If you have ever seen a picture of Los Angeles without the smog, you have probably noticed the mountains in the background. The tallest of these mountians is Mt. San Antonio, AKA, Mt. Baldy. It is called Mt. Baldy because it does not have any trees on it. Mt. Baldy is a great place if you are in to mountaineering and you live in Los Angeles. I love mountianeering but usually you need to plan a long trip and find several people to go with you, etc. The logistics of mountaineering are often more involved than rock climbing. That is why I don't have very many mountaineering trips on my website.

Mt. Baldy is located roughly an hour or less from just about anywhere in Orange County or Los Angeles, traffic permitting. Because it is so close, this removes a big part of the logistical problem of getting there. From the parking area, you can hike to the top in roughly 3 1/2 hours at an average pace. The trail is well defined and heavily travelled so I feel pretty safe going alone. It is 10,064 feet tall. I like the fact I can get over 10,000 so easily.

In the summer, the hiking is usually very hot. I usually try to hit the trail by 6:00 AM, this way I get up and back down before it gets to hot out. Most of the trail, minus the last mile or so, is well protected in a valley with trees. This usually means little or no wind and very hot temps. The stream that runs through the valley usually runs year round but may die in late summer if there is not enough moisture that year. I usually bring a 1 liter bottle and my pump. I drink about 3 liters on the hike. My pump weighs significantly less than 1 liter of water so thus I don't have to carry the extra 2 liters up the hill with me. Once at the top, you can see San Jacinto, San Gragornio, the Pacific Ocean, the High Desert, all of LA and Orange County, but only if the sky is clear. Usually it is smoggy. It may be as cold as 40 degrees and very windy even in the summer because of the altitude and the fact this is the first object over 10,000 feet the winds off the pacific are going to hit in the US. Dress accordingly. Even though this mountain is close to LA and is only a 4 hour hike to the top, it is still a mountain over 10,000 feet.

In the spring and fall, the temperatures are very pleasant usually. You can expect to hit some storms. Sometimes you may be able to climb above the clouds which looks really cool because all you see are the peaks over 9500 feet or so sticking out of the clouds.

In the winter, Mt. Baldy gets a decent amount of snow usually. We tried to do some alpine climbing last year but picked a day where there was 6+ inches of new powder and didn't want to risk an avalanche. The trail gets broken often so it is easy to follow. If you go after new snow fall on a weekend, wait until about 8:30 AM. You are almost gauranteed to have someone ahead of you breaking the trail. Because Mt. Baldy is so far south, even in the Winter, temperatures are fairly pleasant. It can be extremely windy near the top so you should be prepared for white out conditions from blowing snow.

Here are some pictures from past trips. More to come when I get up there again, along with specific directions.

As you can see from the second picture, there were low level clouds that day and all you could see were the peaks sticking out.