EISPIRATEN

Took a trip up to Mt. Baldy then over to West Baldy. With the recent snow I couldn't resist. I took the Ski Hut trail up the western bowl through the trees to the top. There were a few people who took the bowl direct and made it.

There was evidence of some surface slides, but nothing major. I did not go up the bowl for three reasons: I am a slacker and didn't start till 0800, forgot my helmet (rime ice was coming down) and the the art of solo hiking, stay away from surface slides. Here are some photos, you can see them all here:

http://calicokat.smugmug.com/Hiking/Sou ... 067_sXhMW2

Those 3 goons you see going up the west side of the bowl were me and my buddy and a guy we met at the ski hut. We started up no problem but quickly started sinking up to our thighs every step, snowshoe time! After that made it to the summit no problem, but slow goin.

Beautiful weather tho!

How deep was the snow in the Bowl? Ya think we can do the clinic?

thanks for the tr. Looks a bit thin in the bowl.

Jim what was the condition of the dirt road above the turn off for the main trail

Unless there's a decent cold spell here I doubt the bowl will really get into condition. It's really warm up there at night and it was in the 60s during the day. There is a healthy amount up there though, I postholed straight down the bowl in 2-3 feet of snow. Snowshoes though seemed way more practical than crampons

The dirt road was almost all melted out from the trail turn off to the concrete. There was a river going down the side of it when we got down around 3:30. Above it the turn off I'd assume the road is way more dirt than snow now.