EISPIRATEN

I did an early climb of Baldy Bowl this morning, summitting before 9:00. The snow (and there is still a lot up there) was hard and icy. Sunny and gorgeous with high winds on top. I know that Norma was up there too, but I never saw her. But she did return my trekking poles! :D Here is my trip report....

Anyone up for an early climb of Baldy Bowl on Thursday? Here is the catch: I'll need to be hiking by 5AM. PM me if interested.

Great photos, Norma! I especially liked some of your captions in your web album.

Thanks everyone, especially Dave and Norma for joining me on this adventure. Hey Norma, post some pics!

Great trip report and photos, Patrick! I was surprised to see how much snow is still up there, especially on the south side of Yucaipa Ridge. Now you can all sign the SummitPost climber's log for "Northwest Couloir on Peak 9164" on the Galena Peak page. I called it that instead of Galena G...

On Wednesday, three of us returned to "Ollestad Canyon" on Ontario Peak to climb the left branch. The climb involved about 4400 vertical feet of elevation gain, including 3000 vertical feet of snow climbing, mostly at 40 degrees but peaking at 50 degrees. The snow was hard and icy for most...

We made it. Trip report to follow . . .

Tomorrow three of us will be climbing Ontario Peak via the (climber's) left branch of the canyon in between Cherry Canyon and Kerkhoff Canyon. We will descend Sugarloaf Ridge to Falling Rock Canyon. Ya know, just in case . . .

Great shots, simonov. We were looking at Baldy Bowl all day from Ontario Peak, but couldn't see any climbers.

Someone has been missing since Monday on Baldy?!? Has the person been found yet?

Nice outing and great pics, GigaMike. How long did it take you to get to the summit of Jepson Peak? How were the snow conditions? It didn't look as though you were sinking too much.

Thanks everyone, especially lilbitmo and Dave G: it was great climbing with you guys again. Good photos, too!

I've been eying that SW ridge. Thinking of starting from stoddard flats though and coming down FRC. I thought someone beat me to it. How far did you go? I looked with my binos and it didn't look like the tracks continued on too far down the ridgeline. We climbed the drainage in between Cherry Canyo...

On Friday, Dave, Patrick, and I climbed Ontario Peak via the drainage in between Cherry Canyon and Kerkhoff Canyon. The climb involved over 3000 vertical feet of continuous snow climbing from 35-50 degrees, and 1500 more vertical feet of approaching and ridge traversing. Were it not for the approach...

Sam Page wrote:Does anyone know how to access the drainage northwest of the summit of Ontario Peak?

I figured this out for myself on Friday. A trip report is forthcoming . . .

Thanks for your response, Lyn. You must have followed our tracks from Friday all the way up to the summit of Ontario Peak. Did you see our tracks heading down the west ridge of Ontario Peak?

Where exactly in Falling Rock Canyon was that unfortunate guy climbing?

Tim wrote:FRC had a fatality 2 years ago almost to the day.

What happened?

HikeUp wrote:Dunno if you've seen this info on FRC or not.

Thanks.

Ok, I'll go have a look tomorrow.

How would descending the entirety of Falling Rock Canyon from Ontario Peak be right now? Anything above class 3? Any steep ice?

Patrick: I second Norma. I just appreciated (and was impressed) that you took the time to lay out what happened in detail.

Mt. Baldy via the Ski Hut route (the summer trail) would be a good early outing with ice axe and crampons. The Ski Hut would be a good place to don the gear. You could also try ascending Register Ridge and descending the Ski Hut route.

What do you mean by "not in climbing condition for a while"?

Sounds miserable, but perhaps retrospectively pleasurable. I didn't understand this: "When I got to the crux of the narrows, I was in some kind of trouble since I was missing about 2ft of getting a handhold in the rock. I let go of my backpack, then tried to close the distance. I didn't make it...

Nice. The snow conditions are perfect now.

Is Baldy Brew the big couloir to the right of Safety Dance and Lightning?

For some reason, the human tracking photos made my heart race a little. I don't have a clue where Lost Canyon is. How do you suppose the rock quality is? And now for some tangential questions: Can one drive a passenger car north on the 39 all the way to the 2? And how did you access your snow climb ...

Lucky. I guess it's because of how much snow we got this season. Last year, it was a suckfest. Sometimes I get lucky. Sometimes I don't. Not knowing which it will be is half the fun. I was a little concerned by what you said about dense buckthorn in Cedar Canyon, but we saw almost none. I guess it ...

TacoDelRio wrote:Didja run into much on the descent?

Instead of descending "Ryan's Ridge", we followed Cedar Canyon to the Chapman Trail. The snow was perfect until about 100 yards before the intersection with the trail. Then it softened and disappeared and we resorted to a small amount of thrashing.

Nice photos, Patrick. And thanks again for the image that inspired this outing!

AFAIK that's all part of Cherry Canyon. It gets pretty craggy in there. What's the deal, got something cool planned? The maps I've seen place Cherry Canyon immediately east of the drainage I'm talking about. As far as planning, I've wanted to climb that mystery drainage since reading Crazy for the ...