It had been 9 years since I skied the San Gorgonio Divide.

On March 30-31, 1985 Greg Jordan, Pete Matulavich, and I (Rich Henke) started at Angelus Oaks, skied the Crest to San Gorgonio Peak, and descended via the Jenks Lake trailhead. The 28 mile trip took 2 days and gained 7300 vertical feet. The sketch was drawn by Pete after that tour and was taken from Mugelnoos No. 628.

Alois Smrz, Brian Johnson, and I had planned a Nevada ski tour in late February but it was postponed due to lack of snow. The San Gorgonio Divide was our consolation prize. The trip was an exact repeat of the previous trip.

We left Angeles Oaks at 8 a.m. on Saturday, February 22 (rather than 6:15 a.m. previously - we are mellowing) and had excellent snow for the 5000 ft climb to the crest. Before we meticulously went over the top of each of the 8 named peaks on the crest. This time we skirted past a few of them. We camped between Shields and Charlton peaks.

The weather was clear and cold for the entire 2 days. From the summit of San Gorgonio on day 2, we walked west and down until we could ski the east most gully leading to Dry Lake. It wasn't corn, but it was skiable! We reached our waiting car at the Jenks Lake parking lot at 3:30 p.m. on Sunday.

There are very few multiple day ski tours in Southern California. This one is the best! We wondered often during the trip whether anyone had skied it since 1985. Does anyone know?

P.S. In 1998 the SMS had a scheduled trip along the same ridge, called the San Bernardino Ridge, but did not make it to the summit of San Gorgonio because they got caught in an El Nino storm.