This weekend was so awesome that I can't restrain myself from telling you about it in the hopes that you'll check it out soon. As you all know, our local mountains were absolutely pummeled by a series of strong storms last week, and the results were truly impressive:
Some skiers from the CAC in Pasadena set out on Saturday to explore the aftermath of El Niño on Mt Baldy. We left at 5 am to beat the traffic, but when one of our cars (a 4WD truck) was turned around because we didn't have chains for it, our plans were set back a bit as we parked the truck and crammed into my Toyota Corolla. Sharing the car with 4 pairs of skis, we waited for an hour in the chain-control line, which had been just five cars long twenty minutes ago. Apparently this was a modest delay compared with those later in the day.
When we arrived at Manker Flats and started up the fire road, we were a little dismayed that someone had already started to break trail. This sense of loss was quickly overwhelmed with the enormity of the snow cover:
The rope might have been excessive, but since we were paranoid about the gully crossings en route to the hut and the stability of the snowpack, we brought it to belay sketchy traverses and to provide a lifeline for the first two skiers should they be caught unanchored.
We eventually caught the sole trail breaker thanks to his superb skin track and the slow going out front, and he kept us company all weekend, which was awesome. When we finally arrived at the hut, we found a very tempting sight indeed.
We built a ramp on the outhouse and much fun was had for skiers and spectators alike as a series of grand crashes ensued. Here's a video of one of the less embarrassing jumps.
After a short but glorious run down the lower half of the bowl...
...we settled into the hut with our wonderful host, Dan, and about ten other people. If you haven't experienced the San Antonio hut yet, I highly recommend it even if you're of the hard-hitting, self-reliant bivyphiliac variety; I certainly am, but I loved it. It is more charming than the several European alpine huts I've stayed at, but perhaps that's because one doesn't expect such a gem in our backyard here in Los Angeles.
Propelled by oatmeal and alpenglow...
...we moved up the right side of the bowl early Sunday morning and topped out about an hour and a half later after hitting some tricky snow right below the summit plateau.
On top we found an unusual snowdrift which does not seem to form often on Baldy:
We dug caves in it, where we ate our lunch, and we all found ourselves wishing we had time to sleep on top. If you do, get up there! How often do you get the chance to sleep in a snow cave on top of Mt Baldy?
The descent was exhilarating. I'm a pretty mediocre skier and was initially quite intimidated by a chute suggested for the descent (as can be seen in this picture)
but after we ski cut it and it didn't slide, we enjoyed an unequaled and epic descent through this chute into the middle of the bowl, where we ripped up plumes of powder at over 40 mph. Incredible.
The descent below the ski hut wasn't quite as memorable, but we skied it on excellent cover all the way to the car.
