Perfect weather (kinda hot), perfect snow (mostly). First time for any of us climbing the North Face of Baldy. We all agree, a totally aesthetic and classic climb. We started in Wrightwood at 3am (time change caught us off guard.) Acorn Trail up to the Blue Ridge trailhead for North Backbone. Crampons on. Summited Pine at sunrise. Descended and traversed to the southwest ridge coming off Dawson hoping to get down to Fish Fork that way. It got a little steep but it worked. Fish Fork was beautiful, but with treacherous snow bridges crossing. Finally got down to the base of the north face (7700') at around 9:30. The crux, a class 4 chute, was a little sketchy, waterfalls and snow bridges choked it up so we climbed the rocks along the left. Very chossy with mixed snow and some ice. Reached the top of the chute by 10:45, then went straight up the glorious and massive north face directly for the summit. We followed an elevated rock rib toward the top. Lots of consolidated avalanche debris around. Snow was is great shape. 2,364' in under a mile. Summited Baldy just before 1. Ate summit pizza. Over to West Baldy then down the San Antonio Ridge. Rested on 7903 and shed the crampons. Finally dropped down into the gunsight notch around 5:40pm. Not too much snow on the ridge so the class 3 sections remained "fun." Iron Mountain summit just in time to catch the sunset, drank tea (lemon jammer), had a cutie, ate sardines and drank the oil. Then misery and darkness: the brutal 7.5 mile, six thousand foot descent down a slippery hard packed dirt ridge trail. Legs jello, toes smashed. By far the most harrowing and painful section of the whole hike. Heaton Flat by midnight. An absolute classic San Gabriel Mountain Range Slog. To slog is human. My eyes are still burning as I type this.
8,178' of gain, 12,496' of loss, 20.5 miles, 21 hours.
more photos: https://www.facebook.com/jonah.f.olson/ ... 161&type=3
