EISPIRATEN

Mt Baden-Powell from Highway 2


Baden-Powell is probably my favorite winter hike in the San Gabriels. The heavily forested north slope holds onto snow much longer than other areas, and each time I've done it, we've virtually had the entire mountain to ourselves.


BP's Forested North Slope


This snow is going to stick around a while, but you'll have to take the long way around up the 15 and through Wrightwood, as the 2 is closed from Islip Saddle (I think) to Vincent Gap.


Pine Mountain from the Trail


There were several different conditions of snow throughout the hike. The stuff down low was pretty hard and slick, had to really kick in to get any traction. Eventually, that gave way to a thin crust with deep, soft snow beneath (aka postholing nightmare). Then up top, it was nice and firm, and with no wind whatsoever, it made for an easy finish with a very comfortable 38 degrees at the summit.


The Ridge to the Summit


Best View in the World


More photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wattifoto/ ... 568115581/

Matt,
Saw your pics of your December trip to Mt. Baldy. Two questions; Was that the Ski Hut Trail you took up and how was the road to Manker Flats, e.g. did you need chains?
Kevin

There were a couple small icy spots on the switchbacks just past the Icehouse Cyn turnoff, but nothing that required chains. And yeah, we took the standard Ski Hut Trail up and back. We just had our microspikes, so didn't go up the Bowl or anything.

Here's a link to that album, for anyone who's curious:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wattifoto/ ... 389151778/

Nice day up there! So what were you wearing - snowshoes, microspikes, crampons, all of the above?
And I love that ridge just before the summit....

Micros the whole way. There were icy some spots down low where full crampons would have been handy but weren't necessary, we were able to kick steps in with no problem. If the temperature drops again, that'll become a bigger issue.

Nice report--I haven't been up in the SG's in winter in about 20 years. Looking forward to doing some trips this year though.