Last year Liz expressed curiosity about Snow Valley, which we drive by every time we go to Big Bear. I told her it wasn't worth it unless Slide Peak was open. I had not skied Snow Valley since November 1985 and not skied Slide Peak since February 1982. The reason is that if there's enough snow to open Slide Peak, there's nearly always enough snow to ski off trail at Baldy.
After observing the fog and damp snow last Friday, my expectations for off trail skiing in SoCal weren't great. Meanwhile Snow Valley's website was promising Slide Peak would open soon, which it finally did Sunday. Due to staffing issues, Slide will only run Friday-Monday until snow deteriorates too much. So we decided to give it a try Monday. We still have time for other local skiing later this week.
We arrived a little after 9AM after a 20 minute delay clearing an accident above Running Springs. The lower mountain is served by a high speed six, here seen at right after had skied our first run.
That line soon grew, and eventually more ropes were brought out and the line became double what you see above, about 10 minutes.
Snow Valley remains strongly oriented toward beginners. As busy a day as this was, note how deserted the steepest groomed pitches mid-mountain are.
The grooming was very good, particularly considering that the big storm did not end well at Snow Valley.
Here's a sign at the base of the six pack lift Liz found amusing.
I told her don't laugh. One time I was at Snow Valley a couple friends of mine tried to sit on the same side of an old center bar double. The liftie quickly stopped the chair, as commentary from the lift line ensued: "Do they know each other? If not, introduce them quick!" Many of you should remember the fast forward clips in old Warren Miller movies where successive people would fall getting off chairs and be dragged out of harm's way by the lifties. Most of those clips were filmed at Snow Valley as Warren Miller lived in Hermosa Beach until 1991.
Here's Liz at the top of the six pack with view SE to San Bernardino Ridge.
That ridge is continuously over 10,000 feet for five miles. Its eastern end out of view is the glacial cirque of 11,500 foot San Gorgonio. The entire area was locked up as wilderness in 1964.
The lower mountain also has some interesting park features.
After 4 frontside runs we rode the access chair #9 which gives a good view of Slide Peak.
My memory was hazy after 40 years, but that view is very different. I recall one huge wide mogul field looker's left of the idle lift. Obviously the low bushes were buried on my 1980 and 1982 visits.
In the first pic above a moderately steep strip East Slide is groomed at far left. The two groomed runs West Slide and Nord Valley are on top of the ridge and not visible in the pics above.
Liz on West Slide:
San Gabriel Mountains on the west side of Cajon Pass are in the background. The western corner of Lake Arrowhead is barely visible upper right. The smooth surface off trail behind Liz is solidly glazed, as last week's storm must have ended as rain here. The top of Slide Peak is 7,841 feet, about the same as the Notch lodge at Baldy. At any rate, if not for the rain there would be numerous interesting lines skiable in those first two Slide Peak pics.
Nord Valley is a meandering catwalk reminiscent of Baldy's Fire Road.
The rimed trees and bushes also look familiar.
The line at Slide built up some after noon so we returned to the base and 3 more runs on the six pack. We went back to Slide about 1:30 and Liz caught a tip loading chair 9.
She said that was a first for her, though I've done it twice on Baldy's Thunder chair.
Loading Slide's lift #11 a kid lost both skis so the liftie gave them to me to carry up.
View SW off the back of Slide Peak:
Lake Perris is at left. The mountains separating Riverside and Orange Counties are in the background, with the distinctive Saddleback peaks at right.
Liz on her way to East Slide with west end of Big Bear Lake in background:
View from top of East Slide of Snow Valley's snowmaking reservoir and the top of the six pack at distance:
Slide closed at 2:45. I skied down and took one last run on the six pack there. Local wildlife in line:
I skied 14,100 vertical. Snow Valley is not conducive to much vertical as the six pack rises 850 feet in 9/10 of a mile. Slide Peak's chair 11 is 500 vertical and moves very slowly. Still it was worth checking out after almost 40 years, and Liz notched ski area #183.
