Using Baden-Powell and a New Years Eve hike up to the Hut as snow training, I decided to give it a go, as it seems like the best (some may say worst) of winter is behind us.
Conditions could not have been more perfect. My friend and I hit the trail at Manker Flats right around 7:45am and flew straight up to the Hut in no time (I did stop and pick up an Eispiraten sticker from the register box
). Scattered little patches of snow but nothing significant until maybe a quarter mile or so before the Hut. MUCH different than our New Years trek where we were knee deep in it from the start.
The first real patch on the trail
Eager to get going, we stopped only briefly outside the Hut to refuel. No need for spikes yet.
View of the Bowl from the Ski Hut
Maybe 200 yards or so uptrail, the dirt and rocks seemed to be out of the picture so we strapped on our spikes and searched for the best route up. The original plan was to stick with the regular summer route up, this being our first time, but the conditions were WAAAY too perfect and the Bowl far too inviting for us to not give it a shot.
The east bowl was awfully crowded with people heading up, so we sought out the less traveled way up the West Bowl to the ridge. Longer, but we were in no rush.
Getting crowded...
Not so crowded...
So we traversed what is usually a massive boulder field to the west, making sure to steer clear of the avalanche-risky areas and found a series of lightly used paths heading up to the ridge. Ran into a friendly group practicing self-arrest (from this board, maybe?) and then commited to the bowl route.
You never know unless you try...
Steep, but manageable and incredibly fun. Snow was hard enough to kick in decent footholds but not icy.
Once we reached the ridge, it was just a matter of hugging the spires to the west and reaching the summit area. In some parts, the snow got pretty deep and was surprisingly powdery, and rather than meander down around the steeper parts of the ridge (as the summer route does), we took a no-nonsense, straight approach. It was tough, grueling at times, but the scenery, as always, more than made up for it.
(Side Note: Does anyone know the name of the ridge above? I don't think it's Bighorn Ridge, but it's the one across Good(e) Canyon that the Bear Canyon Trail takes down to the village... I've checked and it doesn't seem to be labelled on my map)
Baldy is far from the toughest hike I've done, but this time due to several factors (trudging through deep snow, ascending the bowl, then a steeper-than-usual approach, etc), the summit push was hard. Like, reeeaaally hard. I would go about 10 feet and then stop, not due to shortness of breath or anything but I just completely lacked the energy to take another step. I hadn't forseen this, but it made reaching the summit that much more rewarding.
A very, very barren Baldy Summit
Arrogant Bastards
Baden-Powell and Friends
Getting down was easy: we glissaded most of the way down to the hut. 8)
All-in-all, this ranks up there in my list of favorite climbs. Baldy more than any other mountain always seems to have something up its sleeve that rewards you for repeated climbs.
See the rest of the shots here:
https://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid= ... 7304c35a26
