SoCal Kick-Off

[Barnballs]

Ton of fun for practically mid-May. Snow was good, but going fast.
Would be surprised if ops continued past Sunday!

[scotts]

Yeah Baldy was great today. South Bowl is closed due to the traverse out being melted. The Tube was great but won't be around much longer. I really liked skier's right of the chair line down to Robin's in that section of trees. It's melting fast out there, get it while the gettin is good.

[1000-oaks]

Sunday. Awesome corn, great coverage where there's snow.

[mr_pretzel]

Couple days in LA for a friends graduation and got to ski Baldy on Sunday. What an absolutely fucking kick ass mountain. The terrain looks unbelievable if you have some decent snow. I love how fall line the mountain is, who needs mammoth if you have good snow and coverage.

I’m guessing baldy is really inconsistent and you have to work while the iron is on. Anyone want to give me a rundown on how the show works up there? My buddy has only skied there this season so I dont think his experience counts haha, skiing pow to the car on may 9th and all

[mcski]

I grew up in Upland and went to college in Claremont and I have never seen Baldy have a year as good or as late as this one. So ya, it’s a tough on to hit right but the terrain is kick ass

[1000-oaks]

There's a ton of fun non-obvious lines. I've been skiing there 13 years and still find new stuff regularly depending on where the wind dropped the snow. This season really made me wish I was in better shape, lol.

[1000-oaks]

Friday 3/3/23, this anyone here? Sign was almost buried, and check out Telegraph.

[bry]

Couple days in LA for a friends graduation and got to ski Baldy on Sunday. What an absolutely fucking kick ass mountain. The terrain looks unbelievable if you have some decent snow. I love how fall line the mountain is, who needs mammoth if you have good snow and coverage.

I’m guessing baldy is really inconsistent and you have to work while the iron is on. Anyone want to give me a rundown on how the show works up there? My buddy has only skied there this season so I dont think his experience counts haha, skiing pow to the car on may 9th and all

Makes me so happy you got to see this place, it always seems surreal to me someone had the vision and fortitude to build lifts there and see it as a viable economic thing.

As I understand it it's a bootstrapped family run operation. It takes me 65 minutes to get to the parking lot door to door. It's like fishing, sometimes you don't catch a pow day because it takes them a whole day to dig out, 10, 11, 12 to get going is not uncommon.

To call conditions inconsistent would be fair. It's known for being bony in places and destroying skis or people having dedicated baldy skis.

I saw a guy separate his shoulder there on Thunder at the runout near the bottom of 3 back on March 24-25 and it took patrol like 20 min to get to him but left his radio in the shack at the top of thunder, had to get the message relayed, seemed pretty rustic.

At the end of the day I was tired and took the lift down to my car thinking well if I wreck myself those guys sure as hell aren't going to save me.

I didn't ski Mammoth most of March when it was nuking nonstop and the drives and conditions were more questionable, just skied Baldy.

Chair 3 is Thunder mountain which has amazing terrain, Chair 4 that runs in the opposite direction across the hill needs some meaningful snow before it usually spins as it melts out fast.

Baldy bowl is also all time if you can get up there early enough. Great touring and hiking all around there if you know your way around and have the time to explore. Feb is supposed to be the rainy season here so historically Feb/Mar is when most of the action happens in my experience.

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[scotts]

Not my photo, but such a bummer Hwy 2 has damage everywhere. The terrain in this photo is so much fun and would be great to be able to just park in a turnout and boot up the ridge.

[Long duc dong]

Friday 3/3/23, this anyone here? Sign was almost buried, and check out Telegraph.

Not me, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the people in the shot. I don't know if I was there on March 3 or not. I love the Friday afternoon Baldy session when I can make it happen. Work all morning, leave around noon, get on the hill at 1:30, bang out 10 Thunder laps and get back to the car at 4:30. One of the nice things is that the traffic going back to Orange County is not TOO bad around that time. It seems odd, and it usually slows down a bit, but the 210 west and 57 south are not awful at that time as you are going against traffic flow. When you hop on the 57 and get a view as it goes over the 10 it's a parking lot in both directions. I suspect that for people who live in the South Bay this is not the case, they would have to hop on a route which will be packed, but this anomaly, bisecting the LA basin during rush hour with not all that much traffic, is serendipitous to say the least.

I will probably be up on Saturday. Hopefully some of you guys will be there.

[Long duc dong]

So today is the last day for skiing at baldy. I'll be on the hill around 1130. GoPro, black helmet, blue pants, armada jj skis, give me a shout if you see me.

[mcski]

I think this has got to be the latest Baldy has ever been open. Have fun

[Long duc dong]

Closing day at Baldy (Saturday, May 20) was a blast. The Emile's Bowl area and all of those trees were incredibly fun, slushy bumps and ledges to tear through. I expected it to be much grabbier than it was, but it was just classic corn.

I finally got to ski with Thousand Oaks, which was great. I'll post a bit of footage when I get time.

I had to walk in from chair 1, which was no big deal. I do wish there was enough snow to keep access to Emile's open, the skiing in that area is still great.

I saw people going into Robin's, which did require a bit of a hike out on the groomer. I didn't get to check it out.

Thanks to the Baldy crew for all their work during such an incredible season! Skiing perfect corn in late May in socal is really a treat.

[406]

Fun turns on Throop peak and the PCT chute to the East yesterday. Upper Throop wasn't the smoothest, but rest was fun. Steeper lines of Throop did not go and had exposed rock. Biked in from Grassy Hollow.


Looked like N gully on Baden still went to highway and had a fresh track. NE gully thin strip to about 300' above dirt road, track from this weekend. Tons of PCT hikers walking on the closed highway.

[abcdethan]

Great work @406! I may have to copy this even though I called it a season. The bike to ski opportunity just looks like too much fun.


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[1000-oaks]

From Vincent Gap, how far can you get up Hwy 2 on a road bike before being stopped by snow and have to leave the bike?

[406]

Parked bikes at bottom of each run. Only a little hike a bike on way in due to ice on highway, otherwise easy to ride around any piles of snow. Lots of rock fall, but PCT'ers cleared trail, so all rideable. Throop isn't as good as normal with the steeper lines melted out. Bunch more pictures on my strava.