Trip Report

The Powder Gods are Smiling

Skiing San Jacinto Peak's East Face

The San Jacinto Wilderness

1. San Jacinto Wilderness
2. Cactus to Clouds
3. Across Round Valley
4. Up the East Face
5. A Frozen Summit
6. Skiing San Jacinto

IT CAN BE EASY TO LOSE FAITH. Yes—any one of Southern California's three massive ranges ought to offer outstanding skiing. But toss in a few years of drought, a few too many days of dirt, rock, and (if you're lucky) ice, and even the most hardened ski mountaineer can come to believe that skiing and Southern California just don't mix.

And then comes a day like this...

We are skiing light, flawless, untracked powder, floating as if on air through the forests and glades of Palm Springs' San Jacinto Wilderness.

Has it been a challenging season thus far?

Yes—but with these turns, all is forgiven.

A cold storm has blanketed icy and/or bare mountain slopes with three feet of snow and more.

Winter has returned to Southern California.

The plan today, given all the new snow and unsettled weather, is an exploratory look-see in the San Jacinto Wilderness.

It's a rainy Sunday morning in the Los Angeles Basin.

My skiing partner Bill and I hit the Southern California freeway system at a reasonable 7:30 a.m., heading east to the Palm Springs Desert. From there, we'll take the vertigo-inspiring Palm Springs Aerial Tramway up to Round Valley and places beyond.

As for our ultimate destination, San Jacinto Peak's 10,804' summit is a tempting possibility. Though I've hiked the peak in summer, I've never skied it, but from past wanderings I know that much of the high-altitude terrain in the San Jacinto wilderness is gentle, low-angle fare, perfect for safe skiing in stormy weather—with certain spectacular exceptions, of course.

next: Cactus to Clouds »