Certain primal fears are dominant in the human race, for example, the fear of creepy crawlies. A strong primal fear I have is cold weather. Having been born and raised in a tropical paradise in India, this is a fear I was exposed to very late in life, with very little know-how on how to tackle it. Every time I have come face to face with it, it has left me scarred. It has left such a lasting impression on me, that when I applied to grad school in the US, I specifically chose places in California just so that I need not suffer from the cold.
But I had a dilemma here, even though I hate the cold, I love being outdoors even more! I am the kind of person that watches trekking, camping, climbing, surfing, and snorkeling videos on YouTube all day. I grew up watching Man Vs Wild, which defined my love for the wild and exploration. Wilderness in California consists of two parts: the oceans and the mountains. I made quick work of the ocean since I regularly go snorkeling and surfing, I adore the moments that I spent out in the ocean. The mountains were more elusive, given my fear of the cold and its inaccessibility since I didn't have a car.
This is where Micheal Sandler comes in. He is a die-hard climber/alpinist, whose love for the mountains extends to not just him doing it but making spreads the gospel of mountaineering to the kafirs. He loved it so much that he started a UCSD Alpine club. I met Michael on the way back from the office just before Thanksgiving weekend, and as usual, we were discussing climbing/extreme sports while we walked with me to my place. Having a long weekend ahead of us, Michael suggested we try climbing mount baldy. My roommate (Raghav) was also totally stoked about the idea and we decided to go at it together. Having no prior experience with the cold or the mountains, we sat down with Michael to sort out all the tiniest details of the plan. We decided to take Michael's car for the trip and we rented all the clothing + equipment from either Michael(for me) or Raghav's friends for him.
We set about very early around 4:00 am from our home. I drove up to
Baldy trailhead, from which the hike is a total of 11 miles with a 4k ft elevation gain. We started our hike up at 6:30 am, and we got to see pretty nice views of the mountain glistening in the morning sun and LA. There is a road that goes up for a couple of miles leading to San Antonio falls after which we turn to a gravel road beside the road which is pretty easy to miss. This takes you up to a trail to the baldy ski hut till which there was no snow (Some snow towards the top of the trail in shaded areas, but did not require micro-spikes). We rested a bit at the ski hut. The volunteer running the place was a very sweet guy! (He offered us donuts!). We chatted a bit with him and decided to make our way up to the summit. As soon as we started climbing we hit snow and needed those micro spikes for our shoes. The landscape was just so incredible! We took our time going up, making snowballs on the way, shaking down snow from the trees and just soaking in the beauty of the place. The final 1000ft was pretty hard for us, a bit of nausea plus general tiredness started creeping over. We made it through to the summit and it was totally worth it! The views of the desert on one side and of LA on the other are separated by the contours of the LA mountain ranges. There were a lot of people who were hiking up with their dogs and we stayed put at the summit for some time talking to them, eating our sandwiches, reading a book and taking photos. We decided to head down along the same route as the one we came up, since the other route through devils backbone was supposed to be gnarly. We made it down it down way faster and we went to the San Antonio falls on our way back. We made it back to our car by 4 pm all tired and hungry and we went off into LA to get some food, after which we drove back home.
I would totally recommend that people do this, as their first alpine experience. A goldilocks hike, neither too hard nor too hard. Just be sure to bring enough layers if you are climbing during winter, enough water and snacks/food as it will be a long hike.
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