2013 SoCal Snow Thread

[flatlander420]

From Mt,Waterman
" Weather Report Wednesday 2/20/13
12 degrees on the hill this morning at 8am. We got about 6-12 inches dry snow, it's still snowing on and off this morning. It is very windy so there is dirt and drifts, not a consistent snow fall. Weather reports sunny the rest of the day and into next Tues.
We will report this evening as to what fell today.
Hill is closed"

MW

[Long duc dong]

Baldy is not opening today. They are claiming 11-15 inches.

Tomorrow they are talking about opening Goldrush, Robin's Trees, and Lower Emile's. It would be nice if that is the case. I won't be able to go, but hopefully someone will. I might hit it up this weekend.

[406]

^^^explains why I haven't seen anyone skiing on their webcam...glad I didn't drive up today.

[jtran10]

Didn't end up going myself, either. GF needed the car for work that she couldn't change.

Baldy tomorrow morning for a couple runs sounds appealing though.

[1000-oaks]

SV was on wind hold until around noon, which was good since I didn't get up here until 11. All of the easily accessible spots are pretty tracked out as of 2pm, switching to skins. The wind left both deep & bare spots, lee side of trees is where it's at.

[potatoeskillme]

I went. I skinned up the fire road at 7:20, continued on up roller coaster. Got some nice turns in the drifty spots and my first coreshot on the split while plowing through a really shallow patch. Saw one other skier skinning up on my way down, he saw my tracks and with chair 3 still on hold figured he'd give it a go. Downloaded chair 1 to switch boards, and by the time I got back up to the notch they shut everything down. Pounded a pint and decided to go hit Bentley's. Pretty much tore the ever living shit out of my base, which was expected, but I did get some pretty fine turns in the middle.

As for 11-15", hahahah no. Maybe they measured the middle of a drift; the wind blew nearly everything off the mountain this morning.

[TWINS]

Excellent work^^^

[Long duc dong]

Thanks for the report Potatoes. I was worried 11-15 might be optimistic.

I was hoping the wind might pack the snow, buff it up a bit. Given how little coverage there is a wind pack might do it some good.

I guess we will see. I'm still hopeful for this weekend. I'm not expecting any pow, just yearning for some turns down Goldrush, dodging rocks and bumps. At this point that would make me happy.

[jtran10]

Maybe it's the next storm that's really gonna make it good

[jetlag]

Its not the storms, its the periods and temps between storms that get us. Back east 3 inches is a powder day, in the Wasatch 6 inches is one... here a foot is a trip to the p-tex doctor.

[1000-oaks]

Snow Valley got a solid 14", but the wind was definitely a factor.

Some sheltered aspects held great pow, even if just for a few turns. (Yes, this is the ENTIRE pow run, & due to broke-down lift (died in the 90's) it's followed by a mile long pole/skate to the bottom of the area.)


Quickly grew tired of the long skate back to the lift, decided to hike the cat track to the rear of the area.

Wind died down & sun finally came out. Lookin' reeeeeeal good. (Another broke-down lift in the background.)


Ready to roll.


Access road to peak, traversing through Manzanita brush held no appeal.


One for Splat.


The objective comes into sight.


One of many wind reefs.






Where's the #%$& pow? It suddenly became obvious why the ski patrol said they wouldn't be opening this area anytime soon.


Looks nice, but is actually a Styrofoam drift.


Finally, a whole 40 yards of blown-in pow. (Whyturn & I had a blast in here two weeks ago.)


Back to the lot at 5:30 and last one out. Parking lot security waiting to lock the gate & not amused.

[jtran10]

Looks fun at SV. Slog to ski ratio kinda low, but without a base to rely on I wouldn't have complained. More fun then I had yesterday, that's for sure

[liv2ski]

1000-oaks, thanks for the heads up in the other thread. Just got done reading this entire thread and I am stoked for some possible easier BC access for a total jong. SV sounds like the ticket to get myself skinning. I will be watching this thread from here on out. Thanks

[kevinbates]

