EISPIRATEN

On Jan 24 we went up Falling Rock Canyon and Cherry Canyon to Ontario Peak, then returned along the route of the summer trail. Falling Rock and Cherry Canyons, which are north-facing, had pretty good snow cover. It was enough to allow us to go up steep slopes using crampons rather than groveling up ...

Taco wrote: ↑By Harwood Ridge, do you mean Register Ridge? The one just uphill from the register when hiking up the start of the Ski Hut trail?

Yes.

Baldy shouldn't be snow-bare for long!!!! I love your optimism. I asked Santa for an epochal El Nino year in the San Gabriels with Donner Party levels of snow as low in elevation as Baldy Village, not melting out until June. Back in reality...I did the Harwood Ridge/Ski Hut route again today, accom...

Went up Harwood Ridge today (Dec. 23) and came down the Ski Hut Trail. Yesterday's storm seems to have deposited zero snow. The whole route could have been done in tennis shoes. The bowl is completely bare. The summit is only about 50% covered with patches of thin snow.

The ridge is brushy in some places and somewhat overgrown with poodledog, but not too bad. No one in our group had any ill effects after carefully moving through it in a few spots. Any poodledog bush is too much poodledog bush for me. It does seem to be less dominant in the burn area than it was a ...

Tracy from CMC says, "An ice ax was not found with him, although he could have lost it along the way." She describes massive injuries.

Of course regardless of whether he was properly prepared, it's still just as sad for his family. Pretty lonely way to die.

Trying to determine what trail he was on. It said on the "southwest side"....and based on the stats mentioned, that can only be ski hut trail, right? The Press-Telegram article says he was on the ski hut trail and was found in the bowl at 10:45, so he must have fallen while on his way up ...

The snow may have been thinning out with all this hot weather this week. The shady south end has been very icy.

The real question in my mind is whether he had ice ax and crampons. The articles specifically say that the reporters weren't able to find out.

http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_22 ... t-mt-baldy

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local ... 70381.html

zorobabel wrote: ↑ How did the 3T's look? Were chains required?

I didn't look carefully at 3 T's. The ski resort is claiming a foot of snow at the notch, but I'm skeptical. I didn't need chains to get to Manker.

The Baldy Bowl has 100% coverage at the south end, 75% at the north. Conditions were icy at the south end, fairly well consolidated at the north. Near the summit, in the morning, it was effortless to walk around in crampons, almost no postholing. Unfortunately we have a week of sun and high temperat...

you guys dont just take a couple waterbottles? When i go there, even the long way from the village, i have more than enough water if i bring 2 24oz and my 1 handheld 20oz. ive never even thought of refilling anywhere, and that was taking the long way in late june and early july. You must be some th...

Awesome, thanks, Taco!

Thanks, Taco -- that's very helpful! Unfortunately 5.11 is way beyond my capabilities at this point. Most routes are 5.7-5.8 on rock that's pretty bad. I could give you more info if you're interested, but since none is online at the moment it'll take a while. It's probably not worth going to all the...

Excellent info, thanks, Jim! There's the question of whether you can ever get stuck without water there in late fall, in a dry year. I was there Sep. 2, 2012, which was early fall in a year of extremely low snow, and there was good flow. I talked about this to Pavel, who is local, has a key to the h...

A colleague who teaches geology takes his classes to a slot canyon near Barrett-Stoddard Rd, below Baldy Village. He says the east side of the canyon is granitic rock, and he sees people climbing there. Anyone have any further info, such as routes and ratings, quality of rock? The only other concret...

I saw that story earlier, unclear as to where they were when injured. I can't picture going from the backbone trail to the ski hut after some kind of incident where I would need a stretcher to get out. If he slid down off of the backbone trail, to the south side, he could be sliding right down into...