High Sierra Topix

Where do i find good snow,no crowds along hiway 2,138 or anywhere else in the san gabriels.I wont go on the weekend to avoid traffic,crowds.Thanks...

You might ask over here: http://sangabrielmnts.myfreeforum.org/

Hello

I was up on Angeles Crest Highway on Monday. There was plenty of snow near Mount Waterman ski resort. Very few people as well. The resort was closed. Bring chains otherwise you might get turned back.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the link...thx brad for the live report...

I was up there snow shoeing last weekend. Just pulled over before Waterman and hiked up the N/W ridge and back. Crowds were not bad at all for a sunny Saturday with new snow. 50 steps and no more people.

Hi Jim,any pics of the area you snowshoed...I havent been ,so im curious as to the scenery...Any forested areas?Thx.

Didn't bring a camera. I don't know why I didn't. It was a very nice, lightly forested ridge. Here's a map. You can ignore the loop around waterman. That was a day hike I did several weeks ago. We had no plans of hiking this particular place, but I had no chains and this was as far as we could get, so we just walked up the road until we saw something that looked inviting. It worked out great. There is also an area maybe a mile or two below that spot with good access to all sorts of snow shoeing options. I added a polygon in the area. Lots of options for choosing difficulty level, forest cover, etc. all in one spot.

http://caltopo.com/m/TS2H

Thx so much for that map!

I don't know much about the San Gabriels, but the wife and i have been Snow shoeing and Xc skiing around big bear all winter and it has been amazing. Snow shoed the PCT after the first big storm several weeks ago with 2 to 3' of powder and not a single track. Lots of closed roads to places like Butler peak and Greys Peak for shoeing and Xc. Pm me if you need any specifics for that area.

Here are a couple of pics from the big bear area. This is from onyx summit towards sugar loaf peak. 4x4 trail, but more of a goat trail (not really sure I was on it most of the time). I wouldn't ski it. But we saw two goys skiing behind us.





We also like the Butler peak and Greys peak area. Lots of ways to go off the Rim of the World dirt road out of Fawn skin so long as you have a car with some clearance. These were taken last year with minimal snow. Right now it should be 3' deep.





We also did a hike out of Van Dusen road (closed in winter) to the Holcomb Valley campground and circled back along the PCT for a 10 mile hike. Skiing was easy on the road but harder on the PCT.