Yes. Kurt said he was going to check with his dad. The story of that rock evidently goes back a while!
His dad's picture is in the Ski Hut along with a plaque. I got him to pose next to it when he came along on a group hike. He didn't know the picture on the wall was of him until he caught on about why I wanted him to stand in that particular spot.
It's a great question. The rock got its name because there used to be a piton on it. My father climbed on it in the 50s with some of his climbing buds at the time. They saw a piton on the rock but it has long since been removed. We don't know who removed it.
The way they used to climb on it was by slinging a rope over the top of the rock and belaying from the other side. Climbing shoes were of course not nearly as effective as they are now. Most of my father's rock climbing photos show him wearing a mountaineering boot.
The bolts came much later and I have never heard who put them there. As Ryan has noted in his photos some are rusty and others look to be in much better shape. Various people have used that rock for training from aid climbing to top roping. It doesn't see a lot of action though and it is hardly worth going up there just for the rock climbing. If you were headed up on a summit climb and decided to bring your shoes though there are a couple nice climbs on that rock.
I'll look around for some old photos and see what I can come up with. My father has lots of vintage slides from Baldy. I'll see if he has any of them climbing on piton rock.
Btw, this is a nice message board. Thanks for having it!
Thanks for the info. I wanted to get some aid practice in, so I figured I'd head up there and give its a shot on a day off since it's not a long walk up there, and I'm bored when not working.
Kurt Wedberg wrote:
I'll look around for some old photos and see what I can come up with. My father has lots of vintage slides from Baldy. I'll see if he has any of them climbing on piton rock.
Recently I sent a few hundred 35mm slides to a service bureau in Utah that scanned them for me. Once they were digitized, I uploaded a lot of them to Flickr and captioned them as best I could.
Try to get that done with your slide collection while your father can help with the captioning. I'm trying to get my own father to do the same thing with his slides from the fifties . . .
That's a great idea. I actually have a scanner here. I have so many slides from trips taken up through 2002 before I switched to digital I needed to get a scanner to deal with them.
I'll try to see if my father has any of piton rock. I've seen a lot of nice vintage shots of the Baldy and other So Cal areas. Here's one of my father rock climbing at Tahquitz in the 50s.
COOOOL photo. Highly vintage. Do my eyes deceive me or is that a manilla/hemp rope? And not even a "swiss seat" type tie off, let alone a harness. Pretty hard core old school. I love it.
Thanks for sharing that, Kurt. I do hope you get a chance to digitize those photos and caption them. I have 100's of my dad's old Sierra slides, but I never went through them before he passed.
Yup, that's a hemp rope with a single bowline tied around his waist. I was raised to believe the leader doesn't fall.
Yes, I do hope to digitize all his slides. Most from his collection were taken on Kodachrome 15. He was later forced to switch to Kodachrome 25, which is what I started shooting with. Digitizing his photos is on my "to do" list and hopefully it's something I can work on little by little on an ongoing basis. He has a lot of great photos. He has an awesome Sierra slideshow too. I should get him to show that presentation sometime.
Here's another vintage shot. Check out the hip belay with no belay anchor.
Kurt Wedberg wrote:
Here's another vintage shot. Check out the hip belay with no belay anchor.
Reaching the summit of Mt. Sill, circa 1962
wow, I love old photos. Are they finishing up the Swiss?
Yup they're finishing up the Swiss Arete. They didn't call it by that name back then. They called it the Northeast Buttress. My father seems to recall it was named by Ruth Mendenhall.
Kurt Wedberg wrote:Yup they're finishing up the Swiss Arete. They didn't call it by that name back then. They called it the Northeast Buttress. My father seems to recall it was named by Ruth Mendenhall.
Kurt Wedberg wrote:Yup they're finishing up the Swiss Arete. They didn't call it by that name back then. They called it the Northeast Buttress. My father seems to recall it was named by Ruth Mendenhall.
As in Mendenhall glacier?
I've never asked but I assume that is the case. John and Ruth Mendenhall were pretty active in the Sierra for a long time.
Kurt Wedberg wrote:Yup they're finishing up the Swiss Arete. They didn't call it by that name back then. They called it the Northeast Buttress. My father seems to recall it was named by Ruth Mendenhall.
As in Mendenhall glacier?
I've never asked but I assume that is the case. John and Ruth Mendenhall were pretty active in the Sierra for a long time.
My memory is not what it once was, but remember meeting John at least and maybe Ruth was with him at the time, on Middle Palisade Glacier back in the early mid 70's. I was there doing Middle Pal with a friend and they were up scouting out a climb they were going to be doing on a Sierra Club outing. Had the chance to talk with them for a little while, which was interesting.
Think I unexpectedly ran into you in the parking lot behind your shop on the 3rd and didn't bother to introduce myself. My bad. Missed you on Baldy several times as well....
Anywho, these pix of your dad are fabulous!
