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Hey guys, Assuming that a mountain is easily hikable in summer months (no technical skills required), what gear and skills are required to hike up that mountain in the snow? How do I best acquire those skills? When I was young, we would go skiing once a year. I remember going on hikes that went up the ski slopes, and it was not an issue. Of course going up a simple (non-double black diamond) ski slope is one thing. Hiking up a mountain with steeper slopes to the left and to the right is another. What's the best way to get my feet wet doing such hikes? I live in an area that does not receive snow, but I could easily visit an area not far away (Los Angeles) that does. In particular, I am eyeing hiking up Mt. Baldy in the snow.
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Jan 17, 2017 03:20
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:55 |
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Thanks for the input. What you wrote sounds very reasonable. I'll be sure to track down some experts and tag along with them on my first trip out.
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Jan 20, 2017 04:39
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Thanks for the extensive list.
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Jan 23, 2017 02:41
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Picnic Princess posted:Reviving this thread because 5 people died after walking out onto a cornice. If you go up a mountain, stay the gently caress AWAY from the edge of a ridge. I wasn't going to revive the thread just for a trip report, but now that you guys have revived it ... I ended up scheduling the trip for April 14th hoping that most (but not all) of the snow/ice would have disappeared by then. The days before the actual hike I was panicking because satellite images and webcam footage still showed lots of snow and the weather forecast suggested freeze-thaw conditions - not good for hiking. It was also around then that I read stories of how many people had died on Mt. Baldy this year - not very reassuring. Fortunately, there was far less snow than satellite images suggested. The Devil's backbone trail up to Mt. Baldy has a couple of very narrow spots with steep slopes on either side, and I was not looking forward to crossing those if they had been covered by snow/ice. I also spent quite a bit of time reading about identifying snow cornices, watching youtube videos on using crampons, and how to do self arrests with an ice axe. In the end, it was a fantastic hike. There were a couple of harmless snowbanks I had to cross, and while none of them required crampons, I did put them on for one of the snowbanks just for safety. I'm happy to report that I managed to cut down my ascent time from 4.5 hours (last year) to 3.25 hours even though I was not rushing. The best thing was that unlike last year, I felt zero altitude sickness this time. This confirmed that last years hike was such a terrible disaster because I was dehydrated and in poor physical shape (but I still made it to the top). This time, I took more liquids (+ electrolytes) and I spent a lot more time exercising before the actual hike. Click for pictures. I now have my eyes on Mt. St. Helens.
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Apr 28, 2017 06:10
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Suspect Bucket posted:Can't wait to get some wifi to view those pics! They are all lousy cell pictures, so don't get too excited.
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Apr 28, 2017 20:50
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 22:55 |
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a cute sea otter posted:
~12 miles. I could have shortened it to ~10 miles if I had taken a different route, but given the snow I didn't want to take an unfamiliar route.
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Apr 29, 2017 16:11
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