EISPIRATEN

Last October while hiking the North Backbone Trail a few of us stopped at the long desert view just before going into the viewless summit on Wright Mountain. My friend turned and said we should snowboard off this spot when winter came. I laughed thinking that would be cool, but it didn't go further than that.



Sure enough, come one winter morning, we were walking up that long icy road to the beginning of the Acorn Trail. The conditions going up were outstanding. Snow depth only increased as we rose out of Wrightwood.



Cruising along Blue Ridge was easy & the snow was deepest at the top on the last bit of gain. The whole upper basin was full & looked great. The mid & lower sections were a bit thin that grew narrow into the main canyon.



All went smooth & the turns were fun. We then rode a canyon on the southern side of the basin down into the main drainage under cover of trees. Really a great time in the mountains.

Video, photos & some words here: http://jdboggs.blogspot.com/2017/01/sno ... basin.html

Looks fun! Did you go up there just recently? Baldy was really icy. The blue ridge wasn't? You skied down the North side of it, right? Is that why?

dima wrote: ↑Looks fun! Did you go up there just recently? Baldy was really icy. The blue ridge wasn't? You skied down the North side of it, right? Is that why?

This was recently, over New Year's weekend. Just after the first couple storms we had. Acorn Trail & Blue Ridge were perfect soft snow, not wet or heavy. A bit windy up top, but not crazy. The portion we rode faces north & a bit east. Huge open bowl that looks out over the desert just before the summit (if coming from Guffy/AcornTrail). The canyon feeds into a different neighborhood though, so required two cars. We chose this bc we hadn't found other reports of people trying it (I'm sure someone has though) & to get away from the holiday crowds. Didn't see anyone all day on the mountain.