January 3 may have been after the holiday in terms of scoring cheap coupon lift tickets, but in terms of crowds it was still busy. Many schools were still out and there were lots of kids. And as on Friday the traffic doubled the normal time to get down the hill.
After observing the fog and damp snow last Friday, my expectations for off trail skiing in SoCal weren't great. Meanwhile Snow Valley's website was promising Slide Peak would open soon, which it finally did Sunday. Due to staffing issues, Slide will only run Friday-Monday until snow deteriorates too much. So we decided to give it a try Monday. We still have time for other local skiing later this week.
We arrived a little after 9AM after a 20 minute delay clearing an accident above Running Springs. The lower mountain is served by a high speed six, here seen at right after had skied our first run.
That line soon grew, and eventually more ropes were brought out and the line became double what you see above, about 10 minutes.
Snow Valley remains strongly oriented toward beginners. As busy a day as this was, note how deserted the steepest groomed pitches mid-mountain are.
The grooming was very good, particularly considering that the big storm did not end well at Snow Valley.
Here's a sign at the base of the six pack lift Liz found amusing.
I told her don't laugh. One time I was at Snow Valley a couple friends of mine tried to sit on the same side of an old center bar double. The liftie quickly stopped the chair, as commentary from the lift line ensued: "Do they know each other? If not, introduce them quick!" Many of you should remember the fast forward clips in old Warren Miller movies where successive people would fall getting off chairs and be dragged out of harm's way by the lifties. Most of those clips were filmed at Snow Valley as Warren Miller lived in Hermosa Beach until 1991.
Here's Liz at the top of the six pack with view SE to San Bernardino Ridge.
That ridge is continuously over 10,000 feet for five miles. Its eastern end out of view is the glacial cirque of 11,500 foot San Gorgonio. The entire area was locked up as wilderness in 1964.
The lower mountain also has some interesting park features.
After 4 frontside runs we rode the access chair #9 which gives a good view of Slide Peak.
My memory was hazy after 40 years, but that view is very different. I recall one huge wide mogul field looker's left of the idle lift. Obviously the low bushes were buried on my 1980 and 1982 visits.
In the first pic above a moderately steep strip East Slide is groomed at far left. The two groomed runs West Slide and Nord Valley are on top of the ridge and not visible in the pics above.
Liz on West Slide:
San Gabriel Mountains on the west side of Cajon Pass are in the background. The western corner of Lake Arrowhead is barely visible upper right. The smooth surface off trail behind Liz is solidly glazed, as last week's storm must have ended as rain here. The top of Slide Peak is 7,841 feet, about the same as the Notch lodge at Baldy. At any rate, if not for the rain there would be numerous interesting lines skiable in those first two Slide Peak pics.
Nord Valley is a meandering catwalk reminiscent of Baldy's Fire Road.
The rimed trees and bushes also look familiar.
The line at Slide built up some after noon so we returned to the base and 3 more runs on the six pack. We went back to Slide about 1:30 and Liz caught a tip loading chair 9.
She said that was a first for her, though I've done it twice on Baldy's Thunder chair.
Loading Slide's lift #11 a kid lost both skis so the liftie gave them to me to carry up.
View SW off the back of Slide Peak:
Lake Perris is at left. The mountains separating Riverside and Orange Counties are in the background, with the distinctive Saddleback peaks at right.
Liz on her way to East Slide with west end of Big Bear Lake in background:
View from top of East Slide of Snow Valley's snowmaking reservoir and the top of the six pack at distance:
Slide closed at 2:45. I skied down and took one last run on the six pack there. Local wildlife in line:
I skied 14,100 vertical. Snow Valley is not conducive to much vertical as the six pack rises 850 feet in 9/10 of a mile. Slide Peak's chair 11 is 500 vertical and moves very slowly. Still it was worth checking out after almost 40 years, and Liz notched ski area #183.
January 3 may have been after the holiday in terms of scoring cheap coupon lift tickets, but in terms of crowds it was still busy. Many schools were still out and there were lots of kids. And as on Friday the traffic doubled the normal time to get down the hill.
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