Guys, I'm telling you... Wednesday Bear Mountain was pretty damn good - and actually way better than the pics I've seen of SV (no offense). I wish I would have brought my GoPro. Was it as good as Baldy on a good day? Of course not. But I had a total blast. I would go up express chair, ski down goldmine canyon (pow), go up silver chair, ski down deer valley (pow). Wash, Rinse, Repeat. I probably had 150 quality powder turns. Sure, it was 4-10 turns, then poke around, then 4-10 turns. And yes, I hit my fair share of rocks. But more often then not the 4-10 turns were rock free. And the powder was light - wasn't sierra cement or anything like that. Plus Bow Canyon looks like it has even more potentail than the two I was hitting. No shlepping or meadow crossing or whatever you call it afterwards either - the run outs were easy. No hiking except maybe 2 minutes at the top. They had a natural base of about 2 feet. If they had a base of 3-4 feet then it would have taken it to a whole 'nother level - but then again I'd be at Baldy if that was the case.
Anyhow, just sharing. This was my first time skiing Bear. I'm now convinved that if Baldy doesn't have the base, Bear has got to be the best alternative for finding some lift-serviced pow in so cal.

[whyturn]

^^^^^^^^^^^No offense taken, in fact we would prefer that you continue to ski big bear. SV sucks, you wouldn't like it. In fact Baldy is no good either.......

[jtran10]

Baden-Powell should be skiing right down to the road at this point, no? Want to get up there or San Jacinto soon.

[1000-oaks]

When the Canyons at Bear have enough coverage, they're 10X better than anything at Snow Valley. That's where I would have gone, but it's another hour drive for me each way.

[sticksplitman]

well went on a tour in san g yesterday with Potatoes. Was gonna try to stay 3 days. But was still beat from doing it last weekend. I turned around at south fork meadows because was feeling not so well. Potatoes is probably scoring some untracked goods. Can't wait to see the edit.

[FreakofSnow]

Hey 1000 oaks, so I grew up skiing SV but haven't been there in probably 15 years.... You said those Slide Peak chair are broke down? As in they don't run them at all? Man I remember skiing epic 6 foot spring dumps back there. That one face that had all manzanita showing waa all totall skiable!

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[PowerWhore7]

I went. I skinned up the fire road at 7:20, continued on up roller coaster. Got some nice turns in the drifty spots and my first coreshot on the split while plowing through a really shallow patch. Saw one other skier skinning up on my way down, he saw my tracks and with chair 3 still on hold figured he'd give it a go. Downloaded chair 1 to switch boards, and by the time I got back up to the notch they shut everything down. Pounded a pint and decided to go hit Bentley's. Pretty much tore the ever living shit out of my base, which was expected, but I did get some pretty fine turns in the middle.

As for 11-15", hahahah no. Maybe they measured the middle of a drift; the wind blew nearly everything off the mountain this morning.

Solid work....

[whyturn]

The middle chair at the top of snow valley on slide peak is broken down

But there is a chair on the far skiers left above the manzaneta field they run for access to the goods

[TWINS]

Baldy on Friday.Turned out to be a fun day with lots of options.
Big Tim killing the bushes

[potatoeskillme]

After 18" reported around big bear, I couldn't help but think the same lines we schralped on Gorgonio/Jepson last week would be epic. Let's just say getting there was one of, if not THE, worst slog I've ever experienced. Super wet and heavy up through the meadow, glopstopper only helped so much -- what we really needed was rain-x on the top sheet. Then the snow in the north facing trees above the meadow was really nice and soft, but breaking trail in over two feet of it with full packs just about sent us back to join sticksplitman in the parking lot. Eight hours to base camp.

We got one chute in yesterday with great snow. Then the wind came. And it blew, in every sense of the word. The second night was pretty chilly and that damn fucking wind didn't quit. Woke up today to see half the new snow had blown off the NW face, but the NE face of Jepson still looked tempting, maybe a little loaded. Stability was actually quite good, the wind direction was all over the place like I've never seen before so maybe that helped settle the new stuff. We had a go at one of the NE chutes on Jepson and we all agreed we had more fun scrambling up one of the rocky sub-ridges to the main ridge than actually riding down.

Working on an edit now, but here's a pit test on the NW face of San G.

[Long duc dong]

Nice work! Glad to see you guys do the work of packing things down at Baldy. If I don't hit Mammoth next weekend I might have to hit Baldy instread. It looks like some of the good stuff is at least skiable, which is a change.

Did you guys make it over to Goldrush? The middle photo looks like it but I can't tell.

[potatoeskillme]

The goods