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simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:03 pm
by simonov
As promised, I summited Baldy again today. A climber I met in November on Mt Santiago, Lance, contacted me this month about making a winter climb, and I suggested this weekend might be one of our last chances as the snow was melting so fast (Lance also lurks here; hi Lance!). I eyeballed the weather forecasts almost hourly this last week, as snow was predicted for Sunday and I was skeered it would come early.

Anyway, we started from Manker Flats a little after 6:00am today and headed up. There are only small patches of snow below the ski hut. While we were hiking this portion of the trail, we were passed by the same dude who snagged the protected spot under the tree near the summit the last time I was up there. We spoke to him later at the hut and apparently he has been summitting Baldy weekly for a couple months. I didn't get his name, but that's okay; I got other names later.

I pulled out my camera to snap this traditional first shot of Baldy from the trail and discovered my battery was dead (special batteries for that camera, I had left one in the car). I specifically checked the battery status the night before and it showed a little green battery. Then again when I was getting a "dead battery" message I checked the status: little green battery. I had assumed a little green battery was the international symbol for a fully charged battery. But here I was, on the trail, with a little green battery status indicator, a dead battery, and no replacements. Those guys at Olympus are such jokers, ha ha ha.

So this is the photo. I wangled a few more from the camera during the day before the battery gave up completely (all these photos are linked back to my Flickr account):

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The weather forecast called for colder temperatures than we have been getting lately, in the thirties instead of the fifties. In fact, it never got above freezing the entire time we were on the trail, which made for good walking. On the other hand, I had pretty chronic problems most of the day with numb, freezing or aching fingers.

We had a snack at the Ski Hut and donned crampons and gaiters for the ascent. It is very good crusty snowpack above the Ski Hut, with patches of exposed rock and manzanita I hadn't seen before.

Since I still don't have a helmet, I suggested we head up via the summer Baldy Bowl Trail over to the southwest. Lance is a strong hiker and he set the pace, but when we got to the top of the ridge and crossed out of the Bowl, I found myself oddly fatigued, it was very strange. Maybe this is altitude sickness, something that has never bothered me before. I really never experienced anything like it, but I had to sit and wait for a few minutes before I felt well enough to continue. I didn't have any more problems after that.

At this point we were above 9,000 feet and we looked back and saw clouds creeping up San Antonio Canyon from the valley below. I had always assumed the weather came from the north, but here it was coming up from the south:

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We didn't think much of it at first. We knew the forecast called for "clouds" and until now the sky had been completely clear. The sky still was clear, as these clouds were actually below us. But it wasn't until the clouds came up into the Bowl that it started to get a little scary:

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It wasn't really scary; we were prepared for cold, cloudy and even stormy weather, except for one aspect that occurred to me later.

For a while it looked like the weather wouldn't rise out of the Bowl, and we wouldn't be exposed to it until our trip back down, but inexorably it crossed over the ridge and climbed toward us. We hurried up to the summit, running into hvydrt, coming back down, along the way. We compared ice axes.

Lance got to the summit a few minutes before I did, and after tagging it settled down to eat a snack with a fellow we met up there named Rowan. Rowan and Lance were hunkered down behind a rock shelter, out of the wind, and made a nice picture:

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It wasn't uncomfortable behind those rocks. All you had to do was stay out of the freezing wind.

While we were up there it occurred to me that if we found ourselves hiking though the clouds, we could find it difficult to navigate back to the Bowl. This worry gnawed at me as we walked back down the crusty slopes, into the clouds.

It was a legitimate worry. While we promised ourselves we would simply stay to the left, close to the ridge, at one point we found ourselves much farther out to the right than we had intended (visibility inside the cloud could be as little as twenty feet, though it was usually about 100 or 300 feet). We only realized our mistake when we noticed some hikers coming up a few hundred feet away.

Then I was concerned that we would miss the turn-off to the left, into the Bowl, and go blundering on down San Antonio Canyon. In fact, I just happened to look down to my left at the right moment to see some climbers heading up and realized that was the trail. We were about to walk past it.

The rest of the hike down was uneventful, except that it started snowing on us. Just a flake here and there at first, but by the time we were at the trail register it was really snowing, hard. We had fallen in with some other hikers, most of whom we had seen before. I think most of us have seen or met Shin, the older Japanese fellow who uses poles (he was the guy who came up and started breaking trail for He219 and me in February, and I saw him again the following week). He says he has climbed Baldy over 100 times.

