Mount Baldy

Mount Baldy - 2005 M

805M Prominence

50.125579 -124.318458

Aug 27, 2024

1770M+ Elevation Gain

10H 41M C2C, 10H 10M Moving

I had been wanting to do Baldy for a while now, and wanted to make sure I got it in this summer. With a trip to the Island on the 28th, It left me with only one day I might be able to take a crack at it. Despite the forecast showing no rain for the day, It had been raining steadily for most of the week ahead of the 27th, so everything would still be wet. With Tyler unable to join me, I decided to give it a shot solo. I took off from town on the evening of the 26th, and after 2 and a half hours of driving, I made it to the site of the removed bridge at the end of Dianne main where I would camp out in the truck, then start the next morning. It rained all night, but by 4 AM when I woke up, it had finally stopped. I started moving at 4:33 AM and cruised through the ever more overgrown FSR that I had already hiked twice previously. The FSR hike took roughly 1 and a half hours, and I was constantly blabbering randomness and blowing my whistle in an effort to not run into any bears, which worked out just fine. By the time I got to the end of the FSR and made my way into the forest, there was first light, so I could understand where I was going in this new to me terrain a bit better. The forested section was significantly steeper than either of the nearby approaches for Slip and Slide were. I got a bit lost in the route at first, ending up going under a waterfall, before realizing I had to gain a bit more elevation before crossing it in a better place. It was at this point in which my phone started to cause me issues due to the incredible amount of water that I had soaked up from the greenery. I stopped for a minute, and decided that there was still not enough lemons to stop me. My phone was still at 30 or 40 percent, and without it I would have been lost in the summit white out. The route was relentless, the forested ridge went up and down over 3 bumps before getting to the alpine. These 3 bumps put up a fight. They were crowded with an infinite amount of blueberries that turned uphill travel to a snail pace, and downhill travel to a slip and slide. I made it to the alpine, slightly defeated, I kept going though, as I was trying to buy myself as much time as possible. The start of the alpine offered a huge wet slab on a slight incline, that then led to a slightly rocky traverse under the massive walls that close in the north side of the ridge connecting Baldy and Vera peak. I climbed up on the ridge as soon as I could, and headed West. The ridge was engulfed in thick cloud, and at the start I caught myself doing a 180 and coming back from where I came from, before correcting my path. I made good time, and the ridge was flat granite and easy hiking for the most part. Only one section offered a crawl through some moderately shaggy old growth. Eventually I made it to a quite distinct point where the mountain lifts off of the ridge. At this point you are faced with a small rock slide that you must cross to get to the final scramble up. At first I got a bit lost in the route. I was trying to use my phone as little as possible, it had started snowing in the past half hour and it was a complete white out. I tried to pull myself up a sketchy crack that was no wider than my body, unable to make the first move after repeated efforts, I decided that there was no way this was the easy way up. It was a climbing move that I would have been stoked to try on a bluebird day at the crag though. A bit defeated, I checked the map again, and realized that I had to drop down a few meters and go around the rock slide a bit more. I then came across what was the 4th class scramble that took me to the summit, It was soaking wet and slightly slippery, but the rock was solid and was pretty enjoyable. At last I was standing on the summit, I hurled a yell of victory and then collapsed on the cairn. Unlike many of the peaks around Qathet, there was a summit register, with some entries dating back from the sixties. I took a quick 15 minute break and then started descending immediately. I was afraid the weather would continue to deteriorate and that my phone would die, leaving me lost in the white out. I made it back down to the rock slide, but kept going down far to low, loosing my track again, eventually I realized that I didn't remember having to make these hairy moves, and turned around. I made my way down the same way I came up, and for the entire way down my knee started feeling progressively worse pain. I must have pulled a muscle or a ligament on the way up. In an effort to make it feel a bit better, I took a break as I started to reach the 3 bumps at tree line. I pounded back some lunch, water, and an exorbitant amount of Ibuprofen in an effort to make it back without completely breaking down. Being soaking wet, it was an unenjoyable break, and after no more than half an hour I took off, just wanting to be home and dry. The knee kept getting progressively worse, and the tightly crammed blueberry slopes were just as difficult to navigate on the way down. I could not get footing for the life of me, so I just butt slid down the majority of it. I remembered my route on the way up fairly well, so navigating my way back down the old growth forest was relatively fast. I took another break once back at the overgrown FSR, but my knee was not having it. I hobbled my way down the road, walking like a pirate with a peg leg all the way back to the truck. This has probably been my most miserable and unenjoyable peaks so far, mostly due to the conditions I had, and the problems I managed to give myself. Despite this I am stoked to have bagged this peak, as it is one of the more challenging ones in this area.