With headlamps on, we started at around 6am from Manker Flat parking area. Parts of the road leading to San Antonio Falls were covered with ice. So some caution was needed until we got to the rockier portions after the hairpin going away from the falls.

At the register, we shed some layers, ditched our headlamps, and carried on. The snow coverage on the trail itself was mixed until about a half mile in. Then it covered everything. There wasn’t any ice, and the snow was already a little slushy. So crampons weren’t needed. Just a little extra caution.

Charging up to the Ski Hut, we med up with the group from the San Gabriel Mountains Discussion Forum group who were holding an informal training clinic. We hung around for about an hour here meeting others and just waiting around for the last group members to get up to the Ski Hut. Unfortunately though, the group started up past our cutoff time of 9am. So Tim and I decided to leave the group and do our own thing. First off, we should his friend how to self-arrest. This was made difficult with the warm sun softening the snow a lot.

After about a half hour of this, we started our climb up the center. I’m not sure on the names of the chutes, I’m going to have to find those out later. But our goal was to head right up the center chute (where the rock formation comes to a saddle in this picture).

We were making some pretty good time up it too. Tim did a good job creating the path for us to follow. After about 40 minutes, we were three quarters or so up the Bowl. This is where Tim wanted to change course and start another approach up a different chute. I decided to stick to the original route, while Tim broke left and went about his approach.

Truong and I went up the intended chute. In the chute, the snow was just powder. I was pretty much post-holing mid-calf or up to my knee with each step. This got pretty tiring. On top of that, the snow was doing a good job of balling up on my crampons. This was extremely tiring and annoying. But at least at this steep portion, I wasn’t worried about a painful slide down the mountain if I messed up.

Finally at the top of the chute, it was pretty gusty. We Baldy looked like a chimney with the way the snow was coming off of it. Baldy itself looked pretty miserable too.

We were done for the day. No summit today. Been there, done that. Instead, we traversed the lip and started the glissade down.

Second half of the glissade:

The 3 tallest peaks in the San Gabriels

Final Stats:

13 miles, 7000 ft

Click on balloons for geo-tagged photos
Click for more stats & gps files

Dawson Peak and Pine Mountain lie along the north backbone of Mt San Antonio and offer dramatic views of the Sheep Mountain Wilderness, the desert, and the north face of Mt Baldy. While they are the 3rd and 2nd highest peaks (respectively), they are definitely hiked less often than Baldy – likely due to the additional elevation gain and / or drive time.

I had never actually hiked these peaks, although I made my first ascent of Mt Baldy just over 3 years ago. I’ve had at least 3 planned attempts foiled (one by fire), and somehow it has taken this long to try. But I’m glad I did.

My original plan was to do a huge loop: Register Ridge – Baldy – Dawson – Pine – Wright Mtn – PCT – Gobbler’s Knob – Stockton Flats – Baldy Notch – Manker Flats. But I really didn’t feel like a long day. And when I started hiking, the last two days of workouts and not eating enough were definitely catching up with me. I headed up Register Ridge – windy as always – and the beginning is so steep it will give the calves a rude awakening. But I much like this ridge simply to get away from the crowds. Aside from a few people I saw near the bottom, I had the whole thing to myself.

Upon reaching Devil’s Backbone, I headed up Baldy, and already was feeling a little lethargic. Definitely wasn’t going to do the loop, and didn’t even feel like doing the extra peaks. But I convinced myself to at least get to Dawson, so I headed on down north. The North Backbone trail is also very steep, especially between Baldy and Dawson. It was warming up and I was even sweating a little on the downhill. Hitting the saddle, I was hoping to feel a little more energetic, but that quickly was zapped away by the 800 ft ascent to Dawson. Getting to the summit, I was entirely settled and resting and turning around here – but then it just looked like Pine was not that far away nor that much of a drop – so what the hell just go do that too. Plus it looked like it would have nicer views. And it did!

I was about to leave Pine when I ran into a couple who had come from Baldy – they mentioned they left the summit at 7:30 am – well before I left – and had summited Dawson so we were confused as to how I could pass them up without seeing them. Weird. Then I ran into a large OCHBC group with a few people I know, so I hiked back up with them. The moderate pace was welcomed.

