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Thread: SoCal Kick-Off

  1. #101
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    ^^^Looks like late March or April...


    POV video of a few turns on BP Saturday. Mostly soft snow, but hard to see firm spots kept it interesting.

  2. #102
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    I took a lap at Kratka today. Snow was way more fun than expected, nice and soft, a tad slushy but coverage was perfect.

  3. #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by 406 View Post
    ^^^Looks like late March or April...


    POV video of a few turns on BP Saturday. Mostly soft snow, but hard to see firm spots kept it interesting.
    "That's not soft!"

    It does look like March or April at Baldy, but the skiing is still fun and the coverage on Thunder is still good. It would be really nice to see at least one more system.
    "Have you ever seen a monk get wildly fucked by a bunch of teenage girls?" "No" "Then forget the monastery."


    "You ever hear of a little show called branded? Arthur Digby Sellers wrote 156 episodes. Not exactly a lightweight." Walter Sobcheck.

    "I didn't have a grandfather on the board of some fancy college. Key word being was. Did he touch the Filipino exchange student? Did he not touch the Filipino exchange student? I don't know Brooke, I wasn't there."

  4. #104
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    Well, Baldy still has decent coverage on Thunder. We went yesterday, Saturday, and it was fun. We got to Thunder around 1 and skied until around 330. It was not super warm, so it softened up in the sun but stayed firm in the shade. There were some good turns and some firm turns off the groomers. The groomers were nice. I skied a couple of groomer laps, then alternated between Emile's and Gold Rush for the rest of the day. I guess I would say that I liked Gold Rush best, but even there the turns were hit and miss. Still, I love being able to ski terrain like this 1.5 hours from Newport Beach.

    Here is a small video of me skiing Gold Rush. It will give you an idea of what the coverage is like. We really could use more snow, but it might well make it a couple more weekends even without a big storm. I have a nine day trip to Mammoth coming up in late March, but I might not get there before then so I really hope things are doable at Baldy for the next couple of weekends. The video makes it look softer than it actually was, there were some soft turns and some firm turns off-piste. I think the high at the summit was something like 45 degrees, so it did not get THAT warm.

    "Have you ever seen a monk get wildly fucked by a bunch of teenage girls?" "No" "Then forget the monastery."


    "You ever hear of a little show called branded? Arthur Digby Sellers wrote 156 episodes. Not exactly a lightweight." Walter Sobcheck.

    "I didn't have a grandfather on the board of some fancy college. Key word being was. Did he touch the Filipino exchange student? Did he not touch the Filipino exchange student? I don't know Brooke, I wasn't there."

  5. #105
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    Wow, looks pretty good still.

  6. #106
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    It is still fun. It really should be good for the next couple of weeks at least. It would be really great to get another solid storm and push things into April.

    EDIT:

    Supposedly they got 6 inches from the last storm. It certainly helps. They are saying they will open on Wednesday and Thursday. Hopefully some of you guys will get to ski it. I definitely can't get there until this weekend.
    Last edited by Long duc dong; 03-02-2020 at 09:56 PM.
    "Have you ever seen a monk get wildly fucked by a bunch of teenage girls?" "No" "Then forget the monastery."


    "You ever hear of a little show called branded? Arthur Digby Sellers wrote 156 episodes. Not exactly a lightweight." Walter Sobcheck.

    "I didn't have a grandfather on the board of some fancy college. Key word being was. Did he touch the Filipino exchange student? Did he not touch the Filipino exchange student? I don't know Brooke, I wasn't there."

  7. #107
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    Hey Santa Monica resident here. New to the forums (been in SoCal 1.5 yrs), found this thread and wanted to introduce myself. I've skied up at baldy twice, mt high, and have gone to Mammoth 3 times this year and squaw once. Going to get avy I and want to get into touring more, and would love to come along with some of you, and ski together wherever as well!

  8. #108
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    Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline is on the verge of being closed and traffic diverted to Tortilla Flats, which is holding up nicely. Coverage on Emilies is still good, but you have to hunt for an entrance (unless you walk across the dirt along the top). Shortcut is still very good, bottom of Robins is good but thinning. Goldridge is in great shape (especially the soft snow on skiers right), with some bumps developing just above the last pitch. For the beginners, the Gulch is holding up really well. The automatic snow gun just above the bottom of chair 2 is really helping make snow that can be pushed to cover thin spots as they appear. Most of the stuff off the groomers never softened and remained coral reef all day, but it's good practice.

