20110312 Baldy "ad infinitum"
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 6:55 pm
Wanted a break from San J as I had been out there four weekends in a row. Ty and I decided to do a quick run up the Bowl before all the snow melted out, so we headed up to Manker where we ran into some of the usual suspects – Shin (doing his 224 summit of Baldy), So. Bay Mark (who was celebrating his 30th Birthday), Tracie (Blooty and her wonderful friend Talus). Also making an appearance were some of the gang from San J board Steve (Bluerail), Patty (Speedy #2 J) Fern (whom I know call “Speedy Gonzalez”) and two friends of Tracie’s Cheryl and ? (sorry cannot remember the other nice lady’s name – help me out here?)
Once at the hut we ran into James who had spent the night and was glad to see some friendly faces from this board – he decided he would like to join Ty and I for the route between the two avalanche run out’s that had occurred sometime in the previous week. The rest of the group went up the west side where the tracks had been laid thick and deep. While we were making our way up the center left of the bowl the “Conga Line” started forming below “Zen Chute” and the parade up that route started just as we reached the rocks near the top of our route. Mark made his way to the ridgeline just about our route just in time to take some pictures of us “Topping out” with Tracie, Shin and the others close behind.
Everyone made quick work of getting the summit from there and to my surprise Rich Graham showed moments later – it seems funny but I never see him anywhere else on the mountain except when I get to the summit – that’s the third time I’ve either been on the summit or when I got there he was there J
I was introduced to another friend of the group by the name of Mike and as we were all taking pictures, eating our food and singing happy birthday to Mark this young lady in “Hot Pants” walks up to the summit (see my pictures) and gave most of the men a good laugh and I’m not quite sure how the ladies felt about it – I know this she was planning to take “Devils Backbone” back to Manker Flats – one good slip and those nice legs would be road rash for some time to come – to each his own.
Having been denied this year from any long sustained “glissades” I decided to down climb the same chute I came up, so after five minutes of work to get around all the rocks and get past the small “crux” in the center I was able to grab three long glissades of 400 feet each and get back to the hut in 25 minutes. Everyone soon arrived from the normal west bowl route, we talked some more and everyone headed down.
Perfect weather – sunny all-day – hot at the top of the chute we did as my face got fried, slight cold breeze on the summit but not bad at all. The snow was firm on the way up but getting slushy fast on the way down it’s melting fast.
Great to see everyone out there - Yeti was on the mountain but I missed him - sorry Jeff
My Pictures Here
Shin's Pictures here
Once at the hut we ran into James who had spent the night and was glad to see some friendly faces from this board – he decided he would like to join Ty and I for the route between the two avalanche run out’s that had occurred sometime in the previous week. The rest of the group went up the west side where the tracks had been laid thick and deep. While we were making our way up the center left of the bowl the “Conga Line” started forming below “Zen Chute” and the parade up that route started just as we reached the rocks near the top of our route. Mark made his way to the ridgeline just about our route just in time to take some pictures of us “Topping out” with Tracie, Shin and the others close behind.
Everyone made quick work of getting the summit from there and to my surprise Rich Graham showed moments later – it seems funny but I never see him anywhere else on the mountain except when I get to the summit – that’s the third time I’ve either been on the summit or when I got there he was there J
I was introduced to another friend of the group by the name of Mike and as we were all taking pictures, eating our food and singing happy birthday to Mark this young lady in “Hot Pants” walks up to the summit (see my pictures) and gave most of the men a good laugh and I’m not quite sure how the ladies felt about it – I know this she was planning to take “Devils Backbone” back to Manker Flats – one good slip and those nice legs would be road rash for some time to come – to each his own.
Having been denied this year from any long sustained “glissades” I decided to down climb the same chute I came up, so after five minutes of work to get around all the rocks and get past the small “crux” in the center I was able to grab three long glissades of 400 feet each and get back to the hut in 25 minutes. Everyone soon arrived from the normal west bowl route, we talked some more and everyone headed down.
Perfect weather – sunny all-day – hot at the top of the chute we did as my face got fried, slight cold breeze on the summit but not bad at all. The snow was firm on the way up but getting slushy fast on the way down it’s melting fast.
Great to see everyone out there - Yeti was on the mountain but I missed him - sorry Jeff
My Pictures Here
Shin's Pictures here
