| 20070201 Mount Harwood - Hardwood Couloir Trip Report |
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Related Loading... | 20070201 Mount Harwood - Hardwood Couloir   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: California, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 32.84000°N / 113.91°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Feb 1, 2007 Activities: Hiking, Mountaineering, Mixed, Scrambling Season: Winter | Page By: TacoDelRio Created/Edited: Feb 5, 2007 / Dec 19, 2007 Object ID: 267055 Hits: 881 Loading... Page Score: 84.73% - 4 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
OverviewWhile this is a trip report, it's more geared towards being an informative guide to anyone who wants to either take this route, similar routes in the area, or travel in the area by any means.
Once more, I apologise for my lack of literary genius. I'm not too swift when it comes to that. :-)Starting OffI parked my vehicle at Manker Flats campground (needs a page on SP.org!), and decided to climb up Big Butch Wash instead of taking the road up to the notch for the thousandth time.
This move would help me make a Big Butch Wash page here on SP, and also explore an area I had not previously been in very often. Big Butch goes up and makes a lefthand turn to the north, where it generally levels out to a slight incline heading up to Miner's Bowl and roads leading to Baldy Notch. This offers you guys who are regulars a different route to the area once you've tired of Baldy Road.
I can imagine that going up this route in better conditions, with some hard snow and ice, would make it a real classy climb. Conditions this time were dry, with ice on most surfaces. There are some nice mini couloirs leading up where BBW turns north that would be challenging climbs, offering direct access to the big ridgeline that Thunder Mountain creates running roughly NE-SW.
Heading up Big Butch Wash |
Over the NotchAfter moving through the area, past the ski lodge, I hooked back up with Baldy Road and took it down where it goes into Lytle Creek. This offers access to Coldwater Canyon and some awesome routes up Telegraph peak, and Thunder Mountain's east face.
Coldwater Canyon, with Telegraph Peak rising up |
Stockton FlatBaldy road "meets" Lytle Creek road where the major wash drains Mt Baldy, Mt Harwood, and Dawson Peak from the west.
Ltyle Creek road is also Baldy road, Sierra Avenue, Stockton Flat Road, and Lytle Creek Road depending on where you are exactly. The Forest Service designation for the road is 3N06, which appears to be constant regardless of road position.
Stockton Flats is... flat. Looks like a good place to camp out if you've got folks and vehicles. From there, you can ski some slopes, do some canyoneering, climb some tough routes, and do some shooting at Lytle Creek, if shooting at non-reactive paper targets while stationary gives you thrills.Heading Up HarwoodI don't know how folks on here are in regards to naming routes. The name I gave to the route I took up the North Face of the eastern portion of Mt Harwood is "Hardwood", since it's hard, and you get the rest.
I had originally intended to head up directly next to the east face of Mt Harwood. This would end at Devils Backbone Trail, right at one of the steep dropoffs.
Since you must check conditions wherever you go, I just chose whatever looked safest and most interesting. I chose a route further east, which offered about 1,400ft gain from the canyon "floor" to the ridgeline.
I picked a spot, sat down, drank some water, and put my crampons and helmet on. Moving up the couloir entrance felt good, with pretty solid snow over a little bit of powder. THe further I got up, the worse it got. Powder the whole way with nothing for my axe to cut into. I tried to stay on the right side on top of major rocks after I nearly fell into a drift about 7ft deep, which had a room inside without snow. Not cool.
A bit further up, after kick stepping my way up, I noticed a major loss of traction with my left foot sliding all over the place. My left crampon came off and was sitting about 60ft behind me. Another not-so-cool moment. Good training though. Went back down, grabbed that, and headed back up. Conditions continued to suck, so I decided to get out of the couloir and head up to the major ridgeline on the right side.
My crampon deciding to leave my foot |
That move traded postholing and losing myself in drifts for slowly scrambling up the mountain. The ridge was broad, covered in scree with about a foot of snow in the good spots. Mostly just a few inches of snow. My ice axe became a dirt axe. The low-dagger position became my favored method of ascent, by testing ground ahead with the pick, finding a good spot, hammering it in, and climbing up with the heel of my palm on the adze edge. Self arrest didn't seem to likely on the ridge, and bad memories of my bloody first self-arrest came back. In these situations, training tells the mind to shut off completely, and you go on training. I feel emotions have very little place doing this kind of stuff, and usually end up making you think, which ain't too great despite what the smart folks say. (The smart folks wouldn't have gone this way!)
The field of loose crap; slide and die! |
Clearing out and Topping OffThe ridge broadens further up, and is then a large open steep scree field with some snow on the way. The same insect-like movement kept me from losing it on my way up this field.
Further up after the long haul up the field, there are some excellent rock outcroppings (save for lack of a better term), that offered good handholds amongst some loose crap that was easily cleared. This rock made me happy, and was unlike the really loose trash I encountered on the northwest face of Telegraph Peak, which offered near zero traction and very few handholds.
More moves, and some quick movement landed me on Devils Backbone Trail at the end of the route, with a beautiful view of Southern California blanketted in a layer of fog, with the sunset making it real nice.
At the top |
Do I suggest other folks do it?With everything I write on Summitpost, I mention how conditions must be just right. Normal stuff.
Now, assuming you've got a nice coating of ice over some consolidated snow that's not too deep, this route would be excellent. If it was that way inside the couloirs leading up, it would be a great route.
Unfortunately, here in Southern California, we get absolutely retarded winters, where we either get loads of snow, or jack squat.
The north face of this mountain doesn't get much sun during the winter (obvious?), so ice doesn't form worth a damn, since there's no freeze thaw cycle till later. The best places for good climbable hard snow and ice in the area seems to be northwest facing slopes. Telegraph had some sections I could just about run up.
Google Earth, showing route |
In ClosingThe area has alot of potential, but the conditions wouldn't show it. Images
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Mount Harwood
