EISPIRATEN

Tired of all the hustle and bustle of Baldy on a weekend. Then try Ontario Peak. “Almost” guaranteed to have the mountain to yourself.

Left the parking lot at 7:00. There was a trail that was made after the latest storm and of course it ended at 6900’ again. This time though crampons were needed as the snow was fairly frozen as I went straight up the gully to 7300’ before cutting over to head for the saddle. As I got into the trees it softened up so I put on my snowshoes and didn’t take them off the rest of the day.

Went up Bighorn where there were old ski tracks from probably a few days ago. They stopped on top. Headed down Bighorn then stayed pretty much on top of the ridge to Ontario. The snow was “perfect”. Except for the snow’s tendency to ball up under my shoes I never postholed and never needed crampons.

Shirtsleeve weather most of the way up. Very little wind and “very” quiet. I continued the up and down of that ridge passing the many false summits until Ontario was finally in sight. I finally made it, 30 minutes short of my turn around time. Did some eating then headed down.

About 30 minutes down I saw another hiker coming up. It turned out to be Gigamike. He said he saw my post and decided to do Ontario also. He saw my tracks so he figured it was me. Din't have snowshoes Just hiking in his boots. Amazing. Shot the breeze for a while and we parted going opposite directions.
It was nice meeting you Mike. Look foward to your report.

Question: Opposite columbine spring is Delker Canyon. Has anyone done this? It would save a lot of time and milage coming down. Looks very doable.

I saw this guy camping overnight. I would have been very nervous camping in that spot


Only sign showing


Bighorn from the west


Cucamonga. Nice ski lines for those that like to bc ski


Ontario ridge line. Hard to get lost


Almost there


Finally


The Tree


Delker Canyon

Cool beans.

Nice report, nice pic's.

Thanks

Nice tr.

Crazy:


I differently need to check that stuff out:

It was great meeting you Len. I don't have much to add, so I'll just mention a few things on your TR.

The Icehouse parking lot was its usual madhouse, but somehow I managed to find a parking spot just after 9am. There were a lot of hikers on the lower part of the trail below Icehouse Saddle, but most of them turned around. When I reached Icehouse Saddle at 11:20am, there were only 2 people there. Thanks to Len's snowshoe tracks up to Bighorn & Ontario Peak, it made the postholing not as bad (I forgot my snowshoes at home). The postholing on the way down from Icehouse Saddle though was terrible, constantly falling knee deep. Although I brought ice axe & crampons, I never used them.

Pretty warm all day, but still a great day out.


My Pictures: Bighorn & Ontario Peaks - 2.21.09

LD wrote:Tired of all the hustle and bustle of Baldy on a weekend. Then try Ontario Peak.

Good idea.
Isn't the parking lot (icehouse) a bit of a zoo? I've seen it full pretty early in the morning.

GigaMike wrote:
The Icehouse parking lot was its usual madhouse, but somehow I managed to find a parking spot just after 9am.

Hey I posted at the same time as you!
Nice photos.

This looks yummy:

Hi 406, I was thinking the same thing. Although I don't ski, I want to climb that slope up to Timber one of these days.

GigaMike wrote:Hi 406, I was thinking the same thing. Although I don't ski, I want to climb that slope up to Timber one of these days.

I got my inclinometer out as I was going up that before I traversed over and got an angle of just under 45 degrees. The topo says 1/4 mile for 1000' of gain to the top.
Just say when I wouldn't mind bagging Timber that way.

Nice TR and very nice pics. Makes me want to leave work right now and get up there.

LD wrote:

GigaMike wrote:Hi 406, I was thinking the same thing. Although I don't ski, I want to climb that slope up to Timber one of these days.

I got my inclinometer out as I was going up that before I traversed over and got an angle of just under 45 degrees. The topo says 1/4 mile for 1000' of gain to the top.
Just say when I wouldn't mind bagging Timber that way.

Hey 406 and LD - I'm in too. I don't have BC skiis yet, but I'll bring my toboggan or trash can lid. Seriously though, me and one other person are definately interested. Keep me posted if you don't mind the extra company.

Timber ridge to Telegraph Saddle is a fairly steep and airy (FUN) descent.