Snow?
At least once per year I like to try to do an alpine route. The last few years the snow has really sucked in Southern California. Kris, Moody, and Myself decided to head up Baldy and hope for the best. Since the snow was likely to be pretty bad, I e-mailed Gil to see if he needed any stuff hauled up to the hut. Might as well help out a bit and make sure the trip isn't a complete waste. We picked up the tools from Gil's house some time after 9. We were planning on picking them up earlier but there was some confusion. Gil gave me directions from Mountain Avenue not realizing I came from the east and took a different Mountain Avenue then the one he lives near. Oh well. We figured it out and picked up the tools and a porta potty. The porta potty didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time but we'll see why he sent it with us soon.
As usual we take the before and after pictures. Here we are before and yes Moody is doing his Michael Jackon impersonation.
The first tool in the arsenal was a pick axe.
The second tool was Kris. The third tool was a 5 foot long steel bar also known as a digging tool. Reminds me of the Sand People in Star Wars.
The last tool was a shovel which when firmly applied to Kris's head yeilds fair results.
After hiking for some time we finally got to an area we could see snow though we hadn't actually stepped in any yet. In fact, it was pushing 70 degrees. The red line shows the route we took on the West ridge of the bowl. The route is known as "The Dare". It doesn't look that long but it took us 2+ hours to complete the route.
Now about that porta potty. The strong winds of the past week leveled the out house at the hut. When we got there Tracy and R.J. had just finished hauling all the pieces back with the help of a few passer bys. Kris and Moody took some pictures of the inside of the hut. I put them on a separate page if you want to check them out.
We hung out at the hut for about an hour and then we were off. It was about 2 in the afternoon and the sun was no longer shinning on the ridge which was fine with me. Cooler temperatures and better snow conditions. For some reason a lot of hikers I know will not go in the snow or in the dark. They will never know what they are missing. There is nothing like doing and alpine route in the dark and topping out on a ridge 7000 feet above the lights of L.A. Their loss.
Here are Moody and myself at the start of the route.
Here are Moody and Kris about 1/2 way up the route. Compare the pictures, at this point we are half way and the top doesn't look much closer does it? Goes to show how deceiving the pictures are compared to the real thing.
Finally we entered the chute.
As you can see from the pictures, the snow conditions sucked when we got towards the top. Often there was just a dusting of snow over loose rock. The last 50 feet of the route was all rock with no snow. Gave me a chance to do some dry tooling. Here is moody at the point where we ran out of snow, about 50 vertical feet from the top of the ridge.
