It was good to see Shin and Richard at the ski hut. And that was the last we saw of each other. I had left my spikes in my car (again) so instead of going up the icy trail through the trees I went up the Baldy Bowl. With this "short cut" it took me 4-1/2 hours from my car to the summit instead of the usual 2-1/2 to 3 hours. My plan was then to go down the Register Ridge route but I couldn't find the top end of RR, where it meets the Devils Backbone. So, since I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on Baldy, I came down the Devils Backbone. At the notch I said the hell with it and walked down the road instead of taking the ski lift. All in all, I set a personal (negative) record of 8 hours, 58 minutes car door to car door. At least it didn't take me 9 hours.
2 notes: (1) I just had my boots (Zamberlans) resoled so I had great traction going up the bowl, which helped. I sent them to Dave the Cobbler in Seattle and he did a fine job on them. (2) One reason I was so committed to summitting today is that it may be my last time for a long time, especially if it snows next week as predicted. At the end of the month I'm having my right knee replaced. It's long overdue. The only way I've been able to do strenuous hikes in recent months is with the aid of strong pain pills, the kind your mother warned you about. I expect to be on the trail again in Spring; the doc who's doing the job is the same one who replaced my left hip almost 13 years ago and that's taken me all over including up Whitney 3 times.
