Just ahead of the storm (Sat 12/5) my friend Darija and I did the Iron-Baldy traverse (Heaton to Iron to Baldy and back). This was Darija's first time on both Iron Mountain and the ridge traverse. This was my 4th time on the traverse (3 doubles and 1 single). We had a bit of a hiccup on the way back but persistence prevailed and we finally found our way. A biting wind, some serious wind-chill, insufficient clothing, rain-drenched brush, and climbing on the crux in the dark made for quite a memorable day with no shortage of delightful misery.
We started out at 5am from Heaton Flat and summitted Iron at 8:45am. Darija didn't bother to bring a pair of pants (she's hardcore) and simply wore a pair of thin spandex tights leaving her lower legs exposed (can you say buckthorn?). She seems to enjoy showing off the scars on her legs and is eager to earn more. I started off with a heavy fleace sweater but soon had it off. No matter the temperature you warm up fast on the trail and I felt silly for having brought such heavy clothing. Turned out however that I was truly thankful to have it later in the day.
We had our first taste of freezing cold wind on top of Iron. The ridge traverse went well and at times when we were in the sun and weren't hit by the wind it was rather comfortable. I could tell by the flattened and stretched clouds hanging over Baldy that it probably wouldn't be very pleasant on the summit. I was right. It was bitterly cold and windy. I was rather worried about Darija considering that I was cold even with a heavy upper layer. We reached Baldy's summit around 2pm (9 hours from Heaton Flat). Originally we had overly ambitious dreams of continuing down perhaps to the Baldy Notch before returning but with only 3 hours of daylight remaining such thoughts were quickly extinguished. We fell back to the primary goal of simply doing the double-traverse by returning back the way we came.
I figured 3 hours would be just enough time to return back to Iron before dark. Unfortunately things took a little longer than I expected and we found ourselves in the dark by the time we reached Gunsight Notch. Thus, we had to do the crux climbing on the trickiest part of the ridge in the dark. That didn't bother me since I knew all the moves and in fact this was probably the most fun I've had climbing along the knife-edge. It's more exiting when you can look down on either side of the ridge and see only blackness below. Even better was the fact that clouds had enveloped us and our visibility was extremely limited. Best of all the temperature continued to drop and along with the wind we were chilled to the bone. Clearly we're demented.
In the dark it was slow going on the knife-edge. There is plenty of loose rock and this was no time for mistakes. I knew that route-finding shouldn't be an issue (or should it?). We simply stay on the top of the knife-edge the whole time until we close in on Iron. Each time we came to a crux I recognized it and knew exactly what to do. It took awhile but I was relieved when we finally cleared the last significant obstacle that I remembered before the easier climb up to Iron's summit. With no further obstacles we would be on Iron in just minutes -- but why are we descending? We should be going up! We then came over an outcrop and below us the ridge seemed to disappear into darkness. That's definitely not right! We've made a mistake. My immediate concern was that we not make an even bigger mistake and get completely lost. It was critical that we find our way back to a known point. Had we gotten off on some side spur? I had unwisely chosen not to bring my GPS since I knew the route well enough (men are fools). We backtracked until we reached a point that we thought we both remembered. We then turned around again and carefully and slowly proceeded looking at all options to the left and right to see what we missed. Unfortunately we soon found ourselves right back where the ridge dropped away. Again, we must have missed a turn or something. Back again. After going back and forth about 3 times we decided to proceed downward even though it didn't seem right. Indeed, we were traveling on snow patches where there were no footprints so we definitely didn't come this way earlier in the day. At one point we pushed our way through some heavier brush to regain the ridge. Back on the top of the ridge we were now going up. Finally! This seems right now. And then before me I recognized a rocky outcrop. Excellent! My relief was suddenly shattered however when I realized it was an outcrop we had climbed over 30 minutes earlier. Somehow we had managed to pull a 180 on the ridge and were going the wrong direction. The limited visibility in the dark and thick fog had completely disabled our sense of direction. The situation was on the verge of becoming desperate. Darija had now been exposed to the cold for too long. Frost was forming on our clothing and in her hair. Worse still she was coughing hard and having great pains in breathing. Bivy wasn't an option.
Where is Iron Mountain? We backtracked yet again and then turned around and just as before found ourselves back at the unexpected drop. Surely the way must be forward but we'd already tried this once and been completely turned around without realizing it. We now used our ears. In the distance we could hear the wind blowing through the pines. Although we could see nothing but darkness in that direction it seemed worth a try to head that way. This time I had Darija stay behind so that I could keep her light in sight so that I would be less likely to get turned around. After pushing through some brush I was encouraged. I had Darija join me and we were soon moving upward. This felt right and though we were further away than I expected we finally managed to work our way up to the summit of Iron. It had taken 2 hours and 45 minutes from Gunsight Notch.
Now all that remained was the delightful hike back down the trail from Iron to Heaton Flat. I'd been down the trail in the dark a number of times before so I had become hardened to what torture it entailed. For those who haven't been on this "trail" let's just say it's steep. Darija on the other hand was experiencing this exquisite pleasure for the first time. It was made even more enjoyable by the fact that apparently while we were above the clouds on Baldy it had rained down at the lower elevations. Thus, the brush along the trail was saturated with water droplets and in no time our clothing was soaked. There was only one thing to do however and that was to get down.
The descent down from Iron in the dark took a half hour longer than our hike up. We reached Heaton Flat at midnight. Total time for the day was just shy of 19 hours. That was several hours longer than I had hoped but given the memorable experience we weren't too disappointed.
Photos: http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... lderID=857
-Rick
Iron-Baldy Double Traverse - 12/5/09
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EManBevHills
- Posts: 387
- Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:40 am
Sure glad you both made it out of there in 1 piece!
Rumors are that the rangers are talking about banning light and fast hikers
-- since they don't want any search and rescue helicopters triggering a slide......
Rumors are that the rangers are talking about banning light and fast hikers
-- since they don't want any search and rescue helicopters triggering a slide......
Ok, photos are up. I didn't take many after dark however.
http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... lderID=857
http://www.rickkent.net/ViewerPlus/view ... lderID=857
I haven't done it under winter conditions yet. I did have some difficulty on one trip with hard snow and no crampons on the north facing side of West Baldy. I expect the traverse could take substantial time with snow and ice present. We had thin patches of snow along the ridge this time but nothing that posed any issues.
Wow, another intense story! Glad everything worked out. I really enjoy reading these stories. I had my own mini-epic on this traverse last year and it was perfect weather. Can't imagine doing this in the cold and the dark. The yo-yo from Manker Flats took me the same amount of time--19 hrs, ugh.