We ventured out to the Baldy bowl for the first time since I skied it with my brother and his (now ex) girlfriend back in 2011 (2012?). Back then, we had tickets to the ski area and left via a walk across 'the backbone'. the icy crust beyond the backbone ridge endlessly angling left was proving quite delicate to walk on in ski boots (with no crampons, we were n00bs still) and his girlfriend seemed too tired to go on. I'll never forget my brother shouldering both pairs of their skis, and us trudging on to the summit that one LA spring...

Another thing I wouldn't forget from that trip was my brother saying something right before dropping in to the effect of, 'Watch out for people hiking... I have no idea why you'd come up here without skis... but people do it'. Little did I know I'd be one of those people, 5 years later... just seeking fitness, solace, the weather.. and a celebration of conditions that 4 years of drought had robbed the mountain of.

This is a TR from a hike up Mount Baldy, after the first real storm in years.

Mostly writing this for the memory-jogging of California locals who have missed these type of days. The roll of film I took ended up being quality... I didn't color process anything, but am sharing with the Taco after positive responses on my other TR's. enjoy.


A beautiful rainbow greeted me the afternoon before our trip. This was the day that the new-precip was falling, (a thursday) It was another 12-16 inches overnight thursday after bigger storm had blanketed the peak with a few feet earlier in the week. When the weather looks like this in LA, which is rare.. you know to consider heading towards snow.

first view from the trail... looking back at where the snowline started, pushing just below the Manker Flats parking lot.

The bowl-summit peaking through the clouds. nearly every chute is a good option on skis when the snow is stable.


beautiful morning steam sifting through the lowlands, a spiritually refreshing sight.


breaking trail was quite fun with the new snow. I handled most of it, being really stoked to test out the new Salewa winter boots that my mother in law got me for Christmas. Oh yeah, and I bought gaiters after this trip. Climbing tape worked well enough, but I guess we are still a bit n00by after all..

I started taking shots of 'Lightning Couloir'. A nice line coming down from the shoulder/spine out-of-bounds near the ski area across the way. I had skied it three times I think with my brother... It's quite steep... and sketchy when the snow is hard.


The chute looks like a lightning bolt. If you want to see it in POV from back in the day.. We got some rad helmet-cam footage of it years ago. ( - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5qjU1gvWzs - ) it was CRUSTY as heck but there was no turning back...

I flashed the film while unloading.. only a few exposures were affected. Great view of lightning from here though.

Partners putzing with their bags before embarking on the main slog up the bowl's right-side.


Beautiful views, pristine fresh snow, and clouds starting to roll in. It was if you could feel the warmth and energy of the California sun steaming the snow into the air, the cloud-cover slowly building as the hours passed.


The winds were really starting to pick up, and it was getting really moody. Digging into the bottom of my pack in the steep snow to pull out my crampons wasn't seeming appealing, so I made due with just my axe, all the way to the summit. There were a few spots where some slab-esque moves in thin snow and crusty ice/melt had me scraping with my bootsoles and advancing up one axe-move at time. I was moving a bit faster than my friends at this time, reached the windy top.. and turned around to snap some photos of them arriving...


it was a beautiful cacophony of wind, light and precip at the summit. My partner and friend Aaron dropped to his knees in appreciation and joy in one of the small windows of visibility. I was surprised by how cold it was. The little balls of sideways-flying ice and snow can be seen in the summit photo.

The forecast had said 18 degrees. I had my bare hands out to operate the camera, and realized my gloves had filled with a good amount of wind and snow just in that time. It took a good few minutes for them to warm again. I gave our other friend who was hatless??? a head-bag that I had two extras of in my backpack. His crooked shades in the one photo are really telling. Stay prepared out there! As we walked towards one of the descent chutes, the weather seemed to calm, and it was a peaceful, wet, and soft stroll down.


I tried to take our line delicately above snowfields and downward on higher ground / rises in the shape of the hill. Aaron kept saying how badly he wished he had brought his snowboard up. Recollections of how short the descent seemed on skis flooded my mind. I also recalled how because we went in late-season, we had to walk in ski boots on the dry path for nearly two miles... the snowline ended just below the ski-hut that year. This time it would be deep even down at the parking lot.


The beauty of these mountains, and bite-size scale of the adventure (we'd all be home before dinner) was reaffirming our choice to pay a visit to this wonderful peak. While we were descending the bowl, a few other groups and pairs were hoofing up the same stretch we broke trail on. Earlier in the day we had seen some parties turn back, either from being too tired or unequipped.

Happy with our early start, we made it up before any more precip started to really fall. It was a wet rest of the day with the cloud-cover being solid above the bowl and big flurries falling during the walk down. We even helped a slightly-lost dog (one of those really pretty wolf-ish looking ones, I think a Japanese) reconnect with its owner.

Always in a hurry to get back to the wife, and to those modern responsibilities... I urged my partners onward down the descent. We'd all be yearning for a day like this. The mountain deserved it after stomaching such a long time of drought. Everything seemed renewed, and right.


-Colin