Chula Vista resident Eric Badinier rode the first tram up Mount San Jacinto as light snow fell Sunday morning.

Then he struck out alone to snowshoe the four-mile Round Valley loop.

“There was nobody. There was no track even,” he said later, stopping briefly on Round Valley Trail, where snow crystals glittered in the afternoon sun.

Wearing a backpack with extra provisions, he made the loop using a GPS tracker on which he’d mapped the route while hiking there last summer — which came in handy because there were no tracks to follow on the snowed-out trail.

Badinier, 57, is an experienced adventurer who began skiing and bouldering in the mountains of France when he was 10. He later served in the French Army’s mountain division but now works as a chef in San Diego.

On the last weekend in February, he was among hundreds of visitors from throughout Southern California who took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway high into a snow-covered mountain wilderness in Mount San Jacinto State Park.

Most people rode the tramway to catch views from Mountain Station, 8,516 feet in elevation, or play nearby in the snow.

Yet others — from Boy Scouts camping in the snow for the first time to experienced adventurers exploring winter wilderness on their own — took trams for easy access to hike, snowshoe or backcountry ski a small section of the 14,000-acre park.

Snowshoes or at least traction devices such as Yaktrax, Stabilicers or crampons were needed to navigate icy, steep sections, especially in colder, shaded areas of the forest, studded with granite boulders and evergreens.

Two Boy Scout troops – one from Irvine and one from Whittier – spent a cold, windy Saturday night camping in the snow.

Irvine mom Daniella Gorman and two other adults led four scouts and one scout’s young sister on a chilly overnight snowshoeing trip to Round Valley Meadow.

Heavy wind gusts and snow that started about 2 a.m. kept them from getting much sleep, Gorman said as they rested at the Long Valley Ranger Station before returning to the tram.

Her 17-year-old son, Felix Gorman, enjoyed the winter campout more than the first time when he was 11.

“I thought it was miserable then,” he said. “The more preparation for it, the more fun you’re going to have.”

Behind them, 11 members of Whittier Boy Scout Troop 54 — each wearing a heavy pack loaded with sleeping pads and other camping gear — snowshoed single file down Round Valley Trail along Long Valley Creek, which sometimes disappeared under the snow.

Led by four adults, seven scouts spent the night at Tamarack Valley after snowshoeing 2.5 miles, setting up tents and digging a snowtrench kitchen where they cooked with camp stoves for fun and winter camping badges.

Only one scout and one adult had camped in the snow before. They were in the tents by 5:30 or 6 p.m., said Troop 54 Assistant Scout Master Chris Da Broi.

“As soon as the sun went down, it was minutes before it got cold,” said Da Broi, who brought 13-year-old sons Jason and John, who said he fell while snowshoeing at least five times.

Wearing snowshoes, nine University of Southern California students on a student-run SC Outfitters day trip slowly traversed a snowy slope while taking the Round Valley loop.

Yorba Linda residents Andy Marquez and Ken Just snowshoed on the return leg of a 6.2-mile roundtrip to Wellman Divide, which they described as “spectacular.” Taking the trail downhill, Marquez slid sideways on snowshoes whose flattened metal teeth had lost their bite.

Backcountry skier Amalio Telenti alternated between skiing and hiking small stretches in backcountry ski boots. He said he considered the snowy mountain trails that wound around trees, boulders and a creek on his way to the summit of Mount San Jacinto and back to be easy.

That’s because Telenti, who works in biotech in La Jolla, moved to California two years ago from Switzerland, where he spent nearly every weekend in the Swiss Alps.

“It’s perfect,” he said. “Beginners need to go around the trees — that’s all.”