Follow up to death on Mt Baldy

Published: Jan. 24, 2011
Updated: 6:19 p.m.
Baldy death is safety reminder
BY DAVID WHITING

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The morning of Dec. 4, 2010, at the Mount Baldy trailhead started like many beautiful days.
Climbers with all kinds of goals and all kinds of equipment gathered in the parking lot and sorted gear. Some carried crampons, ice axes and helmets, hoping to make the snowy and icy 10,068-foot summit.

Ron Campbell, Register writer and accidents and incidents investigator for the Sierra Club's local safety committee, didn't take much equipment that day and turned around at the ski hut, a place where climbers often gear up for the mountain's slippery slopes.

Campbell signed the log book at 8:20 a.m. and had supper with his family that night.

Michelle Yu signed the log about 8:30 a.m. Her body was recovered five days later.


http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kern-285424-rainier-conditions.html

Even if she had taken the right trail, it would have been bad in a white out:


http://yosemitephotos.net/main.php/v/misc/sh-dscn5295.jpg.html

Is this the route that they refer to as "Devil's Backbone"?

Also, is the "Baldy Bowl" the only part of the mountain that people regularly glassade?

There are a lot of people from the Whitney Portal Store forum that frequent this area regularly, but they are all so familiar with the names that it almost sounds like a secret code to me (for instance, someone mentioned that the "east side" -- of the bowl?? -- was steeper than the "west side" ...or vice-versa, but I was not sure if they were talking about the same bowl....sigh.

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The body betrays and the weather conspires, hopefully, not on the same day.

Quote
Bee

Is this the route that they refer to as "Devil's Backbone"?

Also, is the "Baldy Bowl" the only part of the mountain that people regularly glassade?

There are a lot of people from the Whitney Portal Store forum that frequent this area regularly, but they are all so familiar with the names that it almost sounds like a secret code to me (for instance, someone mentioned that the "east side" -- of the bowl?? -- was steeper than the "west side" ...or vice-versa, but I was not sure if they were talking about the same bowl....sigh.

Q1: Looks like it:
http://www.summitpost.org/baldy-notch-devil-s-backbone/155762

Q2: To my knowledge.

Q3: One bowl.

Here are some useful links:
http://www.summitpost.org/mount-san-antonio-mount-baldy/150444
(Note: in the above link, be sure to check out the CalTech Alpine Club website found under the "External Links" heading, esp. the ski chute routes at the top of the bowl.)
http://www.summitpost.org/san-antonio-ski-hut-baldy-bowl-route/414208
http://www.summitpost.org/baldy-bowl/164532

General Information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_San_Antonio
(Physics note in the above link: the mountain was the site of the reflector in Michelson's famous speed of light experiment.)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2011 01:43AM by szalkowski.

Here's a view of Baldy from the Northwest showing Fish Fork:


http://yosemitephotos.net/main.php/v/misc/sh-dscn4901.jpg.html

1) The four primary routes up to Mt Baldy (Mt San Antonio):
http://www.simpsoncity.com/hiking/baldy.html

2) Google earth view of the Mt Baldy area: (Is the top view looking north and the bottom view of Pine Mtn looking south?)
http://www.need2hike.com/My_Hikes.html

3) Interactive Google map of the Mt Baldy area:
http://socalhikes.com/2010/09/mt-baldy-dawson-peak-pine-mtn/

Trail from the east near the top: