26/06/2022 - Mt. Baldy

 Mt. Baldy

(2,192 m, 7,191 ft.)

Originally planning to do Wasootch Ridge, myself, my mom, my dad, our friend Lexi, her son Mikey and his friend Will left our house at around 8am on Sunday morning. Upon our arrival to the Wasootch trailhead, we were met with around 30 other cars and two massive groups of people just about to start hiking. Deciding that the better choice would be to find a hike on the same road with way less people, we left and the hike we decided to do was Mount Baldy. Dad had mentioned that he had done the hike before and from his memory it was pretty good. It would turn out that he was completely correct in that statement, however I feel like the actual trail and grind to the summit that Mount Baldy was slipped his memory. Although the hike is only 4.2 Km it includes a whopping 788 m of elevation gain. That means that for every Km you go horizontally you go 375 m vertically. As you can imagine reaching the summit is no small feat however our trail family for the day made quick work of the difficult trail. Everyone that I hiked with did an amazing job and before we knew it we were on top. Mount Baldy has three different peaks and the one we summited is the west peak. Once you're on the west peak you can either continue to the south peak or you can turn around and go back. Trust me when I say that even summiting the west peak is an accomplishment. Like most people we opted to take a break on the west peak and begin out journey down after. So far this year Mount Baldy is by far one of the biggest scrambles I have done. Although you are never really super exposed it is for sure not just an everyday hike. Like I mentioned previously our trail family for the day were absolute beasts and handled the trail with style. It was fun to do a hike that not only challenged your physical endurance but also your mental fortitude. You never really know how you'll react when posed with the challenge of walking unknown or new trails. I think it is safe to say that everyone who was a part of our little family rose to the challenge and enjoyed the experience for what it was. 

All three Mt.Baldy Peaks (our route in purple)

(left to right) J.M. Jossinet, Mikey Farmer, Will Jamieson, Myself