Enfuego set up a group hike for Ice House Canyon, Ontario and Big Horn.
8 souls showed up right on time at 7 AM, Enfuego, Zach, Eric, Kord, John, Noel, Nicole and myself (Patrick/Lilbitmo). We headed up Ice House at a very fast clip and reached the Saddle before 9:30.
The day started with some ominous warnings - One person forgot their hiking boots, two people did not have crampons and only two people had Ice Axes.
The person without the boots sent out with the rest of us and did make the Saddle and then headed down with Nicole as she needed to be somewhere by noon. So the other six of us headed out towards Kelly's Camp on our way to Ontario Peak first. Since there was missing equipment we tried to make it to Kelly's Camp but the conditions were such that it was apparant early on that this was not going to work, the snow had a firm crust on top and most of the snow was consolidated enough that had anyone lost their footing in the more exposed canyon slopes it would have been a disaster quickly.
The decision was made quickly that we would return quickly to Ice House Saddle and two people would go up Timber (it is almost completely devoid of snow now) and meet up with us at the Baldy Village Resturant later that day, while the other four of us would head back out to Kelly's and on to Ontario. We were able to follow very faint tracks in the snow that looked to be coming back from Ontario ( I think these are Dave G's and Phil's from the previous weekend?). Once we reached Kelly's the tracks dissapeared so we just "b-lined" up the slope to the ridgeline as it's obvious where you need to go from there.
Once we were 50 feet below the first ridgeline (just shy of where the sign used to be showing the arrows for Bighorn to the left and Ontario to the right, it's still there but it was lying down inbetween some rocks not on the "Post" that it was attached to in past trips out there) John dropped one of his gloves which quickly slid down 50 feet on a very steep slope. In his attempt to turn himself in a position to go get it he lost his balance and did a "Head First" glisade for 100+ feet just missing the dead fall tree that had stopped his glove on it's ride. The other three of us watched in "Stunned Silence" as it unfolded so quickly. Once he came to a stop he yelled up that he was "Shaken" but ok and he slowly made his way back up to us. We continued on for another 20 minutes until we came to the second "False Summit" (there are four leading out to Ontario if you stick to the ridgeline instead of trying to find the buried trail which stays below most of these "Rock outcropings") at which point John made it clear that he was not comfortable with the "amount of technical stuff" we were encountering. The conditions were very Icy, with lots of open exposure below us and the "Run out" was long with "Dead Trees" at the bottom (not very inviting) as I was out front of Kord and Enfuego I was having to "Kick Steps" for the others to follow but that only lasted for about 30 - 40 feet.
At this point John turned back and waited near the sign while the other three of us headed over the other two "Bumbs/Out croppings" and thus up to the summit of Ontario. We did the usual summits pictures and headed down to hook back up with John, and we were too tired to bag Big Horn so we called it a day, then down to Ice House Saddle, then to the parking lot, then the Baldy Lodge, some grub and everyone headed home.
The day was great, some clouds but plenty of sunshine, the conditions past the saddle were technical in nature (Icy and very exposed) so don't head out there unless you are experienced with crampons, ice axe, steep slopes and all the "self arrest" techniques required to be safe. Ice House Canyon Trail itself has plenty of spots where the ice is covered by a mixture of sand/dirt/twigs etc... but it's still slick and people were falling on their butts but with some patients and work it's not that hard to reach the saddle.
Thanks Enfuego for setting up this great outing, thanks Zach for taking Eric over to Timber and showing him the proper use of and Ice Axe, thanks everyone else for showing up and participating.
Pictures here -
http://s908.photobucket.com/albums/ac28 ... =slideshow
