Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Conditions On Baldy

Hi Doug,
Richard was motivated enough to hike on Baldy, training mountain for Sierra, under the hot summer heat without breeze after summiting Mt. Whitney last Monday. We had a great hike together like old times.
We talked about many things we learned from the trip you tricked us to head out to Mt. Irvine to Miter basin down to Crabtree... Mt. Whitney many years ago.
There were very interesting subjects came up regarding to the hydration and nutrition on long summer hikes.

It is very important to cool off body temperature beside hydrating your body. Cooling off body temperature especially head by creating shades with caps, hats, small umbrella, wet your head and putting a wet bandana around a neck area or wet straps of trekking poles.
I used more water for cooling off my head than drinking from Guiter Lake to Trail crest.

Havin a good breakfast will provide good energy for the long day.
Having a good dinner will help to recover faster from the hard day.
I was suffering from mountain sickness and wasn't able to eat anything or drink at Crabtree campground. Richard had a nice hot dinner at the ranger station that night. He was fresh and strong next day. On the other hand, I survived for the entire day with one orange offered by a nice hiker at the campground. I took a long nap at Trail Crest till Richard got back. Headed down to Portal.....
I was in vicious cycle of things which I had to avoid on multi day hike on high altitude.

Ski hut trail is covered almost 60 % of the trail and nice cold creek in the midway point to the summit. It's good summer trail if you start early. Nice visit with ranger Dan as usual.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yLc72UqBRoaqd1My8

Have a great hike.

Baldy has always been a "workout mountain" for me (especially when I lived in LA)...

The Benchmark is 2:30... if I break this, I'm qualified to head into the Sierra... Shin cruises up in 2:15 +/-... So That Was Easy...

It was a fun climb and Shin's right about talking with Retired-Ranger-Dan..

Nice set of photos.

The restroom at Manker flat railhead was closed.
There were several people got lost below Ski hut. They headed up the slope of Register ridge trail direction. They realized the mistake and came back. Spotted 3 deer over the rock garden. Strong cool breeze at the summit. Very interesting clouds on the way down. Every hike is interesting for me.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/NkjKxe4rQwBV2ELd7

Have a great hike.

Summited Baldy yesterday (9/9/22). Weather was perfect all the way up. This time, instead of taking the Bowl trail up, we took the first right after you exit off the main dirt road. I believe this trail is called Register Ridge.

useful information

It was very cold and windy at the summit.
The heatwave is gone and fall weather is in. It was a good hiking weather.
I had a great visit with John, WPSMB member, on the way down. Sorry John, I slowed you down today.
I ran in to Rick G. heading up to the summit twice today. He was on some kind of mission.
By reading the recent many trip reports of Richard P., both Rick G. and Richard P. might have found the way to shield off the "CRYPTONITE" ray.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rpQdLbhtgcDU2b4aA

Have a great hike.
P.S. I have many local Superman type of person in my mind, Rick. G.,
Richard P., GigaMike, Rick Kent,........ Doug Sr.

Correction: Kryptonite

Shin: great to see you yesterday on the trial, I really appreciated the opportunity to hear your thoughts on what makes Baldy special to you. Hope to see you on the trail again this fall and maybe we can do some snow hikes.

Shin I had to give this some thought last night and today, not super anything just a long run of good luck .

I had a short visit in Ridgecrest and Portal on last Wednesday.
It was very cold in the shade at Portal. Later I found out that Richard P. took off to JMT hike on same day. Portal store was very busy with Whitney hikers, JMT hikers, and tourists.
I finished my great hamburger even though I didn't climb Whitney.
I met a very nice couple, Rick & Diane, from Upland Ca., 8 miles away from Mt. Baldy, in front of store. Doug joined with us over 2 hours talking about local restaurants in Inland Empire, American Indian history, to SR-71 spy plane. The conversation was so much fun to listen to. Doug convinced them to start hiking local mountains and climb Whitney next year. Doug got busy at store and the couple offered a ride to other hikers to Lone Pine. This maybe a secret to stay young mentally and physically. What a precious time I got today.!!!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZKgTzqYytfZBrcs27
Have a great hike.

Great having time chat and catch up on Baldy. The best part of the store is the ability to meet so many people and each has a story!
Ok so have you ever talked with a person that sales seconds of time on
n a satellite? Or the most traveled person of the world? And just last week a young man was going to travel the world with no money just asking for food? (This one might not end well,but that in itself would be a story)
Well could you believe that the 30-40 lost keys would have a battery that the guy needed and got his car started? But the Audi with the low coolant light wouldn't start and the tow back to LA $ 3000 ,if course it was a month old why would you expect a car to last forever.

Baldy got some snow but not much at all.
Mt. Baldy road --- dry
Manker flat to Ski hut/Rock garden --- dry
Tree section to the ridge --- thin & icy snow (microspike - down)
South facing slope to 9300ft --- dry
9300ft to summit --- thin snow (microspike)
It was very cold and windy at the summit today.
Many trees were covered with ice early in the morning.

There will be heavy snow in the middle of the week so the trail condition will be completely different from this week.

Please check out https://10064ft.com for most current Mt. Baldy road and trail conditions with Live Cams. The cite was created by Pavel aka "Mayor of Mt. Baldy. Thank you Pavel for all your great work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pJjqKivGe65odf6HA

Have a great hike.

