My teenage daughter and I started our ascent to Halfway Camp at 4:30 pm Friday, 11/05/2021, and arrived about 7pm.  It was a very tough climb with our loaded down backpacks and it was cold, but manageable. Thank goodness we had our headlamps. We stopped to fill up our water bladders (6L) as there was none at Halfway (we checked ahead of time). There were a few other campers already set up. We set up camp and crashed.

We started our climb towards the peak the next morning (11/06)  at about 8:30am. The climb was manageable until the last two miles (as we read about prior)… it was very steep. The weather was gorgeous! The views were beyond incredible! Stunning actually. My daughter ran out of water just before the summit… being resourceful, she filled her reservoir full of snow from patches near the summit… it melted on the descent and she had fresh ice water… no issues with not filtering… no gastro/stomach issues at all. We took numerous breaks and finally summited about 2:15pm. I had a partial hazy IPA at the top… only partial because I experienced mild altitude sickness (dizziness, headache, nausea) and wasn’t able to finish the hazy.  The peak was windy and very cold.

We hiked the summit with Gandalf “the Grey” costumes (as we are Hobbit and Lord of the Rings nerds). Pre-trip (fun) planning, we decided to be Gandalf “the Grey” on “Old Grayback” (aka San Gorgonio and haul up our costumes … so glad we did! Although the costumes were short-lived at the top, we had a blast.

We started our descent to Halfway Camp at about 2:50 pm. It was a relief to descend! The trek back was long and we had to re-fill our water supply  at High Creek campground, but the views and sunset were breathtaking. We arrived at Halfway Camp at 7pm. We brewed some tea and hot toddies, skipped dinner (as we were too exhausted), had snacks and hit the tents at 8:30pm. What an incredible day.

We woke up this morning (11/07), had breakfast, tea and coffee and packed up to head out about 9am. Although our packs were loaded again, the  descent was much appreciated… poles were needed for my knees. We arrived at the parking lot at 10:50am. Not too bad.

Overall, the hike to “Old Grayback”, the two night camping and the memories will remain favorites for years to come.

Oh, and we completed the SoCal 6 peak challenge with San Gorgonio as our 6th! Such an accomplishment!