EISPIRATEN

I joined the usual weekend suspsects for a hike to the Ski Hut today. Ive been wanting to get more experience on the snow and some last minute info form Taco gave me just the push I needed to choose Baldy over something mundane. I didn't get to the TH until 0900 and there were already quite a few cars there. Start of the Ski Hut trail looks much different than yesterday's pix.


There was snow the entire route, certainly bootable to the ski hut.


Thought I'd see if snow shoes were of any benefit so I slopped on my Lightening Ascents for the last push. I think I fought them more than anything. Here's looking at the Ski Hut.


It's been awhile since Ive been at altitude and boy was I hurting. Between being out of condition, warm, and not eating right... it was pretty slow going the last 1/2 mile.

There were quite a few people on the trail, and I spoke to a few summitteers. They all went east, avoiding the avy danger of the center bowl. One guy said he sunk to mid chest a few times. It was a gorgeous day out there.



I donned my crampons for the descent and they seemed to do more good than not, but again, not necessary. Coming back down to Manker Flat innoculated me with a shocking dose of civilization. Holy moly, what a melee. I never knew that stealing snow was like THE winter sport of southern california. To top it off, some knucklehead dang near blocked me in my parking spot. Anyway, with the help of the guys behind me [yes, who were shovellin' snow into their p/u], I got out and started heading down the hill, excited that it was an early day and would have time for holiday chores.

Then there was the drive down the hill. Traffic STOPPED before Baldy Village, and it crawled, well mostly stopped, then crawled all the way down to the Mountain/Baldy Rd junction. It took ONE HOUR FORTY FIVE MINUTES to get from Manker Flat to the junction. OMG. Not sure what the problem was... all I saw was a broke down uphill bound RV in the middle of the junction with several cops around directing traffic. My usualy 1 hour Baldy drive was 2:45. Ouch. Still.... it was a great day and I was glad to be out in the snow!

PIX

Hey Ranboze, good to see you were able to make it out there. Sorry to hear about your traffic troubles on the way down. I've had that happen to me before when I left late. My time was 2 hrs of bumper to bumper and it was still like that even well beyond the GRR turnoff. C'mon people, there's nothing after GRR so get going!!

Great pictures Ranboze. Thanks for sharing.

I'm confused did you use the crampons to summit or did you stop at the Ski Hut?

Thanks

I did not summit. I put them on while coming back down from the ski hut, just to minimize slippage. They were certainly not necessary to wear coming down from the ski hut. However, crampons are a certain must for the ascent from the ski hut to the summit and vice versa.

Robin:

It sounds like you had a great day (except for the traffic going home). Baldy sure is nice when she's covered with snow.

Kathy

Good stuff. Sorry about the traffic. 8)

Great photos. Looks like it was a perfect day.

how was the road conditions??? chains neeeded???

thanks,

Thanx everyone. Chains not necessary Sunday, but Im sure it's a different story as of today. There was no snow on the road all the way to Manker Flats; don't know beyond that as I did not go passed Manker Flats.

Ranboze - very nice pictures. I enjoyed reading your TR. I remember the first time I climbed to the Ski Hut and beyond, I did the same thing. First I tried out some new snow shoes and I fought them the enitre way. Second, I strapped on some crampons approaching Devils Backbone, and no matter how tight I strapped them on, they kept malfunctioning. What a nightmare. I know how you were feeling.

Thanks again for the nice pics.

~EnFuego