Check out Ze’s blog on the science of hiking.

http://hikingscience.blogspot.com/

Check out the rest of his gallery here, http://keeganuhlphotography.com/wilderness/icehouse2010/index.html

Thanks for sharing!

We left at about 6:00am and got to the tram by 7:35am and barely made onto the first tram up. This was my first time on the tram, and I must say that it was pretty adventurous. Nice fast mover all the way to the top. I guess it was too early though to rotate it for the view. Unless they only do that on the way down.

For this hike, we were expecting to be breaking trail the whole way up. At first I was looking forward to it. But as I walked in non broken trail for about 5 feet, I realized that would have been a bad idea. So I was really glad there was a faster group in front of us breaking a pretty good trail for us. This was pretty much how it went all the way to the top.

On the way down, more broken trail. Downhills are generally easier, and soon enough it was like charging down a nice scree slope with leaves and soft dirt to cushion each step. However, I guess I was going too heavy because I would be sinking in further than the path already laid out. And by mile 2 of the downhill, my -best guess- Tensor fasciae latae muscle was burning and in pain until the flatter portions of the trail.

Total time for this hike I believe was about 7 hours. Most of that time we were taking pictures or just playing around in the fresh powder. Lee made it up before any of us and was the designated peak greeter for the day. I think the whole hike would have taken him less than 4 hours to complete.

Lessons learned:
1. Camelbak tubes freeze up regardless if it’s insulated or if you blow the water back into the bladder. It just stops working.
2. Thinking about getting a full on bib. Falling ass first in fresh deep powder sucks.
(Updated)
3. Goggles! Sun glasses could work, but the wind still gets in from the sides. Goggles give all around wind protection.
4. When the powder is fresh, glissading does not work.
5. Snow baskets are key when using hiking poles. The small ones that came with my $10 Target hiking pole was ok, but still sank in.
6. The sock liner with a synthetic sock had my feet feeling like they were in a fresh pair all day.

Videos of the day below:

Just caught the aftermath on video. The story here is that Tim went ahead to take pictures of us approaching. He drops his camera in the snow, and after he picks it up, ends up losing his balance falling in. Miriam comes over to help and grabs the end of Tim’s hiking pole which comes loose and drops them both into the snow. And as you can see, it’s a whole process trying to get up with snowshoes on.

After through the trees, we finally hit the clearing. I forgot what valley this is called, but it had some pretty great views all around.

By this point, we had already gone up most of the steep stuff. We were probably less then 100 – 200 vertical feet from the top. We had also lost the shelter of the northern ridge from the wind.

Almost to the top. Less than 50′ I’d say. I think I stalled at this portion because I didn’t want it to end.

Finally at the top. It was pretty windy at times. The wind was blowing from north to south taking loose particles of snow with it. Good thing for goggles.

Traversing down.

What a terrible but entertaining idea. I was third to try it and ended up with the same results. I had also made the mistake of trying to traverse left to the main trail without snowshoes. My 70 cm ice ax going all the way into the slope, and my legs were up to my mid-thighs. After 40′, I was exhausted and just started rolling the last 20.

The tram is quite a wonderful piece of machinery. Especially with the rotating cabin. But what was most entertaining was the second of weightlessness you’d feel after it cleared a tower. The passengers got a real kick out of that.

Do you recognize this face? Let us know.

Another year, another beautiful, rough hike in the Santa Rosa mountains.

Final Stats:

13 miles, 5500 ft

Click for more stats

After hiking Villager and Rabbit peaks last January, I didn’t think I would be making it out a year later to hike another peak just to the east. The long drive (~3hrs) each way wasn’t really pleasant even with a night of car camping. However this time, a planned car camping expedition by Kathy and the peakbaggers meetup group for both Friday and Saturday nights allowed for a nice hike on Saturday without the long drive.

Rosa Point is likely less climbed than its neighbours to the west, but it is brutal and beautiful on its own.

We started out at the Thimble trailhead – the same starting place for Villager peak – and headed northeast toward Palo Verde canyon. Our plan was to take the standard route (hps route 1) up, and possibly route 3 down. Route 1 requires ascending the ridge just west of Palo Verde. Route finding can be challenging so you want to start off correctly.

We found a slight use trail and took that up heading NE then slightly NW to the first bump, where we then headed generally north.

Cholla are everywhere, and their ability to ‘jump’ was witnessed by many during the early part of the hike. The pain of them stabbing you in the leg and hands helped improved awareness, and cholla related incidents reduced dramatically as the hike continued.

At a bump at ~3530 ft and 3.5 miles in, we veer NE again following the use trail. For a while I accidentally headed east along the ridge and we had to correct back (should be able to see this on the map), so heading NE should be the proper route. We dropped down to a rocky wash and crossed over. A steep climb up to 3650′ saddle brought us to the junction with route 3. From here we headed north up a very steep and rocky ridge. A good ascent culminating in a ascending Rosa Point – the high point just east of the ascending ridge.

Rosa Point gave great views of the area. It was just another really clear day in the desert. We enjoyed a long lunch on top and looked through the old register entries, and decided on doing a loop and bagging Pyramid Peak on the way down.

Hiking down in this area is probably worse than even just west on the Villager / Rabbit traverse. The terrain is very steep and very rocky. Not only did we have to really concentrate all the time, the pounding on the feet and knees from rocks with no give was not too pleasant!

