Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Is Mt. Baldy hiking boring?

After the recent storm in southern California,Mt. Baldy area got a ton of new snow. Richard,Ryan,and I decided to hike from Bear canyon trail,5.8 miles with 6000 feet of elevation gain, to West Baldy 9988 ft,Mt. Baldy 1064ft,and Mt. Harwood 9552ft and down through the Register ridge totalling over 10 miles. The snow level was around 7400 feet. This Bear canyon/flat trail is a very popular training trail for Mt. Whitney hike.

It was a nice and warm day Saturday and we started a bit late around 7:08 am. It was comfortable walk up to the Bear Flat,5400 ft, up to "V-Rock",V shaped rock, around 7400 ft.
There was no sign of footprints ahead of us from this point. We met one hiker went down just above the Bear flat.
We took turns to post hole 2600 feet and about 3.5 mile to the summit of Mt. Baldy. The section between 7700 ft and 9400 was very hard because of the deep and very bad snow condition.
We took the ridge line route to avoid very deep snow on east facing slope where regular trail is there.
The final 400 feet of West Baldy was continuous moderate slope but it was very hard for us after post holing 2 miles below.
We headed to Mt. Baldy with leisurely pace. Or, we were simply tired. At least I was. After taking a very first deserving long break for the day just east slop of Mt. Baldy summit, we walked down and up Mt. Harwood. Hiking down through the Register ridge, the trail between Devil's Backbone trail and Ski hut trail, was rather challenging to find the right route because the misleading slop covered with bad snow. The trail got worse on ridge line between 8200 feet and 7400 feet. The snow coverage was deep,shallow,soft,hard,rock,bush,and dead trees. We almost ran down as fast we could to get to the Manker.

This route offers a very good work out. It has good a distance,elevation gain,very nice view,and best of all least traffic.

This was the hardest hike ever on Mt. Baldy area but the most enjoyable hike.

I was glad that both Richard and Ryan were tired as I was at the end of the day.

Thank you Richard and Ryan.
See you next time.

Pictures at WPSMB photo album.

Hiking anywhere is never boring. And hiking with friends makes it fun, glad you guys had a great hike. Sounds like a very challenging route. Someday we should try Iron-Baldy traverse in snow conditions. That certainly wouldn't get boring.

No. In fact this last climb was a classic due to the nature of the cornice on the "south backbone." We could have easily pretended were were on some classic ridge anywhere in the world.

A fine day with Shin and Ryan.


Yes, it was deep!



Shin.

Cornice! Yes, there was classic cornice on the ridges. There was even this cornice wave that Richard caught:







A fine day, indeed, guys!

Beautiful photos. That trail is very fun...but you shouldn't advertise due to the shortage of parking space for that TH
Evidently, lots of others find Baldy not so boring as well:



Nice photo of the bowl last Saturday by Asbufra

Holy Crap Tracie, it looks like a mini Everest! Cindy...yes?
The daring glissaders who tackle the "straight down the chute" approach must have been playing Bowling for Dollars!
I sure hope they don't start requiring wag-bags on Baldy

Stacy

We saw that same Conga Line up Zen Chute yesterday too. We counted 35 climbers!! It made me think of the cables on Half Dome.

Nice hike guys!! Baldy is never boring with the multiple TH's and the mixture of routes you can make up as you did. Heck i have even done Baldy without starting from a TH. The routes less explored can be the best. I have been eyeing Bear Flat from the two summits of Baldy i did this week. It looked well-covered and pristine and your photos proved it. Quads of steel that post-holing develops! I hiked up RR last Tuesday and was so disappointed in the lack of snow below 8k. I may be picky but i like RR either all in snow or all dirt but that mixure was annoying.

Thanx for the TR and photos!

Shin. Never. It's interesting... when I was hiking/climbing in my younger years, I never hiked the same mountain twice. Now, I understand that it is always a unique experience. The people who accompany me, weather conditions, various challenges that arise... And it is always good; never boring.

Fantastic photos of what looks like an amazing day!!! Love the conditions on the ridge. Like Richard mentioned, you could have been on any classic ridge, anywhere in the world. I have felt like that on some of the Cascade peaks. My first time to C-Muir on Mt. Rainer, I looked down on the lower peaks of the surrounding Cascades, peering out above the clouds, and it looked like photos I had seen of the Himalayans. I called it the mini-Himalayans.

Ryan - Love the snow surf shots. I want to surf that cornice...

The tube we missed...

Oh yeah, I forgot about that one, Richard. That was more at the beginning of the ridge. It was the uncaught wave.

Thanks MC, let's hope there are some nice surfable cornices in Mexico. I'm looking forward to those ice waves.

Congrats Shin, Richard, and Ryan on nice day of post-holing and trail breaking. Thanks for sharing all the cool photos of another great day on Baldy

FWIW, I never get “bored” hiking Mt Baldy. On the contrary, I always enjoy re-charging my mental batteries and working on the huff-n-puff while hiking up there. Even in the presence of millions of other folks, I’ve always enjoyed my days on Baldy……and hope to for many many more days

Hi Rick,
I have one hiking goal for this year on Mt. Baldy. I plan to hike the Bear canyon trail every chance I get. At the end of summer, I want to hike up and down Bear canyon trail and get back on Ski hut trail up and down in one day with a smile just like you have done many times in last year.
Bear canyon will give me good mental and physical aspects of training. I am so used to a very easy short 5 hours hike on the rut. Now I have to set my bar a bit higher this year.

I usually take a lot of pictures. But,I was too tired to take pictures on this hike. Especially last 400 feet elevation of gradual slope of West Baldy, I forced myself not to look up the summit plateau. If I did,I would had stopped and taken a long rest. I kept on looking down and kept on going one step by one step with deep breathing. I remember vividly seeing Richard and Ryan's back only twice. I could have taken a good action picture but I forced myself to keep on going. This hike was a mental game for me. I have to learn how to allocate my energy reserve over the entire hike and how to replenish energy while hiking.
Also, hiking with these two animals made this hiking very challenging mentally and physically.

Shin, you've got so much good training potential in that area...

Big Baldy Loop (BBL), Six Peaks, Nine Peaks, Eleven Peaks, The Dirty Dozen... RG and GM can probably name off more.

Remember, if you do BBL in under 8 hours, you are allowed to go out and buy yourself a Ninja.

Are Ninjas allowed on the Bear Canyon trail? I can see Shin doing a wheelie on one of those cornices.

There is only one ninja on Baldy and that's Shin. You never know where he is or when he's going to pop out. He's the man of the mountain.

Shin, you're way too modest. You do a fine job, Mr. 223+