Mt. Baldy - February 9, 2002

I took a quick trip up Baldy to check out the conditions. Next weekend I am taking some buddies up there for their first Apline experience. I only went about 1/2 way to the hut and there was only patchy snow along the way. I got a pretty good picture of the bowl and there really aren't many options for beginners so it looks like we will be staying on the trail next week.

It was really windy, 30+ MPH gusts in the valley. I imagine they were over 50 MPH on the peak. It was pretty funny when I showed up in the morning. I got there about 7:30 and there were several cars of hikers just sitting there. I think they were debating if they really wanted to go or not. I left my car and they all followed a few minutes later. Hopefully they found the nicer weather higher up the mountain. Once I was off the fire road, the temp was about 30 degrees and there was just a breeze. It was pretty nice. I took this picture of a possible route across the valley. After all these years, I have still never gone across the valley to check out any of the other peaks. Maybe I will this year.