Mount Baldy South VII

Mount Baldy South VII

February 26, 2023

Mountain height: 2200 m
Elevation gain: 900 m
Round-trip time: 7:15

Snowshoeing and scrambling with Mark.

Another front-range trip that is guaranteed to satisfy any time of the year, and often with little or no avalanche risk.

The last time Mark and I visited the South Summit of Mount Baldy via Baldy Pass was on a bizarre, mid-June day in 2007 that featured a good foot of fresh snow.

The Baldy Pass Trail is popular in winter and so we enjoyed a mostly well-trodden trail all the way to the Pass. No trail existed from that point on. Snowshoes were pretty much mandatory here. The crux, when snowy, can be a little tricky, but Mark led the way still wearing snowshoes. The rest of the trip was a thoroughly enjoyable ridgewalk to the summit. For this section we took off our snowshoes, Mark switching to crampons, while I went with boots only.

The summit view was excellent, even with somewhat cloudy skies. Though tempting to use the alternate descent route via the Baldy South/West col, the deep, sugary, unconsolidated snow would certainly give us problems lower down – or at least turn the descent into an energy-zapping one. We simply retraced our route back.

Good day on a reliably great route.

Tons of snow but the trail is well packed down

Above Baldy Pass, with Midnight Peak behind

The lower slopes of South Baldy's south ridge

Wind-blown snow

Snowshoes were definitely beneficial for the first section

The next section of the ridge is revealed, as are some ominous clouds to the north

Same as above

The crux is coming up

Same as above

More snow sculpture

The crux is dead ahead. It doesn't look like much and we did ascend it wearing snowshoes. However, I switched to crampons and an ice axe on descent.

Mark leads the crux

View to the northeast from below the crux

Mark is up

So am I

Perhaps we took the snowshoes off too soon

Yes we did!

Some treed terrain to get through

The remainder of the route appears. West Baldy at the left.

Fun and easy ridgwalking

The summit seems far off here but it's actually the opposite of foreshortened

Getting closer..

...and closer

For the final section, Mark stuck to the snow (because he was wearing crampons) and I stayed on the ridge (no crampons yet)

He's clearly ahead of me here

Typical terrain on the ridge

Mark's view of me

Mark stops, allowing me to catch up

But I'm slow because I love this section of ridge so much

A few hundred metres from the top

View to the west, Mark at the left

View to the south, Mark at the right

Looking down the east face. The Powderface Trail can be seen running across the top.

My view of the final stretch

My view of Mark and West Baldy

Mark takes the final few steps

At the summit again,16 years after our last visit

View to the northwest

The true summit Mount Baldy in the foreground

Another summit pano

Time to go

Back to the one of the snowy sections

And the treed section

Mark descends the crux

I'm down

Parting look at the crux

The clearest skies of the day

A potential route to the West Peak of Baldy

I think they came down that way

Checking out the northwest ridge of Midnight Peak - apparently there is an excellent scramble route up it

Heading into cloudier conditions to end the trip

The End

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