Pine, Baldy, Dawson, Wright 12/10/05 Richard Piotrowski Rick Graham Alan Kleinsasser Eric Kleinsasser Mike Mellin Rick Kent Log 07:07am - Left park 08:27am - Reached PCT/Blue Ridge Rd 08:56am - Reached start of backbone trail 10:12am - Reached summit of Pine Mtn 10:32am - Left summit of Pine Mtn ~11:30am - Reached trail again after contouring West side of Dawson 11:44am - Reached Baldy/Dawson Saddle 12:47pm - Reached Baldy summit 12:56pm - Left summit 01:59pm - Reached Dawson summit 02:08pm - Left Dawson summit 02:22pm - Reached Dawson/Pine saddle 02:43pm - Returned to summit of Pine Mtn 03:29pm - Returned to Blue Ridge Rd 03:45pm - Reached summit of Wright Mtn 03:53pm - Left summit 04:10pm - Reached Acorn Trail 04:15pm - Left trail seeking shortcut 04:57pm - Reached start of Acorn Trail 05:20pm - Returned to car Stats Time from park to summit of Baldy: 5 hrs 40 mins Time from Baldy summit back to car (via Dawson,Pine,Wright): 4 hrs 24 mins Total Time: 10 hrs 13 mins Misc Left home 4:30am Stopped at McDonald's in Pearblossom at 6:00am Arrived at park in Wrightwood 6:45am Travel Time: 2 hrs 15 mins Left park after 5:30pm Arrived home just before 8:00pm Post on wwww.mt-Whitney.info: Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:31 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Having failed at this route once before I felt Baldy and I had some unfinished business and so when you guys picked this route I was eager to try it again. Though I had gone back last summer and done the North Backbone starting from Blue Ridge I still wanted to complete it starting from Wrightwood. In a number of ways yesterday was strangely similar to my first attempt. My first attempt was also in December (almost exactly 2 years earlier) and like this time snow was a significant factor that substantially increased the difficulty. Like last time the sight of Baldy from Pine Mountain was intimidating, but this time I felt good. Given the conditions I was confident I could safely descend the backbone in the dark if necessary. This was the reason I had to turn back the last time. At that time a descent of the icy backbone in the dark without crampons would have been suicidal and I wisely turned back after summiting Pine Mountain. After leaving you guys at Dawson Peak I descended down to the Dawson/Baldy saddle. In the soft snow this took less than 20 minutes. Near the saddle I followed the tracks from a herd of bighorn sheep who had followed the trail for a short distance. The ascent up Baldy went well and I could tell I was making better time than I expected. Snow depth varied widely anywhere from clean terrain to 18 inch drifts. From a distance I had seen some clear stretches and I used those on the way up. About half way up I stopped for a quick lunch break. Unfortunately this ended up being quicker than I expected because I had mistakenly grabbed the wrong sandwich out of my fridge this morning. It was a 2 week old sandwich that I hadn't gotten around to throwing out. It didn't look very appetizing and didn't smell too fresh. Thus I opted for the staples: trail mix and a packet of GU. Following this I proceeded on to the summit. For a short time the clouds were looking rather ominous. Nearing the top the clouds moved out and it turned sunny again. I reached the top at 12:47pm easily beating my best estimate. Blown clear by the winds the summit was mostly devoid of snow. Though a bit breezy on top it was actually rather pleasant. Only one other person was on the summit at the time. Just as I reached the summit I heard and then spotted a low flying Cessna. He circled the summit twice and seemed to me to be flying quite low and way too close to the terrain. On one pass I didn't think he was going to make to it. I snapped a number of photos. Just before 1pm I headed back down. As I'm sure you noticed the soft snow made for a fairly nice descent. I descended rapidly avoiding clear terrain and using the snow as much as possible to speed my descent. Passing the Baldy/Dawson saddle I pushed onward and upward reaching the summit of Dawson at 1:59pm. I quickly signed in, shot a few photos, and continued back over to Pine Mtn reaching that summit at 2:43pm. At this point I knew I would be long past any difficult terrain before dark. I continued down at a rapid pace only slowing down a bit once I reached the backbone. I was pleased with the conditions on the backbone and had no problems. This was certainly a lot better and safer than my last December attempt when I had to chop steps in hard ice. When I got back to the Blue Ridge road it was only 3:29pm so I decided to go ahead and fill out the day by heading over to Wright Mountain. This was only a short distance away though it did seem further than I remembered. Finding the register on Wright Mountain can be something of a challenge even without any snow but having been there a couple times before I managed to find it without much difficulty. It helped that someone had been there hours earlier so that I had tracks to follow. I signed in just after 3:45pm and hurried back to the Acorn trail. Up to this point things had gone far too well so naturally it was time for me to screw things up. Since the snow made descending rather pleasant I felt I could take a shortcut and avoid the switchbacks on the Acorn trail. I figured as long as I could avoid the steeper terrain I would be fine. Unfortunately before I knew it I was in some of the steepest terrain on the mountain. Not wanting to get into a slide without an ice axe I dropped into the relative safety of a gully for the remainder of the descent. While safe the gully was filled with obstacles. It had a major accumulation of forest debris and was also filled with rocks and willow bushes. Throw in some snow and this proved to be a frustrating descent. I was frequently tripping over and slipping off logs or getting caught in the bushes. Having no other options at this point I simply forced my way down as quickly as possible so as to reduce my time in misery. Fortunately the gully dropped me out right by the start of the Acorn trail. It was now 4:47pm and was just becoming dark. I returned to the park at 5:20pm and got home at a respectable hour. Thus, despite my failed shortcut, I was very pleased with how the day went. This was my 3rd summit of Baldy for the year and 7th overall. I especially like this mountain given the variety of routes from the relatively easy ski hut trail to the challenging Baldy-Iron traverse. The summit is unimpressive but the mountain as a whole has character: occasionally pleasant, often deceptive, and sometimes wicked. I hope I can join you again next month. --- Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:21 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This route seems a lot tougher than one might expect. The ups and downs really add up. I thought I'd do a little figuring. I may have goofed on my math but if I'm right my gain for the day was close to 7500 feet. I derived this as follows (using elevations from my topo software): We started at about 5950 ft elevation. From that point it took approx 2300 ft of gain to reach the blue ridge road. On the way to Pine Mtn there is approx 367 ft of gain to get over a bump (pt 8555) along the way. It's then another 1264 ft of gain from the next low pt to the top of Pine Mtn. From the Pine/Dawson saddle we gained 367 feet to arrive at the point where we split up (approx 100 ft below Dawson summit). From the Dawson/Baldy saddle it was then 1329 ft to the summit of Baldy. Thus so far that makes 2300 + 367 + 1264 + 367 + 1329 = 5627 ft On the return there was 840 ft of gain to reach the summit of Dawson and another 540 ft to pass back over the summit of Pine Mtn. Getting back over pt 8555 takes 96 ft of gain and then from the next low pt its 371 ft to the summit of Wright Mtn. Thus the gain on my return is 840 + 540 + 96 + 371 = 1847 ft Thus, if I've done my math right my total gain was 5627 + 1847 = 7474 ft. Add on the difficulty of hiking in snow and this makes for a pretty strenuous hike.