Think there's no good skiing near L.A.?
Then you haven't been to Mt. Baldy after a good snowfall. If you're lucky enough to catch Baldy on a day like the one when the photos here were taken, you'll get skiing so good you'll swear you'd travelled a thousand miles northwest, not merely eight miles out of the L.A. Basin and into the San Gabriel Mountains.
The mountains surrounding Baldy are indeed rugged and spectacular, especially when seen with a fresh cloak of snow.
Telegraph Peak from the top of Thunder Mountain.
Note the substantial slide at the lower left-center of the picture. Fresh snow had fallen on top of a very hard crust, making for a very unstable snowpack. According to the local patrol, the chutes off of Telegraph are in fact skiable, but access is problematic.
Timber Mountain (left), Ontario Peak (right), and Icehouse Canyon (between) from the top of Thunder Mountain.
Are we in heaven?
Quite possibly. The L.A. Basin is down underneath those clouds somewhere... but who really cares?
With mountains like that, it's no wonder there's some good skiing to be had.
Al skiing a nice line throgh some trees, somewhere underneath Toilet Bowl.
Powder, powder, everywhere. Baldy was reporting 18" of new snow, and based on these pictures, that seems about right.
Two shot sequence of Al skiing some fresh powder in South Bowl.
Two shot sequence of Mark skiing some fresh powder in South Bowl.
Al always manages to find some crazy lines. Eschewing the lessons offered by Bono and Kennedy, he gravitates towards the tightest lines through the trees, and skis them at horrifying speeds.
Al navigating some closeout lines in the trees, between Herb's Hollow and Andy's Alley.
Not surprisingly, the first picture was accompanied by a loud snap of breaking bark. Also, despite appearances here, Al skied away from the third shot.
Some of the new snow had been blown into some nice drifts on one the more exposed portions of the mountain, allowing for a little bit of fun.
Mark and Al, on Skyline, in search of more huck for the buck.
Could the sky be any bluer? Behind Al and I in this picture, Baldy Bowl can be seen. Best skied in the spring when avalanche danger is at a minimum, this bowl offers sustained pitches of about 30 degrees, with over 1500 feet of skiable vertical.
Just to the skiers left of the lower portion of Chair 3 is a rock, that with the soft, levelling protection of the new snow allowed for some easy air.
Mark and Al catch some air off a rock.
Honesty compels me to reveal that while Al stuck it, my landing was anything but clean, resulting in a yardsale of epic proportions, much to the delight of those watching from the lift.
Towards the end of the day, untracked powder was a bit harder to come by. Not a problem, however, if you are willing to ski some of the hairier lines.
Two shot sequence of Al entering and then exiting a very tight line somewhere in lower South Bowl.