We showed up early Friday morning to a near blizzard. Lucky to have my Audi allroad wagon rollin' on this morning because Mt Baldy road was an expected challenge, especially with how many people were already heading up for freshies. Even with it dumping the road was not bad at all in my opinion. Unfortunately we did sleep a bit late and got held up just above the village due to a car pileup and snow removal on the switchbacks. I must say it can be frustrating dealing with the road on big weekends and storms, but that is the case going to ANY ski area in Southern California. This is mostly due to the volume of cars and people here. My review will be less about "the conditions" and more to address some of the issues that some have mentioned during this weekend. We knew that the snow was going to be deep and our turns would be fast and huge. So no worries on that. Baldy is always sick after a big storm and by far the best "Big Mountain" terrain in So Cal. (Actually the only) unless you are a accustomed to going out of bounds. It seems like some people were pretty bummed on the lift lines and parking sitch, but everyone must remember that there was 5 to 7 feet of snow that fell in 4 days, and Big Bear was closed because of the nasty weather, icy roads, and insane amounts of people. So half of those people turned away there went to Wrightwood, or to Baldy. That just made things that much more crowded on the roads and on the hill in the San Gabriel. I heard that The same insanity was happening over at Mt High too. Tons of flatlanders, sledders, inner city dwellers, snow players and gapers all coming up at the same time. Ya it was nuts. I too was rubbed the wrong way by the a couple of the parking guys, but at the same time, a couple others were super cool and very helpful. With the amount of people on the road that were already pissed off at the traffic coming up all weekend it's no wonder that there is some "attitude" happening by some, but not by all! Being locals at Baldy for 24 years now, We could have cut in the liftline and got away with it but didn't. We waited in the huge lines with everyone else, and felt some of the stress of it all while waiting, but this was expected after knowing all of so cal would be coming to get in on all the snow. I agree that it would be great to have a high speed quad lift going up the face instead of the slow old one. But I look at it like this. Baldy has the steepest and most freeride oriented terrain in So cal. It's non-corporate, and a bit wild and ruff on the edges. But that is what makes it so different from Mt High or Bear Mtn. and to some, much better!! So it's a trade off. Slow lifts for amazing steeps. Small infrastructure for big cliff drops. (If you know where to find em') And deep turns instead of groomers. Baldy is just a different type of experience. It is not a corporate resort owned by some fancy development company. It's hardcore, and can be really amazing if you can handle it. Mt Baldy is not for everyone, and that's why there's a place called Mt High.

PK