The Question Of Mineral King

Under 230 road miles from the San Fernando Valley, via the Golden State Freeway and the four-lane divided highway extension to Visalia, the Mineral King valley lies at a base elevation of some 7,500 feet. Mineral King consists of eight enormous bowls with descents down north-facing slopes of 3,800 vertical feet and more. The long-term history of snowfall is impressive too. Even in the drought year of 1962-1963 Mineral King had a more-than-adequate snow pack.

Since the middle forties, Mineral King has been recognized as one of the world’s greatest potential ski area sites. Such notables as Fred Iselin, Freidl Pfeiffer, Luggi Foeger and the late Hannes Schneider all eyed Mineral King as a site second to none. During the winters of 1947-1948 and 1948-1949 when the late Vicki Hasher was conducting snow and avalanche surveys in the area, Lowell Thomas spent several days skiing the bowls. His comment on the potential was: “Some day this will be the greatest in the world.”