It was a bad fire year and fire restrictions are going to be the toughest part of your plan within 5 hours of LA. I don't know of anywhere that has snow that is allowing fires. It is possible the restrictions could ease up in December/January. One area I thought of was off of the Angeles Crest Highway up by Mt. Waterman but it looks like it was decimated by the Bobcat Fire frown . I really loved that area.