The clouds that brought in the storm that started Saturday left in its wake a covering of rime ice on trees, shrubs and rocks. What a way to start the season. It was so beautiful and impossible not to keep stopping to take photos of the fascinating visions.
We arrived at the ski hut to a window uncovered and smoke circling from the chimney. We were welcomed in by Pavel who had spent the night with others and served us his homemade Potato/Kielbasa soup with warm bread and we finished with hot tea with honey. Yum!!
The heat generated by the wood burning stove fogged up the lenses of our cold cameras and dried the clothes we hung. We also met Salvatore who joined us when we left for the summit.It didn't take long to realize that NOT bringing our crampons today was a lousy idea. While at the hut we heard the storm started with hail which must have left the ice layer that was under 6-8" of fresh powder. Slipping on the steep was the norm and made for a slow laborious ascent. Dave had an advantage of sorts with his Micro-spikies (they suck on steep stuff) and I spent more time on my arse than I ever remember.
Man am i sore! 
Up on the ridge i was eyeing my watch as I had plans for the evening and with the increasingly pounding wind and the waning visibility we eventually chose to turn-around. Descending was no easy task until we hit level terrain sub ski hut. Can you say, "slip 'n slide?"
Oh what fun we had on our first ascent of Baldy, Winter 2010/2011.
WooHoo!Even the register likes snow
It's looking a lot like winter!
Rime pine
Hut framed in rime
Millions of little ice crystals that make up rime
Goggled up
Did i mention it was windy???
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Zg ... directlink
Rest of my pix are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ryan.norma8 ... aldy112110#
