C2C on Super Bowl Sunday

[mike92126]

I'm thinking of doing C2C on Super Bowl Sunday (sacrilege?!?) Any beta on snow/ice below the tram?

[Norris]

Very sketchy snow conditions just below Long Valley. To be safe, you will need boots that can kick/improve steps and I recommend an ice axe of some sort or a trekking pole with a self arrest head. I had good boots rather than my customary approach shoes, thank god,but ordinary trekking poles and really wished i had an axe. More challenging than i have ever seen it just below Grubbs notch.

[mike92126]

Thanks for the beta. I didn't bring an ice ax, so I'll probably tram up and summit using microspikes and snowshoes.

[halhiker]

Lots of rescues on Baldy might urge caution. http://m.pe.com/articles/baldy-793783-hiking-flown.html

Mount Baldy is obviously not San Jacinto but in 2004 in similar conditions people died on both mountains.

[Ed]

To be safe, you will need boots that can kick/improve steps and I recommend an ice axe of some sort or a trekking pole with a self arrest head. I had good boots rather than my customary approach shoes, thank god,but ordinary trekking poles and really wished i had an axe. More challenging than i have ever seen it just below Grubbs notch.

I certainly agree with you about the boots. I am amazed at the number of people I see on snow in low-cut hiking shoes. But I wonder about the value of an ice axe on a forested slope, where the chances of colliding with a tree before a self arrest takes hold are high. Did you have any traction, i.e., microspikes or crampons? While I am an ancient person who believes in long-shafted ice axes and rigorous self-arrest training, there are some situations where I would rather have a trekking pole in each hand and traction on my feet than an ice axe.

However you did it, I am impressed by anyone who does the Skyline under full winter conditions, and wonder at people who have never done Skyline before enquiring about doing C2C when you have this much snow and winter's short days.

[Perry]

Not all crampons are equal. In ice, it matters how sharp they are. Right now, it's a good idea to sharpen them with a file and try to avoid stepping on rocks. Steel and titanium will hold their sharpness longer than aluminum. If I were up in these mountains right now, I would carry a file.

A note for the future. In slush or powder, the length and lateral area of the spikes makes a big difference.

[Ed]

Not all crampons are equal. In ice, it matters how sharp they are.

I tend to favor duller points myself, on the theory that you are more likely to hurt yourself with sharp points than need them. But I certainly understand your point. Once we were circling the crater rim on Orizaba, on the way to the summit, when we came to what I can only describe as a hill of ice. Our points, sharp or dull, would not penetrate under our weight alone. We had to raise our feet and stamp them in. Very unsettling, since it tends to throw you off balance, and it was a place where a self-arrest was not likely to be successful. And while we could stamp the points in, they did not slide in, the ice splintered like glass. I can still hear the ice crackling and tinkling as it shattered, and the fragments glittering in the high-altitude sun light.

No way I was going back that way. Several of us dropped straight down from the summit, despite the fact that it was much steeper there.

I also think that crampon point design today is strange, for ordinary snow climbing. I lost two pairs of crampons when my house burned down in the Cedar Fire of 2003, so I had to buy a pair of BD Contact Strap On crampons. Can't say I like them. No points on the sides of the front piece, which I think are valuable for traction on traverses. And giant front points which are more likely to rip your pants/gaiters or injure you than be of value. You don't often use the front points for ordinary snow climbing, and when you do it tends to be for short stretches where it is more a matter of convenience than necessity. But anti-balling plates are a great innovation.