Backcountry Skiing -Southern California

Chris Owen wrote:

Awesome! Did you start at Jenks Lake?

Yep

Has anyone been up San J recently? If so how are the conditions?

I was going to ask if anyone knew what the conditions are like up at Mt. Waterman, but then I checked Caltrans.  Tons of snow but no way to get there.  

Fat Dad wrote:

I was going to ask if anyone knew what the conditions are like up at Mt. Waterman, but then I checked Caltrans.  Tons of snow but no way to get there.  

This season has sucked big time.  So close but so far.   I think I’m going to head up to the White Mountains next week and do a little touring with my dog.   It’s not too often the Whites have this much snow this time of year.  Hoping Angeles Crest opens before all the snow melts.  

Jepson last Saturday.

Lucas Shipley wrote:

Has anyone been up San J recently? If so how are the conditions?

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq0hTNhLLMs/

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

This season has sucked big time.  So close but so far.   I think I’m going to head up to the White Mountains next week and do a little touring with my dog.   It’s not too often the Whites have this much snow this time of year.  Hoping Angeles Crest opens before all the snow melts.  

Galen Rowell did a ski traverse of the White Mountains BITD.  This season might have equally good conditions.

marko j wrote:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq0hTNhLLMs/

Big ups on the ride man! That's a line I aspire to ride in the future, but I'm still new to backcountry riding so I was just asking about the southern face. I went up to Bear and it was perfect spring snow so I imagine San J ain't too bad either right? Either way I'll see for myself soon.

Planning on a tour in San Gorgonio area on Tuesday; if any are interested in joining, shoot me a message. Looking to be out ~8 hours and do around 12 miles. 

Did a quick solo tour in the Sugarloaf area to dial in some spring gear. Started around 7am, had to hike for around 1.5 miles via the summer trail before I started skinning. Conditions were quite firm up high on the way up early (used ski crampons but could have gotten by without them). Waited up top until around 10am to drop in, top was still quite firm but bottom half was nice corn snow. All touring after that was quite easy on soft snow; things started to melt out around noon so I did a run down one of the gullies back to the summer trail (minimal walking required until I hit the trail) then back to the car. Coverage in the main bowl was excellent, about 5 feet of snow left at the very bottom of the bowl. Should still be good skiing/riding for a few more weeks up there!

Kevin Mokracek wrote:

This season has sucked big time.  So close but so far.   I think I’m going to head up to the White Mountains next week and do a little touring with my dog.   It’s not too often the Whites have this much snow this time of year.  Hoping Angeles Crest opens before all the snow melts.  

Caltrans messaged me that they are playing it very safe and have no plan to open it until it melts, so then they can clean loose rock off any of the road cuts.

Anyone in the Eastern Sierras looking for a partner midweek? I’ve got two more days here before I head back down to SoCal.

Baldy bowl slide  April 30

https://twitter.com/jmvldz/status/1652857012441743360

Snow creek. Skied down about 1500 vertical then climbed back out.

tom donnelly wrote:

Snow creek. Skied down about 1500 vertical then climbed back out.

How was the skiing?

It was very good on May 14.  The upper 80 yds of the central couloir is icy & rocky, which I downclimbed with crampons & not recommended.

Lots of postholing on the way back up.  More of the ski back to the tram will be melted out now.  No signs of recent wet slides that I saw at that time.

I added a good screencapture from google earth similar conditions 04/2017    https://www.mountainproject.com/photo/124229686

On google earth use the time slider.   You can zoom in even more than my screenshot.

Greetings SoCal skiers!

Curious what the conditions are like up Baldy, Gorgornio, Whitney Zone, and Mammoth - way too much hike for way too little skiing or is it still prime spring condition?

Cheers,

Dave

239-two-three-three-2002
(not great cell coverage, a message on this forum is probably best for about another week or so)

Dave Schultz wrote:

Greetings SoCal skiers!

Curious what the conditions are like up Baldy, Gorgornio, Whitney Zone, and Mammoth - way too much hike for way too little skiing or is it still prime spring condition?

From satellite imagery, the Baldy bowl is almost completely melted out. The draws on the north side of San G are conceivable, but that's a very long hike from the South Fork trailhead, and you might get there and find it not actually possible to ski. In general, I don't think there has ever really been good skiing in the transverse ranges this late in the year, even in a snow year as exceptional as this one.

Where do you get good new satellite images?

I'm sure you can still ski San G or the north side of San J, but like you say it is a long hike.

Up high the Sierra should be good this week in the present cool temps, anywhere you can drive high.

For comparison,

on June 6 1998

We hiked San Antonio,  skied at least 2000 feet down the north side (the snow went down far past that)

and then hiked back up and skied down the bowl past the hut.  Snow ended about 8000.

tom donnelly wrote:

Where do you get good new satellite images?

 topo  

 satellite    

Open them in two tabs and click back and forth. They won't let you access more than a certain amount per day without paying.