Went up yesterday with Janine. Although we didn't check the San Bernardino peak trailhead area, there was hardly any new snow on Southfork, which leads me to believe that most of the snow from last week's freeze has melted.
Took trail to Southfork Meadows and then cut up the right side of Christmas tree hill on the ridge, following other tracks. We ended up on the ridge that connects to the San Gorgonio backbone to the right of the saddle/gully between Charleton and Little Charleton. Headed up Charleton and had lunch -- not too cold or breezy -- then headed down to the saddle and bagged Little Charleton. Then, back to the saddle and down the gully to enjoy long, gliding steps in the powdery snow. Jumped back up on the ridge before entering Moraine Hell and retraced our path back to the car. Total time was around 8 hours
Thanks to Janine for her company and breaking trail up the ridge.
There's even less snow at the top of the north chutes and Big Draw than when I hiked with sister Sally and Calikocat Jim
It does look like there's good coverage on the ridge to the right of the north chutes. Sally and I may going up San Gorgonio via that ridge on Wednesday. I've also heard there's an eastern chute that only involves scrambling on dirt for the last 150 vertical or so. If anyone has any recent information regarding the eastern chute, we'd love to hear about it.
There's another system coming in this weekend, so these conditions will only be valid until then.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen