Well I intended to Summit Telegraph this Sunday but weather conditions convinced me to do other wise. I left for Baldy Canyon with bright blues skies but as soon as I hit Icehouse Canyon the clouds already started to roll in. It was 29 degrees in the parking lot so I left with my jacket on but took it off before the first cabin or so. I put on microspikes at the spring with the log steps as it was basically a frozen stair step of ice. Once I got to the saddle I dawned my snowshoes and took off for Timber Mountain. I got their in short time and could see the weather conditions. There were patches of blue skies with some sunlight and I could see across the second saddle to Telegraph so I figured I would go for it.
I put my crampons on for the descent and kept them on till I headed down Thunder. Snow is definitly deeper on the north facing slopes 2-3ft. I could see the trail at the saddle but lot it as soon as it went to the east side of the peak. I tried to follow the trail and I tired to go along the ridge but neither were much easier. At least I wasn't too worried about falling as I was post holing above my knees quite consistently. It snowed on my the entire ascent and descent of Telegraph. I would have liked to bag Telegraph but the .25 miles to the summit looked much farther on the maps and I would have to switch back to snowshoes and I wasn't in the mood to stay longer on the mountain by myself even though I was making good time. the plan was to go to Telegraph and then return the same way but I figured it was too long a hard and much short to keep going.
I picked the trail up between the Telegraph summit but lost it right away again. I think in both cases I ascended to the peak to slowly and descended as well. I ended up down climbing the NW face of Telegraph which was actually very difficult. I slipped 3-4 times but because the Iceaxe was secure I never went anywhere. Finally I head skiers voices so I aimed that direction. Once I saw the ski run rope lines I went straight up Thunder on all fours (never climbed that way in the snow before). I probably confused a few skiers when I popped up. I tried to get a ride down the lift but they made me walk so I put my snowshoes back on and then bought a ticket from the notch down. That was the coldest part of the day. Finally I grabbed a ride back to Icehouse parking lot and then rode down the mountain. There was so many people on the mountain that the total time to get from the lifts parking lot to Upland was close to one hour.
Here are the pictures. I don't think many people have done this trip recently and probably won't with the conditions we are having so far this year. I was lucky since the wind was only 5 mph as the last two weeks it was above 20 mph and will be like that again this week. As far as a short cut to the top it doesn't look like there is enough snow to go from Cedar Canyon or Telegraph Canyon just yet.
https://plus.google.com/photos/11543334 ... 8633886945