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Backcountry Skiing -Southern California

Robertson Pearce · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0
Lucas Shipley wrote:

Anybody planning on going up to San J on Saturday the 21st? I'm a complete newbie to backcountry boarding and am going to check it out for the low angle riding and mellow touring.

Sent you a PM. 

Pierre de Malliard · · Laguna Beach, CA · Joined Mar 2021 · Points: 0

Quick snowpack update for San Gorgonio. Summited Charlton Peak today 01/16. Was able to skin from the car/gate. Good snow from summit to the south fork flat area/fork. Crusted snow untl logging road. Super Wet/Melted/Icy snow below. Somehow managed to be high enough when the precipitation hit and it was snow. Kept it mellow because I was solo, but I didnt notice any unstability. 

PS. If the storm situation improves, I am thinking about a Sierra tour next weekend. 

Robertson Pearce · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0

Did a quick scouting mission to Sugarloaf area in Big Bear yesterday. Minimal turns as it was more of a hike with the wife/dogs but got a good feel for the snow. About a foot of coverage, slight crust on top and soft snow underneath. This was later in the day with Temps just above freezing so it was pretty sticky. Looking to get out into the local mountains this weekend, probably Friday and Sunday. Prefer Big Bear, San G or San J but down for anywhere relatively local if someone is looking for a tour partner. 

Corey Hass · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2017 · Points: 0
Pierre de Malliard wrote:

Quick snowpack update for San Gorgonio. Summited Charlton Peak today 01/16. Was able to skin from the car/gate. Good snow from summit to the south fork flat area/fork. Crusted snow untl logging road. Super Wet/Melted/Icy snow below. Somehow managed to be high enough when the precipitation hit and it was snow. Kept it mellow because I was solo, but I didnt notice any unstability. 

PS. If the storm situation improves, I am thinking about a Sierra tour next weekend. 

Sounds like you hit it the right day! I was up there on Saturday 1/14 and the hike in was pretty messy. Frozen mud on the way in and wet soggy mud on the way out. Snow was pretty hard up top near the peak with tons of ice fields under the trees. 

Pics and videos from the trip:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6MS1a5E6LncjCGzT7

Hand.jammin · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 5

Wondering if anyone has been up to Kratka lately and how the conditions were? Might take a gander this weekend

Kevin Mokracek · · Burbank · Joined Apr 2012 · Points: 363
Hand.jammin wrote:

Wondering if anyone has been up to Kratka lately and how the conditions were? Might take a gander this weekend

I almost took my dog up there today to do a few laps but chose to just hike instead.   I think they have enough but my guess is that it is probably pretty wet and heavy with a crust.   I’ll wait for the next round of storms.  

Jeff J · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Nov 2017 · Points: 0
Corey Hass wrote:

Sounds like you hit it the right day! I was up there on Saturday 1/14 and the hike in was pretty messy. Frozen mud on the way in and wet soggy mud on the way out. Snow was pretty hard up top near the peak with tons of ice fields under the trees. 

Pics and videos from the trip:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6MS1a5E6LncjCGzT7

That looks awesome!!  Ok you guys have me convinced.  I'm gonna invest in some proper skis/boots and give this stuff a try.  Any advice?

Richard Rubinoff · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Jan 2022 · Points: 0

Went up mt baldy today, with just the intention of skinning up the aproach, and to see the condition of the bowl. Abc News 7 ran into me and ask me a few questions, and that aired but got taken way out of context of course (about a 10 second clip of an entire coversation about risk assessment and my intentions, which was just to aproach and get information on conditions). Of course he grabbed one bit where I talk about my confidence in my equipment, and nothing else.

