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

This ‘guy’ is up there all the time and is looking at the rocky wall very suspiciously

That's Vegas. If he had opposable thumbs I would consider him a prime suspect but he doesn't. I put a piece of salami on a rock for him and he knocked it down between 2 rocks with his nose. Try as he might, he couldn't shift the rocks to get at the salami. So you can rule him out.

Love the clouds in the picture. What were hiking conditions like that day?

Graham copied that photo from my Baldy Bowl Dog Patrol post on the San Gabriel Mountains Discussion Forum, so I'm not sure if he can answer your question. That day I started at Manker Flats with slightly hazy, mostly sunny conditions. The low-lying clouds were mostly to the west, leaving the Baldy area clear. I had a relatively easy, cool hike up and fed my Clif bars to the dogs, who followed me from Manker to the summit. They are habitual runaways who apparently live off the kindness of strange hikers. A few days after I took that picture, I hiked Baldy again. They were at the summit and followed me down to the Notch.

Am I seeing things, or did you capture a bird in flight, in the middle right part of the image?

Baldy trail condition 12/01/2012
There was NO SNOW at all from Manker flat to the summit.

It was cloudy most of this morning and it was very windy and cold at the summit around 9:30 a.m..

The frost formed on the bush in front of my eyes this morning.

The windbreak has been intact after Edith and Martin rebuilt on Tuesday. It was destroyed some time from on last Sunday afternoon or Monday after rebuilt by WPS CB unit last Saturday. But, we have to build up a bit more so it will work as a windbreak. Thank Edith and Martin for your hard work. Our will has expressed to whoever destroyed our windbreak. It started end of October.

A good pair of gloves and good windbreaker are a must item even though there is no snow on the mountain now.

I'll post another actual trail report next Saturday.

Shin, you have to keep the streak alive for both of us now... I did manage to get up Five Fingers this morning, but the right leg sure didn't like it. I guess I should stick to an easy mountain like Baldy for a while longer.

I didn't notice that at the time, but it sure does look like a bird. Weird.

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who spent time rebuilding the windbreaks! Their full return allowed me a luxurious respite on a wet, cold and windy day today. Sadly, keeping with SoCal weather patterns for the last 2 years, no freshie today and it doesn't look like that 3-7" originally forecasted for tonight is going to happen at all. Bummer.

If you hike Baldy and/or Icehouse Canyon regularly you have seen large number of Koreans of all ages, male and female, on the trails. Sometimes Korean hiking groups arrive in tour buses.

This article from last Sunday's NY Times travel section talks about the place of mountains and hiking in Korean culture: http://travel.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/tra...d=all&_r=0.

Yes, lots of Koreans,,,,,,, AND they usually are very well covered up from the sun === SMART KOREANS !!!!!!

I have hiked baldy and surrounding peaks probably a 100 times and most Koreans tend to hike the Ice house canyon route to the Ice house saddle. Sometimes to Timber and sometimes to the other peaks, but I have not often seen them on the Bear Flats trail my favorite or the devils backbone, if baldy the ski hut trail. They are avid and hardy hikers and I have come across many in the high Sierra on the high sierra trail, onion valley, JMT or Mt. Langley.

I see that the link to the NYT article goes dead after 7 days. The article talks about the fact that Koreans consider the mountains to be spiritual places and grow up hiking to shrines and temples at the top of peaks. There is an ancient trail that runs the full distance of the Korean peninsula from the Chinese border to the sea in the south (although of course S. Koreans cannot hike the northern portion now).

Any recent trail info for Baldy? Is the Manker flats trail still navigable with microspikes?

The trail was muddy coming down from the ski hut at 1:00p today. Most folks I saw on the trail were wearing microspikes and boots. I was able to summit at noon with my trail runners and poles no problem. There's not enough snow to justify carrying an ice axe at this time. I did notice a couple guys going up the main bowl with their crampons and axe. IMO, I think it's silly to go that route with such little snow coverage.

I was up to Manker on the 15th, and there was snow covering the road up at the very start. You mean its all melted now? I was expecting that it would be really deep by now.

There were patches of ice on the road when I started out in the morning. It was all melted by the time I came down. There are small patches of snow after turning the corner on the road past the waterfall.

I posted some photos to

https://plus.google.com/photos/107314338382790053636/albums/5827017042881038273

Nice photos and info on the trail. How was the road driving up? I have a Prius and even with cables it does not do well in the snow. Thanks for the info.

Great photos and trail report!

The road is completely dry and no chains are required. Have fun and be safe!