EISPIRATEN

My brother and I wildy underestimated how well the northern slopes hold onto the snow... Original plan was to trek from Vincent Gap all the way over to Little Jimmy for the night, but it became apparent before even leaving the car that that wasn't going to happen, luckily we had already anticipated this, and it turns out Baden-Powell ended up having plenty to offer us.


Cool by Wattifoto, on Flickr

Strapped on our spikes and headed up the regular trail. Nice hard-packed crunchy snow for maybe about half a mile, then the deep stuff set in.


Don't Slip by Wattifoto, on Flickr

Just past the bench, the snow became too deep to really even find the trail so we headed straight up the ridge, following a single set off bootprints at times, creating our own at others. By our count, there were exactly 7 people (including us) on the mountain yesterday.


Slow Going by Wattifoto, on Flickr


Quick question: I'm pretty new at this type of winter hiking... Is this post-holing?


Deep in It by Wattifoto, on Flickr

It was far more tiring than I thought it'd be heading up in these conditions, literally knee deep in it for most of the route.

Again, I can't say enough about the Kahtoola microspikes, so long as you occasionally tap them w/ your poles to prevent snow from building up. That being said, this is probably the most ambitious hike I'd be comfortable using them on. As we topped out to the ridge leading up to the summit, hard snow and ice the rest of the way, combined with pretty steady, strong winds. I was able to dig in just enough with these little spikes...

Nice ice sculptures decorated the trees on the ridge:


Wind-sculpted Ice by Wattifoto, on Flickr

The final push was slow going, but epic as hell (for we beginners, anyway ):


Final Push by Wattifoto, on Flickr

The views at the top were absolutely stunning, the photos don't quite capture it:


Baden Powell Summit by Wattifoto, on Flickr
(lol at the monument poking through)


Pine, Dawson, Baldy by Wattifoto, on Flickr

Don't know what else to say, but what an awesome hike this was.


Many more photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wattifoto/ ... 713264759/

Thanks for reading/viewing 8)

Mcphersonm80 - great trip report and pictures, I realy like the deep dark blue tone you picked up in some of those photos, yesterday it was especially blue in the sky and on the ridgeline above baldy bowl I was hoping my camera would capture that but it only did a few times.

Congrats on making the summit of Baden-Powell in all that snow.

Yes that is post holing when you punch through the snow as you step

The ice sculptures are called "rime ice" and it makes for some of the best winter pictures.

Keep up the good work and postings, that way we can all gather information on conditions out there and from your pictures we can see other routes on the back side (north side) of other mountains - thanks again

More snow on the summit than I thought.

Good on you guys for getting out! Postholing is great physical training!

thanks for the tr.

was the deep snow that you postholed in powdery or did it have a breakable crust?

It was a lot more powdery than I thought it would be almost the entire way up, but still had a little crunch to it on the top layer, if that makes sense. Nothing that would hold any weight, though.

Then up as we gained the ridge, ice was everywhere and we had to work pretty hard to kick our steps in.

Great shot of Baldy's north face. It sort of resembles a big Alaskan peak.

Sam Page wrote: ↑Great shot of Baldy's north face. It sort of resembles a big Alaskan peak.

8)

More motivation!

mcphersonm80 wrote: ↑It was a lot more powdery than I thought it would be almost the entire way up, but still had a little crunch to it on the top layer, if that makes sense. Nothing that would hold any weight, though.

Then up as we gained the ridge, ice was everywhere and we had to work pretty hard to kick our steps in.

yep, makes sense, thanks for the details.