enough about me!
the approach is in good condition, and after about 100 yards off of the fire road its good to skin. (before that to many rocks poking through will damage skins). Trees on the approach however have those deathtrap icicles that loom over you. Definitely wear your helmet. Once i got to the base of the bowl i dug a little bit. there is about 2-4 inches of ok snow sitting on top of that ice sheet. the snow has bonded Ok to the ice sheet, but as i had gotten there around 11-noonish it had warmed up to much and i felt that a wetslide wasnt worth the risk actualy skiing the bowl, not that i think i wouldve if it was a bit safer. I elected to follow the traditional hiking route and go up lookers left into the trees, where i found the north facing slope to be well settled (although still sitting on a firm layer, but not moving) in the trees there. i hiked up to the crest of the ridge and decided that was all that there was to do that day, and had some excellent turns coming down the trees before getting to the approach trail, which as they all are, a nightmare to get down. A nice hiking couple was decending right as I was turning around and took a video of my turns for me, I'll post when/if they send it to me.

you can see the trees i skied here. Really quite nice. About 10 minutes after this photo was taken it got super windy over the ridge and a big snow cloud socked the whole mountain to low visibility for a while, but at that point i was hiking through the trees already, and visibility was just fine in the trees. By the time I skied out the snow cloud had settled.

Despite the warning there where a decent amount of folk out there today, including an off duty SAR and Forest ranger who where just "hiking" (they wherent alowed to keep searching do to the conditions, but as the aproach trail its self was just fine, they where out). Current conditions are definitly not for skiiers or hikers but Mountaineers. Stay safe out there!

EDIT: here is a video of my little MT baldy excursion on the 19th. Ive been having some fun editing, Skiing starts at 1:20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeGyxKvT94c

Robertson Pearce · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0

Went up to Big Bear yesterday with the plan to check out the Sugarloaf area. Linked up, by chance, with another backcountry user (John, don't think he's on here) and we went up the summertime use trail, then the old mine trail, to access the two open bowls. A little bushwhacking at the start of the summer trail then it opened up nicely. Conditions were excellent, 1-2 feet coverage in the bowl and totally untracked for new silky smooth turns. We spent some time in the main bowl (looker's left if looking up at Sugarloaf from the road) then dropped the right side bowl into a long gully/canyon that we skied down for quite a while. Then a relatively easy traverse with some flat and some slight downhill spots (skiable without skins) with relatively minimal bushwhacking back to the car. I did not dig any pits but did test the snow with my poles for depth/characteristics multiple times. We saw absolutely zero signs of instability the entire time and did drop a few sections that were around 30 degrees after attempting a ski cut at the top of each one. Planning on getting out somewhere local (Big Bear, San G area, San J from the tram) tomorrow, PM me if you're interested in joining. 

Fat Dad · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Nov 2007 · Points: 60

The conditions at Baldy look beautiful.  Makes me wish I hadn’t reinjured my MCL a while back.  All that snow does not bode well for that actor, Julian Sands, who went missing up there last Friday.  

Brad MacArthur · · Bishop, CA · Joined Nov 2014 · Points: 120

So nice to see sugarloaf filled in.  I lived in big bear for 9 years and would go up there all the time, It’s not in every year.

phylp phylp · · Upland · Joined May 2015 · Points: 1,137
Richard Rubinoff wrote:

Went up mt baldy today, with just the intention of skinning up the aproach, and to see the condition of the bowl. Abc News 7 ran into me and ask me a few questions, and that aired but got taken way out of context of course (about a 10 second clip of an entire coversation about risk assessment and my intentions, which was just to aproach and get information on conditions). Of course he grabbed one bit where I talk about my confidence in my equipment, and nothing else.

Thanks for the report.

The media is very annoying.

Richard Rubinoff · · Los Angeles, CA · Joined Jan 2022 · Points: 0

Baldy: Did the approach again this morning. Conditions have worsened. Wind scowered most of the soft snow off of the hard layer. Exposing that slick base, pretty much on the whole bowl. A few wind deposits in nooks and crannies which might be nice, but until things corn up it’s rock hard up there.

be careful when you do go up there, i crossed a wet slide on the approach trail and I think there was one on the southeast face of the bowl, I didnt get a great look at it and could have been wind deposit.