On the way back up Baldy, I had a fly land on my finger, and he wouldn’t go away. So I tried to pet him – and he let me! 5 times actually. And he flew away and came back and let me pet him again. WTF?

~ 7.5 miles uphill , 4000 ft gain

damn 6 minutes

Click for more stats & gps files

Two years ago I entered this race for the first time. In fact, I think it was the first race I’ve actually competed in since early high school. If only I had the training discipline then that I have now! In that race, I managed a 1:32 to the top, which included a wrong turn that put me back a minute or two. So this time, I figured if I could improve my fitness a little bit, maybe I could shoot for a 1:28.

My girlfriend and I woke up and got to the ski lift parking area around 6:30 am for the 8 am race. I would highly suggest getting there around this time because by 7am its a zoo with lots of time spent waiting to park your car. If you want an additional challenge, you could hike up from Icehouse canyon, like Cy who I saw hiking up the switchbacks to the ski lift.

Months ago, Rachel was planning on running the race, but some knee problems had her planning on just hiking up and watching. However, the thought of everyone else there racing but not her drove her crazy, so when I saw she had disappeared I knew she was signing up

We met up briefly with Steve, Pattie, Fernando and Iron Mike before the start of the race. Then it was on to the start. I didn’t even bother warming up.

At the start, there is about a 1/4 mile run downhill back to Manker Flats, which then turns uphill another 1/2 mile on paved road then onto dirt road. The scene at the beginning is somewhat amusing to me – watching all these people sprint down than run up the road way faster than they can maintain (at least most of them). I think a lot of people need to read this hiking science post! A few guys went from running to walk within a few minutes! Of course being the science doof / control freak I am, I had my heartrate monitor / Forerunner 305 on again to make sure to pace my heartrate. It really is hard to keep reasonable at first – adrenaline really makes you want to go much faster than you should.

The first 4.5 – 5 miles of this hike are steady fire road – just the way I like it. The first 3.7 up to Baldy Notch generally goes at around 9% grade, which for me means a nice slow running pace of 5.5 – 6 mph. I was able to keep my heartrate around 173-174 up to Baldy Notch. These were similar heartrates up to the Notch as what I did 2 years ago, but this year my time to the Notch was a minute or two longer, hmm.

From the notch, the fire road steepens to average about 12.5% grade, although it could vary from 10-20% in spots I believe. Last time, I remember my heartrate dropping below 170 in this section and I was keen to improve my pace. I ended up running more of it and keeping my heartrate around 175-176, so by the time I got to Devil’s Backbone, I felt like I was doing pretty well.

The trek along Devil’s Backbone and the final push up the steep east slope of Baldy are the last two sections of the race, and they require good tactics, which I may lack in racing. The backbone is single track with not much room to sidestep people, so what always happens is that you end up in the middle of a train of people. It’s too much energy to try to pass, so you just hope that the pace they maintain matches yours. On this occasion, I felt like the pace was okay…my heartrate dropped a few beats but nothing dramatic.

The backbone has a lot of trail “variance”…lots of changes in steepness going from running flat / jogging / hiking. These changes require excellent mental focus in deciding when to change pace so that your intensity is consistent. To me, the more changes, the harder it is to keep a good heartrate / intensity. I’m sure this is like that for others and probably why the “train” of runners I was in went at a pace that I thought was hard enough even though my heartrate dropped a little.

Finally we passed Mt Harwood and I was about 1:21 in…and I was somewhat pissed because I realized I wouldn’t get that 1:28. I continued up pushing at a good rate for about 2/3 of the way when I got to a relatively flat spot and saw the summit was another few hundred feet up. I was exhausted at this point. I noticed my calves teasing cramps and I pushed on. The last few minutes seemed to take forever! Finally I got near the summit and tried to run to finish it off…well I did run but my calves started cramping so I probably ran 20 seconds like I had a stick up my ass. 1:34 and change.

