West Baldy, Baldy, Harwood and the DB at night - 12.19.09

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
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GigaMike
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Joined: Sun Feb 24, 2008 4:37 pm

Post by GigaMike »

I wrote a TR in my photo album and the photos also have captions....

http://www.digitalalpine.com/2009-Pictu ... 6321_HCWeZ

I'm tired.

Image
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Tim
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Post by Tim »

Hey Mike, good seeing you again. One time I had to downclimb that ridge at the crux too, but not in the dark!

Btw, did you see this girl in the pink helmet again on your climb up the bowl?

http://www.digitalalpine.com/2009-Pictu ... 4836_qRyvT

The two people they were looking for were two climbers who might have fallen down the Bowl from half way up at around 2pm. Someone called this in and said one had a pink helmet and the other one was guy in a black or blue helmet with a brown jacket. The Sheriff Dept wasn't able to contact the RP again and they never found the climbers. Two helos and an ANF ground crew were sent in and the ground crew turned back after hiking halfway up to the Ski Hut. At Manker, WVSAR questioned everyone who came down for info but no one knew or heard of anyone getting hurt.

I guess it could have been they were going back down and glissading, which looked like a fall?
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GigaMike
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Post by GigaMike »

Hi Tim,

I talked to both the women and the man as I passed them up the bowl. I was a bit concerned for the women as she seemed to be having a hard time with her footing. When I talked to her, she said it was her 3rd time going up the bowl and the guy above her was her climbing partner. I told them I would see them on the summit, but they never arrived. When the SAR helo told me via intercom that they were looking for 2 climbers, they were the first people I thought of, so I climbed around the top of the bowl looking down all the chutes but didn't see or hear anyone.

Btw, the upper part of the bowl was very hard snow and ice. I had to front point to climb out. I don't think a self-arrest would of been possible.
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lilbitmo
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Post by lilbitmo »

Nice work Mike - those evening pictures are fantastic. Kinda weird having the Helo flying around looking for people and no one can find them.

If we get more "Rain" instead of snow those upper reaches of the bowl are only going to get slicker - let's all pray for snow :D
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hvydrt
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Post by hvydrt »

Those sunset pictures are awesome! I think that $10 you found was mine. :lol:
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Taco
Snownado survivor
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Post by Taco »

AWESOME photos!!!!
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Ze Hiker
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Post by Ze Hiker »

man ,really pretty
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simonov
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Location: Reno, NV
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Post by simonov »

The couple geared up while I was at the Ski Hut. The boyfriend actually put the crampons on the pink helmet girl for her.

Sounds like the rescue was a false alarm and they made it out okay. There were a lot of people there Saturday.
Nunc est bibendum
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tinaballina
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Post by tinaballina »

Giga-great tr and thanks again for my note at the summit. i had to summit in order to see it, i was determined.
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whatmeworry
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Post by whatmeworry »

Nice pictures.

I like the picture of the "crevasse" near the top.

Did you notice if the crack went down to the ground?

As you probably know, the fracture you see is not a crevasse, but is formed due to creep (downhill motion occuring within the snowpack as it slowly slides down the hill) or glide (motion of the snowcover relative to the ground).

These are very interesting indicators of potential avalanches and can help form an overall impression of the avalanche risk and quality of the snowpack in that location.

With the hard icy layers forming on top of the older snow from the last storm cycle we're building a good sliding surface that new snow won't likely bond well with early on in the next (this weekend?) storm cycle.

Looks like a great climb overall.
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