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San Gorgonio Mountain (11,499 ft.) and Jepson Peak
(11,205 ft.), So. California
A view of San Gorgonio Mountain (far left peak is the summit) and Jepson
Peak from Dry Lake.
southern California . it's one of the last places you'd expect to find
snow in the summer. and if you ask the locals, the reply is usually, "are
you crazy?! there's no snow here. you should go surf, dude!" but not this
year. luckily, the entire state was blessed with an above-average snowpack
this past season, and as a result, snow remains up high. how high? around
10000 ft. and how much? well, there's enough, relatively speaking.
i arrived last week to visit my family in Riverside, and will spend the
entire month of July here. not having my July turns yet, i had to think of
something. then suddenly i remembered San Gorgonio Mountain, the highest
mountain in southern California. San G is part of the San Bernardino
Mountain Range (desert mountains), and it tops out at 11,499 ft. it's about
an hour from Riverside. when the smog clears, the entire San Bernardino
Range commands the valley's attention. even though i lived in So. Cal. for
many years, i never considered visiting San G., but then again i wasn't into
torturing myself back then. before i shoulder my pack up the mountain, i did
a quick Google search to find out more.
what an interesting mountain. basically, there are two approaches: one from
the north (South Fork Trail) and one from the south (Vivian Creek Trail). i
figured there would be more snow on the north side, so i picked the South
Fork Trail. besides, approaching from the north would give me a chance to
examine what i would be skiing. the drawback, however, is the South Fork
Trail is 22 miles roundtrip, compared to 14 miles via the Vivian Creek
Trail. well, i guess that's the price one has to pay for quality turns. and
before i finally made up my mind to go ski, i went for a quick drive up
HWY38 to see if i could get a glimpse of the mountain, and snow. sure
enough, i spotted the white stuff way up high on the north side -- one patch
that looked long enough to fit my 180cm skis!
i have no friends, in So. Cal. that ski, the kind of skiing that i enjoy. my
trusting companions from the PNW would think i was crazy if i asked them to
fly out. but luckily, i have family. they will do anything for/with me . my
cousin Kam (AKA Little Kam) was excited to go. besides, it was a good excuse
for him to test out another pair of his homemade skis.
originally, our plan was to do it in one day. how stupid it that. after we
factored in the distance, the elevation gain, and temperature, we decided to
take two days. it's really hot here. the temperature in the valley hovers
around 100-degrees. in the mountains, it's at most 10-15 degrees cooler. but
one good thing about this area is the weather is mostly stable -- clear blue
skies and hot.
on Tuesday (7/12), we left Riverside at 2:30pm, and an hour later we grabbed
a permit from the rangers station just outside of Mentone off HWY38. we left
the trailhead (~6900 ft.) at 4:42pm and started the sweat-fest toward Dry
Lake (~9000 ft., ~6 miles from TH), our campsite.
Cousin Kam hiking the South Fork Trail. The temperature was
in the high 80's. San Gorgonio hides from view.
half a mile before the lake, i spotted a potential line to ski off Jepson
Peak (11,205 ft.), San G's neighbor. the line looked exciting (and boy was
it...read on).
A glimpse of Jepson Peak through the trees before reaching
Dry Lake. We spot a potential couloir to ski.
when we arrived at the lake, it was surprisingly full (it's usually not
so as the name implies). by 7:50pm, our tent was up and we started fighting
the bugs. there were bugs everywhere, annoying biting flies, mosquitos, big
flying thingies with machine guns and nunchucks. despite the bugs, we had a
great view of San Gorgonio Mountain and Jepson Peak from the lake (see the
top photo on this page).
the next morning, we left camp at 6:34am for San G. the approach to the
summit was straightforward, schwacking a bit through some shurbs. it was a
pleasant approach, by comparison.
Cousin Kam approaches San Gorgonio in the morning. We managed
to climb and stay off the snow for the most part.
we crossed snow here and there, and after frequent breaks, we found
ourselves reading the entries in the summit register by 9:45am. we were the
only two up there monkeying around.
Little Kam on the summit of San Gorgonio holding up a strange
sign someone had left
the summit registers were fun to read, and we left a few words of our own.
after 40-minutes of lollygagging, i peered over the NNE side of San G.
and found a skiable line. Little Kam decided to wait and watch as i skied.
surprisingly, on relatively low-angle terrain, there were tons and tons of
super-deep suncups -- some of the biggest i've seen.
Me standing on suncups before skiing the NNE side of San
Gorgonio. Photo by Kam S. Leang.
the cups weren't much of a problem on steeper aspects, and i found a
pretty nice line. the snow was tasty, and good corn for the most part.