    Kept an eye out for Long duc dong's skis, but didn't see him.

  9. #109
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    Thanks for update. Hopefully storms this week produce at least a foot of high density snow.

  10. #110
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1000-oaks View Post
    Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline is on the verge of being closed and traffic diverted to Tortilla Flats, which is holding up nicely. Coverage on Emilies is still good, but you have to hunt for an entrance (unless you walk across the dirt along the top). Shortcut is still very good, bottom of Robins is good but thinning. Goldridge is in great shape (especially the soft snow on skiers right), with some bumps developing just above the last pitch. For the beginners, the Gulch is holding up really well. The automatic snow gun just above the bottom of chair 2 is really helping make snow that can be pushed to cover thin spots as they appear. Most of the stuff off the groomers never softened and remained coral reef all day, but it's good practice.

    Kept an eye out for Long duc dong's skis, but didn't see him.
    I ski in grey pants, sometimes a red sweatshirt sometimes a grey jacket. My wife is sometimes there, blond hair, champagne colored jacket and black pants.

    We actually went up on Friday. Both my wife and I have some flexibility, me more so as I work from home and rarely have any sort of meeting on a Friday, so we saw it was going to be cold over the weekend and determined that it would be best to ski Friday. It was fun, the new snow was grabby in spots, it did not get all that skied down before things warmed up, but I still had a blast. I skied Emile's, the trees between Emile's and Shortcut, not sure what those are called, some groomers and a bunch of Gold Ridge laps. I had the most fun on Gold Ridge.

    The new snow helped a bit. It would be nice to get one more big storm. We had been thinking about going up to Mammoth, but with the power outage I'm glad we didn't. We will be here this coming weekend, probably getting a day or two in at Baldy, then at Mammoth the 21st to the 29th to close out the month.

    One more good storm should set Baldy up to get at least into mid-April, depending on the heat. I have had lots of fun at Baldy this year, so I really can't complain if it does not make the middle of next month. The coverage is actually quite good right now. Mammoth has not had a great season, although it has been better than advertised when I have been there, but with all the Baldy days I have really enjoyed this season. It is really great to be able to just cruise to Baldy and get some laps, I wish every year was like this. Even if next weekend is my last Baldy day I can't say I have gotten hosed. The coverage is still good in the right spots though.

    I
    "Have you ever seen a monk get wildly fucked by a bunch of teenage girls?" "No" "Then forget the monastery."


    "You ever hear of a little show called branded? Arthur Digby Sellers wrote 156 episodes. Not exactly a lightweight." Walter Sobcheck.

    "I didn't have a grandfather on the board of some fancy college. Key word being was. Did he touch the Filipino exchange student? Did he not touch the Filipino exchange student? I don't know Brooke, I wasn't there."

  11. #111
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    Quote Originally Posted by jstan4 View Post
    Hey Santa Monica resident here. New to the forums (been in SoCal 1.5 yrs), found this thread and wanted to introduce myself. I've skied up at baldy twice, mt high, and have gone to Mammoth 3 times this year and squaw once. Going to get avy I and want to get into touring more, and would love to come along with some of you, and ski together wherever as well!
    Hey I'm in SaMo as well and trying to get into backcountry skiing. Do you know if Baldy has an uphill policy?

  12. #112
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1000-oaks View Post
    Baldy is getting thin at the top of 3, even after the jumps were cannibalized. Bottom leg of Skyline.....
    Hey I saw your post on gear swap for the pata coupon, I'd be stoked to use one today if you still have any. Sorry for posting here, I just joined today and don't have enough posts for the swap section I guess.

  13. #113
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    Quote Originally Posted by p_hacker View Post
    Do you know if Baldy has an uphill policy?
    Baldy isn't really the type of place that has policies, or if they did enforcement would be spotty. I have seen them tell people skinning up chair 1 when it was open to skiing that they needed to turn around. But I have seen people skin past also. Regardless, I wouldn't really recommend it as a newb skinning spot...maybe if there is snow to Manker flat and you go up road and chair 4 has snow and is closed, but they do do avalanche control at times.

    If I recall correctly, there is a closed ski area (Kratka) past Waterman that is low angle that would be good for a new skinner:
    https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.3...89765&z=15&b=f

    Or go up forest road at waterman if they are not running the lift.

