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Thread: SoCal Kick-Off

  1. #451
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    Paper St. Soap Co.
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    Planning to hike up Baldy peak for hopefully some turns tomorrow.

    In other news, looks like Ikon bought Snow Valley.

  2. #452
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    LA
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    17
    Baldy was surprisingly good today, snow was better than I was expecting. The groomed runs were all great snow and the trees while highly variable were workable to stay with good snow, including a couple areas that were still powder. In general off trail there has a frozen rain layer, often times it's exposed or under a few inches of wind deposit, but some areas are deep enough to turn on the wind buff like snow. Unfortunately no parking lot runs, looks like snow level was just a little below the notch recently. South Bowl and the Tube were decent, I really liked the snow off the skier's right of Chair 3 to Robin's.

    Bently's
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    Chair 3 Area
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    Bonanza
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    Baldy Bowl over Skyline
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    Thunder Mountain
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    South Bowl
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  3. #453
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    648
    Heck yeah

    Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

  4. #454
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
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    Nice shots and report. I will be there tomorrow, and possibly Monday afternoon.

  5. #455
    Join Date
    Apr 2021
    Location
    Southern California
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    52
    Yesterday I spent the morning touring Sugarloaf area in Big Bear, excellent conditions with lots of fresh turns in soft snow.

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    Spent the afternoon in the side country on Bear Mountain off chair 8. Nothing super steep or crazy but lots of untracked turns and a few fun gully runs.

  6. #456
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    Dec 2004
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    SoCal
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  7. #457
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    Jun 2004
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    I got up to Baldy for an afternoon on Tuesday.

    The coverage is insane. The one issue is that there was some rain which froze. All of the snow blew off of Emil's, and into different areas. The off-piste stuff seemed pretty firm. I saw some people go into Andy's, so that might have softened up, but I couldn't tell. I took about 7 groomer laps, both main groomers off of Thunder are skiing well, and then decided to go over to chair 4.

    Chair 4 was great. I found a zone in the woods to the skier's left of the chair that had some nice slush turns. There were some crusty turns too, and you would really want to make sure this area was soft before heading in, but it ended up being really fun.

    I would think that Andy's and Herb's would be good once they softened up, but I didn't check. The mountain is really skiing well, when it softens up, and the coverage is great.

    Here is a video of a few lines on chair 4. I tried to get some shots of the mountain to show the coverage.
    https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/792864705
    "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."

  8. #458
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    Jan 2018
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    648
    Looks good man thanks for sharing

    Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

  9. #459
    Join Date
    Jan 2023
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    20
    Yesterday a friend and I toured up to 10,000', just underneath San Gorgonio. We put skins on at about 7,250', or 20 minutes from the road. We encountered the full spectrum of SoCal snow conditions (sans powder); slide for life, refrozen sun crust, hollow cracking wind slabs, big avalanches\ crowns on the face of Jepson Peak, and possible avalanche crowns on big northern aspect gullies coming off San Gorgonio which looked like they possibly ran to the ground at some point.

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    looking at Jepson Peak

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    looking up N facing gullies off San Gorgonio.

    This is my first time in this zone. Are there better aspects for skiing off Gorgonio itself, or is this it?

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    exiting through the burn zone.

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    clouds and light precipitation started to roll in as we made our way out.

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    We skied down the meandering fire road down to Jenks Rd. and walked/skied along the shoulder back to the cars.
    Last edited by ThisAintCheckerz; 01-31-2023 at 12:20 AM.

  10. #460
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
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    3,265
    Nice shots!

    I wish I could help, but I don't have any BC knowledge about the area.

    I skied Baldy on Saturday from noon to around 3 and it was really fun. The groomers were nice, and after a few laps I headed into Andy's Alley, which looked like it had softened up. It had, but there are some ice chunks in the shade. The entrance I was using had a few nice turns, followed by a weird section as you cut skier's right through the trees to another section, which softened up nicely. I pretty much lapped that all afternoon.

