First here are some views of SoCal's biggest cold storm since Feb. 2001. Verdugo mountains above my house (top peak 3,100 feet) had snow for only third time since I moved there in 1984.
View from 134 freeway entering Pasadena this morning:
Mt. Wilson transmitters are in the thin cloud bank center right. Snow line looks like about 2,500 feet.
First good view up from Mt. Baldy road:
The 3 miles of hairpins from Baldy village up to the ski areas were impressively plowed, could easily have been handled this morning without 4WD. But this guy must have gotten stuck on Friday.
Coming down the road this afternoon was more of a challenge but fortunately there were no accidents that I saw.
The website said to buy $10 parking with your lift ticket. I have heard in recent years that Baldy was charging for parking but this was the first time I've seen that enforced. If you just show up like did, it's $20. I'm not complaining overall because the senior ticket I bought online yesterday was $47.
I arrived 8AM, got to top of chair 1 at 9:20, which is a win for this scenario at Baldy. Line to redeem your reservation for a ticket was 35 minutes vs. 2 1/2 hours yesterday I was told.
Line for chair 1 was maybe 10 minutes first time up and minimal after that due to the tough conditions down there and that Thunder was going to open.
First run was Nightmare, an apt description as it was churned cement, set up overnight.
Since only chair 1&2 were open Sunday starting about 11AM, the line for chair 1 was often an hour, and chair 1's terrain got worked over hard.
I was told 11:30 to noon for Thunder opening, thus that first run on Nightmare. About 10:30AM I took another one on Sugarpine, which was skier packed. However the fog had rolled in by then so I switched to goggles and visibility was still a challenge in gullies like that or lower Robin's. View up Sugarpine about 3/4 of the way down:
View of the Notch riding chair 1:
Thunder opened 10:45AM today, but it started snowing hard at noon with a lot of wind by 1PM. I was in the lodge resting at 11:15 so missed one or two more pristine runs. Baldy is often inaccurate in its estimates of when lifts will open, but more often later vs. earlier than announced. I know my way around enough that I had several options in the trees that would not be excessively tracked.
However trees near Emile's, Robin's, Herb's/Andy's and Goldridge all had several wind drifts so skiing was not fluid. Skiing along the Fire Road there was a consistent wind blast coming up from the SW. I braved that into Clementine (trees skier's left of Goldridge) and set off a couple of ~6 inch slabs of sliding snow in the way down into the beginner gulch.
Thunder's lift line was no more than 10 minutes until it emptied out about 1:15 due to the deteriorating weather. earlier I spotted a candidate for Liz' fashion police.
I ventured once down Skyline with wind drifts and blowing snow.
To no surprise the best powder left was in Tube and South Bowl, both of which I skied once despite being signed closed.
I figured correctly that by 1:30 someone would have been in there to set the exit traverse track, and aIso observed people stepping up from the gully below Thunder's base.
They called last chair on Thunder at 2:20 due to increasing wind. I took that on Liftline, which was being smoothed out into windbuff. With all the fog, snow and wind it was an exhausting day for a modest 13,600 vertical, perhaps 4K of quite challenging powder. I skied to the parkng lot via Bentley's which was also being smoothed and filled in by the wind and new snow. It was still strenuous due to the bad visibility.
Website says Baldy will be closed Wednesday, so Thursday looks like a good call for next visit with at least another foot of snow predicted by then.
One more SoCal snow picture is going viral today as Garry showed it to me this afternoon and Adam commented upon it while I was driving home.
This is the north face of San Jacinto, at 9,000 feet one of the few sustained verticals in North America comparable to some in the Alps. The picture was probably taken from Interstate 10 with a big zoom lens. Someone was fortunate to be ready when the avalanche was happening.
View from 134 freeway entering Pasadena this morning:
Mt. Wilson transmitters are in the thin cloud bank center right. Snow line looks like about 2,500 feet.
First good view up from Mt. Baldy road:
The 3 miles of hairpins from Baldy village up to the ski areas were impressively plowed, could easily have been handled this morning without 4WD. But this guy must have gotten stuck on Friday.
Coming down the road this afternoon was more of a challenge but fortunately there were no accidents that I saw.
The website said to buy $10 parking with your lift ticket. I have heard in recent years that Baldy was charging for parking but this was the first time I've seen that enforced. If you just show up like did, it's $20. I'm not complaining overall because the senior ticket I bought online yesterday was $47.
I arrived 8AM, got to top of chair 1 at 9:20, which is a win for this scenario at Baldy. Line to redeem your reservation for a ticket was 35 minutes vs. 2 1/2 hours yesterday I was told.
Line for chair 1 was maybe 10 minutes first time up and minimal after that due to the tough conditions down there and that Thunder was going to open.
First run was Nightmare, an apt description as it was churned cement, set up overnight.
Since only chair 1&2 were open Sunday starting about 11AM, the line for chair 1 was often an hour, and chair 1's terrain got worked over hard.
I was told 11:30 to noon for Thunder opening, thus that first run on Nightmare. About 10:30AM I took another one on Sugarpine, which was skier packed. However the fog had rolled in by then so I switched to goggles and visibility was still a challenge in gullies like that or lower Robin's. View up Sugarpine about 3/4 of the way down:
View of the Notch riding chair 1:
Thunder opened 10:45AM today, but it started snowing hard at noon with a lot of wind by 1PM. I was in the lodge resting at 11:15 so missed one or two more pristine runs. Baldy is often inaccurate in its estimates of when lifts will open, but more often later vs. earlier than announced. I know my way around enough that I had several options in the trees that would not be excessively tracked.
However trees near Emile's, Robin's, Herb's/Andy's and Goldridge all had several wind drifts so skiing was not fluid. Skiing along the Fire Road there was a consistent wind blast coming up from the SW. I braved that into Clementine (trees skier's left of Goldridge) and set off a couple of ~6 inch slabs of sliding snow in the way down into the beginner gulch.
Thunder's lift line was no more than 10 minutes until it emptied out about 1:15 due to the deteriorating weather. earlier I spotted a candidate for Liz' fashion police.
I ventured once down Skyline with wind drifts and blowing snow.
To no surprise the best powder left was in Tube and South Bowl, both of which I skied once despite being signed closed.
I figured correctly that by 1:30 someone would have been in there to set the exit traverse track, and aIso observed people stepping up from the gully below Thunder's base.
They called last chair on Thunder at 2:20 due to increasing wind. I took that on Liftline, which was being smoothed out into windbuff. With all the fog, snow and wind it was an exhausting day for a modest 13,600 vertical, perhaps 4K of quite challenging powder. I skied to the parkng lot via Bentley's which was also being smoothed and filled in by the wind and new snow. It was still strenuous due to the bad visibility.
Website says Baldy will be closed Wednesday, so Thursday looks like a good call for next visit with at least another foot of snow predicted by then.
One more SoCal snow picture is going viral today as Garry showed it to me this afternoon and Adam commented upon it while I was driving home.
This is the north face of San Jacinto, at 9,000 feet one of the few sustained verticals in North America comparable to some in the Alps. The picture was probably taken from Interstate 10 with a big zoom lens. Someone was fortunate to be ready when the avalanche was happening.
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nobody is open. water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!!!!