Beautiful Baldy summit

We started the hike at 7am and the Manker flats parking area was already packed with cars, and groups of hikers. Snow had completely melted all the way up to Baldy Notch. We took a short break at the notch before heading up the steep slopes up to the backbone, it was a beautiful day out with little wind gusts and cloud coverage but warm air. We started to feel the effects of the altitude after crossing the backbone and took frequent stops to catch our breaths. Once we got to the final last half mile before summit we had caught up with many hikers as this climb to the summit is challenging and steep. After getting to the summit many other people came up from all different directions. The summit was windy as usual with 15mph gusts and cold temperatures, I immediately put on my layers and my fingers went numb. We ate lunch quickly and went back down the backbone way.