Completely randomly, out of the blue, something in my head (not me, of course) decided “I'm going to hike Baldy.”

…so I did. Learned lots and got bitten by a strange bug at the summit. Now, for whatever reason, I'm compelled to climb everything tall that I see. Store attendants at REI say “you should wait until the snow melts,” but I'm thinking of how boring a trail without snow and ice sounds.

This is a very late post, so my trail condition notes are irrelevant. For anyone wanting to climb the north face of the bowl, WEAR A HELMET. We watched a descender pick up some loose talus that ended up meeting the back of his head at a painful-to-watch velocity. Air rescue was almost required. The west side of the bowl is much safer, shorter, and also usually has more snow to climb.

Here's to a long, labor-intensive, expensive, yet questionably rewarding hobby.

Cheers!