White Baldy

North ridge of White Baldy. We gained the ridge at the lower saddle on the right and stayed on top until we glissaded down the snow gully on the far left

Date: July 3, 2010
Distance: 10+ miles
Vertical: 4700 feet
Time: ~7 hours
Peaks: White Baldy (11,321 feet)
Route: Red Pine Lake trail to upper lakes, gain North ridge, class 3 scramble to summit, drop down east ridge, glissade back to White Pine Lake and White Pine trail back to jeep.

One week until we leave for the John Muir Trail. We have lots of planning/packing to do, but the conditions are perfect for climbing right now, so we're trying to get in some awesome day trips this weekend. Today we climbed White Baldy, which gave us the opportunity to do a prolonged third class ridge scramble, a loop hike, and a really fun glissade!


The route


Andrea and Bambi


Little Pfeifferhorn


Upper Red Pine Lake


Gaining the ridge and the rest of the route to the summit


Andrea, Upper Red Pine Lake, and the Pfeifferhorn


Scrambling on granite


Andrea reaching the summit


Peanut butter and M&M wrap. Testing out some high-calorie JMT foods!


Summit views


White Baldy summit


Looking back down towards Red Pine Lakes


Andrea working the ridge


Enjoying the views


White Pine Lake


Self-arresting during the glissade. We are getting GOOD at glissading!


Woohoooooo!


The north face of White Baldy is STEEP!


Crazy Jake Attack!


No postholing!!! In JULY!!! In the middle of the afternoon!!! Utah avalanche runout paths are the best!!!


The approximate route drawn over a picture I took from Sunrise Peak last weekend