There had been an unusual snow storm two days earlier. Not a heavy snow, but the lowest snow level in years (down to 2,000'). I expected Iron Mountain to be a…
Made good time up to Heaton Saddle and now to the ridgeline that I love so much. That's Mt. Baldy in the distance, and directly in front is Allison Saddle. That…
I'm not sure why I still bother taking pictures of this trail. They never come close to depicting this steep and technical section, which is roughly a 2,000'…
Probably about a 45deg slope.
Loose rock and scree. The way down is like scree surfing. Wipeout potential here is really high.
Mt. Baldy with fresh snow on top. But it's January, and this scene still looks like a drought.
Almost to the summit and the snow is getting heavier. But still nowhere near enough to require snow gear. I dumped my ice axe, crampons, gaiters, etc. further…
The only tracks here are mine, so definitely no other humans have been up here since the snow a couple days ago.
Made it to the top. The only person to summit today. And according to the sign-in book, the first person in the last eight days.
View of Mt. Baldy and the San Antonio ridge from Iron Mountain. It's on my to-do list to hike the ridge all the way to the Baldy Summit. Probably not possible…
Another view from the summit. There's upwards of a foot of snow on the very top, but it thins out quickly below about 7,000'.
Looking towards the ocean from the summit.
360 view from the summit. My fingers were getting numb, so I couldn't spend all too long on top. So I headed back down (man my fingers burned when they thawed…
Headed back down. I'm running out of light, but the sunset is beautiful.
The camera makes the sky look brighter than it is, but the moon is already high in the night sky.
Made it back to the car with the stars out. Fortunately it was a near full moon, so the trail was well enough lit that I could run it without a headlamp.…