This is a trail report that is a bit embarrassing, but a great lesson to know your limits. I discovered it is always best to turn around early, instead of getting that "summit fever" (yes, even on a Mountain like Baldy.) I got stuck in that mindset where I was only a couple of hundred feet or less from the crest of the bowl and didn't use common sense. I felt it would be "easier" to reach the crest, especially after all the effort I had gone through to get to the point I was at. I did learn some new rock climbing skills, found out I can do things I didn't know I could do and hopefully learned to make better decisions, especially when faced with dangerous situations. If I was going to attempt this again, it would be with a plan, some research and knowing from other hikers experience what route I should take to reach the crest and trail. Here's the story and yes, I really am a bit embarrassed to admit that I got myself in a bad situation. I know many or most of you have probably done the same thing. I'm hoping I get a message out that before you attempt something, plan it.
DJ, My buddy of 40+ years, and I decided to hike the Baldy Bowl, a large bowl like area that goes very high and very wide. Many of you hikers from So Cal know this area well as it is a popular place to prepare for hiking Mt Whitney. Well, most people with common sense take the trail on the left side of the bowl. Very steep, but very doable. I've hiked it myself several times, both ascending and descending. When we got to the bowl, I told DJ that someday I want to go right up the MIDDLE of the bowl, and joked about "maybe today"....DUMB MOVE. DJ said, well lets just see where we get and if we can't make it, we'll turn around. We found it to have lots of scree and very steep. Kind of one step forward, two back. But we tried to keep with the larger rocks and stay in the brush for better footing. The problem with many of the larger boulders and rocks on Baldy is that even when you find a hold, they can be loose and break off, so you need to really find a nice firm hold. Also, we had to hike a few feet apart, side by side as the rocks would slide and roll down and could hit you if you were below. When scree slides from the side of the bowl, it can come in large swashes, as long as 50 to 75 feet. Our goal was the top of the ridge, or crest, where a trail runs near the top. I found most of it to be fairly easy, just slow. We watched some people about 1/4 mile to our right who were hiking up scree and they were falling way behind us. Then we reached the rock formations near the crest. It became much more difficult, but I felt if I found good hand and foot holdings, took my time, checked the route DJ was taking and didn't look down, I could do this. After all, I could see the top and I figured it would take us another 15 to 20 minutes or so to reach it. Well, about 95% of the way up, it became really dangerous with lots of slippery very steep rocks and light scree. The hand holdings were less and less and the rocks were covered with light dust and sand. I wasn't having fun and started shaking a bit and hyperventilating. I still tried not to look down, but I found that looking up wasn't helping much either. Well on one part, I couldn't find a step up. I found one footing, but there was no place to put my hands and no other obvious footing. I stayed in that spot for what seemed like forever and I did look down to see what my options were. I didn't have any, at least for my skill level. I was stuck. DJ handed me the end of his wooden pole (he carries it on all hikes) to help me get up. I pushed with my one angled footing and DJ pulled to where I finally got a step to secure myself. At one point, I was virtually hanging by the wooden stick. Yes, I must admit, my life flashed a couple of times in front of me and if I had fallen, it would not have been good. But, I take a breather and I'm still thinking we can reach the top. DJ goes up on a reconnaissance mission and gets to the edge of a large rock formation. He just stands there looking for a few moments. I ask what's going on, not that I didn't know. He said there wasn't a way to the top where we were. We were no more than 100 to 150 feet to the top, but we made the decision to turn around and go back down. Easy to say, but going down isn't easy. So, I found my way down the rocks very slowly and slid on my ass in any scree I could find. It was steep, but leaning back in the scree or taking it down on your rear, while looking ahead for escape routes wasn't too hard. THEN about 1/4 of the way down, I was standing skiing down some scree, but had to change directions and jumped sideways where I hit my leg, right below my right knee on a rock. This deep toothache pain went through my leg. There was a small puncture in my leg and a piece of the rock had broken off and embedded in my leg. DJ, who was a nurse in the military and is now a Chiropractor came up and saw the damage. He told me he had to find out how bad it was and pressed around the rock. Very painful. He said, I gotta take it out...."It's against your BONE". I saw the blood and started feeling like I had to throw up. I was a bit panicky as I knew it was going to hurt pretty bad when he took the rock out of my leg. I told him I could get down the mountain with it in there. He said "No, It's gotta come out". Well, I told him to get it out and I had to distract myself by slapping my face over and over again for about 15 to 20 seconds until he got it out. I cannot believe how much better my leg felt after he took it out. Later, he told me that when I was asking him to hand me some electrolyte drink, he couldn't do it because he didn't want me to see all the blood on his hands. Remember, this is a small hole in my leg. DJ pulled the rest of the stuff out of my first aid kit to bandage up the wound. Yes, one smart move was that I had a first aid kit on me. I was still shaky and learned to be a pretty good scree skier, and we slowly made our way down to the ski hut. DJ and I took a very long lunch, shared a Snickers and drank lots of water. My leg felt much better.........but then I had to go home and admit my stupidity to Karyn, who cleaned the wound and dressed it.
It's a bit hard to walk this morning and a doctors visit may be appropriate, but I did learn a lesson and wanted to share this with you in hopes of letting others know that preparation, common sense and first aid kits are mandatory on all hikes.
"Turtles, Frogs & other Environmental Sculpture"