The Gorgonio Gauntlet
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:56 pmHowdy All 
Six intrepid hikers (Krai, Florian H, Kelvin, Cindy, Robin W and I) left the Southfork trailhead at 6:30. We discussed our options and decided to go up one of the north chutes rather than the Big Draw. It was a beautiful day and I was comfortable in short sleeves after about 20 minutes on the trail (hmm...perhaps this warm weather bodes ill for the snow). The trail was free of snow all the way to the the Dollar/Dry Lake junction. Since we were headed for the north chutes, we booted it up the ridge on the east side of Christmas tree hill -- the snow was gone
At the top of the Christmas tree ridge, we had to negotiate our way through numerous brush- and rock filled-gullies as we made our way towards our objective. Hiking Jim refers to this as "glacial chop country" --I prefer "Moraine Hell" whereas Sister Sally kindly calls it "Chaos." These gullies are a lot more fun to navigate when they're covered with firm snow
I continuously apologized for the route and promised that we would not take this way back to Southfork meadows. Krai kept reassuring me: "It's fine Ellen!" I am truly blessed by the unflappable nature of my hiking buddies 
Glacial chop country loves playing visual tricks. Since I thought we were headed up the ridge to the "staging area" for the north chutes, we donned snowshoes. Instead, we popped out on dirt -- more specifically, the dirt trail above Dry Lake near Trail Flats
Fortunately, we finally had adequate snow for shoeing and headed up. At the "staging area" (plateau at 10 K), we switched to crampons/ice axes and took the chute that looked to have the longest snow tongue. This topped out at about 11.3. We had a short scree boot scramble up to the ridge and intersected the trail at the Sky High/Vivian trail junction.
Most of the trail was free of snow up to San Gorgonio peak. Bottom line -- the Wed/Thurs storm was a dud -- there was very little new snow. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch on top (not too warm or cold), retraced our way back to the snow tongue and prepared to glissade. As usual, I was the slowest one in the top section but started speeding up and having more fun as we lost elevation. We made it to about 9.8 K before having to don snowshoes.
I was looking forward to a relatively uncomplicated descent down the west side of Christmas tree hill (the X-country ski route). It came immediately clear that this was not possible. Even with snowshoes, we periodically post-holed as we made our way east through Moraine-Hell towards the ridge that heads up Charleton. It was energy-intensive as well as unnverving to post-hole to the knee or crotch on one side. We finally reached the Charleton ridge -- yippee This relief was short lived, however. There wasn't snow on the X-country ski route, so we dropped into the gully west of the ridge.
Big mistake. We found ourselves alternating between walking on top of the snow and dropping several feet into brush and rocks
This reminded me of Calicokat Jim's comment about negotiating land mines. At one point, I fell dropped in up to my waist -- I felt like I was trying to breaststroke through the snow. Also lost a pole. Chevalier Florian used my ice-axe to dig around and finally found the pole about two feet below the snow. Shortly thereafter, Kelvin had a similar experience and almost hit his head 
Enough 
We took off snowshoes, fought our way out of the gully, and scrambled back onto the ridge.
From there it was a matter of traversing downhill and to the east to avoid the Southfork meadows bog. The final insult was breaking trail through a icy, mid-thigh section of snow. It was an absolute relief to be back on the trail. It was wonderful to be able to walk normally, rather than worrying about every single step. Ah -- tera firma at last Although the hike from the Dollar/Dry Lake sign to the trailhead seems to take forever, I was so happy to be on dirt that I didn't care. Twelve hours from starting, we called the Oaks restuarant to make sure they were open.
Six famished hikers happily inhaled dinner before heading home. Thanks everyone for being easy going and patient with the route finding and lousy snow conditions.