By any chance, are you familiar with Wilson Harvey? He may have been a bud of your dad's. I met him on my first Baldy ascent, and believe he may have (at one time) held the record for Baldy summits.
We had an 80th B'Day celebration for him at the hut several years ago.
I've tried to contact him recently, but have had no response.
Any info would be greatly appreciated.
BTW, I had just bailed on the Swiss Arete due to too late a start.
You were at my office and didn't come in and say hello???? I'll forgive you this time... just don't let it happen again
Yes I knew Wilson Harvey and his dog Space. I climbed on Baldy several times with him. I have not heard much about him in quite a while now. I'll ask my father and see if he knows anything.
Ok, done the Ski Hut and Bear Canyon in past winter conditions but have not made it there this snow season.
Thinking of doing it first thing tomorrow - what I need to know is where does the snow start on the Ski Hut Trail? How hard is it packed this year up to the Sierra Ski Hut? How Icy is it on the rocks below the summit by the West Ridge Line? How Icy is it at the summit?
Then if you could, can anyone tell me if a trail has been blazed from Devils' Backbone to the summit? We are thinking of taking the Ski Lift up as an alternative to the first approach and cutting across the Backbone.
Lastly, what's the ice/road conditions between Ice House Canyon turn off and the car switchbacks before Manker Flats - might be going there at 4 AM.
On Tuesday, we went up the Bear Flat Trail and down the Bowl and Ski Hut Trail. Snow was quite soft as we descended on a warm afternoon. It was reasonably deep until we got close to the road. We did not see anyone who came up the Backbone, so we know nothing about the situation there.
The only place we say hard snow was on the long traverse beyond 9000' or so on the Bear Flat Trail. Of course, things will change day by day now with the temperature.
Just posted a similar topic over on SP, but thought I'd try my luck here. I am an experienced hiker/climber with very little snow experience. Just came into my first pair of crampons (from EnFuego actually, thanks man), and am curious as to how the snow is looking on Baldy. It will be my first snow climb attempt and I am thinking I may just go along the bottom of the bowl and follow the normal bowl trail up around the SW side. Is this a good idea as opposed to just going for the bowl for my first attempt?
Is the snow there still good enough if I get up there around 6?
I'm thinking of trying it on Tuesday...let me know what you guys think.
Hey Sleighty. Lilbitmo and I did the exact same trail two weeks ago. Although we did not use crampons, there was a few areas where crampons would have been the way to go. But none the less, with careful stepping, we made it to the summit without crampons. We started at 5am, with head lamps. I would imagine, with all the warm weather, there has been a lot of melt, and first thing in the morning, crampons will most like be useful from the bottom of the bowl up the SW side. If this is your first time with crampons, I'd suggest sticking to the normal SW trail this once. Depending on what time you get to the bottom of the bowl, snow may already be soft enough where you don't need crampons. But pack them just in case.
Thanks man. Gonna head up on Tuesday, hike up top either way, just wanted to try to mess around with the crampons a bit to get some experience, we'll see how it goes. Thanks for the info though.
I did the bowl the same day as en fuego. the bowl is probably not the best place to use crampons right now. i'd try some place like san gorgonio's north face, it might not have as much snow-melt on it. plus, when i went up the bowl there was a LOT of rock fall... be careful!
Since we have been blessed with so much new snow over the last weekend and more likely on the way it's got me thinking about possibly snowshoeing in the Mount Baldy area on Monday if the weather is clear. I was wondering which route would you guys recommend as the best most direct route to the summit, yet not extremely steep. Is baldy bowl an option or is the avalanche danger likely to be too great. I doubt my gf and I will actually make it to the top considering all the deep snow but still would like to have a pretty solid goal in mind since we plan to get there really early. If anything else we plan to have a great time snowshoeing in the area since we have never been there in deep snow .......Any suggestions or tips you guys may have would be greatly appreciated...........
Hey Brian - I think the Ski Hut trail from Manker Flat to the base of the bowl, and then the west ridge up to the summit is an awesome snow shoe route. Not to steep, yet steep enough that you know you are doing some good elevation gain in a short distance. For more steep ridgeline, I Register Ridge is a butt kicker, but beautiful and fun route. This will take you up to the east side of the summit and you can traverse the ridgeline west to the summit. Here is a previous TR you should check out. Not the one I was looking for, but it'll give you an idea:
If you decide to head straight to the base of the bowl, I believe the far eastern slope is the gentlest (but still steep) gully of them all and in good snow would make for a fun snowshoe ascent.
I did the Register Ridge - Ski Hut loop yesterday without snowshoes. I would not take them if I went again soon, but some people had them. There are certainly places where they would have made life easier. I'd call 'em optional.
I doubt my gf and I will actually make it to the top considering all the deep snow but still would like to have a pretty solid goal in mind since we plan to get there really early. If anything else we plan to have a great time snowshoeing in the area since we have never been there in deep snow 
.......Any suggestions or tips you guys may have would be greatly appreciated...........