Somehow, I felt I gave a fuller, more intense effort but ended up with a slower time! I was pissed, but wait first I had to stretch out my calves. Ok now I was pissed! Wait I have to get some orange slices and sit down. Okay…what happened? Well two things changed against me since last race. 1) I didn’t sleep in my car at 6000 ft the night before, and 2) I gained 7-8 lbs up to 192 (at least it was muscle). Given my hiking at altitude the last 3 weeks, I really don’t think #1 had much weight, but I may be wrong. I’m quite sure #2 had an effect, but exactly how much is hard to say and worth a whole post in itself. Suffice to say there could have been a 4% increase in workload from 2008 to 2010. I probably burned around 1900 kcal in that run! So I am mad I went slower, but given I stayed around 90% of my max heart rate the entire race, I’m also happy. And it was fun either way.

A short time later, Zip came running up.

Then Rachel hauling ass getting in around 1:50. That’s without much running training nor any race preparation!

My camera was all sweaty being held in my hands – this was a partial shot of Iron Mike (on the right).

Fernando

Nice temps, another lovely day in the mountains.

Final Stats:

Gain: 7800+ ft
Distance: 19 miles

Exhausting journey on a formidable ridge.

Meetup link here.

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Mt. Baldy via the Bighorn Ridge at EveryTrail

From The San Gabriels Vol II by John W. Robinson, 1983, pp 167-168:

Although most parties ascending Old Baldy started from San Antonio Canyon and used either the Bear Flat or Devil’s Backbone route, there were also other ways to climb the mountain. Some hikers took the northeast approach from Glenn Ranch, following the old miners’ road up Lytle Creek to Baldy Notch, then up the Devil’s Backbone to the top. From San Gabriel Canyon, Henry Roberts led parties up the peak via the East Fork and Prairie Fork as early as 1889. In the early years of the present century, a rough trail was built up the long southwest ridge of Baldy from Weber’s Camp in Coldwater Canyon. With the demise of Weber’s Camp in the late 1920s, the trail fell into disuse and disappeared.

The long southwest ridge is the Bighorn Ridge (BHR), and from what we’ve read there hasn’t been any reports of anyone climbing this path other than the fact about 100 years ago there used to be a path. The idea of trying to ascend Mt Baldy this way was brought up in this forum thread. In it some potential routes were considered, but in the end no one had checked it out.

After the build-up, the lack of resolution bothered me. So I looked over the info and added some of my own analysis, and then we decided to go check it out. There was lots of brush just getting up to the ridge, and we realized the energy expenditure to ascend Baldy would be much more than the already imposing stats (> 7000′ in elevation gain) implied.

However we knew it was possible, and so after waiting for the snow to melt, we were ready to go. We originally planned on doing it the previous weekend when it was nice and cool, but the suggestion of rain/snow prevented us. Instead, we had to wait until this weekend which was at the end of a heat wave.

We met at the Baldy Village Visitor’s Center, and car shuttled down to Cow Canyon saddle. We left down the boring truck trail at 5:20 am, taking us down to Cattle Canyon in ~ 5 miles, and to our initial spot for ridge ascent in 7.5 miles. So at about 8am, we started our ascent. The ascent up to Bighorn ridge requires about 1500 ft gain in 0.7 miles, all of which is covered in brush. We did a decent job of pathfinding last time – though it took a while – so this time while we still had to deal with a lot of brush, we were able to remember spots from before which to take and avoid. And bring gardening gloves!

For instance, on the portion of the ascent to BHR that heads northeast, most of the top of the ridge is covered in brush that reallys slows you down. However, if you stay on the west side a little below the ridgetop, the brush is considerably less and fast-going. Still, you must find a good spot to climb back up before the ridge turns back northwest.

We were reasonably fast this time, getting up the 1500′ to the BHR in 1.5 hrs. From here, the next goal is to reach the 6388′ bump (6380 waypoint) which is the junction of a large ridge north of Fossil Canyon to the west. The ‘best choice’ path is still not clear, but it is certainly some combination of staying directly on top of the ridge, but veering off to the west side for some parts. (Key note: For practically the entire BHR, you do NOT want to try to drop down on the eastern side. Way too steep). At waypoint BHR1 (point we got on ridge), there is certainly some resemblance of an old trail on the west side of the ridge. You can follow this for a while, just below the ridge top. However, after a short distance you’ll want to climb back up to the ridgetop, as you’ll run into some rocks / cliffbands.

