EISPIRATEN

I pulled the plug on my C2C hike so this hike was kind of last minute. This was a very tough hike. I came close to disaster on this one.

I started at 5am and took the Ski Hut trail up. The moon was still bright, so I only used my headlamp in the shaded areas. I met 4 other hikers when I got to the top of Baldy just before 8am. They came from the Devils Backbone and had started around 4am. I continued on to West Baldy and took the northwest ridge down to San Antonio Ridge. This 2000' descent was pretty steep. At the first saddle is a grove of buckthorn. You can bypass this by staying on the northeast side.

San Antonio Ridge continues northwest until you reach the 7903' peak and then it turns slightly southwest towards Gunsight Notch. There are 5 or 6 groves of buckthorn along this section. It would be suicidal to try to punch directly through them. Luckily you can bypass all of them by contouring on the north side of the ridge. In fact, there is a faint use trail on that side if you look carefully.

Gunsight Notch is the first notch after Campsite Peak. There are several more notches after that on the way to Iron Mtn. Each notch has vertical rock on either side that must be downclimbed from either approach. Gunsight Notch is the narrowest, about 5' feet wide, but the top of the notch is only about 2' wide with steep slopes dropping off on either side.

I had a very close call at Gunsight Notch on the return trip. The ground here is very hard with a thin layer of gravel on top, so it's very slippery. I was looking at some rock that I was about to climb when I slipped, fell on my back and immediately started sliding down the north side of the notch. Fortunately, I had my hands on the tree roots next to the rock and I held on for dear life. Dude, I was like Indiana Jones! I was able to stop the fall and climb back up.

The climbing along this rocky section to Iron is doable, but it is intense in some spots. It consists of sections of Class 3 vertical rock 10-15’ high, then some scrambling, then more vertical rock. I took my time and tried to be light on my hands and feet so I wouldn't put a lot of pressure on any one spot. The rock is stable for the most part, but some of them have deep fissures and/or actual gaps that you could look completely through. This was a bit unsettling.

The route is dangerous and you can kill yourself here. You can't be afraid of heights either because when you downclimb, the exposure is right in your face. Also, my advice is to always have at least three points of contact when you are in a potential fall zone.

The return trip was dreadful. I was ill and kept throwing up but nothing came out. My legs starting to cramp up. I didn't know how in the world I was going to make the 2000' climb back up to West Baldy. That mountain looks so freakin huge. I wondered if I had pushed it too far this time and if I would I have to be rescued. I was trapped on this side of the mountain and that climb was the only way out of here. There was no choice but to do it.

It was really tough. I wanted to give up a few times. I tried to not think about it and just keep climbing. Other times I'd check my GPS and think 1800' till freedom...1500' till freedom...1000' till freedom. At 9,000' I above tree line and the sun was setting. I had one of the most beautiful views of the Los Angeles basin and all the city lights that I have ever seen. Yet I was completely alone with my single headlight piercing into the blackness of the nearby mountains.

I didn't reach West Badly until 7:20pm. I finally got back to my car at 9:30pm. So that makes 16.5 hrs of hiking and climbing. Ugh.

West Baldy and San Antonio Ridge


Buckthorn City


Iron Mtn looks deceptively close, but it's still very far. Campsite Peak is up ahead.




Gunsight Notch and Mt. Baden-Powell


Closeups of some of the terrain



Almost to Iron


This is pretty disappointing. This is the rock just east and a little below the summit. At first I thought it was taggers but what kind of tagger would climb all the way up to Iron to mess up a rock? But the lettering looks Korean.


View of the downclimb

looks like fun, nice pictures except for the ones that make my adrenaline rush! I don't think I would do that hike for the first time alone. Glad you made it out alive!

Ditto!

Heroic! 8)

That is a great report and nice pictures. Thanks for posting. Such a hike is beyond my ability, but it is good to know that someone is rough and tough enough to pull it off. Congratulations!

Wow - fantastic job and great pics.

I was on the ski hut trail this morning and saw your entry in the register at the base of the trail. I knew I'd have a great TR to read when I got back home!

Nice report!
Those letterings look like Chinese characters.

Dooooood be careful! Sucks that you had dry heaves!

Is that tape on that tagging?

Thanks all. HikeUp, you always seem to find my register entries

The lettering seems to be some kind of Asian characters. I'm guessing it's Korean because they frequent the SGMs. The tape is the lettering. They spray painted over the tape to leave the message. I thought maybe it was a memorial to that guy who died on Iron in June, but the date in the message is 7-4-08.

Tim wrote:Thanks all. HikeUp, you always seem to find my register entries

The lettering seems to be some kind of Asian characters. I'm guessing it's Korean because they frequent the SGMs. The tape is the lettering. They spray painted over the tape to leave the message. I thought maybe it was a memorial to that guy who died on Iron in June, but the date in the message is 7-4-08.

That's exactly what I said to myself when I saw your entry. One of us is following the other (although you'll notice not over terrain like the traverse).

I'll see if I can get a co-worker to translate the rock tomorrow. I work with a Korean, Singaporean, Chinese and Taiwanese. Bound to figure it out some how.

