Climbing Baldy Bowl with Nikon D3 and 14-24mm

Nikon D3 goes up to Mt Baldy via the Bowl

It’s been a while since I’ve made it up to the Summit of Mt Baldy so when an opportunity came along to take a day off from work I jumped right on it. I checked the weather forecast and it looked promising — sunny with nice, puffy cloud cover — just what I enjoy the most. I also started to wonder … what if I make it a Photo Trek/Climb and bring the big guns — full frame camera (D3) with the 14-24mm ultra wide angle lens? Problem is, it weighs a lot — camera = 43.7 oz, lens = 35.3 oz; 79 oz total … Not something you’d want hanging off your neck climbing 4000 vertical, ice and snow covered feet to the top of Mt Baldy topping out at 10068 ft, but that’s where it has to be for me if I want to take the shoots instead of thinking of how to take the camera out of the pack.

I mounted the lens on the camera, picked it up and almost gave up on the idea, almost … Then I remembered that I recently bought a whole new, redesigned Lowepro Toploader Pro 75 AW camera case for it and if I could rig it up to my pack where the weight is split 50/50 between the shoulders and hip it might be doable. Of course it still doesn’t relieve my knees from the added weight of it all but a little suffering goes a long way …

Here’s the finished rig:

I used a self equalizing system for the hip-belt connection and a static length loops for the attachemnt to the D-rings on the pack’s shoulder straps. All was done using a double runner and 4 carabiners. It comes on and off very easily and is the most comfortable rig I’ve used so far. It also proved to be very easy to work with in the field:

I got to Manker Flats “parking” area at 6:35, put my plastic double boots on, strapped the ice ax and crampons to the pack, broke out the trekking poles and was sliding all over the deadly stretch of icy fire-road at 7:00am. I climbed up the snow bank to avoid all the ice and in few minutes got my first photo opportunity at the fire-road bend (notice the nice cloud cover moving in …):

I mounted ‘pons soon after (near the San Antonio Falls) and headed up the Register Ridge towards the Ski Hut keeping an eye on the weather … With no one around, on a weekday, I felt blessed to be here, enjoying the views, fresh air and solitude. I was at the Ski Hut area by 9am (photo treks are slow):

The day was turning out to be just perfect — blue sky with nice clouds:

To save on time I went directly for the Bowl without stopping at the Ski Hut. The Bowl was still looking a little cold and the sky above it not very vibrant:

When doing ultra wide angle photography I like to be right smack in the face of the subject — just jam the lens into it. As you can imagine it’s a bit of a challenge to do that when you are climbing Baldy Bowl — no matter how high I climbed it was not close enough:

I was getting two thirds of the way up in relation to where the chutes start to form when I realized that this is not going to work:

I’d have to climb into the chute and shoot from there, but I promised my family I wouldn’t attempt it solo so I decided to traverse across the Bowl onto the adjacent ridge where the regular (summer trail) is and then go for the Summit from there to see what I can shoot up there …

I was quickly traversing the Bowl:

… I could see the exit route real close In fact I though I’d be out of it in 5-10 minutes max when I found myself on this slope:

The next thing I knew it was as if someone pulled the rug from under my feet, the snow pack moved, I slid, self belay and froze …. immediately the scene of swimming in avalanche debris and ending at the bottom of the bowl started playing in my mind — it send a cold chill down my spine. I was afraid to move, I looked down, up, back and realized that the closest exit is to return the same way I came, I slowly turned around and tried to put my feet into my own tracks — they wouldn’t hold, the whole slope felt so loose it felt as if my steps would send it tumbling down. I dropped few feet down and carefully made new track — it was only 50 feet to safety but it felt as an eternity — all I could think of was how foolish it was to be soloing the Bowl on a weekday when no one is around … Once my crampons bit into the solid snow pack I breathed a sign of relieve

Looking around where I was it became apparent that the safest and fastest way up would be to traverse towards Devils Backbone and find a moderate slope up the summit from there. This time I paid especially close attention to the snow pack — thankfully it was in great shape. I found a nice direct route up and took it. Surprisingly it got pretty steep towards the end — the Bowl is very deceiving:

I am at Devils Backbone level now:

The route:

I topped out at 11:15, found a nice snow cave someone had already made and dropped my pack there:

Views from the Summit were out of this world:

It was very cold and windy — the snow cave came in very handy:

I ate a quick lunch:

… packed up and headed down using the regular trail. Taking in the scenery as I went:

As I reached the bottom of the ridge I found myself in a pretty cool cloud/whiteout:

The fog rolled in at ~ 1:00pm and got really thick by 1:20 … here’s a short video I took in the mids of it:

I imagine it would be impossible to navigate in a real/complete whiteout …

The regular trail that goes up the ridge doesn’t get much use in winter — most of the climbers take the Bowl up so I was up to my knee most of the time:

It was a bit a of a challenge finding the Ski Hut in the cloud, but after that it was pretty easy. When I reached the end of the trail the clouds passed: