EISPIRATEN

Simonov, two of his buddies and I hiked the Bowl yesterday.

Encountered ice two or three times before the hut. Still a decent amount of snow above the hut, but much less than last weekend. In the AM we saw several people not wearing crampons above the hut, but I wouldn't have gone up without them.

Bowl conditions were still good, though slightly slushy, at about 9AM. Again, much less snow than last weekend. Above 9,000' snow was in good shape.

Spent about 90 mins on the summit in very warm weather - high 50s, low 60s. While heading down the warm conditions softened much of snow and, provided you were surefooted, crampons weren't all that necessary.

Hope we are blessed with a freak winter storm (or two) to extend the winter conditions...

Link to a few photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24754101@N ... 218514247/

I guess Lance got all the conditions down. We left Manker Flat about 6:30am and Bill and I summited at about 11:00. Lance was well ahead of me and Bill going up the face of the Bowl, and when he got to the top he was met by my buddy Frank, who climbed the southwest ridge without crampons (he's from Massachusetts, so I guess knows a thing or two about walking on snow).

This was Bill's first Baldy summit, and first time on crampons. Naturally he had to do it the hard way, right up the face. He loved walking on crampons.

I removed my crampons at the summit and Frank and I had some fun attempting to glissade down through the slush as we descended along the ridge.

Rapidly disappearing snow cover on the bowl and especially around on the western side of the ridge.

Here are my photos.

It appeared to be Bring Your Dog to Mt Baldy Day as we saw two Labrador retrievers on the summit and all kinds of other dogs on the trail as we headed back down to the car.

The highlight of the day was when we met a dog coming up the trail that looked almost exactly like my own (very unusual) dog. I was so amazed, in a rather vocal way, that I believe I was frightening the people who accompanied the dog. The dog's name was Grizzly:



Here is my dog Cisco for comparison:



This was my first trip using my nifty new day back from Osprey. I love it, and am now looking closely at Osprey's larger packs for an internal frame overnighter.

Cool dog!

Damn hot weather!

simonov wrote:This was my first trip using my nifty new day back from Osprey. I love it, and am now looking closely at Osprey's larger packs for an internal frame overnighter.

cool dog!

What kind of an Osprey did you get? I just got a Talon 33, and I love it. http://www.ospreypacks.com/enlarge.php? ... orCode=645

Jim

Hikin_Jim wrote:What kind of an Osprey did you get? I just got a Talon 33, and I love it.

Stratos 24:



Seems to be a well-designed and well-made pack. It's not that big, but perfect for winter climbs, which means more than enough for long summer day hikes. I don't like those fiddly bungee ice axe jobbies, though; hard to undo when your fingers are cold.

I don't like the "atomic tangerine" color, either, but apparently it's the only color REI stocks.

Yeah, I'm kind of down on stretchy anything from pockets to bungies. Stretchy means, "I'll be the first part of your pack to fail."

Like the pack, bro. Those to straps across the back look good for securing gear like snowshoes to the outside of the pack. Do you know the cu in off the top of your head?

The Talon 33 I bought is 2100 cu in. Pretty good for long hikes. I put ~35 lbs in it the other day just to see what it would feel like. Worked like a champ.

Hikin_Jim wrote:Yeah, I'm kind of down on stretchy anything from pockets to bungies. Stretchy means, "I'll be the first part of your pack to fail."

I hope not. The Stratos has two stretchy side pockets that hold my one-liter Nalgene bottles. I was concerned they wouldn't hold them well enough to keep them from bouncing out during downhills, but they stayed in just fine. If they lose their stretch they might not secure the bottles any longer. The first modification I make to the pack will be to sew a couple of loops just above the side pockets so I can secure the water bottles with little carabiners. But for the moment they seem to work well.

Those to straps across the back look good for securing gear like snowshoes to the outside of the pack. Do you know the cu in off the top of your head?

According to Science Made Simple, 24 liters is equal to 1,464.57 cubic inches (call it 1,500). As I said, at the smaller end of the scale, but all I need for a day hike.

I used the top compression strap to hold my crampons and the lower one to secure my big SLR when I was finished taking photos. The finicky little bungee thingies secured my helmet.

The biggest complaint about the pack in the on-line reviews was that it cut into the hips. Well, my torso is so long that's not anything I ever need to worry about.

Thanks for the TR guys. Looks like no more storms for March afterall

Maybe it's just me but I've never understood how you're suppose to use those bungee ice axe thingies. It seems like they only work if you can slide the shaft through the bungee loop and then tighten the plastic keeper. But I secure my axe by sliding the shaft through the gear loop at the bottom of the pack, flipping the axe upside down and then wrapping a velcro strap at the top of the pack around the shaft. My old Deuter pack has these velcro straps but all of the newer packs have those fixed loop bungee jobbers like that Osprey. It's probably something simple that's going over my head.

pilot wrote:Maybe it's just me but I've never understood how you're suppose to use those bungee ice axe thingies. It seems like they only work if you can slide the shaft through the bungee loop and then tighten the plastic keeper.

The Osprey bungee loops actually have little nylon hooks, so to use them with an ice axe you pull the bight (the two cords below the slider) out of the hook and after putting your ice axe shaft in there you re-secure the cords in the hook. Then tighten with the slider.

It's easy enough to do in the store, but a pain in the ass when your gloved fingers are cold on the side of an ice-covered mountain.

Nice, looks like you stepped it up with a helmet, Mitch.
Good idea.

I don't know who these people are, aside from the fact that we met them on the summit and they helped us with our official summit photo, but they posted some pics on the OCHBC website.

Lance and Bill and I are visible as the three dots near the top in the first photo. Always kind of cool to see yourself from a completely different angle.

I like the swanky brunch - sure beat my ghetto cold bagel w/ cheese stick.