Base Camp

Mount San Antonio (Mt. Baldy)

Mount Baldy's summit ridge; L.A. basin beyond

Don't blame the mountain for being born in Southern California; Mount Baldy is a ski mountaineer's paradise. Glorious access—only 40 miles from downtown Los Angeles—and a nearby ski area make this 10,000 foot peak a perfect playground for day-trippers.

The big conditional, however, is snow. A bad season can see the mountain essentially bare from start to finish. A good season, however, can make even the mighty Sierra's snowstorms look mild, as this peak sits square in the middle of the pacific's pineapple express.

In 2005, in fact, Mount Baldy held snow longer and lower than the Whitney region. And what snow it was—perfect corn snow, baked to perfection by the famous Southern California sunshine.

As for the skiing, the San Gabriel Mountains offer a variety of genuinely steep chutes and gullies. Baldy's north face offers a fine, 2000+ vertical foot plunge through wide open steeps and cliff bands. Farther east, the north facing summit ridge gets downright gnarly, culminating in the menacing northeast face of Mount Harwood.

Baldy's Southeast bowl offers preposterously good corn snow; among the best my edges have ever tasted. And a fine little collection of couloirs border it, including the memorable Girly Man Chute.

Being so far south, Baldy's snow pack avoids the worst of the vices common to mountain country. In part, that's because mild temperatures and melt-freeze metamorphosis can happen any time of year. The snow does slide, of course, and sometimes spectacularly so, but we can cautiously say this is a forgiving range when it comes to avalanche hazard. And who really likes avalanches, anyway?

trip reports:

ski tour: the cucamonga traverse

ski descent: revenge of the girly man

> back to Base Camp