I am back at Baldy, and this time I wanted to take up the Devil's Backbone part of the trail so I could test out my nerves for my eventual Angel's Landing hike later this summer.

I made the decision to start at the ski lifts since I wanted to bypass the dirt road part of the hike. During the ride up the ski lift I knew I made the right call. The part of the trail I bypassed just wasn't worth it for me for this particular day since I had plans to hit up night market in the evening.

After getting off the ski lift I checked out the Hut area before starting up the immediately brutal climbing. There were many others there sharing in my suffering. It was quite sunny, so I was glad I had my trusty hiking umbrella. The views were nice, but I must say the best views were from Register Ridge (but that skipped the Devil's Backbone).

Eventually I made it to the start of the Devil's Backbone, which didn't look or feel as bad as it had been hyped up to be. It was actually quite wide and reasonable once you were on it. The only sketchy part was when you had only the one-sided dropoff since that part was much more narrow and crumbly, and even then it was only in one or two places.

This time I was also skipping the side Mt. Harwood, so I got to see more of the main trail. There was still some snow on the mountain, but only off the trails. I made my way up the last steep crumbly push to the summit, and enjoyed the views, some snacks, and laughed at the super “accurate” summit board that proclaimed we were atop the highest point of the Rockies at 29K+ feet (LMAO) before heading back down the way I came, which was also new for me.

I've decided there's just no nice descent from Mt. Baldy. I feel 3 times when I went down Baldy Bowl. This time I feel twice going down Devil's Backbone side. Other than the falling at the start of the descent, the rest of the hike back was quite uneventful. Oh it was hot, but I had my umbrella so I was feeling pretty good. After enjoying a hotdog and a soda at the hut, I rode down the ski lift and was back at my car in time to drive back home to clean up for my evening plans at the night market!