Snow Summit closed on Saturday, April 18 – Cheers to a great season with tons of powder and lots of smiles. But I haven’t given up on skiing in Big Bear yet and turned to the San Gorgonio Wilderness recently to fill the need to make perfect turns down steep slopes. The snow pack is still strong and we had some of the best spring corn I have seen in a long time. A group of us hit the trail eaThe Approach to San Gorgonio Skiingrly to see if we could make it to the top of Jepson Peak (11,207 feet) and descend one of the northeast-facing chutes. 

Hiking in along the Santa Ana River trail, the sound of running water eased us into a steady cadence as we made our way through the forest to Slushy Meadow. From there we donned our skis and skinned up a gully to the base of the big and prominent Sun Bowl. Sun Bowl is a spectacular amphitheatre created by San G’s ridgeline as it descends from the east and anchored by Jepson Peak to the west. It is so spectacular that in the late 50’s Walt Disney wanted to develop the area into a world-class ski resort and even put a bid in to host the 1960 winter Olympics on its slopes. Thankfully, Walt Disney did not realize that dream.

With this in mind, in silence we each enjoyed the view and had a bite to eat. Together we made a plan and decided on a straight forward approach. Climbing the chute we wanted to ski so we could check out the snow conditions and get a look at our descent path. Smooth going sun-baked corn made easy progress of our hard work climbing at altitude. We topped out at 1:00 p.m. and were offered lofty views of Big Bear Lake to the north, the Los Angeles basin to the west and San Jacinto to the south and east. Though we felt alone and on top of Southern California, we spied a few other hearty souls climbing in the distance towards San G’s summit.

Snow is still good in Southern California Mountains

After signing the summit log, we clicked into our skis and were happy to know it was all down hill from here. One-by-one we descended Jepson’s rock lined chute. A few hop turns in the narrow throat gave way to carving as it continued to fall away from the summit. We had enough coverage to traverse west over to Mount Charlton’s glades before returning to Slushy Meadow and hike back to the car.

It was a great day – much like every day this past winter season - sharing fun turns and stunning views with good friends.

Earning my turns,
Glade Girl