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Headed up to Mount Baldy yesterday - it’s a local Southern Cal. mountain only about 1 hour outside of Los Angeles. They received over 18″ of new snow in last week’s storms, and there was already a 3-4′ base, so conditions were great!

(it’s been a long time since the local mountains have looked like this! The view as we drove north to baldy from the freeway)

Saturday morning dawned bright, clear, and crisp. I figured it would be a perfect bluebird day after all that show! Plus, the roads would be clear. I drove up in Leila’s car with Jessie and Liz. We left LA about 8am, thinking we’d be on the mountain by 9:45 once we parked, dressed, and bought our lift tickets. How wrong we were… it seemed that everybody else in the Southern California region had the same idea. We sat in traffic for almost 2 hours just to get to the Mt. Baldy parking area.

Once we finally bought our lift tickets and got on the mountain though, it was all worth it. The snow was in fabulous condition, and there was TONS of it (for local mountains of course.) It was cold, but not cold enough to cause icy conditions - just cold enough to keep the snow from becoming slushy.

(heading up the chairlift from the Mt. Baldy parking lot - look at all the snow in the trees!)

Mt. Baldy itself really is “one of LA’s undiscovered gems…” once we got past the traffic jam, that is. There are only 4 chairs - only 2 of which go up to runs. But once you get up to the top of the chair lifts, there are quite a few runs to choose from (trail map says 26 trails.)

The elevation at the very top chair (chair 3) is 8600′ so you get some good altitude gain and somewhat lengthy runs. Sure, it’s no Mammoth, but great for a day-trip of snowboarding. It’s hard to believe it’s only an hour’s drive from downtown Los Angeles. Check this out - hard to tell from this pic, but looking west/southwest you can see the ocean from the lodge vista point!

Chair 3 stays open till 4:15pm so if you get up there early enough you can definitely get a good, full day of riding in. We liked chair 3 better because there were more tree runs and a big bowl that some guys showed us how to get to. Speaking of which, ladies, there are definitely a lot of cool local guys at this mountain.

By the mid-afternoon, the fog had rolled in and storm clouds were thickening. We took a brief break in the teeny Mt. Baldy lodge, and took a few more runs before the chairs closed.

For our final run, we strapped back in and headed down the run that goes down to the parking lot. Since it was our first time at Mt. Baldy, we weren’t exactly sure of the best route to take to avoid all the rocks, gravel, and dirt that was still exposed in some areas, so we ended up hitting those very rocks, gravel and dirt! (Thank god I bought brown snowboarding pants…) But we crab-walked through the worst of it, and then found our way down the trail to the parking lot again with relative ease. The snow was still great, but the sun was down and it was twilight, so it was bad lighting and some sketchy riding!

When we left the mountain to walk back down to our car, the rain had begun (bummer!) It was pouring when we finally started the downhill drive. And unfortunately, we sat in traffic again for almost 1 1/2 hours before we really started moving.

We did enjoy the day, though, and for future trips to Mt. Baldy for snowboarding, we’ll follow this advice:

• Leave Los Angeles early. Get on the freeway by 7am or earlier to beat all the other cars who are sure to be heading up if there’s been recent snow.
• Park as close to the bottom chair as you can. This way, you won’t have to walk as far to get to the chairlift, AND you can ride down to your car at mid-day to have a lunch break at your car! Bring a cooler, save yourself money!
• Leave the mountain early. If you get there early, you’ll still get a good many runs in. And you’ll beat everyone else down the hill, again, avoiding traffic.
• Buy a 10-ticket pack to save money. I saw the 10-ticket packs online at their Web site for just $325. If you plan on going often, you’ll save as much as $27 per ticket (full-day, peak weekend tix are regularly $59.) I was thinking you could also split the 10-pack with friends, and each would save the money that way (don’t think the tickets are non transferable, but have to check it out.)
• Make friends and talk to some regulars who can show you the best runs. We had fun off Chair 3 with the dudes we met in the lift line. I do wish we had some guidance on that final run though! Ah well!

Yay Baldy - closer than Snow Summit, and just as fun. And a little less crowded!