In this case we probably stayed on the west side too long, and ended up doing some class 3 climbing back up (note if you stay on the ridge the whole time in this section, there will also be some class 3). We stayed on the ridge for a bit, but at times where the brush was simply not negotiable, we would look and drop down the west side again for a little bit, only to reascend to the ridge. Basically, you have to choose the path of least resistance, which may be the one that includes more energy expenditure on steep slopes!

The best example (worst part) might be right before bump 6388′. We were on the ridge with considerable brush ahead of us. Even a short drop to the west side did not look any better. I tried to find a path, crawling by manzanita, but just ran into a whole bunch of brush (buckthorn perhaps…it was dead, light colored branches with pointy ends everywhere, but I didn’t take a picture). I tried climbing over part of it, but then there was just nowhere to go. There was lots of cursing in this part!

Eventually, we went back a bit, descended the west side a bit more than normal, and found some nice exposed area that we could quickly climb to the 6388′ bump. This bump actually provides some nice shaded area, ideal for camping, haha!

Between 6388′ and 7245′, the brush was a little better, but still we had to climb down the side of the ridge multiple times and climb back up to bypass some harsh sections. But from this part up it was a really nice ridge as the mixture of pine trees and rocky portions gave it a real scenic value. From 7245′, I expected from previous scouting with binoculars that the ridge would not be too bad in terms of brush, and that was the case. After a bit of a flat section, we followed the ridge which included some rock scrambling and mainly avoiding manzanita patches up to about the 7600′ countour.

At this point, the group was certainly wearing out, as a lot of energy was used to deal with the brush and rocks and instability of the terrain, and yet we still had 2500′ of gain to go! But it was time to make a final, consistent push. We went up perhaps 1600′ in 0.8 miles up to the final point of the ridge, bump 9425′. This portion was nice, mostly brush free with some rocky portions to negotiate, nice trees and some deer hanging around. But it was steep! Along this ascent one could see unique views of the steep dropoff into Cattle Canyon as well as the San Antonio Ridge.

And with that bump, we made had finished ascending Bighorn Ridge. We continued up to summit Baldy. From there, we took the Bear Canyon trail down.

BHR Rage?

We had 5 people summit, congrats to them! For myself, this was certainly the toughest hike I’ve done in the San Gabriels easily beating Iron Mtn, though I don’t know how it fares to some of the other large off trail climbs, but the combination of brush, rock bouldering, steep terrain, & pure elevation gain make it a very worthy climb!

Final Stats:

Gain: 5400 ft (6300 ft for all excursions)
Distance: 17 miles (18)

Got brush?

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

Well, this one was quite a scouting trip, and exhausting at that. The goal was to try to get up to Bighorn Ridge and we were able to do that, although it definitely required dealing with a good amount of brush.

We set off from Cow Canyon saddle and heading down the fireroad, hitting up the bottom in about 5 miles. We headed up a mile or so up Cattle Canyon until nearing the area deemed as a reasonable starting spot to head up. We met up with HikeUp and discussed potential routes, and figured that there was obvious best way (although there were bad ones). So we began climbing up.

It’s hard for me to illustrate the terrain as I didn’t take a lot of pictures going up. We were simply dealing with a good amount of brush off and on, and I needed to use my hands to clear instead of take pictures. As it turns out, it seemed that in places there was a faint, old use trail of sorts switchbacking up. However, a considerable amount of the path was blocked with brush, usually some combination of yucca, buckthorn, or manzanita.

Open areas were still very steep, but appreciated. The lower half of the ascent seemed to be relatively more covered in brush than the upper, although in both cases we had to resort to crawling around at some points.

It took us probably 3.5 hrs to make it up to Bighorn Ridge, in approximately 2 miles! A solid 1/2 mile per hour clip. Much of this was dealing / breaking route as well as finding best pathways.

At this point, we were planning on heading along the ridge with a goal to get to the bump at ~ 6300 ft. While the rest of the group began to traverse along the eastern edge of the ridge, I checked out the western side and some views of the San Antonio ridge.