Photo of bonus bowl tells a story of the rest of it too. Left side is all windscowered hard back, the gulch of it is wind loaded, and looks unstable.


nice skin up, but due to the wind I didn’t go further than the ski hut.

Another is missing out there and lots of search and rescue. Stay safe.

Daniel Zehnder · · Los Angeles · Joined Jan 2023 · Points: 0

Did Charlton on Saturday 1/21. Went up the trees on the east ridge and skied down the Dollar Lake chute on my first run. The snow in the chute was windblown hard, but on the sides near trees it was softer and mixed. Also snow was softer and nice below Dollar Lake connecting back to the skin track (middle picture). On my second run I skied down trees next to were I skinned up. This was the best snow, few inches of nice pow making for some great turns.  

Robertson Pearce · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0

On Sunday Pierre and I went to the San G area with plans to scope out what lines we could. Started at the trailhead (should have started from the logging road!) and were able to essentially skin right from the car. Once we gained a view of San G, Charlton, etc it was quickly evident they were off the table. San G north face had wind loading with visible cornices at the top of all the ridges and most of the face was visibly wind affected with some glistening ice we could see from the base. Charlton had a few chutes that looked ok but again lots of visible wind loading with a few recently released slab avalanches (smaller pockets, none of the full chutes) all up high. We toured up the saddle between Charlton and little Charlton, a few icy wind affected areas that ended up needing ski crampons for this lowly splitboarder but were fine for the skier. We dropped the Northeast-ish face of little Charlton in the trees and had some absolutely perfect powder turns all the way down. Once we made it out to the lower bowl we skinned back up to another ridge seeking a direct descent to the car without having to take the trail out. We ended up taking a pretty steep north facing chute down that had some refrozen crud on top but was mostly good turns with no signs on instability, then a traverse back to the logging road and down that to the road. A kind couple gave me a ride back to the car to avoid the walk!

Overall it was a longer but very fun day with excellent snow. I think I get bonus points for doing that last steep chute with a broken splitboard hah. Get it while it's good!

That gap isn't supposed to be there...

More photos/videos here: instagram.com/p/Cnvo2qULUZi…;

Corey Hass · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2017 · Points: 0
Robertson Pearce wrote:

On Sunday Pierre and I went to the San G area with plans to scope out what lines we could. Started at the trailhead (should have started from the logging road!) and were able to essentially skin right from the car....

What an epic trip!! I was at Snow Summit on Sunday and could see all of San G glistening in the sun. Looked pretty shiny. Hopefully you all didnt get stuck in the traffic coming out   

Robertson Pearce · · Yucca Valley, CA · Joined Jun 2016 · Points: 0
Corey Hass wrote:

What an epic trip!! I was at Snow Summit on Sunday and could see all of San G glistening in the sun. Looked pretty shiny. Hopefully you all didnt get stuck in the traffic coming out   

Thankfully I take the back route home so no traffic for me. Looked awful though driving the other way...

Corey Hass · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Aug 2017 · Points: 0
Robertson Pearce wrote:

Thankfully I take the back route home so no traffic for me. Looked awful though driving the other way...

This was on the 38, just south of Jenks Lake Road Fiesta  around 330 PM. 

Colin Sander · · Los Angeles · Joined Oct 2014 · Points: 126

Richard / Daniel / Robertson , & everyone else, thanks for these writeups & pictures !!

This thread is the life of SoCal winter beta, and has been fun to follow the past few seasons. Thanks for keeping everyone stoked !  
be safe & enjoy

Drez TBK · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2023 · Points: 0

Hello y’all!

New LA resident here, thanks for the condis updates and info. Looking forward to exploring the San Gabriels this winter.

About me: Utah-born skier (though I’ve been splitboarding more the last seasons), now in Santa Monica for work after ~13 years in Seattle.  

See ya up there! ✌️

Attaching a pic from Topanga SP last weekend. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Southern California
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