very cool you're gonna ski the High Route! how much of it are you doing?
can't help ya with the LA area skiing, but here's some tips for getting around the east side of the Sierras. Becky and I hiked the John Muir Trail last summer and had the same dilemma of how to get around when doing a long one-way trip.
There are some private shuttle services on the east side of the Sierras...they are quite expensive, so didn't bother investigating much more details after seeing the prices.
There is bus service, not sure what the schedules are like this time of year, but both ESTA and YARTS have buses that are pretty cheap:
easternsierratransitauthority.com/wb/pages/bus-routes.php
www.yarts.com/
We didn't want to burn the extra days needed to get from Lone Pine to Yosemite entirely via public transit, so we drove into Mammoth, rented a car, drove both to Whitney Portal and dropped off our car, then drove back to Mammoth in the rental and caught the YARTS bus into Yosemite.
If you're short on time and need to drop a car off at some random trailhead, and can get to the start of your trip via one of the buses, the rental car option might work well for ya. That being said, it sure sounded like hitchhiking was really common...at least amongst backpackers in summer.
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