Sunday 3/15/09, with my friend’s Phil and Rich we climbed up Falling Rock Canyon (my first time), went over and visited Sugarloaf Mountain and then climbed the ridge and bowl to Ontario Peak. Beautiful day! The snow in FRC was in great condition for climbing with crampons and we were grateful that the canyon did not live up to it’s name. We removed crampons for the hike over to Sugarloaf, but later when we encountered some ice under a couple inches of snow on the ridge to Ontario we put our crampons back on. We hiked in bright sunshine all day while watching the sea of clouds over the San Gabriel Valley grow higher and higher. I came home with sunburned ears!
I am not sure why there are so many dead trees on Ontario Peak but it really gave me a solemn feeling walking through them. Felt to me like they were monuments standing in remembrance of a battle. We traversed over toward Icehouse Canyon for our descent and Rich and I removed our crampons so we could take advantage of the slopes for glissading. Very fun! We dropped into Icehouse Cyn one drainage short of the saddle and hiked through the drainage instead of the trail back out.
Great day with approx 8.5 miles and over 4500 feet of climbing.
my pix are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... RockCanyon#
Falling Rock Canyon to Ontario Peak 3/15/09
Norma, you keep it up and your going to get "Legend" status. Great trip report, even better pictures, any chance you can show the route you took up? I might try that sometime myself. 
The trees on Ontario Peak were decimated in a fire - Hiking Jim put up some information on this board a while back, maybe he can put it up again, I'm slammed at work and only can tell you it was a bad fire that killed most of the trees.
Thanks again for posting.
lilbitmo
The trees on Ontario Peak were decimated in a fire - Hiking Jim put up some information on this board a while back, maybe he can put it up again, I'm slammed at work and only can tell you it was a bad fire that killed most of the trees.
Thanks again for posting.
lilbitmo
Nice TR and pictures, Norma! I'm glad you didn't experience any of the "FR" in FRC. When I was on Thunder that same day, I heard some awfully loud noises coming from those side canyons next to IHC. I assumed it was rock fall and I thought, man I hope no one is climbing in there today. I thought about Robert Bruner who died climbing in FRC last March. Glad to hear your climb was successful.
Btw, that helicopter you saw was a San Bernardino County Sheriff airship. Not sure what it was doing, but it made several low passes over Thunder and the ski area around 1pm. Lots of fire/ambulances responding to snow play injuries on Mt. Baldy Road as well.
Btw, that helicopter you saw was a San Bernardino County Sheriff airship. Not sure what it was doing, but it made several low passes over Thunder and the ski area around 1pm. Lots of fire/ambulances responding to snow play injuries on Mt. Baldy Road as well.
It was a great day in the mountains.
Rich, Norma and I headed up towards Ontario Peak. Being new to this winter stuff, I wanted to try a real hike with crampons, Rich had never been to Icehouse Canyon, and Norma hadn’t done a hike in the last several hours.
Not a whole lot to add to Norma's TR. Just a thanks to Rich and Norma for dragging me along.
The views of the low clouds as they rolled in were a great contrast to the mountains all around that were in clear sunshine.
At the summit, it was quiet with hardly even a breeze. We had the summit to ourselves and the city below was completely blanketed in clouds. Looking towards Baldy, with a clear blue sky for a background - we wondered how crowded the summit was there?
After our lunch break, we headed over towards Icehouse Saddle. The areas with the dead trees looked spectacular in the snow blanket . The trip down was fun with several glissading opportunities.
We didn't see our first hiker until about 2 miles from the trailhead! Fun stuff!!
Pix below
Rich, Norma and I headed up towards Ontario Peak. Being new to this winter stuff, I wanted to try a real hike with crampons, Rich had never been to Icehouse Canyon, and Norma hadn’t done a hike in the last several hours.
Not a whole lot to add to Norma's TR. Just a thanks to Rich and Norma for dragging me along.
The views of the low clouds as they rolled in were a great contrast to the mountains all around that were in clear sunshine.
At the summit, it was quiet with hardly even a breeze. We had the summit to ourselves and the city below was completely blanketed in clouds. Looking towards Baldy, with a clear blue sky for a background - we wondered how crowded the summit was there?
After our lunch break, we headed over towards Icehouse Saddle. The areas with the dead trees looked spectacular in the snow blanket . The trip down was fun with several glissading opportunities.
We didn't see our first hiker until about 2 miles from the trailhead! Fun stuff!!
Pix below
just so happens i had two great opportunities back to back.lik2hik wrote: and Norma hadn’t done a hike in the last several hours.
thanks all!
mo,
in FRC it seemed we went right at every Y. then at the saddle we gained the ridge on our left to Ontario. walking out to Sugarloaf gave us a nice visual of the ridges that would afford us the easiest route to Ontario. on the way back we traversed the Ontario ridge toward Bighorn but dropped down so we would be at the same elevation as the Icehouse saddle. the drainage we chose to drop into had enough boot tacks coming up to indicate there was easy access to Icehouse Canyon so we skipped the saddle and dropped in there.
phil,
would you please post a link to the map. thanx!
