EISPIRATEN

I hiked up Mt. Wilson from Chantry Flats today, beginning at noon and finishing at around 4:30. Temperatures were 46 - 67. I took the Sturdevant Trail up and the Upper Winter Creek Trail back down. There was some snow near the top on the way up and on the first bit of the descent, but things were generally clear. There were also many nice waterfalls, even if they did occur on man-made structures in the creek bed.

This was the route used by the ODC group that had a fatality on February 2. The ensuing discussion reminded me that I had not done this hike in years. Since conditions are obviously much better after two weeks, I decided to give it a try. I was also curious about the danger because I did not recall particularly big dropoffs from past trips.

It is clear that there are several spots in the last mile or so before the summit where one could easily fall many hundreds of feet under icy conditions -- certainly more than enough to be fatal. That was not an issue today, although I did see a group retreating across a snowy traverse that may have been the worst spot. They were quite young and admitted they found snowy traverses intimidating. I told them that scared and smart are often the same thing and that there are always other opportunities ot do the mountain under better conditions. I thought it was great to see a group of teenagers displaying such good sense. Maybe the world is not going to hell in a hand basket after all! Of course I claim I used good sense in proceeding, but I have a few years more experience walking in every kind of snow. Besides, I have retreated in my day too!

Pictures

Nice pics, Alan. I haven't been on Mt Wilson in about 10 years. Looks nice, and I'm surprised there's still snow up ther eon level ground.

If you decide to go up Mt. Wilson, don't look for "Chantry Flay." Try "Chantry Flat." Sorry to mislead you good folks.

(I hope that, by pointing out my error, I can avoid a public flaying.)

Lovely pictures. I think you nailed the type of fatal drop exactly. If that was iced that would be it. Were there a lot of people on this trail?

Chantry Flats was packed. I ended up parking just off the road, between the stop signs about 0.33 miles below the entrance to the parking lot.

There were plenty of people near the beginning of the trail (heading for the falls). There were a couple of large groups of backpackers coming down above the falls, probably scouts. It thinned out considerably after that, but every so often someone turned up.

By contrast, I saw no one on the way down until past the point where several trails intersect a couple of miles from the Flats.

AlanK wrote:If you decide to go up Mt. Wilson, don't look for "Chantry Flay." Try "Chantry Flat." Sorry to mislead you good folks.

(I hope that, by pointing out my error, I can avoid a public flaying.)

No problem on the spelling. Just try to hike so as not to get on the evening news.

How was that section where you drop down from the Toll Road along the steep part of the ridge en route to the Hoegee's area?

Was the snow pretty crusty or was it slush or ?

Hikin_Jim wrote:How was that section where you drop down from the Toll Road along the steep part of the ridge en route to the Hoegee's area?

Was the snow pretty crusty or was it slush or ?

Once I got to the Toll Road there was no more snow.

Cool. Dropping down from the toll road on icy stuff could get iffy.

Nice hike, thanks for the pics. 4 1/2 hours is quick. Took me a bit over 6 last summer. I noticed the elevation gain on the gps profile says a gain of 5200' - seems a bit much (I estimated about 4100' including the bumps). Are gps' as accurate with elevation gain as they are with distance traveled?

HikeUp -- It'll be hotter by summer and that'll be a good excuse to slow it a bit.

I hadn't noticed the elevation gain/loss figure in the profile. It does seem to be exaggerated by ~1000'. The 5200' in the profile comes from the TOPO! program based on a track obtained from GPS data. I will have to look at home at what my GPS claims, but I think I'll blame TOPO! for the fudging this time. It's usually better, but sometimes there a spurious GPS point at the bottom of a cliff or something and TOPO! is happy to include it.

AlanK wrote:I hadn't noticed the elevation gain/loss figure in the profile. It does seem to be exaggerated by ~1000'. The 5200' in the profile comes from the TOPO! program based on a track obtained from GPS data. I will have to look at home at what my GPS claims, but I think I'll blame TOPO! for the fudging this time. It's usually better, but sometimes there a spurious GPS point at the bottom of a cliff or something and TOPO! is happy to include it.

That makes sense. It's no big deal, I was wondering if I had actually climbed more than I had previously thought!

I had issues with the skeeters between sturtevant and halfway rest (the steepest part of the route I think) which kept me moving faster than I wanted. I paid for it later on. Damn skeeters!