Ski Report: Sunday at Baldy

Today was my first day this year at Mt. Baldy. Before moving to San Diego last spring, I skied there twice last year over President's Day weekend while I was out here apartment hunting. I was treated to 3 feet of powder both days. I was told that I was spoiled and will never see conditions like that again. I haven't. But ever since then, I've been waiting to go back.

So today I finally made it. I got there around 9. The groomers had already softened up a bit, but all of the off-piste stuff was rock hard. I found a couple of strategies to make the morning off-piste experience more enjoyable. First, try to ski where others haven't gone (i.e. no tracks) yet. Even if its rock hard, you just dig in your edges and it’s just like skiing an eastern groomer. Second, try to challenge yourself by seeking out the worst conditions on the mountain. I’m dead serious! What I mean by this is that you should look for the worst combination of death cookies, rocks, trees and anything else that may be sticking out of the snow. Then you attack it and see who wins. I like to think that if it doesn't kill you, it only makes you a better skier. After a few runs of that, plain death cookies are absolute joy.
On their website, Baldy is reporting a 12-30" base. Although coverage on most of the mountain was surprisingly good, there were numerous places where that 12" was looking awfully generous. In the thinner areas, it was definitely more like 2" of snow intermixed with gravel and pine needles. Unlike my trip to Snowbird in December, I actually used foresight and brought my rock skis...a pair 193 Dynastar Max Zero's. For Baldy, this was the right choice and I would never recommend bringing your good skis there unless it was a year like last year. I don't how you are, but when I'm on my good skis and I really hit a rock and hear that scraping that screams "Core Shot!!!”, a little piece of me dies. But if you're on rock skis, it doesn't matter...they're just rock skis!. Just after lunch, I took a run off the chair to the left as you're looking up from the lodge. On the way down, I got to a section where there were interconnected 3 foot wide snow-covered bushes surround by gravel. With my Atomic MeX’s (my good skis) I would have run like a baby. But on my rock skis, I charged it, picked my way down with jump turns and had a great time doing it. The other great thing about rock skis is their tie in with Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law dictates that if you have new skis, every rock you hit will give you a core shot. But with rock skis, it says that you can purposely ski down gravel without getting a core shot. Sure enough, when I looked at my bases at the end of the day, even with a very sketchy thinely covered run down to the parking lot, they had nothing but minor scrapes.

The last part of today's Baldy rant has to do with high fashion. Baldy is the only place where I, dressed in a 5 year old red Patagonia shell and plain black Marmot bibs, feel like the pinnacle of fashion. It’s an old school mountain and people like to dress the part. I love the fact that you see one-piece suits (never thought I'd ever say that!!), old Descente ski sweaters, stretch pants accompanied by jester hats (always wanted one in junior high), and a woman sporting a white unitard. You got to love it! Oh yeah, one more thing, if you need any other reason to go up there, there was a dude on a hot pink Tua Monoski!