    I did see some people go into Herb's, and it looked pretty good, but I don't know how the entrances were so I didn't bother.

    It was a great day once the sun softened things.

    "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. #461
    Join Date
    Dec 2022
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    6
    Quote Originally Posted by ThisAintCheckerz View Post
    Yesterday a friend and I toured up to 10,000', just underneath San Gorgonio. ...

    This is my first time in this zone. Are there better aspects for skiing off Gorgonio itself, or is this it?

    .
    I have skied Charlton Peak (about 11K) which is just west of Jepson. I'm no expert on the area but based on what I saw on that trip and was told Gorgonio itself can get pretty blasted by wind. It's a cool and surprisingly large area with some big lines and I'd love to explore it more.

  12. #462
    Join Date
    Dec 2004
    Location
    SoCal
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    Quote Originally Posted by ThisAintCheckerz View Post
    This is my first time in this zone. Are there better aspects for skiing off Gorgonio itself, or is this it?
    Check out Google Earth. Except for maybe a chute or two further East, you probably saw everything; San G, Big Draw, Jepson, Charlton, and the lower stuff to the West of the approach.

    How deep is the snow on the fire road from Poop Out Hill to Jenks Lake Road?
    Last edited by 1000-oaks; 02-01-2023 at 12:54 AM.

  13. #463
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    Jan 2023
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    20
    Quote Originally Posted by 1000-oaks View Post
    How deep is the snow on the fire road from Poop Out Hill to Jenks Lake Road?
    There were one or two dry patches where we had to take skis off, but otherwise we basically skied the fire road all the way down to Jenks Rd. Snow wasn't deep on the lower portions of fire road, but enough to make it down.

  14. #464
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    Dec 2004
    Location
    SoCal
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    Cool. Picked up a used fat bike for mixed snow/dirt approaches this season.

  15. #465
    Join Date
    Jan 2023
    Location
    Oak View, CA
    Posts
    5
    Always sick to see baldy with good coverage

  16. #466
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Posts
    3,265
    Yesterday (Saturday ) was awesome inbounds at Baldy.

    A got on the hill at 1, wondering if the off-piste would get soft. I started with about 4 groomer laps on Thunder, which were really fun.

    I saw some guys going into Andy's, so I headed in that direction. I talked to a couple of people about to go into Andy's, right at the pole which says Andy's. The entrance looked nice, you could wiggle right in. The first guy, who could really ski, went in aggressively. After wiggling in, he hit a sheet of ice right below the entrance turns and slid out. He was okay, but it led me to ski the section after the first turn cautiously. The first turn was nice, then you could slip in and stay high, going skier's right, to miss the icy section and hit some snow that had softened. I did that entrance a couple of times, then I hit an entrance which was a bit skier's left which was softer. With that entrance you had to cut skier's right, through the trees, to get to Andy's, but it was nice to be able to make nice turns going in and avoid the ice.

    The snow in Andy's was great. Some new snow that had been cut up and was slightly sun softened. I made about 5 laps.

    I saw some guys going into Herb's so I decided to give it a try. I used a couple of different entrances, both to the skier's right of the standard Andy's entrance, in order to avoid the icy top section of Andy's. Those entrances were fun, and from there you could cut skier's right through the first section of trees, then across Andy's, then through the trees into Herb's.

    The traverse in was okay, some new snow and some crusty stuff, but no big deal. There was an icy section right when you got through the trees into Herb's, but it was easy to see and deal with.

    I ended up skiing Herb's three times and it was awesome, probably the best turns I've had at Baldy this season. I love Herb's because of the pitch, but because of the exposure it doesn't always line up well. Yesterday it was really fun. By that point it had softened and you could just rail turns right through it. Some of the turns had snow that was slightly manky and unconsolidated, but overall it was just beautiful slush. I did hit a couple of rocks, but the base seems better in Herb's than at any time last year. I have been waiting to ski Herb's, and yesterday it didn't disappoint.

