03/10/09 Baldy Bowl and the Moonlight Maniacs (Pic Heavy)

EnFuego · Post by **EnFuego** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:57 am

Last night about 7pm I was coming home from the drug store with few supplies (gauze, tape, etc) for a surgery I was having this morning. I saw a beautiful full moon, and jokingly text Zach to do a climb. Dang it if he didn't say yes. So, we both rushed to pack our gear and we met at Manker Flat shortly before 10pm. We were lightly loaded for a speed ascent and quickly got on the way. Temps at Manker Flat was just about 29 or 30 degrees and no wind. Perfect conditions.

We arrived at the Ski Hut in just under an hour. We didn't use crampons up to this point. The snow was very hard packed and ice crusted. Crampons might have been good in couple locations, but nothing major. At the hut, we met a couple of other hikers/climbers that were out enjoying the moon too. I think they were Keith and Steve.

After a 15-20 minute break with them, we cramponed up, and headed for the base of the bowl. I don't have a picture of the route (I'll find one) but we basically headed straight up, just right of center. We opted to climb without rope for a quick ascent. The snow was perfect for this climb. Very hard packed, with a thin ice crust that was perfect for cramponing. Every step, with minimal effort was a solid purchase. There was no postholing. And there was abslutely no rock fall. Just the sound of crunching snow/ice under our feet.

The lower slope was about 45 degree average and steepened nicely to about 55-60 degrees the last couple hundred feet. We topped out on a 4 foot near vertical wall. From this point, Zach quickly made the summit, as I lagged behind with deep groin pain again. I believe Zach made the summit from base of bowl in just over an hour. I made the summit shortly after. Summit temps were about 17 degrees with a wind of about 12 mph.

On the summit, Zach broke out with "oh so sweet", Blue Moon beer. It's a Belgian beer, and is absolutly awesome. Thanks Zach. We were getting cold, so after quite a few pics, we quickly descended. We gained the Ski Hut again rather quickly. We took off our crampons and headed back to the cars. I would highly suggest crampons on the descent from the Ski Hut. Going downhill, it was slipper in quite a few spots.

It was another excellent trip, with excellent company. Thanks Zach, for making this trip happen, and thanks for the brew.

Well, I'm off to bed now. I just finished a nice climb, just finished having surgery, and I'm tired. Nighty night!!!!

Mother moon always looking over us:

Heading off:

Ski Hut with Keith and Steve in back:

Self portrait in the bowl:

Self portrait contemplating a rock traverse:

Near the top:

At the wall:

Topping out:

Reinacting my ascent up the bowl:

Me topping out:

On top:

Weapons of destruction:

Zach on summit with mother moon:

Me on summit:

MOONLIGHT MANIACS:

At the DBB sign:

Moonlight maniac on the loose:

Near the cars, "Goodbye Mother Moon":

~EnFuego and Zach, Moonlight Climb, Baldy Bowl

lilbitmo · Post by **lilbitmo** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:11 pm

Nice hike EnFuego - it's getting harder and harder to read these TR without being able to go

but the rehab is coming along and I think I will go out Saturday anyway to try to see how far I can get. I will stay on the west side of the bowl and get my "Sea Legs" under me again before I start going up "Bowl Faces".

Did they remove all the "Brain Matter" or just the "Frontal Lobe"?

As I always say, I'd rather have a "Frontal Labotomy", then a bottle in front of me"

as the former is the same as the latter for me

If you made the summit in 2.5 hours you must have been flying. Nice work, great report - it must have been like daylight out there as that moon was a bright last night.
Hope you heal up quick. Now get some sleep before I call you and raise hell for not inviting me.

Ze Hiker · Post by **Ze Hiker** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:45 pm

Blue Moon = win

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:08 pm

Amazing night. Moonlight was terrific for climbing. Damn crappy cameras!

EManBevHills · Post by **EManBevHills** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:30 pm

Your TR brought a smile to my face!

Heal well and quickly.

Post by **Taco** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:33 pm

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:38 pm

That looks so fun!!! Great pics.

GigaMike · Post by **GigaMike** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 7:40 pm

Sweeet. I almost went up last night myself. How much of the bowl did the moon lightup?

