On Thursday Liz and I tried Mt. High, which got considerably more snow from the Dec. 29-30 storms (24-30 inches) than Snow Valley and Big Bear. Another pleasant surprise that the only evidence of rain was at the very bottom of Mt High East at 6,600 feet even though it had rained to the top of Snow Valley at 7,800. This skier arrived by bike.
Mt. High has staffing issues, though an employee said it was temporary due to several people being out with COVID. This meant East was even quieter than usual with no beginner chair or restaurant open at the top and no shuttle bus between the two areas. Nonetheless we were charged $20 for parking, unlike two years ago when that charge was only for snowplayers.
The day also got off to a slow start when our first ride on the East Express lift stopped here for 20 minutes.
The top third of East is deserted after the stoppage.
After the long chair sit with no footrest I had arch cramps at the end of my first run even though it was an excellent groomer. For the first few runs I also had a sensitive toe when exiting the lift. Liz had an occasional sore toe which got worse later. Signs at the top of East:
There were sightseers up there despite no facilities open other than the restroom.
This was almost exactly two years after Liz' Mt. High accident, and the holiday season weather was fairly similar. The big storm that season was about a week earlier, but this year's storm was bigger at Mt. High so both coverage and surfaces were better. Temperatures earlier in the week had been in the 40's but were over 50 today. However, with low skier traffic the groomers remained excellent for all 8 of our runs. In two hours Liz had skied more vertical than all day Monday at Snow Valley.
Top of the Wildcard/Sundance groomers:
There were some thin spots here two years ago but not now. Even the often sketchy or icy Canyon run was in good shape. For our last run on East we skied Olympic Bowl.
The steepest part still had winter snow, so that's how we knew that it had escaped the rain. Olympic was still a challenge as it had been chopped into ledges by snowboarders.
We skied through the closed upper beginner area to the fire road leading to West.
We skied to the base of West via the same Headwall run of Liz' accident.
Snow and light were much better this time.
Beginner lifts and park features at base of West.
The softest packed powder was on the skier's left sides of Vertigo, Calamity and Wyatt, always shaded by trees in January. We then rode Conquest, which has a view to the Pacific through a gap in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The is a low cloud layer but Catalina and Palos Verdes poke above it. San Clemente Island 110 miles distant is barely visible left of Catalina.
We sampled some ungroomed here, Wildfire off Inferno Ridge.
Gunslinger:
With no shuttle I planned to ski the sidecountry Sawmill Canyon back to the East parking lot after 4PM. Liz had taken a 20 minute break for her foot but felt good when we were skiing the Conquest runs.
Despite being in the trees most of the snow was soft but heavy after the warm day.
I tried to find open lines while pushing skier's left so not getting into the bottom of a gully too soon.
The ridge with East's high speed lift is in the background.
We came upon this bench, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
We got about 2/3 of the way down when Liz' toe pain returned with a vengeance. So progress slowed and we finally got to the car at 5:15. I skied 16,000 vertical on East and 10,200 on West.
Mountain High currently has the best SoCal skiing IMHO and I expect that unusual situation to remain for at least a week more. Why is that? Mt. High's excess snow from the Dec. 29-30 storm left them with comparable base depth and surfaces as Big Bear. I find Mt. High's terrain superior: the groomer fall lines on East are longer than the ones at Big Bear and though Mt. High's steep pitches are short, they are more numerous than at Big Bear. And the drive is much easier.
As for ungroomed skiing, it's not very good anywhere, and I looked for it quite a bit at Baldy. The storm finished heavy, so last weekend's crowds left a lot of set up churned powder. Then it was warm Thursday accelerating the melt freeze process. Friday was not as warm as yesterday so shaded ungroomed is fairly firm. January's sun is enough to melt/freeze but rarely enough to generate corn.
Meanwhile Mt. Waterman has still not opened, and when it does it will be worse than Sawmill Canyon was Thursday. Waterman is an attractive proposition in powder, but when does its road ever open before the powder is degraded?
Mt. High has staffing issues, though an employee said it was temporary due to several people being out with COVID. This meant East was even quieter than usual with no beginner chair or restaurant open at the top and no shuttle bus between the two areas. Nonetheless we were charged $20 for parking, unlike two years ago when that charge was only for snowplayers.
The day also got off to a slow start when our first ride on the East Express lift stopped here for 20 minutes.
The top third of East is deserted after the stoppage.
After the long chair sit with no footrest I had arch cramps at the end of my first run even though it was an excellent groomer. For the first few runs I also had a sensitive toe when exiting the lift. Liz had an occasional sore toe which got worse later. Signs at the top of East:
There were sightseers up there despite no facilities open other than the restroom.
This was almost exactly two years after Liz' Mt. High accident, and the holiday season weather was fairly similar. The big storm that season was about a week earlier, but this year's storm was bigger at Mt. High so both coverage and surfaces were better. Temperatures earlier in the week had been in the 40's but were over 50 today. However, with low skier traffic the groomers remained excellent for all 8 of our runs. In two hours Liz had skied more vertical than all day Monday at Snow Valley.
Top of the Wildcard/Sundance groomers:
There were some thin spots here two years ago but not now. Even the often sketchy or icy Canyon run was in good shape. For our last run on East we skied Olympic Bowl.
The steepest part still had winter snow, so that's how we knew that it had escaped the rain. Olympic was still a challenge as it had been chopped into ledges by snowboarders.
We skied through the closed upper beginner area to the fire road leading to West.
We skied to the base of West via the same Headwall run of Liz' accident.
Snow and light were much better this time.
Beginner lifts and park features at base of West.
The softest packed powder was on the skier's left sides of Vertigo, Calamity and Wyatt, always shaded by trees in January. We then rode Conquest, which has a view to the Pacific through a gap in the San Gabriel Mountains.
The is a low cloud layer but Catalina and Palos Verdes poke above it. San Clemente Island 110 miles distant is barely visible left of Catalina.
We sampled some ungroomed here, Wildfire off Inferno Ridge.
Gunslinger:
With no shuttle I planned to ski the sidecountry Sawmill Canyon back to the East parking lot after 4PM. Liz had taken a 20 minute break for her foot but felt good when we were skiing the Conquest runs.
Despite being in the trees most of the snow was soft but heavy after the warm day.
I tried to find open lines while pushing skier's left so not getting into the bottom of a gully too soon.
The ridge with East's high speed lift is in the background.
We came upon this bench, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
We got about 2/3 of the way down when Liz' toe pain returned with a vengeance. So progress slowed and we finally got to the car at 5:15. I skied 16,000 vertical on East and 10,200 on West.
Mountain High currently has the best SoCal skiing IMHO and I expect that unusual situation to remain for at least a week more. Why is that? Mt. High's excess snow from the Dec. 29-30 storm left them with comparable base depth and surfaces as Big Bear. I find Mt. High's terrain superior: the groomer fall lines on East are longer than the ones at Big Bear and though Mt. High's steep pitches are short, they are more numerous than at Big Bear. And the drive is much easier.
As for ungroomed skiing, it's not very good anywhere, and I looked for it quite a bit at Baldy. The storm finished heavy, so last weekend's crowds left a lot of set up churned powder. Then it was warm Thursday accelerating the melt freeze process. Friday was not as warm as yesterday so shaded ungroomed is fairly firm. January's sun is enough to melt/freeze but rarely enough to generate corn.
Meanwhile Mt. Waterman has still not opened, and when it does it will be worse than Sawmill Canyon was Thursday. Waterman is an attractive proposition in powder, but when does its road ever open before the powder is degraded?
