Searching for Snow on San Bernardino Peak

[Ellen]

Stardate 1-4-12
Time: 0640 to 1630

Trek Log:
Three fair haired women (Ellen, Sally and Cindy) head up the San Bernardino peak trail in search of that elusive commodity -- SNOW!

The first major sightings of the white substance start to appear around 8 K. Wait -- that's not snow, but ice. The trail voyagers continue up through the forested area. Upon exiting the forest and entering brushy realm, they don microspikes to stay upright on ice, walking carefully on the berm of ice in the middle of the trail to avoid falling into f--kthorn, manglenita, and stinkapen.

When the trail voyagers reach Manzanita flats, they are ectastic to see signs of the rare white stuff on San Bernardino peak and the San Gorgonio ridgeline. They continue up, occaisionally sliding off the ice berm into brush on the side of the trail. Before reaching the wooden bench, the bloody blonde opts to go cross country. This requires snowshoes and shrubaneering to gain the ridge. They stay on the left (east) side of the ridge to avoid asteroids (um...really big rock formations).

Once on the ridge, the route is straight forward -- GO UP. The trail voyagers start to see stars due to the steepness of the climb and lower oxygen pressure. At last, they intersect the San Gorgonio backbone and set course for San Bernardino peak. Hold on -- snowshoe tracks -- someone else has been here before them. Five hours into their voyage, the happy, tired women arrive on the summit of San Bernardino peak. From the register, it appears that two others made the journey on 12-30-2011.

On the descent, they start down the west side of the ridge and remove snowshoes to drop down into the gully. Here they encounter more shrubaneering and post holing. A stray step into the middle of the gully results in wet boots, so they stay on the side of the gully and continue to descend. They rejoin the main trail below the Limber Pine Bench. Suddenly, they are accosted by two large friendly, furry mammals (um...dogs) and several other homo sapiens heading up the trail. They provide route advice before continuing down. After 3.5 hours of descending, the voyage and quest for snow end at the trailhead and are celebrated with an excellent cheeseburger at the Oaks restaurant.

Miles of smiles,
Ellen

Trek notes: We brought and used snowshoes, poles and microspikes. The climb would not have been possible without snowshoes. The snow on the climb up the ridge was not consolidated. At the top of the ridge, we had to manuver around rocks before reaching the San G backbone, which is why we didn't retrace our path. On the descent, some areas were more consolidated but not yet icy. We had excellent traction with snowshoes (MSR Lightning Ascents) and microspikes. Due to the warmer weather, I would expect conditions to become more icy.

[Sally]

Hi Ellen - that was a fun trip report from a fun day!

Ellen, however, failed to mention the spills, mostly by me. I fell in the fluffy deep snow numerous times on the way down. It didn't hurt, but it was probably pretty funny to watch me go down and then try to get back up. Ellen did a perfect 10 on a face first into the snow. I didn't see Cindy go down at all - she was the coordinated one in our little group! About a minute from the car I stumbled and wiped out on solid ground. At least I didn't land on any chollas this time!

Ellen's route-finding was impecable, and she also broke trail for us. Cindy is a joy to hike with. Thanks, gals!

[Ellen]

Pictures of the San Bernardino peak trek courtesy of Cindy:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 215&type=1

[Cy Kaicener]

Another great trip report. It sounds so enticing that you wish you were there.
After finding out about the tricky ice conditions and the sliding, I am glad that I wasnt