There was some faint trails heading both north, south, and west down into Coldwater Canyon. It is too difficult to tell if its from human use or just game trails, but I was intrigued. I continued northernly on this side of the ridge following some faint game trails and eventually climbed back up to the top of the ridge. I had gained distance considerably faster than the rest of the group, who was dealing with more brush and rock bouldering.

We continued on further a bit, but it was already pretty late and we decided to turn around. We didn’t get to the bump I ideally wanted to get to, but we had seen a decent portion of the ridge. The portion ahead still had considerable brush, but I think doable.

At this point we turned around and headed back. The descent took about 1/2 the time of the ascent, given we knew our path better & and had broken trail.

As for estimating the rest of the ridge, I would imagine it would be slow going up to some altitude (maybe 7500 ft?) where the brush would clear up, and from there it would be just elevation gain. I think this would be a big undertaking, but doable as a dayhike. I think exploring this portion now will make the ascent to the ridge much quicker next time as long as I remember the path, which I should.

Here’s a few webcams that record live images of various spots in the San Gabriel mountains.

Looking east toward Mt San Antonio, Cucamonga, etc… from Mt Wilson

From Josephine Peak, looking west toward Mt Lukens (I think direction varies)

Mt Wilson

Mt Baldy / Thunder Mt

My photos here

Our initial plan was to take Register Ridge up to the Devil’s Backbone trail, continue on reaching Mt. Harwood, Mt. Baldy, Dawson, and Pine. However we knew there was going to be snow on the north face of Baldy so we weren’t sure about the latter two.

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

Mt Baldy via Register Ridge at EveryTrail

I was also trying on a new pair of shoes. I ordered several pairs from Sierra Trading Post with the intention of trying them all and keeping one pair. Last week was the Salomon Solaris, which was good except for poor lateral support – an important feature on cross-country hikes like Rattlesnake Peak.

This week I was trying the Asolo Veloce. A nice looking pair with Vibram soles, but with stiff soles I wasn’t sure how well they would break in during the first hike.

Anyways, we were off a bit past 8am, and once hitting the Ski Hut trail, we quickly diverged onto the clearly worn Register Ridge use trail.

Of course, this is a steep path. But it is a good steep, the terrain for footing is reasonable. And I always enjoy hiking around fallen pine needles, as they pad the feet and smell nice.

Here is a video of some ridge ascent around an area with large boulders:

The view south of course gives clear views down the canyon. On this day, there were some interesting views due to cloud cover and light rays pouring through.

At this point, we reached the Devil’s Backbone Trail. We just scaled about 2700 ft in 1.5 miles up the ridge, and about 3000 ft in 2.5 miles total! We took a short break then headed up straight toward Mt Harwood.

However as we were approaching the backbone trail and then on to Harwood, it began hailing on us. And the weather around looked somewhat formidable, although clear skies were not too far away.

After bagging Harwood, we decided to mix it up just a bit and veer toward the northeast face of Baldy to ascend instead of the normal east route. This provided more of a workout dealing with the scree and scrambling.

We then ascended to some really cool views.

Once we had ascended Register Ridge, it was really, really windy. And initially there was no sun. Luckily the sun finally came out to provide some warmth and to counterbalance the wind.

We started heading down toward Dawson, but after a few hundred feet down found the entire face covered in snow up to 1 ft deep. The snow could be traversed in the current condition, but I wasn’t sure how it would act (freezing) later on the return so we decided to bail out on that portion of the trip. However, it might have been possible to avoid the snow if one stays as far west on the ridge as possible, as there was less to no snow there.

Instead, we hiked back up and over to West Baldy, and went down several hundred feet toward the San Antonio ridge. It looked really inviting, but that’s for another day.

So we turned around and traversed over toward the Ski Hut trail. We decided to check out those airplane crash sites.

I’ll assume someone put this here and it didn’t land this way!

We then descended traversed along the western side of the ridge until we hit the saddle where the Ski Hut trail veers down easterly. Instead we continued on the ridge for a while to check it out. After some descent, we traversed across the side of the ridge to meet back up with the Ski Hut trail.

We met up with the trail, and followed it back to the cars.

In the end, this was about a 10 mile, 5000 ft jaunt with major cross-country portions. While we didn’t get to Dawson & Pine, we saw some great views and had some great hiking.