EISPIRATEN

Hello SGMDFers!

Any thoughts or recommendations regarding getting up to the Notch to traverse the Backbone very early on Saturday morning? Walk the road? Poach a slope? I don't feel like bouncing out to Stockton Flat or crossing the 'T's.

Thanks for your suggestions,

Elwood

Hey Elwood,
FWIW, I've found that during ski season I have better luck getting a ride down on the lift, rather than up. The people at the bottom that sell you the tickets seem to be more militant about not letting hikers on, then do the operators at the top. Of course your mileage may vary.

That means you'd have to go up to the summit on the Ski Hut Trail and head east on the Backbone to the notch. I was up there today and the ski hut trail/boot track is in pretty good shape. The bowl is setting up pretty good too, as long as you're early, or you can take the track going up through the trees on the left. Also, the wind was blowing like crazy today and most of the ice has been knocked out of the trees, so you don't have to worry about "death from above" so much.

Hope that helps--have fun!

The ski resort people seem to be pretty tolerant of us climbers. A lot of times they're even curious about what we're doing. I've walked the slopes several times and as long as I was on the side, they pretty much left me alone. One time I did a glissade on the side of a steep run (couldn't help myself--had to do it) and a patroller skied right by me without saying anything. Although this was late in the season last year so maybe he didn't care

Not sure how they'd feel about climbing up the slope underneath Chair 1 since it's now ski-able to the parking lot, but going up from the Notch to the DBB shouldn't be a problem. There are a lot of non-skiing folks up there anyway for tubing, sightseeing, leaving trash, etc.

I was briefly on DBB yesterday AM - my first time up there. My friend and I walked the Falls road to the notch. From there we walked up what looked like a road, but later turned out to be a groomed ski run. (We stayed on the ungroomed ridge as much as possible. I didn't enjoy this part (visions of being dive-bombed by skiers), but we reached the boundary of the ski area a bit before 7:30 AM . . . None of the ski employees that saw us seems to care, but I imagine that would be different if the lift was operational.

Anyway, I would appreciate a better way of getting from the notch to the boundary of the ski area if someone has a suggestion.

Regarding the conditions of the ridge. It was really windy . . . painfully windy. Every exposed section of skin was pelted by tiny shards of ice. It really hurt, and you couldn't see with or without glasses. The wind has created awesome snow formations all over baldy . . . but the DBB ridge had some scary/awesome cornices yesterday.

Ultimately, we decided to bail into Manker canyon and traverse across various smaller canyons until we retook the ridge near Harwood summit. From there it was an easy walk to Baldy. It was an awesome day to be in the mountains.

Nice work labgloves, I avoid the ski lift area as much as possible, except when I need to get from the Three T to the other side or to get to the backside of Thunder.

Taco should be able to tell you if there's a short cut below the upper ski lift station to go west I just don't know the landmark or canyon to cut up, but I'll bet he does.

Do you have any pictures of those snow formations?

I have plenty of pictures and can put some tonight!