When I got to my car it was covered with snow, as was the road out of Manker Flat. Driving in snow is not a skill I ever hope to have to develop, and it's pretty terrifying, especially in a torquey RWD V8 coupe that weights 4,000lbs. Despite creeping along at four miles per hour with my hazards flashing, I twice lost control on the way down, but was saved by the ABS, which makes a hideous rattling noise when it engages.

My weekend schedule is filling fast, but Lance and I are scheming to go back up next Saturday. This time the plan is that I bring a helmet and we ascend the Bowl.

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:36 pm
by hvydrt
bummer about your camera. I couldn't believe how fast those clouds blew in. I made it back to my truck at 11:30 and didn't see any snow or rain anywhere on my way home. I have also met Shin. I had a good conversation with him on the way down from the summit last winter.

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:36 am
by Taco
What yo car is?

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 6:31 am
by simonov
TacoDelRio wrote:What yo car is?
2004 GTO, made in Australia:

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It really was terrible driving that thing on the snow. I thought keeping it in a low gear would do the trick, but that would make it slide. Coasting slowly and riding the brakes seemed to work a lot better.

In the past I never worried about gas mileage because I usually walk to work and didn't drive very much anyway. But now between the weekend climbing and the desert shooting I am putting a lot of mileage on my cars and gasoline is the single most expensive aspect of the sport. The GTO averages 16 MPG, and the Yukon not much better (though the GTO's two overdrive gears give it over 25 MPG on the highway, compared to 12 MPG around town; you don't buy these cars if you are worried about gas mileage).

A better choice, for the fuel economy as well as driving down the Manker Flat road on snow, would have been my '89 CRX, except my wife made me sell it a few years ago:

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Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 9:56 am
by Lance
Hey Simonov,

My lurking days are over :D . Very nice TR. Thanks for letting me tag along - it was one of my most enjoyable and memorable days in the mountains.

I agree, the drive down to Baldy village was very sketchy...two cars in front of me slid out and ended up in the oncoming traffic lane.

Would definitely be up for repeat next weekend.

Photo link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24754101@N ... 128630206/

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 9:34 pm
by He219
Nice TR guys!
:D

simonov, remember that story I told you about my friends on that same hairpin-curve section 10 years ago on black ice waving off and trying to stop people but only getting blank stares as car after car accumilated in a huge pile-up? Your post makes me think of it ..

Nice Imperial flag, appropriate on your Honda!
lol

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:12 am
by simonov
He219 wrote:simonov, remember that story I told you about my friends on that same hairpin-curve section 10 years ago on black ice waving off and trying to stop people but only getting blank stares as car after car accumilated in a huge pile-up? Your post makes me think of it ..
It would have been that again except luckily there was hardly anyone up there. But the word on the snow must have gotten out as quite a few people were driving up into the mountains as I was getting out; lotsa minivans fulla kids, etc.
Nice Imperial flag, appropriate on your Honda!
Imperial? Believe it or not, their Navy is still using it.

BTW, I was talking to my father on the phone yesterday and apparently the problem I have been having with cold fingers is something my mother has been diagnosed with called Raynaud's phenomenon. There are treatments available, so I need to get off my ass and go see a doctor about it.

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:05 pm
by Taco
Yup, Japanese Navy Flag.

Nice Monaro, Mitch!

Fix yo fingahz!

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:05 pm
by simonov
TacoDelRio wrote:Nice Monaro, Mitch!
Thanks, but I'd rather have one of these:

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400 HP 6.0 liter LS2 V8, rear independent suspension, etc, etc. Swine at GM won't import them. :evil:

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:26 pm
by AlanK
I like the Baldy Bowl as much as the next person. It's especially great fun in winter. I just wanted to draw attention to another discussion of the subject. (simonov already joined it.) Rick M started the thread, but there is more discussion elsewhere on that Board.

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 3:35 pm
by simonov
To answer TDR's question, aside from Mallory's "Because it's there," for me at my age and skill level I consider the Baldy Bowl excellent exercise that is also fun. It's as much for conditioning as anything else.

Maybe if I was younger I would be more interested in exploring, but right now I just want to make sure I get a good high country workout every weekend.

BTW, if I seem a little frenetic today, I am popping in here from time to time during breaks from assembly and packaging work in the warehouse. That gets pretty dull after a while, and whenever I need labels I pop in and see what's happening on the boards while the labels print. Business is good, lots of stuff to assemble.

Re: simonov can't stay away from Baldy, 20080315

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:31 pm
by Taco
Ah. :)

Good to hear business is good!

Not that I could afford it, but my "dream" car cannot be imported much, either.