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

Frank A. and I did a full moon hike last night his 101st summit mine 100th. Put crampons on at skihut, when we got back to skihut we changed to micros down to waterfall.. Summiting at 11pm with 9deg. on summit and we figure 25mph winds. I got to the summit 5min. before Frank when he got there took a couple of photos and got out of there. 100ft off of summit took froze over glasses off only needed to see 20ft in front of me anyway(time for goggles)...

Half way to ski hut on way up sheriff helicopter was looking for two lost hiker/skiers they came over to us and ask us to blink are lights twice for we are ok and 3x if we need help,Frank took care of the blinks.Dont know whatever happened to the hikers, maybe just late getting back..

Beautiful night last night..just another bitchen night on Baldy

Baldy 12-28-2012

mark

9deg.
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Midnight snack out of the wind
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Wow! It looks fabulous up there... midnight hikes are always delightful, esp w/ full moons. I'm so happy the snow finally arrived.. hopefully it'll stick around for more than a few minutes - I've got lots of Baldy hikin' to do!

(Mr. SoBayMark, you have GREAT skin [looking at the summit pic..] what sunscreen are you using?)

Oh, and congratulations on your 100/101st summits!

Congrats to both of you! And concerning the sunscreen, Mark only goes out at night and shudders at the site of garlic.

Great job guys. Good way to end 2012!

Mark,
Great night hike under a full moon. Headlamps were optional the whole night. It was interesting how it went from a clear still night to wind and cold mist in a about two minutes, glad we brought the warm gear.
I usually try and take moon light photos after the summit and the summit wind froze my camera (and me too!) so I got almost no pictures.

Trail was in good condition.

Mark in the moonlight.

Mark,
BIG CONGRATS ON 100! See you out there soon.

Desiree, Frank and I did a nice hike today to Bighorn Pk. Weather was great low was 21deg., wind started up around 1pm on are way down, micros all day long. Snow was soft and fresh between couple of inches on top of ice to a foot deep. Hiking on virgin snow making are own tracks.Very nice scenery today..

Bighorn Pk

mark

Good Old Baldy


Lunch Time on Bighorn

I always love going to Bighorn Peak, especially in the snow! Snow conditions were good and temps were just right.

A great hike with great company and the perfect start to a new year.

Nice hike, what gully did you guys take to Bighorn? How does Ontario look? The sun-facing sides look bare, bummer.

Belated congrats to Frank too on 101!

Hi James.. No gully going up, up the side after the saddle, this was just a leasurly hike going up. Desirees 2nd hike coming off of Plantar Fasciitis ..Thanks

Hi,today was a good day up at Baldy. The weather was cold and clear. I happened to meet Shin this morning and he invited me to join him and others from the group who were up there and we all had a great time. I would also like to thank Tracy and Carol for helping me get up the Bowl for my first time. Their help and advice was invaluable for getting me up there. Thanks. Hope to see you all up there again.

Thanks,
Randy

Hi & Happy New Year To All!

Anybody going up this weekend? I can't stand by & look at it anymore with this fabulous weather we're having. Mostly likely I would go up Sun, but if someone wants to twist my arm I could go Sat also ;-) ........

-cat b.

It was another glorious day on Baldy today. The sun was a'blazin'. Very warm, no wind. Some patches of ice but no snow on the trail up to the hut. From the hut snow all the way, except for some bare spots on the steep section above the saddle. Varying conditions but mostly getting soft as the day wore on. Some folks were using crampons but microspikes over trail runners were sufficient...

Summit #14 for me. A long way to 300....

Met Randy S. at the summit. Good to meet you Randy!.....

-cat b.

Hi CatB, it was good to meet you and your friend on top of Baldy yesterday. Yes it was very warm. It was almost too warm for winter. We'll have to get together some time to hike. Hey did you happen to see the helicopters around the Bowl when you were coming down. I have bad news about that which I will post seperately. See you next time.

Hi Randy,

Yes I did see the helicopter circling the bowl. I was down below the hut already & I immediately had a bad feeling. I saw the rest of the SAR folks at the falls. I thought to ask if anything happened but didn't. I thought maybe they were doing some practice drills because they didn't seem too excited. Then I saw the blurb in the LATimes this morning.

Yea, easy to do. One little misstep & you're going down. Even with the spikes I was sliding in the soft stuff.....

Hi Very sad report of another fall.

Each mountain has a zone that will over time set the stage for most of the accidents , Whitney has that area, Some years ago focus was to reduce the blindly following the past and several very minor adjustments were suggested ,this has reduced these accidents, but like all aspects of human exploits the older and wiser may not see the need to discourage the risk and fall back on the old ways. Claiming that the risk is the adventure .

When you read about various routes up the North Fork take this into account.

Study the rescues/recoveries on Mt Baldy and see if one certain area yields a pattern, I recall from some years ago Mr Secor slide down one area of the Mountain.

Everest may provide the best example of this logic. Mr. Messenger wrote sometime in the 70's about the accident that would occur , this did come to pass and again and again!


So not today,but when you look back over the course of events when did the accident start... was it years ago or at that momment?


Hard topic to post ,please understand the risk , don't let yourself be put at a greater risk. Thanks Doug

So sorry to hear this. CatB and Randy, which path did you take? I worry that there would not be enough snow in the Bowl right now to go up or down it. A slip now could easily take you into poorly covered debris.

Brent

Brent, I took the path through the trees following up the summer trail. CatB and I got to the peak at about the same time. The Bowl had about half the amount of snow that it had two weeks ago. Did the Bowl with Shin two weeks ago and there was plenty of snow then. I think Dominic had gone up the West Bowl where there was still quite a bit of snow. I thought about the West Bowl, but was not comfortable about it so I went through the trees.

Sunday 1-20-13 from Bighorn....So sorry to hear about this to a fellow hiker..

Randy, thanks. For my own education, what was it about the West Bowl that made you feel uncomfortable? I haven't ever hiked the Bowl but am hoping to find a winter travel course soon. I won't attempt the bowl until I have solid self-arrest skills. I just want to learn whatever I can from you Pro Bowl folks.

Brent