    After my 3 Herb's last I decided that was enough. I got to the line to head down to the lot around 3:45. There were some people in line, but no big deal. There were light lines on Thunder, but nothing remotely serious.

    I didn't go over to chair 4, the snow on Thunder made me want to stay there.

    I did see some tracks on the runs down to the lot. It definitely looks like you could ski Morgan's down, but it would have to be soft. I didn't talk to anyone who has actually skied down.

    I thought about going up today, but it seemed like the weather was not going to let things soften so I decided to pass and get some work done so that I'll be free for better conditions.

    I hope some of the rest of you guys got some. Baldy is really great right now and the base seems very solid.

    Here is a video of a couple of lines. I included a line in Andy's with the icy entrance. The Andy's line is the first one.


    "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."

  17. #467
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    Dec 2004
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    SoCal
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    Quote Originally Posted by Long duc dong View Post
    I did see some tracks on the runs down to the lot. It definitely looks like you could ski Morgan's down, but it would have to be soft. I didn't talk to anyone who has actually skied down.
    Heard Bentley's looked better than it skied, and the rest of the ridge was a lot of heinous slide-for-life ice.

  18. #468
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    the tinfoil aisle
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    So I need to head from LA to tahoe (where my skis are, unfortunately) on Friday. Looks like the grapevine will be closed. How bad is the 101 nb gonna be? Will that wad up with truck traffic when the grapevine closes?

  19. #469
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    Apr 2006
    Location
    SoCal
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    538
    Incoming pow day this weekend?

  20. #470
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    Dec 2004
    Location
    SoCal
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    Probably a delayed opening on Sat. Sunday, get up early before the snowplay army arrives.

  21. #471
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
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    25
    Quote Originally Posted by 1000-oaks View Post
    Probably a delayed opening on Sat. Sunday, get up early before the snowplay army arrives.
    honest q: if they get anywhere close to 100”, are they even going to open this weekend? staffing is still low, digging out will take days, potential avi damage to chair 1, plus potential for power to go out. I also don’t see how they will be able to get workers up there until at least Saturday noon or later

  22. #472
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Denver
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    2,624

    SoCal Kick-Off

    Yeah. Whoa. 100 is possible if things pan out.

    Good luck!

  23. #473
    Join Date
    Jan 2018
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    648
    Quote Originally Posted by Crouching Dallas View Post
    honest q: if they get anywhere close to 100”, are they even going to open this weekend? staffing is still low, digging out will take days, potential avi damage to chair 1, plus potential for power to go out. I also don’t see how they will be able to get workers up there until at least Saturday noon or later
    I'ma say 5' and Thursday March 2nd lol. Anyone's guess but it's gonna be a minute after the storm passes.

    Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

  24. #474
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    Dec 2004
    Location
    SoCal
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    I'd think a mid-day Sat open is possible if the road is open and there's power. If not, probably Sunday.

    It's easier to deal with deep snowfall than 8" of rime ice on the towers, as long as stability is good. If it's not stable, there's nothing to be done but wait it out.
    Last edited by 1000-oaks; 02-21-2023 at 11:12 PM.

  25. #475
    Join Date
    Jan 2019
    Posts
    25
    Quote Originally Posted by 1000-oaks View Post
    I'd think a mid-day Sat open is possible if the road is open and there's power. If not, probably Sunday.

    It's easier to deal with deep snowfall than 8" of rime ice on the towers, as long as stability is good. If it's not stable, there's nothing to be done but wait it out.
    All good points! I do think stability will be an issue with the ice layer + this storm starting off mega cold, then getting warmer, then cold again — but hopefully all that stuff slides during the storm itself rather than build up anything too slabby

    either way we’re gonna be skiing chair 4 through at least early April if this thing pans out!

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