When people talk about Mt Baldy they are either referring to the ski area which straddles the ridges to the east of the real Mt Baldy or the mountain itself, or possibly both. Mt Baldy is the closest thing to lift served big mountain riding in So Cal. Along with the intermittently open Mt Waterman the terrain available can be insane. Good enough even for a full fledged feature article in Transworld Snowboarding a few years back. While the most recent Transworld article focused on the in bounds and lift served terrain, an article (written by non other than recently resigned head of Transworld Snow, Kurt Hoy) in the early 90's focused on the backcountry terrain on the front of Mt Baldy. Or, you can do what I do, which is take the lift to the ski area and walk to the 10,000 foot plus summit of Mt Baldy and ride down the Mammoth like bowls back to the parking lot. The one serious problem with Baldy is the in-consistent snowfall. Some years I have ridden backcountry and lifts in late June while other years it is not even worth going up there at all in the winter. So a lot of you have probably stood on the boundary of the area looking over northern side and thought, man that is some sick looking riding, what is down there? Well, I have wondered that and kind of went to take a look this past weekend by hiking up the backside. The bottom of the backside pretty much is Stockton flats at about 6,000 feet. You could actually make it to Stockton flats from a wide ranging area, from the Notch all the way to the summit of Mt Baldy. There is a road from Stockton Flats to the ski area, originally built in the 1890's. There are definitely some straightforward shots from the ski area to the road for a simple hike too back to the ski area. However, the topography is pretty complex with two earthquake faults nearby (San Jacinto and San Andreas) so there are hidden cliff bands, chutes and a ridge that would actually take you away from the ski area. None of this is a big deal if you have the right equipment and stamina to get back, just don’t blast off the backside, get your self lost and blame me. Do your own research and yea there are some easy and sick hike to shots too. So there you go. Just thought you may like to see what is on the other side because over 99% of the people come up the front and there relatively little info on the Lytle Creek side. One year they even had a shuttle up from the bottom to the ski area. Anyway, it was a nice summer hike and hard to believe, no people even though we were near to almost 20 million souls on the 8 mile round trip hike Here is an article from someone who skied from the very summit, looks like skiing in Tibet or something, no So Cal http://www.sierradescents.com/skiing/harwood/2006/stockton-flats.php For info on the ski area www.shopbaldy.com I always hated dog people, then we got our own dog now and I love that dog to death. So I am a dog person I guess I became what I hate
To get to the bottom of the mountain you drive on like 5 miles of pretty bad but not quite 4x4 dirt road, definitely not for most cars though due to clearance and sharp rocks 
In the right you have Mt Baldy, in the middle Mt Harwood and on the left, the backsideof Baldy 
Flowers in the mountains while the lowlands bake 
One of the many chutes to ride
Looking towards the I-15 and Big Bear 
Looking down Coldwater Canyon, the road we hiked up and on the left, a ridge you could ride 
Thunder Mountain, the main riding area at Mt Baldy Ski area, in 2008 they had riding here into April 
Looking down the front from the notch to the parking lot including some of the sick inbounds terrain when open all the way to the bottom
Looking towards Mt Baldy summit 
I bought all the corn dog one of the healthiest things you can do (hiking) followed by one of the worst meals, corn dogs and beer from AM PM
