and hiking at the end to get to the Thunder Lift.
Herb's. Some nice medium-sized bumps were forming. Skied well.
More views into the desert from Thunder: Toilet Bowl and Easy Road. Assume that's I-15 in the distance. Mountain High would be down below to the skier's left / fourtfurther West.
To be continued.....
I was welcomed into the Baldy parking lot a little before 8:30 - not very crowded. One of the family members/owners? was wearing a sports coat (said he always does on Sundays) and directing traffic. Later in the afternoon, he would be turning all types of LA Basin snowplay patrons explaining they would need to pay $20 for parking and a certain amount to take a chairlift ride. Most just tuned around. A few seemed pissed and spun out of the parking lot.
Waiting for Chair 1 to open. Notice there is no longer any snow - guess they do not want to shovel.
Met 2 guys in the liftlines that make most people on First Tracks Forums look quite sane - even Patrick. Here are their obsessions:
- Guy #1. He was on a quest to ski every Western resort that had at least 500 vertical feet. Knew every resort on the Indy Pass, Powder Alliance, etc. Proceeded to describe in-depth skiing at Antelope Butte WY, Soldier Mt ID, Hurrican Ridge WA, etc. Based in Las Vegas, he was upset the prior week Mt. Baldy failed to open on a Monday and did not realize he needed to check its Twitter feed to operations update.
- Guy #2. This talk of small random mountains awakened the second more neurotic skier with unattainable goals. His goal was to ski every expert-rated run in the American West. Me: OMG. So he knew all these remote mountains. Said he had completed 35% of his goal. Impressive. However, he described how skiing Lee Canyon the prior weekend, the trail report said all its expert runs were open, but in actuality the ski patrol had closed the access to them. The result: he would have to visit Lee Canyon again in order to check those expert runs off. Me: This sounds highly unpleasant.
Interesting way Mt. Baldy loads the chairs: one for skiers. next for skis. It was fun to note 2 brother's were working the lift at the top and bottom stations. The older brother at the top station kept complaining about how his younger brother was balancing the skis. Retro ski resort problems. I was amazed for such a decrepit chairlift, Baldy really utilized it to its max. If a safety bar/seat was broken, they simply just put yellow tape over the chair and kept everything operational.
I believe this run off of Chair 1 might be Nightmare or Chappie's Chutes or Nightmare.
Top of the Notch
View into the LA Basin. I don't believe you can see the ocean and Catalina Islands since there was a marine layer at LAX.
Waiting for Chair 4 to open. Baldy will get around to it. It's a bit like the Caribbean here - all in good time.
Riding Chair 4 for the first time. The groomers were softening into corn despite the fact it was likely above freezing. Thunder in the background.
Trying to figure out how to access Holumac since it was partially burnt off. It was still too early to be venturing off the groomed at 9:30 am.
Corn is about perfectly ripe around 10 am and skied very well since there was almost no skier traffic.
I liked some of the gnarled trees up on Baldy.
Looking north into the high desert / Mojave Desert.
More gnarled trees on Chair 4. Two weeks ago all of this was covered and skiable.
After picking my way carefully down Holumac (a little unconsolidated on Holumac making it tough) and completing the required walking/creek crossing to rejoin the Chair 1 liftline SugarPine, made my way over to Chair 3 Thunder. Chair 4 closed for the day at 11/1130 am - even on a holiday Sunday.
Thunder was skiing very well. Photos of Emile's and Liftline. I decided to knock off the groomers while they were still fresh and skiing well.
I skied Skyline for the first Thunder groomer. Not sure how high this sign below is normally, but assume being buried is a good indicator of the base on north-facing terrain.
Looking across to Mt. Baldy and Chair 4 runs
Robin's un was skiing well:
Bottom of Skyline. Perfect corn surfaces.
Mt. Baldy or Mt. San Antonio (official name). Impressive 10,000 summit. San Gabriels are quite the mountain range. Assume this is where all the hikers go missing.
Heading into the South Bowl / South Trees. The skiing was better in areas that were skier compacted. The Comeback Tail from the South Bowl/Trees/Chutes and Bill's was a bit difficult to day. Lots of stopping, stepping, and hiking at the end to get to the Thunder Lift.
Herb's. Some nice medium-sized bumps were forming. Skied well.
More views into the desert from Thunder: Toilet Bowl and Easy Road. Assume that's I-15 in the distance. Mountain High would be down below to the skier's left / fourtfurther West.
To be continued.....