Last week storm brought some snow and tree new fallen trees on the trail.
Manker flat parking lot: Well maintained.
Manker to Ski hut: 60% of trail was dry.
Bowl: Main bowl - thin snow, West bowl: Moderate snow
(Please be careful about shooting rocks starting around 10:00 so
hike through the bowl early in the morning. There were many
rockfalls from the peaks from right of west bowl. One group was
almost got hit. They picked a wrong route on a wrong time of the
season with a wrong condition of snow.)
To Summit: Good consolidated snow with some fallen ice from trees.
It was so windy and cold at the summit on Saturday.
Gordon, a volunteer, was sawing off a huge fallen tree near Skihut with a huge saw. He really knew hot to cut a tree right. Thank you, Gordon for your hard work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RMpuhxDg3CTnzu3D6

Have a great hike.

P.S. Alex and Natali, Contact me next month.

Manker Flat parking: It was well maintained.
To 7400ft: Mostly dry
To Ski hut: Microspike will be helpful.
Main Bowl: Thin snow. The multiple poor tracks were established on center left side same direct line of rockfalls in the groove of slope. No track was established on center left. Many rockfalls were seen after 9:30. The rock tumbled down through the groove/channel then spread out every direction from the middle of bowl down.
West Bowl: No visible track. Good snow condition.
Rock garden to the summit: Solid snow.

Hi-light: The hiking twin and their father were on Baldy.

Observation: Many hikers were climbing with microspikes on the thin not well established poor shallow snow track on very steep slope of bowl. Some people were bragging about taking chances.
One solo hiker was climbing with flimsy summer shoes with loosely fit crampons and holding the shaft of ice axe and leaning into the slope all the time. I ended up escort out this hiker after seeing the hiker lost balance and skidded several occasions.
One group left one of member in the middle of the bowl.
Two separate individual hikers with totally covered with all expensive gears and clothing demanding other climbers to make a room for them. One situation, a well cladded climber demand to make a room for him even though there was a hiker slipped in distressed mode on the track 5 feet away. I felt that if he thought that he was capable than other climbers he should make own track and climb on. No words of assistance or help from the guy.
It wasn't a good day for me.
I wish we could learn more about basic skills, trail curtesy, and common sense.
Sierra club should put a big sigh for the safety of winter snow hike and climb in front of Skihut.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fYeUuMTHwhDoSmNo6

Have a great hike.

I ran into the Super hiking twins again, (Matthew, Arabella, and their father Sean) today. Today was their 51st Baldy hike. Congratulations.!!

There was a warning sign for extreme alpine conditions prepared by National Forest Service at the junction of the fire road and Baldy bowl (Ski hut) trail.
The main bowl (south facing) has many prominent deep channels (covered with thin snow in the picture) where all rocks fall and travel down with extreme speed and spread or fan out all directions from middle of bowl to the bottom. A few hikers got hit and injured and being helicoptered out two weeks ago. It's good to climb out the bowl before 10:00 when the snow is stable. It's better to watch out each other among your team or other hikers. It may be a good idea to remove earphones while climbing the bowl.
West bowl (east facing) has much more snow than the main bowl but peaks on the right are very active rockfall area.

More snow is in the forecast this week. The snow condition will be completely different.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/3QJeFbcV8aV2UJRs8

Have a great hike.

Mt. Baldy got a fresh snow last Saturday.
New snow wasn't consolidated at all. Microspikea and trekking poles were very helpful. Crampons were helpful above 8200 feet.
There were millions of cars along Mt. Baldy road during the day and bumper to bumper traffic from bottom of the mountains to Ski resort area.

Manker parking: It was in very good condition but icy.
White gate area: It was very icy early in the morning.
To Ski hut: Hard pack snow and some sections were icy.
Rock garden to the ridge: Hard packed snow. But new snow was soft.
Main bowl: It was covered with new snow but soft and no grip at all. No track was established. Saw few were trying to go up.
West bowl: Fresh snow on top of old hard now. No track was established.
Ridge to 9500 feet: Solid new snow. Some area was icy.
To the summit: Hard packed snow. Some sections of trail got covered
with spin drift. Sumit area was icy. It was very cold
and the wind was very strong.
All trees beyond 9300 feet were covered with ice.
It was too cold to stay longer at the summit today.
But it was very beautiful.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/s7QmdiaziqLoTFE18

Have a great hike.

People have called me a kook for claiming that Baldy is more dangerous than most of the Sierra...

This story reminds me that Secor took a screamer down that face...

The Climbing Community down there needs to put a little more effort into spreading the word that WIND AND FREEZING RAIN AND MELT/FREEZE CYCLES MAKE CLIMBING REALLY, REALLY DANGEROUS!!!!!

2 dead and we're barely 3 weeks into winter...sad.

Maybe it's time for an permit and safety check-in like on Rainier...

Looking at Shin's posts since mid December, one would have to say that these unfortunate deaths were not unexpected.

Jim

A long time friend Laura Wong posted on her facebook page with details of the accident. Please read her report.
I have suggested each mountain has a general area where most accidents happen , history tends to support this , add a list of events, actions and conditions and a accident is not if but when.

Skill/ experience would tend to reduce this risk but often these same skills and ability mask the risk or the risk is taken to a higher level.

That day when ... please we have all that feeling today is not the day or the conditions are not stable or the hold looks a little weak, the last placement was ... Come back for another day.