At the saddle I needed to stay to the right of the ridge until I was able to pass a large rock outcropping. Some major post holing here. Once on the ridge the snow was in great shape so no more post holing. While I was going up, there was a helicopter that was checking the south side chutes of Ontario ridge for quite awhile. Not sure what that was about.
After that it was just a straight climb up. Once on top I intercepted a single pair of snowshoe tracks that were a few days old. I followed them and it looks like they came up from the ridge that starts from Deer Canyon.
I originally wanted to continue to Etiwanda but I had run out of Cytomax the day before so I used some old Gatorade I had around the house and it wasn’t agreeing with my stomach at all so I ate a small lunch then headed down to the saddle all the while looking at Bighorns east ridge knowing I’d have to go back up that thing (ugh).
Except for a persistent 20 –30 knot wind, weather was perfect. Except for a large group of people I passed in the morning didn’t see a soul until I got close to the parking lot.
Not as steep as this picture makes it look
Ridgeline with rock toward the bottom
Thankfully this didn't last to long
Chute to the left of ridgline
Top of Cucamonga
Cucamonga Peak
Etiwanda
East ridge of Bighorn