Baldy Bowl Descent

[justaboringname]

On Wednesday I descended Baldy by a new-to-me route, straight down the bowl from the top to the ski hut. The rest of the trip was uneventful (Register Ridge --> Harwood --> Baldy --> Baldy/Dawson Saddle --> Baldy), but that descent was a LOT of fun and I would highly recommend it if you enjoy scree skiing. The route was straightforward, just head down the peak going southeast, roughly halfway between the Devil's Backbone and Ski Hut trails. Once we dropped into the actual bowl, there was a pretty defined line made by people who have gone before. At about 9000' I cut to the right a bit across a field of larger rocks to avoid what looked like a brushy part of that line and found another one heading more south down the bowl that was very nice. I intersected the Ski Hut trail on a more-or-less defined use trail about 20 feet before the little stream there, where I took the opportunity to dunk my hat in the water and wash off my hands (the loose dirt in the bowl left me pretty filthy).

If you do this with anyone, I'd make sure to leave plenty of room, since I dislodged some pretty decent sized rocks in a couple of places. Still, it's a really fun descent of a length that you don't get in the San Gabriels, so if you haven't done it I'd suggest giving it a try.

[Taco]

I just saw a post on reddit of someone complaining of people doing this. I get it. Huge city, lotta people, erosion, etc. I’ll still do it sometimes. F the police etc etc.

I often descend via the bowl (or did when my knees weren’t trashed). I think we took the same line. It’s on the right side of the bowl when looking up from the bottom. Very fun. Yeah, make sure your partners are outta the fall line before you move and so on.

I jokingly used to say I wanna descend it on a mountain bike someday. Hmmmmmm, maybe that day is fast approaching.

[Girl Hiker]

I love scree! Sounds like fun! as many times as I have been to Baldy (11x), I have never hiked the bowl.

[JeffH]

I love scree! Sounds like fun! ......

It's a lot more fun going down than up...