If I had a crystal ball, I would have taken the trail to Dry Lake and then headed up the gully to Trail Flats and gone X-country from there. Early in the morning the snow may be frim enough for snowshoes, but it softens up dangerously in the afternoon. I think we're at the end of being able to climb the north chutes.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
Six intrepid hikers (Krai, Florian H, Kelvin, Cindy, Robin W and I) left the Southfork trailhead at 6:30. We discussed our options and decided to go up one of the north chutes rather than the Big Draw. It was a beautiful day and I was comfortable in short sleeves after about 20 minutes on the trail (hmm...perhaps this warm weather bodes ill for the snow). The trail was free of snow all the way to the the Dollar/Dry Lake junction. Since we were headed for the north chutes, we booted it up the ridge on the east side of Christmas tree hill -- the snow was gone
At the top of the Christmas tree ridge, we had to negotiate our way through numerous brush- and rock filled-gullies as we made our way towards our objective. Hiking Jim refers to this as "glacial chop country" --I prefer "Moraine Hell" whereas Sister Sally kindly calls it "Chaos." These gullies are a lot more fun to navigate when they're covered with firm snow
I continuously apologized for the route and promised that we would not take this way back to Southfork meadows. Krai kept reassuring me: "It's fine Ellen!" I am truly blessed by the unflappable nature of my hiking buddies
Glacial chop country loves playing visual tricks. Since I thought we were headed up the ridge to the "staging area" for the north chutes, we donned snowshoes. Instead, we popped out on dirt -- more specifically, the dirt trail above Dry Lake near Trail Flats
Fortunately, we finally had adequate snow for shoeing and headed up. At the "staging area" (plateau at 10 K), we switched to crampons/ice axes and took the chute that looked to have the longest snow tongue. This topped out at about 11.3. We had a short scree boot scramble up to the ridge and intersected the trail at the Sky High/Vivian trail junction.
Most of the trail was free of snow up to San Gorgonio peak. Bottom line -- the Wed/Thurs storm was a dud -- there was very little new snow. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch on top (not too warm or cold), retraced our way back to the snow tongue and prepared to glissade. As usual, I was the slowest one in the top section but started speeding up and having more fun as we lost elevation. We made it to about 9.8 K before having to don snowshoes.
I was looking forward to a relatively uncomplicated descent down the west side of Christmas tree hill (the X-country ski route). It came immediately clear that this was not possible. Even with snowshoes, we periodically post-holed as we made our way east through Moraine-Hell towards the ridge that heads up Charleton. It was energy-intensive as well as unnverving to post-hole to the knee or crotch on one side. We finally reached the Charleton ridge -- yippee
This relief was short lived, however. There wasn't snow on the X-country ski route, so we dropped into the gully west of the ridge.
Big mistake. We found ourselves alternating between walking on top of the snow and dropping several feet into brush and rocks
This reminded me of Calicokat Jim's comment about negotiating land mines. At one point, I fell dropped in up to my waist -- I felt like I was trying to breaststroke through the snow. Also lost a pole. Chevalier Florian used my ice-axe to dig around and finally found the pole about two feet below the snow. Shortly thereafter, Kelvin had a similar experience and almost hit his head Enough We took off snowshoes, fought our way out of the gully, and scrambled back onto the ridge.
From there it was a matter of traversing downhill and to the east to avoid the Southfork meadows bog. The final insult was breaking trail through a icy, mid-thigh section of snow. It was an absolute relief to be back on the trail. It was wonderful to be able to walk normally, rather than worrying about every single step. Ah -- tera firma at last
Although the hike from the Dollar/Dry Lake sign to the trailhead seems to take forever, I was so happy to be on dirt that I didn't care. Twelve hours from starting, we called the Oaks restuarant to make sure they were open.
Six famished hikers happily inhaled dinner before heading home. Thanks everyone for being easy going and patient with the route finding and lousy snow conditions.
If I had a crystal ball, I would have taken the trail to Dry Lake and then headed up the gully to Trail Flats and gone X-country from there. Early in the morning the snow may be frim enough for snowshoes, but it softens up dangerously in the afternoon. I think we're at the end of being able to climb the north chutes.
Miles of smiles,
Ellen
It was ALL good! Thanx for showing us the way!
