On Saturday morning Cary and I met up to climb Mt. Baldy. On Friday Baldy got 2 feet of snow which was exciting, especially since it's been such a dry winter this season. We got to the trailhead (Manker Flats) and start climbing by 6:30. There were only a few people ahead of us so the trail was not packed down and caused us to go a little slower than normal. By 10 we reached the Sierra Hut. After a short break we started up the bowl. We decided to climb a more direct route to the summit which involved breaking trail. For 900 feet we were climbing up the bowl taking turns breaking trail. We would sink in shin to knee high which is a pain when on a steep (relatively speaking) angle. After 2 hours of climbing up we were beat. At 9,100 feet and a mile short of the summit we called it a day. The most enjoyable part of the climb was glissading down the bowl. It was slow going due to the soft powder but it was still doable. It only took 15 minutes to get back down to the Hut. Once at the Hut the trail was packed down due to more traffic. This made for a fast pace back to the car. All in all we climbed 3,000 feet and traveled 5 miles. It was disappointing not to make the summit but it was still great to get out and enjoy some much needed snow.
For Spring break Cary and I flew out to Colorado to meet up with Katie to do some BC/AT skiing. We rented a portion of Vance's cabin. It's part of the 10th mountain division hut system. We skied in 2.5 miles to Vance's cabin where we stayed for 3 nights. The cabin had lights and a stove, an outhouse in the back but we had to melt snow for water. We shared the cabin with about 9 other people that seemed to be pretty cool.
On Tuesday we skied in and unpacked. The cabin had a beautiful view of the snow capped mountains and at night stars were all around us. Just beautiful. The winter has been very warm and dry this year. It hadn't snowed in weeks and unfortunately the snow was pretty crusty. Occasionally we had to take our skis off and walk over bare spots on the trail. On Wednesday we took our time getting out of bed and made some breakfast. Cary, Katie, and I were each responsible for making one dinner and one breakfast for the 3 days we were there. Around mid day we headed out on our skis for a day trip. We skied about 1.5 miles. We then got our beacons out to practice our searching. Katie and Cary had formal beacon training before and they did a great job filling me in. One person would go burry the beacon while the 2 others used the other beacon to find it. This is essentially what you would do if someone got buried in an avalanche. As an extra incentive for me to find the beacon Katie and Cary buried Jelly Bellies with the beacon. When we returned back to the cabin Katie introduced us to the board game "Settlers of Catan". We instantly were hooked and played with our other cabin mates.
On Thursday we took a day trip and skied up "Taylor's Hill" this was about 1 mile with about 800 feet of elevation gain. Taylor's Hill was at the top of a ridge where we had 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains. Amazing! It was also nice to be out of the dense trees as well. After exploring the long ridge for awhile we took off our skins and skied down. But before we got all the way back to the cabin we stopped and dug a pit and did some snow pack testing. Cary pulled out a snow saw we used to cut out blocks and analyze the different layers. It's just another precaution to use in the backcountry to avoid dangerous avy conditions. After the snow pack test we skied back down to the cabin. It's nice, right near the cabin is about 3 hundred feet of open mountain to ski down without too many trees. That night we set up a tripod and camera and set the exposure to "bulb" to get a 20 minute exposure while we climbed up and skied down with our head lights on.
Of Friday we packed up, said goodbye to our cabin mates and skied back to the trailhead. Up to this point I didn't have any significant spills but unfortunately on our way back I ate it trying to avoid a log while keeping my skis on a narrow patch of snow. I fell forward and landed on my knee and forearm. Luckily I just got a few scrapes and a bruised ego. Katie commented shortly after, "I think you have a twig in your nose". After avoiding many bare spots we made it back to the car. It was a great trip with poor snow. I'm looking forward to next hut trip and hopefully getting fresh snow while we are out there!
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