Photo shows rare avalanche in Southern California on Mount San Jacinto

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – As if Southern California blizzard warnings and snow-dusted yuccas weren’t already surreal enough, some eagle-eyed interstate travelers saw another rare sight Sunday that might’ve left them wondering if they’d made a wrong turn into the Rockies.

A photo of an avalanche taken by Joyce Schwartz Sunday and later shared by the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit showed snow cascading down the north face of the mountains, sending multiple plumes into the air. Schwartz said she and a friend were driving west to Palm Springs on Interstate 10 at about 9 a.m. local time when the friend saw the snow start to move.

"My friend noticed the clouds and the snow on the mountains and we started looking at it and taking pictures of it and then she said, 'that's an avalanche,'" said Schwartz, who called the sight a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Schwartz, who has lived in more avalanche-prone areas of New York state and Vermont, said Sunday was her first time seeing an avalanche. She used her cellphone to grab the picture, and assumes not many people around her noticed it as traffic did not slow at all from drivers taking a look.

"Here's the thing, who would realize it was an avalanche?" she said.

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Avalanche a 'very rare' occurrence on the mountain

The avalanche was an unusual occurrence on Mount San Jacinto, Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit President Eric Holden said.

“On Mount San Jacinto, the conditions just aren’t good for avalanches with the slopes and amount of trees we have,” he said. “So, to see something like this happen is very rare.”

However, Holden said that the one place where avalanches can sometimes happen is that north face. Thankfully, no one is believed to have been on the mountain at the time.

The section where the avalanche occurred rarely has people on it, he said, because climbing options are limited to a very technical route that is typically attempted only by experienced climbers later in the season.

Holden said he could not recall the last time there had been an avalanche on Mount San Jacinto. But in 2020, two people had to be rescued when they were caught in an avalanche while hiking in Snow Creek Canyon on the north face.

One thing Holden was sure of, however, is that Sunday’s avalanche appeared to be no joke.

“That face of the mountain is 10,000 feet big,” he said as he referenced the photo. “So, that avalanche looks very large.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Southern California avalanche seen at Mount San Jacinto