Thanks for that suspenseful trip report Tim. I am sorry to hear that you had rought time there. c2c must have seemed easy in comparison. I was back on Skyline yesterday on a midnight hike with 25 people from the Sierra Club. Some of them got lost in the chute before Coffman's Crag, and i was glad that I was able to help.

lol, after you said you were gonna pass on C2C this week, I thought that meant "take a rest", not do something even harder.

But now I have someone who knows the terrain to got with

I didn't reach West Badly until 7:20pm. I finally got back to my car at 9:30pm.

That's actually moving pretty good after that ordeal. Dang, son, ya done good.

Don't recognize the characters on that rock. I usually can pick out Korean. Dunno what it is.

Cy, this was definitely the hardest hike I've ever done. But C2C is a tough hike as well. Heck, they're all tough!

Joe, I'm due for a long hiatus from hiking now lol. Although it is pretty cool back there on San Antonio Ridge. I'm willing to go back but maybe not as a round trip next time.

HJ, the Ski Hut trail was the one thing that saved me those last 5 miles. Normally 5 miles/3800' of additional downhill would have destroyed my will but I know that trail so well it was like an old friend. Every turn was familiar and one step closer to getting out of there.

Great effort -- I'm glad it ended well. I hope your future hikes are easier on your body!

I did like your pictures, although the graffiti one was disappointing. If we can't escape taggers on Iron Mt. things really have gone to hell in a handbasket.

I'm still curious about that graffiti. Anyone got a line on what language that is yet?

cool photos

Tim wrote:This is pretty disappointing. This is the rock just east and a little below the summit. At first I thought it was taggers but what kind of tagger would climb all the way up to Iron to mess up a rock? But the lettering looks Korean.

Ok. My Korean co-worker says it is Chinese.

He's unclear on the overall meaning of it but broke it down for me.

far left: "I was here"
left part of middle: "west side"
right part of middle: "year of the cow"
character above the 4: "each"
character(s) above the 08: "river"
lower middle: "7 scholars"

Sounds like graffiti to me. I'll ask my Chinese co-workers for further clarification.

HikeUp wrote:I'll ask my Chinese co-workers for further clarification.

One of the co-workers who doesn't know shorthand pretty much can't make any sense of it - gibberish. Kind of indicates it is shorthand or "slang".

disclaimer: i have no clue as to the veracity of these interpretations.

HikeUp wrote:

HikeUp wrote:I'll ask my Chinese co-workers for further clarification.

One of the co-workers who doesn't know shorthand pretty much can't make any sense of it - gibberish. Kind of indicates it is shorthand or "slang".

disclaimer: i have no clue as to the veracity of these interpretations.

Crikey, how the chinese get by is beyond me.

The guy from Hong Kong thinks it is talking about the "sacrifices of the many brave soldiers". This is a less literal translation of the individual characters - more slangy or colloquial. Also, since it is hard to read, a missing slash or an slightly different slash can change the meaning.

fanfreakingtastic pics...Indy 8)

You know, when I was college I use to work at Disneyland as a ride operator. My dream was to work the Indy ride just so that I could wear the Indy getup, especially the fedora. Instead, I got stuck handing out stupid yellow 3D glasses in Tomorrowland. I guess this makes up for it. Maybe I should get a fedora for hiking 8)

HikeUp, thanks for looking into the graffiti. Maybe the next person who goes up Big Iron can bring along a can of light colored spray paint and paint it out.

One last attempt at translating the graffiti. This must be funny to see some gringo trying to understand chinese graffiti.

The overall meaning of the message is unclear because the first character(s) is not legible. Another guy here at the office says it might be something along the lines of "I'll sacrifice anything to accomplish my ambitions"

It's starting to make sense.

I was here on the west side of the river with seven scholars in anticipation of the Year of the Cow. We sacrificed many brave soldiers in order to accomplish my ambitions.

Iron Mountain is on the west side of the river. 2009 is the Year of the Cow. Only scholars are stupid enough to climb Iron Mountain. Most expeditions on Iron involve the loss of some soldiers.

Not to say this is correct, but whats wrong with applying a removal acid? Would it mess up the ecosystem or harm someone? I think a lot of areas are not worthwhile since it will be next day new graffiti, but for some I think it would be quite effective.

Here's a couple of high resolution pics that might be more legible:

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn20 ... 08/001.jpg
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn20 ... 08/002.jpg

I also tried to trace over the tape but it's sort of my own interpretation.

Tim, nice pictures and great report other than the illness. Cannot wait to go do this hike/climb. Started to do it in the early spring but it was too hot for my Lucy Girl Dog and did not want her to struggle, to much to do to keep safe myself.

Hope you feel much better on the next one.

Hope we don't run into any more critters at night.

lilbitmo

A simple wire brush and some elbow grease will remove it easily.

AW wrote:Not to say this is correct, but whats wrong with applying a removal acid? Would it mess up the ecosystem or harm someone? I think a lot of areas are not worthwhile since it will be next day new graffiti, but for some I think it would be quite effective.

In those next day new graffiti areas a cougarmagic camera might come in handy!