LD · Post by LD » Wed Mar 11, 2009 8:43 pm

lilbitmo wrote:If you made the summit in 2.5 hours you must have been flying.

I can't beat that when I can "see" the trail.

NICE job!

Liz · Post by **Liz** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 8:58 am

Very cool TR! Sometime this summer I'll do Baldy under the full moon. Then, when I'm a lil braver and a lot more experienced, I wanna do this with you guys in the winter. Hey, it's good to have goals.

EnFuego · Post by **EnFuego** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:00 am

GigaMike wrote:Sweeet. I almost went up last night myself. How much of the bowl did the moon lightup?

The entire mountain was lit up. We walked from car to ski hut without headlamps on. We ascended the bowl with our headlamps on, more for mental reassurance than anything. From top of bowl, I could see base of bowl lit up. It was beautiful.

EnFuego · Post by **EnFuego** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 9:07 am

Liz wrote:Very cool TR! Sometime this summer I'll do Baldy under the full moon. Then, when I'm a lil braver and a lot more experienced, I wanna do this with you guys in the winter. Hey, it's good to have goals.

Doing it in the summer is always fun. Full moon parties on the summit are always cool.

As far as the winter part, jsut start out slow with someone who can guide you, and work your way up (no pun intended).

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:06 am

Now that I've actually had some sleep maybe I can say something intelligible.

The ascent was great. I don't think I've ever experienced conditions that good on that mountain. Climbing at night with the moon out like that was terrific. If I hadn't had school at 630 the next morning i would have stayed for the bomber sunrise. I barely made it to my clinical rotation and by 10am my eyes were red and bleary. Contacts suck!

The bowl was felt like an escalator, i sent it quicker than I've ever done in the past. Maybe because I didn't feel as dizzy when I looked down.

Also, even though the headlamps weren't necessary for visibility it was useful to locate each other on the route.

The two guys we met at the base looked like they were gonna follow us up but when I looked down when i reached the top I saw their headlamps at the base making a retreat down the ski hut trail. I think they were more interested in their HAM radio than the mountain.

Anyways, I had a great time. My thanks to Dave and his spontaneous ideas! Keep them coming!

EnFuego · Post by **EnFuego** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:13 am

Zach wrote:Anyways, I had a great time. My thanks to Dave and his spontaneous ideas! Keep them coming!

I have a great spontaneous idea, but I need to wait till the right oppurtunity to tell you, otherwise it won't be spontaneous.

I'm not sure what the deal was with those guys we met. They had tons of electronics, and when I was ascending the bowl, they were at the base of bowl, sitting and talking, then there headlamps would go off, then they would go back on 50 feet over, then off again, then on again back at original location. They were both wearing harnesses, had helmets and rope, but never made it more than maybe 25 feet up the slope. They said they were going to do the west ridge, but they just stayed at base of bowl for about 30 minutes, then left.

Climbers are weird I tell ya.

hikehigh · Post by **hikehigh** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:26 pm

sounds like some covert CIA operation at the ski hut????

Zach · Post by **Zach** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 4:45 pm

haha! I doubt it, they were making some hot cocoa or something at the ski hut and were getting frustrated that they couldn't get anything out on their frequency... something about a bunch of old guys jamming the air waves with talk about the economic recession.

outwhere · Post by **outwhere** » Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:49 pm

That's amazing........ Baldy,,,, at NIGHT? Glad you posted the pics, or I mighta thought you were telling tales

I told my friend about this, he doesn't catch message boards.... or trails for that matter..... but he knows what's up on Baldy....... and couldn't believe it either, I bet he's still shaking his head.

Alright, the full moon helped a little, but still, geeze, you guys tripped a few of us with this one.

I remember we found some note in a sign in box, guessing it was at the top of Baldy - and written on it was a bunch of really weird, but interesting sentences/thoughts by someone who spent a moonlit night on Baldy.... it was obvious that this person ingested something much stronger than a beer or two....

I took pictures of the notes, will post if I can find them....

I'm impressed there EnFuego and Zach --- and it wasn't like you had nothing to do the next morning, to TOP it all off...

406 · Post by **406** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 9:47 am

sickness!!!