july 12-13, San Gorgonio Mtn and Jepson Peak

southern California  8).  it's one of the last places you'd expect to find snow in the summer.  and if you ask the locals, the reply is usually, "are you crazy?! there's no snow here.  you should go surf, dude!"

but not this year.  luckily, the entire state was blessed with an above-average snowpack this past season, and as a result, snow remains up high.  how high? around 10000 ft.  and how much? well, there's enough, relatively speaking.

i arrived last week to visit my family in Riverside, and will spend the entire month of July here.  not having my July turns yet, i had to think of something.  then suddenly i remembered San Gorgonio Mountain, the highest mountain in southern California.  San G is part of the San Bernardino Mountain Range (desert mountains), and it tops out at 11,499 ft.  it's about an hour from Riverside.  when the smog clears, the entire San Bernadino Range commands the valley's attention.  even though i lived in So. Cal. for many years, i never considered visiting San G., but then again i wasn't into torturing myself back then.  before i shoulder my pack up the mountain, i did a quick Google search to find out more.

what an interesting mountain.  basically, there are two approaches: one from the north (South Fork Trail) and one from the south (Vivian Creek Trail).  i figured there would be more snow on the north side, so i picked the South Fork Trail.  besides, approaching from the north would give me a chance to examine what i would be skiing.  the drawback, however, is the South Fork Trail is 22 miles roundtrip, compared to 14 miles via the Vivian Creek Trail.  well, i guess that's the price one has to pay for quality turns.  and before i finally made up my mind to go ski, i went for a quick drive up HWY38 to see if i could get a glimpse of the mountain, and snow.  sure enough, i spotted the white stuff way up high on the north side -- one patch that looked long enough to fit my 180cm skis!

i have no friends, in So. Cal. that ski, the kind of skiing that i enjoy.  my trusting companions from the PNW would think i was crazy if i asked them to fly out. but luckily, i have family.  they will do anything for/with me  ;D.  my cousin Kam (AKA Little Kam) was excited to go.  besides, it was a good excuse for him to test out another pair of his homemade skis.

originally, our plan was to do it in one day.  how stupid it that. after we factored in the distance, the elevation gain, and temperature, we decided to take two days.  it's really hot here. the temperature in the valley hovers around 100-degrees.  in the mountains, it's at most 10-15 degrees cooler.  but one good thing about this area is the weather is mostly stable -- clear blue skies and hot  8).

on Tuesday (7/12), we left Riverside at 2:30pm, and an hour later we grabbed a permit from the rangers station just outside of Mentone off HWY38.  we left the trailhead (~6900 ft.) at 4:42pm and started the sweat-fest toward Dry Lake (~9000 ft., ~6 miles from TH), our campsite.  half a mile before the lake, i spotted a potential line to ski off Jepson Peak (11,205 ft.), San G's neighbor. the line looked exciting (and boy was it...read on).  when we arrived at the lake, it was suprisingly full (it's usually not so as the name implies).  by 7:50pm, our tent was up and we started fighting the bugs.  there were bugs everywhere, annoying biting flies, mosquitos, big flying thingies with machine guns and nunchucks.  despite the bugs, we had a great view of San Gorgonio Mountain and Jepson Peak from the lake.

the next morning, we left camp at 6:34am for San G.  the approach to the summit was straightforward, schwacking a bit through some shurbs.  it was a pleasant approach, by comparison.  we crossed snow here and there, and after frequent breaks, we found ourselves reading the entries in the summit register by 9:45am.  we were the only two up there monkeying around. after 40-minutes of lollygagging, i peered over the NNE side of San G. and found a skiable line.  Little Kam decided to wait and watch as i skied.  surprisingly, on relatively low-angle terrain, there were tons and tons of super-deep suncups -- some of the biggest i've seen.  the cups weren't much of a problem on steeper aspects, and i found a pretty nice line.  the snow was tasty, and good corn for the most part.  after the ski, i climbed back up to meet Little Kam and we traversed west along a ridge to Jepson Peak.  from the top, we spotted more enormous suncups along the ridge, but we found a relatively wide chute with continuous snow down its north side.  instead of skiing the center of the chute, we dropped in from below the summit and traversed to the high side (skier's left).  below, Little Kam makes his entry into the north side of Jepson:



he made some great turns on his new skis.  after a photo or two, i followed his lead but traversed a bit higher and more skier's left.  the snow was significantly softer than before, but very nice.  after about 300 vf., the terrain eased off to about 35-degrees.  those turns felt great, and then suddenly out of nowhere i caught an edge and went down.  instantaneously, i started to slide and pick up speed.  my Whippet did nothing.  though the runout was good, there were a couple piles of boulders melted through the snow that posed a problem.  within seconds i slid over the first and got air.  immediately behind the first was a second pile.  somehow in the process of going over the first, i was able to change my trajectory slighty (by spazzing like a scared chicken) to avoid the second.  i slid about 30-feet more and was stopped by a two-feet deep suncup, uninjured, but twisted up like a pretzel and slightly shaken.  raking over the rocks put a tear in my pack, ripped one daisy chain, and inflicted some damage to one ski, but it was nothing serious.  it could have been worse.  i'm glad the runout was relatively clean and thank goodness for those suncups.  it's amazing what the right conditions can do. i'm humbled, more so than before, by this experience.

after picking up my biscuits, we skied as far as possible and managed about 1500 vf. of skiing out of that run.  near the bottom, however, the cups were everywhere, and linking turns was difficult.  Little Kam fell into a deep one.  but not bad for July in So. Cal.  before the slog back to the TH, we took a nice lunch break to prepare.  by 5:00pm, we were at the truck and it felt like 90-degrees.  overall, we had a great time and we'll continue to visit this area for more skiing.  i think the snow is going to hold for about 3 more weeks, so if you're in the neighborhood, go get it!

more photos

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