Mount Baldy - West Peak

March 21, 2004
 
Mountain height:    2,166 m
Elevation gain:       approx. 775 m
Ascent time:           4:25
Descent time:         2:40
 
Scrambling and mountaineering with Mark.

Last week I promised there would be no more moderate-rated scrambles this winter. So what do we go and do???..........a difficult-rate scramble! I guess I was still true to my word!

This trip was actually more like an "ordeal" than the "pleasant scramble" it should have been. The final 5 vertical metres that prevented us from summitting this peak three weeks earlier was sheer relief compared to what we went through to get to that point....and as is often the case, our troubles started when we decided to take a shortcut.

Since we had achieved the north and south summits several times, our only goal was to redeem ourselves for our bitter failure on February 29 of this year. We therefore used the alternate descent route in between the south and west peaks in hope of a quick ascent. It was everything, but quick! We made our way up the creek at a good pace until we came to the ascent, scree slope (actually it's still a snow/ice slope at this time of year). Here, it looked as though we could cut out some time and distance by ascending the gully furthest to the right. From the bottom, the slope didn't look anymore steep or difficult as the correct ascent gully that lies furthest to the left. At first it wasn't, however, a little higher we got onto steep, icy terrain on the right side of the gully. Mark wisely cut to the left, over the gully and onto the safer terrain on the left side. I, unwisely, decided to go straight up, to a point where I thought it would be easier and safer to cut across.

Unfortunately, the higher I got, the worse the terrain became. Every time I tried to descend into the gully, I was on very steep and icy terrain. Without crampons, a slip here would have resulted in the lengthy (and probably very painful!) involuntary glissade down to the bottom. Before I knew it, I had no choice but to continue up to the rock face of the west summit and try to traverse above the first rockband, back to the correct route. Descending the steep, icy terrain I had just come up was a most unnerving proposition.

While I was struggling up the right side of the gully, Mark was also experiencing difficulty of the left side. Again, the grade of the slope increased and large patches of icy snow rendered the terrain treacherous at best. Mark tried to ascend, but was eventually forced to turn back, descend a fair bit, traverse to the left and then try again where there was not as much snow.

As Mark made his way up to the ridge between the south and west summits, I was having serious problems on the face of the summit. Without snow, there was little of consequence on the steep terrain. But there was snow.....quite a bit of it, turning steep terrain into very dangerous, steep terrain. There were several occasions when I thought I was done for and would have the unenvious and unnerving task of downclimbing what I had just ascended. Thankfully with a little persistence, a lot of route-finding, and a huge amount of fear contemplating the alternative, I managed to get back onto the correct route. I was extremely relieved, to say the least!

By this time, Mark had managed to work his way up to the ridge and over to the start of the rockbands of the west summit. There was a great deal more snow on the east-facing west peak than we experienced in February and so we roped up at this point. Just before we made it go the last rockband, our final mishap of the day occurred. I had carelessly put my camera in the case and as I made my way up, it fell out and went crashing down the mountain. We then wasted another half hour, as Mark had to rappel down a steep gully to retrieve it. The camera didn't work when we got it back and since Mark had left his camera at home, we were unable to take pictures for the remainder of the trip. Could anything else go wrong? I guess that since death is a possible outcome of any mountaineering experience, quite a bit more could have gone wrong and a broken camera is quite trivial, relatively speaking!!

Finally, we arrived at the last rockband. To this point, what should have taken us 1-2 hours, took over 4 hours of hair-raising thrills and chills (but thankfully no spills!). Getting to the summit from here was far easier than we expected, however, the terrain was covered in deep snow and I would have not done the ascent without a rope and some protective slings. The summit panorama was terrific; far better than that of the popular north summit. Of course, we didn't have a camera to capture any of its beauty. Once again, it was the heavy snow cover and relatively clear sky that really made the view great.

For descent, downclimbing the snowy, exposed terrain would have been extremely dangerous and so we did three 25 m rappels down the entire face - leaving a red sling at the top for anyone who is interested in going up there in the winter (I highly advise against it unless you have basic mountaineering skills and know how to rappel).

Overall, a thrilling (??) day. We are already planning a return trip with functioning cameras. Doing the entire traverse, but in reverse would be fun as upclimbing the difficult north summit would be far easier than downclimbing it.

(No photos due to a broken camera)

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