Happy Tuesday

Due to the lack of available weekends in the near future I decided to take a day off work and head up Baldy. I couldn't have picked a nicer day. I hit the trailhead a little after 7:00 and was to the hut by 10:00. It was warm, I was able to hike to the hut in a T-Shirt. The sun was shinning and there was absolutely no wind. Best of all the snow was great.

I hiked up the East side from the hut. It doesn't look like anyone has been skiing the bowl and since I was alone I wasn't going to chance it. I didn't even see anyone else on the mountain. The sky was so clear I could see all the way to San Jacinto.

I got to the top of the first ridge line. Clouds were forming down the valley and basketball size ice/snow balls where coming down from above. I wanted to keep going up but decided to relax a bit and then ski down. I tried to get a picture to show how step it is from where I changed my boots. It's kind of hard to tell. I was at about 9500', the vally floor in the picture is about 6000'. Other then getting chased by snow men, it was a nice place to take in the view for a bit.

The snow had corned up nicely and I was able to carve a bit. I tried to take a picture of it but I am not sure if you can see if very well. Either way I had the only tracks on the mountain.

As soon as I got back to the hut the clouds weren't far away. I made the right call. If I had continued up I would have ended up with no visibility trying to ski back to the hut. At least from the hut I can hike out in just about any weather.

Someone put some ornaments on one of the trees by the hut. I just need to get the family up there for a nice Christmas card photo.

Once I had changed my boots and packed up, visibility was horrible.

When I got to 1/2 way rock I met the only people I had seen all day. 2 boarders were coming up for the night. It was sure a nice way to miss a day of work.