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

Separate of the sarcasm, continued thanks Shin-san for your reporting, updates, and photos. I miss our hikes and discussions. Very best from Axeman (which has an entirely new meaning from my work here in DC... ;))

Did you see the picture?

Hi Jeff,
Thank you very much for your moral support as usual. I still remember the scary Thore peak hike with WPSMB many years ago. I remember all ice fragments flying way from very steep solid ice slope and your ice axe, only one in the group, chiseling away to create footsteps for over 20 people below. Looking forward to seeing you when you visit California again. Richard is in India hiking and riding now.
Whitney Portal was beautiful with fall color this week.

Let me clarify my recent post.
I simply presented the facts as of Thursday morning 10-01-26 I questioned the situation based upon the basic trail etiquette of "Hiker up has a right of way". I didn't have any other opinion to express at all. I only concerned about the safety of hikers and runners.
I don't know anything about trail running events on Baldy except Baldy Run. They run up the Fire Road and DBT, not running down. I have never seen any running events on Ski hut trail for last 21 years. Ski hut trail doesn't provide clear views ahead because or sharp turns and bushes and rocky trail and many spur trails with heavy hiker traffic on weekends. There were several black and white signs were pointed "DOWN" only, not up besides all orange flags. If that was the case, all runner has to stop for all coming up hikers all the time. This situation doesn't make any sense as a competitive running event. I don't know where the event begins or ends.

Have a great hike.

Yes, of course. That was just a wee tad of sarcasm, given the OCD/overkill of the orange flag placements. Was it a CYA for the underwriters? Were lawyers involved? Is it a sad statement of the current age's over-protectionism? Or was it merely that trail runners tend to have lower IQs...?*

Regardless, it made me both chortle and facepalm.




















(* I am a proud, lower-IQ trail runner, so I know of what I speak.)

This is the final post and update about this subject.
Fact:
10/01/2026: There were hundreds of orange flags spotted along the Ski hut trail to the summit. (See the original route plan of running event.) 381 of flags were removed on Thursday by a local hiker.
10/o2/2026: The event organizer agreed to place flags and markers on Friday on next event and agreed to clean up the marker flags after the event according to the local hiker.
10/03/2026: Apparently. Ski hut trail wasn't used for the running event after all as originally planned. I don't know why.
10/04/2026: Local hikers collected over 100 flags and markers from Ski hut to the summit.
Another hiker from Register ridge collected over 50 flags from bottom of Mt. Harwood to the summit coincidentally. After meeting up by accident at the summit, we were surprised by the quantiles. Shortly after, two staff members of the running event showed up with packs with flags. Most likely, they may be picked up from Notch to bottom of Mt. Harwood section. All other area has been cleaned up by local hikers. Local hikers wanted to count all flags, But, the event staff hastily gathered up flags and headed down to Ski hut direction where all flags had been cleaned up early in the morning.

Before they left the summit, I expressed my 2 cents about the reality of trail conditions of local mountains with plain words. They seemed to me that they were from higher level of consciousness with authority. Of course, we breath LA smog every day.
There were about 30 cases of incidents needed medical attentions on the event according to the staff. If they used Ski hut trail, more runners will be physical injured seriously by the trail conditions. All the advertisements on the flags were counterproductive after all.
I recommended to use Bear canyon trail for real running up and down on next time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VNCiPpkgPGak1UWT6

Have a great hike,

Well, as Jeff said, and it must be true based on conclusion he has made in his suspect research, and because several of my trail running friends hold advanced degrees - "trail runners tend to have lower IQs" so we need lots of surveyor's tape to mark an obvious trail even if other hikers decide to strip course markers in a sanctioned event.

Cirque Series Races seems to be a non-local outfit charging over $100 per participant per event, and emphasizing ski areas. A .com, not a .org. 2026 seems to be the first year Baldy was in their schedule. Perhaps it will be their last. Participation for Baldy seems to have been low. The Ski Hut trail and Devil's Backbone are a far cry from ski runs.

Assuming the asterisk wasn't missed, the research was a sample of three from a universe of about seven, all of which will crush beer cans on their foreheads (two of which, unopened cans). And 90-degrees is about as advanced as I can get these days, so yeah—more flags...