Mt Baldy - Revisited

I just came back from my second Mt Baldy summit trip with a club from school. We started hiking the trail at around 8.30pm and 2 hours later we were at our stop for the night and where we set up our tents. I didn't have a tent and ended up sleeping in a tent with a guy who seemed particularly eager to share with me which was kinda dodgy. I'm a light sleeper and there were many people around so I knew I'd be fine. We were woken up at 4.45am. I had a really bad night sleep, in total perhaps less than 3 hours. It wasn't cold but it was windy, uncomfortable to sleep on the ground and I like to move around a bit when I sleep instead of being squashed.

In the morning, we climbed a couple of hundred meters up Baldy and practiced some self arrests, this is where you basically fall and stop yourself from falling by using an ice axe. I'm extremely scared of height and of falling so this wasn't pleasant. But I was pretty good at stopping myself from falling with self arrest.

Then we hiked up to Baldy summit. This involved climbing up through the Girly Man chute which is at about 50 degrees (I wonder what would a Manly Man chute be)! I wasn't really tired. In fact, I was always the last one to leave (taking photos etc) but end up catching up with many other hikers. Some were surprised at how much better I am compared to them - well, all thanks to the gym workouts and horse riding as well as hikes in NZ! I have to say it felt a lot easier than last year. During the ascent up, I met a middle aged man who's training to climb Mt Everest and I was wondering if this challenge is more for personal experience or for bragging rights.

Girly Man chute - looking down

Baldy summit

After the summit, we practiced some rappelling and rappelling back up. All the while we were standing on very steep mountain side which wasn't very comfortable for me. Then we glissaded down, this is where you sit on your butt and slide down the snow covered mountain side. I enjoyed it at first cos I was in control of how fast I was going. Then I speed up, lost control and tried to self arrest but it didn't work in the soft snow so I just kept on falling. Luckily a really nice guy who I would have crashed into caught me and I was able to stop. Then I glissaded again, and no surprise I was going too fast again and couldn't stop by self arrest. I kept on self arresting by which time my arm muscles were aching and I was thinking this is futile, I will only stop if I crash into some rocks which I did eventually and I fell over the rock ledge and landed feet up (like how I jump off from a horse after a lesson). So now I was in front of all the people who was doing it 'properly' lol. I guess this is one of the reasons why I'm afraid of height and falling cos I can't stop myself from falling in crucial situations!

Then it was time for the drive back, I sat at the back of the car but driving skills were pretty bad with sharp turns and sudden stops. And compounded with the gross smell from everyone I soon developed a headache. And I was thinking, WTF am I doing this for? I was planning on climbing Mt Whitney, but apparently we have to carry our own personal waste which means that there won't be contained toilets and I'd likely be the only girl there so this would be extremely awkward. As well, 3 days without showering is just too much. I love hikes but from now on I think I'll only do one day hikes.