  14. #114
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    ^ This. You could skin anywhere you want outside the ski area boundary (though the terrain makes that pretty tough), but can't be inside the boundary on skis without a lift ticket for skiing, even if it's part of the area that's closed (because then you're skiing a closed area). Mtn safety & liability.

    Also check out Sugarloaf by Bear Mountain. I've never skinned it, but it looks like decent moderate terrain when covered.
    Last edited by 1000-oaks; 03-12-2020 at 07:02 PM.

  15. #115
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    Baldy's Facebook page says they closed tubing until further notice, and it sounds like they might limit ticket sales to keep the numbers of people down for adequate social distancing.

  16. #116
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    ^^^that is good.

    I might ski the resort Saturday if it sounds like they make progress this afternoon getting lift going.

    Might do Baden Sunday if I can find someone to go with.

  17. #117
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    @406 of you go, can you provide a trip report? I’m heading out to San G


    Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

  18. #118
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    At the notch now, storm finished warm, so the had to free 1 of ice. They are working on 3 now. Bunch of slides on 1, so no skiing yet.

  19. #119
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    Baldy was horrible, rime created a breakable crust. Maybe if it warms up tomorrow it'll get better. Good news is should have coverage for spring. Lots & lots of avalanche activity on North facing slopes of chair one. See my Strava for photos.

  20. #120
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    Quote Originally Posted by 406 View Post
    Baldy was horrible, rime created a breakable crust. Maybe if it warms up tomorrow it'll get better. Good news is should have coverage for spring. Lots & lots of avalanche activity on North facing slopes of chair one. See my Strava for photos.
    There's always Tuesday's storm, which is supposed to be colder. thanks for the update.

  21. #121
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    Quote Originally Posted by 406 View Post
    Baldy was horrible, rime created a breakable crust. Maybe if it warms up tomorrow it'll get better. Good news is should have coverage for spring. Lots & lots of avalanche activity on North facing slopes of chair one. See my Strava for photos.
    Did they seem at all close to getting chair 4 open?

  22. #122
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tsac77 View Post
    Did they seem at all close to getting chair 4 open?
    No.

    Baldy was good training today, if you're a connoisseur of survival skiing. Super low vis late in the afternoon, strong winds and driving sleet, and that lovely breakable crust that was tough even on fat heavily-rockered skis. Never imagined Skyline could be as awful as it was the first run of the day. Still, manged to get in about 20 runs and actually found a tiny bit of crustless pow that made for a couple sweet turns and two big core shots.

    Couldn't ask for better base building snow though. This stuff is so dense, you could ski a granite slab covered with only 2" of it. And Thunder got 16".
    Last edited by 1000-oaks; 03-15-2020 at 09:49 PM.

  23. #123
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    Today was basically a replay of yesterday.

    The bad:
    Terrible visibility
    Even worse breakable-crust than yesterday

    The good:
    No freezing sleet
    Less wind, though still pretty windy
    Last edited by 1000-oaks; 03-16-2020 at 03:59 PM.

  24. #124
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    not from the area, looking for some beta on access, snow conditions/people to ski tour with.

    had tickets to Norway and Iceland for a ski tour, mass hysteria happened and my flights were cancelled. stuck in Palm Desert with all my gear, looking to do some day missions.

    just started researching on good ol google, was looking on here to help possibly stream line the process.

    looks like abcdethen just did San Gorgonio? how was that? anything else in the vicinity worth doing? bummer the tram is closed with the storm a brewin.

    yes, i ski tour quite a bit. no, i am not at the level of main forecaster for the sierra.

    skied lassen on the way down here, it was windy and only got soft for bottom 1/3.
    also skied here, it was dry pow
    Click image for larger version. 

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    any info is welcome, even if it is just "stay off my wave kook."

    sidenote; anyone been to pear lake hut to ski tour? been semi invited on a trip there if i can sneak away

  25. #125
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    Seems like San Gorgonio area is you best bet for good snow. Videos I have seen online show snow was nice this weekend on Jepson & the peak. Most people access via the south fork trailhead. I like to park here and bike up the forest road to the wilderness sign:
    https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.1...88144&z=18&b=f

    Radar is showing snow now, but not sure if it is enough to improve conditions in the San Gabe's.

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