Cousin Kam takes a picture of me skiing down the NNE side of
San Gorgonio.
i found a good line that weaved through the suncups. afterwards, i climb
back up to the top to meet Kam.
after the ski, i climbed back up to meet Little Kam and we traversed west
along a ridge to Jepson Peak. from the top, we spotted more enormous suncups
along the ridge:
Little Kam traversing a ridge on Jepson Peak. The suncups
were enormous.
despite the cups, we spotted our objective, the north couloir of Jepson.
instead of skiing the center of the chute, we dropped in from below the
summit and traversed to the high side (skier's left). below, Little Kam
makes his entry into the north side of Jepson:
Little Kam carving some nice turns down the north side of
Jepson. Photo: K. K. Leang
he made some great turns on his new skis. after a photo or two, i
followed his lead but traversed a bit higher and more skier's left. the snow
was significantly softer than before, but very nice. after about 300 vf.,
the terrain eased off to about 35-degrees. those turns felt great, and then
suddenly out of nowhere i caught an edge and went down. instantly, i started
to slide and pick up speed. my Whippet did nothing. though the runout was
good, there were a couple piles of boulders melted through the snow that
posed a problem. within seconds i slid over the first and got air.
immediately behind the first was a second pile. somehow in the process of
going over the first, i was able to change my trajectory slightly (by
spazzing like a scared chicken) to avoid the second. i slid about 30-feet
more and was stopped by a two-feet deep suncup, uninjured, but twisted up
like a pretzel and slightly shaken. raking over the rocks put a tear in my
pack, ripped one daisy chain, and inflicted some damage to one ski, but it
was nothing serious. it could have been worse.
My damaged ski after the fall. The topsheet was peeled away.
Better the topsheet of my ski than me.
i'm glad the runout was relatively clean and thank goodness for those
suncups. it's amazing what the right conditions can do. i'm humbled, more so
than before, by this experience.
after picking up my biscuits, we skied as far as possible and managed about
1500 vf. of skiing out of that run. near the bottom, however, the cups were
everywhere, and linking turns was difficult. Little Kam fell into a deep
one. but not bad for July in So. Cal.
Kam falls into a deep suncup.
before the slog back to the TH, we took a nice lunch break to prepare.
Hey Mr! Give me more cheese or else I'll rip your head off!
by 5:00pm, we were at the truck and it felt like 90-degrees. overall, we
had a great time and we'll continue to visit this area for more skiing.
Route info (for the south and north side approach)
- Round-trip distance: 22 miles (South Fork Trail), 14 miles (Vivian
Creek Trail)
- Starting elevation: ~6900 ft. (South Fork), ~6300 ft. (Vivian Creek)
- Elevation gain: ~4600 ft. (South Fork approach), ~5200 ft. (Vivian
Creek approach)
- Time: 10-14 hours car-to-car, or better as a two-day trip
First of all, GET A PERMIT before you enter the wilderness area, either
for a day trip or an over-nighter. It's free, but they do limit the number
of people that can visit the area. Weekends maybe a challenge to get
permits. Here's the rangers station info:
Mill Creek Ranger Station
34701 Mill Creek Road
Mentone, CA 92359
(909) 382-2881 (voice)
(909) 389-9133 (TTY)
Office hours are: 8:00am to 4:30pm seven days a week
North side approach (South Fork Trail)
Drive HWY38 towards Big Bear. Turn left on Jenks Lake Road East, and go
~2.3 miles to the parking area for the South Fork Trail. It's clearly
marked. Start hike from the southeast corner of the parking area. It's about
6 miles to Dry Lake. There are clearly marked signs to the lake, so follow
the directions. The lake is a great place to camp and there are plenty of
spots. Depending on the year, you might find water at the lake, but if
you're unsure, load up on water at the Dry Lake and Dollar Lake fork. This
is the fork before the switchback to Dry Lake.
From Dry Lake, follow the trail until you pop out of the trees (~9300
ft.). From here you should have a great view of San G and Jepson Peak. You
have two options at this point. If there's snow, then climb to the summit
via the path of least resistance. BE aware of avalanches, as the slopes are
at a perfect angle for slides if the right conditions exist. Or you can
continue to follow the trail (which is recommended because it's lower impact
on the environment when there's little snow on the ground) to the summit.
From the summit, scope out a nice line to ski. There's plenty to do up
there, and you can also go visit Jepson Peak.
South side approach (Vivian Creek Trail)
Apparently, this is the most popular trail to the top, and it's
relatively short (14 miles roundtrip) compared to the approach from the
north. To get to the trailhead, take HWY 38 from Redlands east to Forest
Home Road, which you follow for another 5 miles to the parking lot. Follow
the trail.
San Gorgonio Wilderness area topo map.
This is a big file (2400x2400 pixels, 3.7MB),
so download and split it up when you print.
North side approach: Map for the South Fork Trail approach
South side approach: Map for the Vivian Creek Trail approach
More info...
Scole, a member of Turns-all-year pointed this link out to me. It's very
useful, with current trail conditions, and there's an active forum. http://www.sgwa.org/
back to chronological list
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