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Sending out the call. Has anyone been on San G since last weekend or sooner? More specifically the Vivian Creek trail. What is the snow level, conditions, ice ax or trek poles, crampons or no?

This is also a good spot to check on conditions:

http://members.boardhost.com/sgva/

The main page is here:

http://www.sgwa.org/

Gusto

Call the mill creek ranger station 9093822882 and get the heads up on snow levels. Bring some lightweight crampons and poles you should be fine. Throw the axe on the pack anyways and use it if need be, but you prob dont need it. Ask Bill @ mill creek, he knows whats up

The snow levels on vivian, my guess around 9500ft

Thanks, I checked the SGWA website and didn't find much. That is why I started the thread. I am bringing the crampons, but since I am going with a group of newbies, if things get to technical, we will be getting some beers it Mentone. It will be a good day!

Earned some cool turns in South Fork Meadow off the skirt of Charlton Peak today. Skinned from gate on forest service road. Lots of obstacles and downed trees after Poop-Out Hill but still easy going on right side of trail up in the trees further. Avy zones looked to be stable with no recent activity. Probed to 5.5' in the meadow where we skied from; damn near Spring condition snow, just knee-deep powder at that point.
Can't wait for another good dump to fill in the holes!

Thanks for the update Deb!

I'm giving this thread a bump becuase I'll be going somewhere this coming Sunday with my skis. Some freinds want to go to San Jacinto but my hunch is that the snow will be better, up higher on San G. Has anyone been up in the last couple of weeks?

RickF wrote:I'm giving this thread a bump becuase I'll be going somewhere this coming Sunday with my skis. Some freinds want to go to San Jacinto but my hunch is that the snow will be better, up higher on San G. Has anyone been up in the last couple of weeks?

Give Blair a poke, he was there this past weekend.

Rick, I was there last weekend. Most places had a hard crust with softer snow underneath. We saw a few skiers in the meadow area on Saturday, didn't see any one skiing any of the bowls around Jepson or San Gorgonio.

On Friday, 1/21/2011, from the top of Charlton:



and here's Dry Lake from near the top of Charlton:



Plenty of Ski tracks around Charlton.

Nice pics, Kathy! That looks like the place to be right now in SoCal.

Deb, Hvydrt, Kathy,

Thanks for the replies, The snow looks decent, but I can't talk my friends out the tram ride to San J. Gorgonio will have to wait.

On Friday (1/28/11), this is what SG looked like from Dobbs Peak:



It was consolidated/crusted snow that is pretty consistent by about 8500'. I stayed on top of the snow all day and my snowshoes stayed on my back. It's raining really hard in Redlands now; so maybe we're getting some fresh snow up in the mountains.

Is anyone going to brave the conditions after the fresh dump and hike up san gorgonio?