When will the road to Mt Pinos open?

March 30th Update: The road up Mt Pinos is closed at the second snow gate located at the McGill Campground. Kern County is having issues getting the parking lot at Nordic Base plowed and until they get that cleared the second snow gate will remain locked. So, again this weekend, McGill will be all the farther you will be able to drive up the mountain.


Afternoon of March 24th Update: Progress! Kern County road status has been changed to show the road is open to the second snow gate which is located at the McGill Campground. Chains required and there is not much parking there so expect traffic issues.

Morning of March 24th Update: Kern County is working on clearing the Mt. Pinos road. We have no estimate on when the road will be plowed to Nordic Base.

March 15th Update: We have received word that the road up Mt Pinos will not be opened by this weekend.

March 8th Update: Yesterday it took a while to unload the rotary plow from the truck, install chains, etc., before they could start removing snow. And with those delays they only made it to the first snow gate. Today they started working their way up the road and made about 1 mile in 6 hours before an axle broke on the plow. Word is that they won't have a mechanic to look at it until tomorrow and it will likely take some time to get the required part(s). Apparently the snow was about 4 feet deep where the rotary plow broke and their other equipment can’t push snow that deep, so the only choice is to wait until the rotary is fixed. The supervisor who spoke with our team leader said there is no chance the road will be opened by this weekend.

March 7th Update: Kern County has brought in a rotary blower type snow plow and has started to work on the Mt Pinos road. As of the end of today they managed to make it from “the Y” to the first snow gate, a distance of maybe 1/4 mile. At that rate it will take quite a few days to clear the whole 9 miles of road.

March 1st Update: We have received word that for this weekend there will be a road block near the I-5 freeway exit and only residents will be allowed into the Mt Pinos area.

February 28th: The road up Mt Pinos is closed due to “snow and ice” and we do not know when it will be opened.

This last storm was of historic proportions and the local communities below the mountain are still trying to get back to normal. The word from Pine Mountain Club is that they are still running a warming shelter for people who lost power a few days ago implying that not all power has been restored. And the instruction on how to get to the shelter have provision for fire and rescue people transport those who can’t get there on their own implying that not all residential roads have been plowed.

Tonight’s weather forecast indicates that another one to two feet of snow may fall before tomorrow is over. On top of the last storm that is pretty amazing and make it that much harder for the local communities to get back to normal.

So we are in a “wait and see” situation with this weekend’s scheduled patrollers ready to get up the mountain if the road is plowed. One thing is for certain, when the road gets open there will be lots of snow to be shoveled to get Nordic Base back into operation.