Mt. Baldy (San Antonio)

On Sunday April 22nd 2007 I went on a day long hike up Mt. Baldy also known as San Antonio. The day started early at 6AM since I was going to meet my fellow climbers at 8AM for the hike. At 6:15 I was in my car and on my way to a great hike. At first the climbing was at a leasury pace without any major strain. We have arrived at a ski hut after about 1h+ of hiking. From then on the hike turned to be more challenging as the weather changed and we got some snow/ ice. It was not very cold (I would estimate at maybe -5C at the top) but a strong wind was blowing at around 40km - 50km/h at the top and exposed side. Visibility on our final hour of ascent was very poor with heavy fog, about 50m at most, maybe less. We lost the trail many times but it was rather easy to find our way up as the natural gradient of the mountain was guiding us. The altitude made me loose my strength quite quickly when compared to lower parts of the mountain. I had to take a break frequently for about a minute or so. I got to use my crampons for the last mile or so of the ascent as there was plenty of snow and ice on the trail. After we arrived on the top the strong wind made us very chilly. My California born (grown) friends are not used to snow and ice filled air and they got cold very quickly. After about 15min on the top we decided to go back the same way we came. In the fog we got separated. My and John were together while three other people formed another group. Since they had a hand held GPS device with trail way-points they found the trail with ease. Me and John were not so fortunate. I only had a basic compass on it and I conveniently forgot to bring along a map (left it in my car). Fortunately after some trail and error (traversing the mountain from side to side) we found a trail and some climbers. It turned to be a trail for the long way down. Since we both didn't want to go and take on Baldy again we decided to take the long way down (I think it was around 2000m descent v.s. about 1300m for the other trail). At around 4PM we were rejoined by our friends at a restaurant celebrating a great day hike with some spirit of adventure blended in.

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Album created on 2007-04-23 and last updated on 2007-04-23