[Bryan K]

Since coming up to Anchorage I haven't hiked all that much. Being a divorced dad takes up a lot more of my time that I thought, but that's not a bad thing. Also a lot of my free weekend time has been taken up by my new favorite hobby, backcountry skiing. Momma was going to take Conner for some Fur Rondezvous events on Saturday so I headed out to the mountains.

I headed up to the Mt Baldy trailhead. Mt Baldy is the Seattle version of Mt Si, but like Si, most people don't venture further along the ridge anywhere. Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks is the next set of highpoints along the eastern flowing ridgeline.

I was the first one in the parking lot and I donned my MicroSpikes for what I was expecting to be an icy trail. To my surprise, the trail was just compact snow, not a bit of ice to be found. The trail gain elevation pretty quickly up the western side. It reminds me of the old way up Mailbox.

I've only been up this trail a few times but just in the summer. The dirt makes summer ascents slick and fall prone. The current snow conditions mixed with my MicroSpikes made for an easier ascent. I made good time getting up to Mt Baldy, apparently my time on my skis has help my cardio. I didn't stop on the top of Baldy but continued up ahead towards Blacktail.

I traversed the rather flat terrain for what felt like an eternity. The snow condition were rather varied. One step I'm on hard crust, the next I'm in 18" of powder.

Much to my surprise, I caught up with a pair of recent snowshoe tracks. I was still booting it but I knew the snowshoes would come out soon. I finally reached stepper terrain and I switched to easier traveling with my snowshoes. The ascent went well heading up to what would be the first false summit. I really had thought I was heading up the true summit, but I was further south than I needed to be. The false summit did afford good views though and the true summit was in sight.

It looked rather steep and possibly unattainable with snow cover, but I trudged onward anyway. I wasn't going to give up without a fight. I traversed some really crusty snow and the idea of rolling an ankle was very real as the slope angle was fairly steep. The winds were picking up and even stronger as I passed some chutes. Finally I reached the base of the summit block and summit fever hit me.The rational side told me to stop and come back in the summer, but the idiot side won out and I started upward. The other set of snowshoe tracks had stopped at the false summit. Also I hadn't seen very many summits logged in the winter on Peakbagger. So I pressed up and my snowshoes gripped the crust very well. I went around a few sketchy rock steps and finally reached the summit. To say I was nervous about the descent was putting it mildly. I hung around the summit for a bit, shot a short selfie videoclip but forgot to take photos. After a Snickers and a Pepsi I put the snowshoes away and grabbed my ice axe for an expected self arrest maneuver. The first bit wasn't too bad as I plunge stepped through the crust and got good footing. As I started to traverse and crust got thicker and I couldn't break through. I made a few axe belays and took my time.

The rock steps were more challenging than I would have liked. The funny thing was that the snow cover on the summit block wasn't very deep, but a fall could prove fatal as there were a lot of exposed rocks along the steep angle. Once off the summit block and back on flattish ground I was relieved and started making better time. The rest of the descent I booted even though the snowshoes would have been easier. I followed the snowshoe tracks to the other trail up Baldy and passed but an old cabin and a beat up old shed.

I made the whole trip in about 6 hours and had time to spare at home before picking up my date to watch the Outhouse races in Anchorage later in the afternoon.