Back at the saddle, we headed SE all the way to Pyramid. The use trail here seems in better condition than on the way up. At Pyramid, we continued south and pick up the long ridge heading SW then S to the area where there are supposedly “Natural Rock Tanks”. Sadly we did not see any and were probably too tired to really do any extra exploration.

We picked up an old miner’s trail that was well worn and followed it out to the trailhead.

Extended from the first sample I took, here are the photos from the first 4 chapters of John Robinson’s The San Gabriels

Ch 1: Early Peoples
Ch 2: Missions and Ranchos
Ch 3: California’s First Gold Rush
Ch 4: Herders, Horsethieves, and Hunters

I had checked out John Robinson’s The San Gabriels, and decided to snap some shots of the photos in the book to share. Probably copyright infringement, but I thought it would be cool to preserve some of these digitally (albeit roughly). You should definitely check out the book if you are interested in San Gabriel mountain history.

Shooting for a PR up Big Iron’s ‘trail’…

Final Stats:

14 miles, 7100 ft

Click for more stats

I knew if I did Iron ever again via the standard south route, it would be to try to see how quickly I could get up. Otherwise, I would prefer to take on more exploratory routes.

Well that day ended up being yesterday, partly because I knew a meetup group was heading up there, and I was able to get a few hiking buddies to go with me who wanted to try the same thing. The day was reasonable in temperature as it ended up being around 50-60 degrees the whole way up, so I was able to pare down to a reasonable 5 liters of water for the hike.

My general goal was to get under 3 hrs, but really just try to goal all out while ‘hiking’. So my stipulations were to 1) stay on the established trail and 2) not run. And I did have Rick Kent’s time in the back of my mind.

Steve, Fernando, Scott and I left the parking lot at 7:15 am. I maintained a brisk walking pace, and continued up to the first saddle non stop ~ 30 min later. Here we took a brief stop.

I really didn’t want to stop to long, so we continued on shortly after, switchbacking up and going across the undulated ridge that eventually hits Coldwater Saddle 4.4 miles in. This ridge was even more annoying this time only because I wanted to get done with it as quickly as possible to start the real pain up Iron’s south ridge.

We got to the saddle in 1hr20min, and stopped for a minute. Scott wasn’t feeling well and decided to rest there; us 3 left kept going. I didn’t look at the time again until the top; I knew I just wanted to push. I was feeling pretty good up to this point. Of course it gets really steep immediately after the saddle, but I was able to keep my legs chopping at a seemingly good pace.

Eventually I was just breathing really hard, perhaps for the last 2000′ or so. It all looked like this at that point!

Heading up Iron Mountain from Zé Apelido on Vimeo.

My legs were starting to feel it pretty bad. My right calf and a random ankle dorsiflexor were stiffening up almost begging to cramp, but they didn’t. I felt like I was slowing down a little. I met up with Dave G 500-1000 ft below the summit very briefly then continued up. I couldn’t wait to be done moving. At that point, I started to get a little extra push and was back at my pace. I finished off the last few hundred feet very hard and breathing VERY deeply. When I got to the summit I just dropped my bag and just stared at the ground for a second. Zach was there; he heard my breathing just before and was probably thinking “WTF is that?”.

I looked at my GPS and got Moving Time: 2:35 + Rest Time: 2 min = 2hr37 min. I was pleasantly surprised!

Fernando summited perhaps 10 min later, and Steve after that (included taking care of business along the way up). We hung around for a good while as the meetup group hikers made it up.

Zach and Dave G were planning on heading over to Baldy. While people were chatting I took a jaunt along SA ridge going down and over a few bumps. There was snow on the north side but it seemed mostly avoidable. I took some scout pictures and headed back up.

After some brownies, we headed back down.

Descending Iron Mountain from Zé Apelido on Vimeo.

Today, for the first time on an Iron hike, I’m not sore. For me, it’s time to retire the south ridge.

But the route chosen for today was heavily shaded on the way up and slightly shaded towards the top. So the day began at 8:15am at the REI parking lot and from there we carpooled to Chantry. By the time we got there, the parking was extremely full. As we passed through the parking lot, we could see why. Large, and I mean large groups were heading down to Sturtevant Falls. This forced us to have to park past the stop sign where the road narrows due to the slides.

Anyways, here’s the route we took.

1. Start at Chantry and take the Mt. Wilson trail up through Spruce Camp.
2. Lunch at Echo Point with the nice overlook of the burned out areas and the not so burned out areas of Waterman and Twin Peaks.
3. Head back to Chantry via Santa Anita Ridge.

Not sure on the total gains and mileage, but my estimation comes out to 13 miles and about 4000′ gain. The way up was pretty tough, but not as bad as my first time. Guess I’m in better shape.

This was also my first view of the burned out areas. Damn, a lot of forest went up. But I was glad to see Waterman and Twin Peaks. Perhaps a hike there is in order. Maybe when there’s snow…

The way back wasn’t the normal downhill escapade. Santa Anita ridge is filled with a bunch of bumps which accounts for about another 200′ worth of gain. Wouldn’t be too bad, however, it’s just a roller coaster ride of a mix of steep ups and downs. This group I was with also decided it would be fun to run down most of it. I tried, but my joints just weren’t cooperating.