Thanks to Dave G for a great outing and great trip report.
Having done the North East Face of Harwood two weeks ago with Taco and Sam and not being able to join them for the unfinished business of bagging Baldy’s North East Face, I too had some unfinished business, so when I suggested to Dave that we go, he was all for a shot at one last classic winter/spring snow climb of Mount Baldy from a route neither of us had ever done.
The weather was perfect, warm but not hot. Our early start allowed us to scramble up creek over most of the snow bridges without too much trouble – the deadfall also provided us with easy access to cross back and forth across the creek as needed.
We made it to the bottom of the route in just under three hours (thanks mostly to Sam Page and Taco for their great trip reports and some emails back and forth with Sam the day before we left – I knew exactly where to start this time).
The snow conditions were absolutely perfect 90% consolidated and firm, very little ice and only a tad bit of slush on the edge of the chutes. We made a quick dash up the lower portion then stopped to make adjustments to equipment and fuel up before heading up the remainder of the route. We spotted a rocky outcropping way up on the ridgeline to climbers left (which I affectionately named “the grey nipple” as it looked just like a nipple made of rock ) we then had a choice of going left of that or right, we choose to go right which turned out to be the most direct route to the summit – we later confirmed that when we were high enough in the coulier to see the top of Mount Harwood and then the backbone trail with hikers coming up that way – just to our left.
Once on top we were treated to the greetings of “Is that Little Bit Mo and Dave G” by “Blooty (Tracie)”, Rick Graham and Mark Irving. After 20 minutes of talking about future hikes/climbs and the usual “good to see you’s”it was then time for me to do a special “Memorial Day” moment for my “Girl Lucy” who died exactly one year ago this weekend. I sprinkled her ashes on the mountaintop and Dave and Mark were kind enough to take some shots of me doing so for my wife Meg.
Soon enough it was time for us to head down, we traversed across the Harwood/Baldy saddle to just the right spot with the most open run out and proceeded to glissade all the way down to the creek in a matter of 15 minutes.
Putting away the ice axes we headed downstream, an hour into down climbing and crisscrossing the stream we were making good time but doing it safely (so I thought). Stepping off some “schist’s” onto a 10 inch diameter deadfall tree trunk that was wedged between two rocks, I put all my weight forward and the truck snapped (which in itself was not a big deal) but as soon as I swung the other leg around to catch myself I pushed off with the leg that had the tree snapping under it, to my surprise all of the “tree bark” that was covering the log came off all at the same time. This created the effect like losing your balance on ice and both feet went up in the air behind me, propelling me through the air faster than I could catch myself with my hands – the surface to my left was all granite and I hit head first about eight feet from where the log was – lucky for me there was one rock sitting on the surface (the size of a softball) that my head hit first and it gave way slightly breaking the full extent of the impact – had it not been there I would have hit solid granite and continue off the edge into the creek another 10 or 12 feet below with more jagged rocks and the swirling of the bottom of a small waterfall. Dave was there within a minute and doing “field surgery” – thanks Dave. The bleeding was the worst part as I couldn’t tell how bad it was until Dave said it didn’t need stitches
– that was a great relief.
Soon enough were we heading back down stream to the car, Dave giggling at the “self deprecating” jokes I was making and glancing at all the scrapes I was sporting, as I looked just like I’d been in a fight.
We had an epic outing regardless of the bump
, I did dodge a bad one on this outing, Lucy I will forever miss your company on the trail, part of your spirit is back where it belongs, thanks again Dave for the “field hospital work”.
Pictures here
