20080113 Baden Powell "Boulderdash", 640M C4 AI2

[Taco]

Fantastic!

Route page: http://www.summitpost.org/route/372697/ ... 4-ai2.html

Fritz (HE219) has much better pictures than I. I'll put up a TR on SP soon.

Some pics with descriptions, as I'm too lazy to write a full TR and I have work in a bit.


Whammo, our route.




Sunrise


Iron Mountain





Looking at our route


Fritz




Some pics, recon of the north side, as that was our intended route, but we decided to go to the NE side instead after walking back to the truck.




Got wind?


Base of the route, looking up






Fritz moving up


Neato avy debris that was hard and easy to walk on, but offered little for axe spikes to hold onto.







Our turn from the right to the left couloir.


Looking down


Scenery


Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz.


More scenery


Fritz tightening up his crampons


Looking out



Piolet Traction



French style rest


In the eye of the storm


Got hit by lightning. Big old black rock. Heard it coming, called it out, and it just had to hit me in the arm. Nothing broke, just a little blood, and some minor swelling. hit my wrist and hand as well. All is well now. Hurt like hell when it happened. Moved FAST down that thing! not cool. Need ninja arm protectors.


Picture of me after getting hit and feeling crappy.





Topping out


Scenery, looking at somehting I'd like to try on Iron Mountian... hmmmm...


Fud. *awaits comments on beverages*



Easy ski chute down to the parking lot area


We did not summit. I know there are some folks out there who say that if you don't reach the summit, you didn't climb the mountain. If that's so, I guess I played XBOX 360 all day long and must've had an out of body experience where I was climbing the side of Baden Powell. Sure was a realistic dream.

This route kicked ass. The ice in the couloir really refreshed me, and got my spirits back up after having bad luck and crap conditions for so long. It wasn't the pure water ice or anything super nice like you see in lotsa photos from around the world, but it was fantastic, and allowed one to ascend with French Technique (flatfooting) like a dream (in most places). Used Pied Troisome on steeper stuff (Third position, 3-o'-clock position, American technique, IE one foot frontpointing or heading uphill and one flat perpendicular to the slope).

Had a great time! Again, Fritz, thanks for coming along, and I'm sorry it kinda sucked in a way!

[hvydrt]

Glad you are safe after getting nailed by that rock! The picture of the avalanche debris is awesome, I love seeing stuff like that.

[Taco]

Amazing how much avalanche debris this thing puts off huh? It sitcks around for a long, long time. Probably why the chutes have good stuff in them, from being scoured.

Thanks!

[AlanK]

Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz.

You guys are good -- you pulled that off without either camera exploding!

[He219]

Here is that pic looking back!





Souvenir!


North Baldy looking awesome!
Next time I'll bring my snowboard up Baden-Powell.
Some of the best powder I've ever seen in SoCal. on the upper north slopes.

[Taco]

Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz taking a picture of me taking a picture of Fritz.

You guys are good -- you pulled that off without either camera exploding!

It started hissing loudly and making some sort of sound that suggested imminent doom, but we prevailed.

[Augie]

Thanks for sharing that TDR. Awesome scenery. Agree with you that summits don't matter that much when you have a nice route. Hey, you've got those French phrases almost down cold! You go well prepared, including in the vittles department.

[Taco]

Fritz is the master alpine cook.

Been memorizing French words after I got "Climbing Ice" by Yvon Chouinard for Xmas. 8)

[Travis]

Looks like a great climb! How come you decided not to climb the North-West route off the the ACH? Is that the location where the road is washed out that you originally planned on climbing? I am envious, I have not used crampons this year (doesn't help that they were stolen, but as soon as I have a reson to I will buy a new pair).

[Taco]

I didn't feel like taking the wlak back.

I think I might give Mine Gulch a shot! Looks like a stupid (good) idea!

[406]

[...]
Easy ski chute down to the parking lot area
[...]

We did not summit. I know there are some folks out there who say that if you don't reach the summit, you didn't climb the mountain.

Hey, I ran into you guys in the parking lot that morning. I was the one listening to tool and had the tele skies. Looks like you guys had a nice trip. You didn't miss much on the summit except wind.

The "easy ski chute" that you took the photo of had nice windblown powder. I thought it was easy also and was ripping it up until I caught the tip of my ski on a thinly snow covered thorny bush causing me to go face first into the thing. HA! Was a little more careful after that.

[406]

Next time I'll bring my snowboard up Baden-Powell.
Some of the best powder I've ever seen in SoCal. on the upper north slopes.

Yes, the upper third of the mountain was amazing skiing!

[Hikin_Jim]

I've gone down the Mine Gulch route in the summer. It's steep and slidey, but doable. If you have good snow coverage, that actually might be the best time of the year to do it. It's so slidey that it would be a PITA to go up it absent snow. Well, actually, Mine Gulch itself is a very moderate grade, it's when you turn into the side chute (see below) that it gets a little gnarly.

Nice thing about it is that you can make a nice loop -- or two -- out of it. I'm sure you've already figured it out, but just in case:
Basic Route: Vincent Gap Parking Lot down Vincent Gulch to confluence with Prarie Fork/N Fork San Gabriel River; from the confluence, head West and cross into Mine Gulch (~5 minutes, maybe less); head up for Mine Gulch taking care to be on the watch for where you go right up a side chute UTM 11 431946E 3801167N (NAD27) to the main shaft of the Big Horn Mine UTM 11 431519E 3801944N (NAD27); from the Big Horn Mine, walk the short road back to car.
Ridiculously Hard Route: Vincent Gap Parking down Vincent Gulch to confluence with Prarie Fork/San Gabriel River; from the confluence, head West and cross into Mine Gulch (~5 minutes, maybe less); head up for Mine Gulch taking care to be on the watch for where you go right up a side chute to the main shaft of the Big Horn Mine; blow past the mine and ascend the ridge immediately to the north of the mine, turning to the left and ascending to the top of Mt. Baden-Powell; from B-P, walk down the trail to Vincent Gap and your car. Alternativelly, you could skip the mine and go straight up Mine Gulch all the way to the top. Haven't done this alternative; not sure if it's doable. You'd be climbing the steep E face of B-P. Mileage 15+. Approx 5000' gain from confluence to the top of B-P. Possible waterfalls.

[Taco]

406, it's great to see you on here! I actually also talked to one of the guys who were in the other car in the parking lot that day. Small world eh? We had an easy time postholing and moving down that chute, following your ski tracks.

Jim, do you have a picture to show what you mean? I'm no good at numbers.

The route I would like to give a shot at is the actual center of Mine Gulch itself, as it heads direct up towards the summit.

[Taco]

Posted a more professional-ish TR on SPorg
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/3 ... owell.html