Baldy Death March
Last Thursday, the Ski Boy and I, while still in Sun Valley, decided to do a geocache atop 9,000 ft. Mt. Baldy - the ski resort mountain. We chair lifted our way to the top - it’s such a long haul that two different chair lifts are required.
We had a fabulous lunch at the top of the mountain and then scooted off to the geocache. After doing the cache, the weather was so wonderful, that I decided to hike down to the lower chair and then chair down from there. The chair lifts quit running at 3:45 PM but it was 2:50 PM and I had an entire hour to make it down to the lower chair. Peter demurred - he thought his knees might have a tough time with the downhill. But I figured I’d have no problem - I could make the lower chair easy within an hour. No sweat. Right????
Wrong-o. In a very big way.
Baldy is a large mountain and it is extremely steep. I was definitely lulled by the weather and my own poor assessment of steepness and distance. I started off happily enough and did very well for the first 45 minutes. However, after 45 minutes of basically straight down steepness, my quadriceps started to seize up. They still functioned but I was moving much slower. And I had misjudged where the lower chair was located - misjudged by about 1/2 mile going straight down.
By 4:00 PM, I was still high up above the lower chair. I could see it. But I couldn’t get there. I knew I was in trouble, but I kept on slogging. Hoping that may be the chairs would run late. However, at 4:15 PM, both chairs ground to a halt. That was a bit disheartening. By this time, I could work my way down about 40 steps and then I’d have to take a break. My legs were so tired that they just quit working. They didn’t even hurt. They just didn’t work.
By this time, Peter was of course at the bottom of the mountain. He’d walked down a delightful trail that started at the top of the lower chair. He called me on my cell phone wondering where I was. I explained what happened - he decided to pick up some extra water and then hike back up to the lower chair where he would meet me. I figured that I was at most 20 minutes from the top of the lower chair. And under normal circumstances, that would have been the case. But my legs were so shot that it took me another hour to make it to the chair. Peter was there waiting with Powerade. My hero!!!!!!
Amazingly, even though I could barely walk and it was 85 degrees at 7000 feet in the hot sun, I was still pretty chipper. There was no point in getting depressed or upset. That wouldn’t get me down the remainder of the mountain. Might as well do lemonade from lemons.
I followed Peter down the trail that he’d scouted before. It was pretty nifty - through the woods, shady, etc. I would have loved it if I hadn’t thrashed myself with three miles of straight down for the previous two hours. The trail dropped another 1000 feet over 1.6 miles. The altitude drop was accomplished with switchbacks. Lots of switchbacks. At least 30 switchbacks. I’ve never seen so many switchbacks in my life. And we were so happy when we reached the very last switchback at the bottom.
All in all, quite the unplanned death march. I have four black toenails and a few others that are a bit iffy. I can now walk down the stairs. But for the first few days after our little outing, I was pretty much a cripple. Actually, we flew back to Anchorage on Friday - the day after the hike. That was a bit brutal. Nothing like a 12 hour travel day after a death march.
But, it was definitely an experience.
Dining Al Fresco atop Baldy. Quite the breathtaking view below.
All sorts of interesting information at the top. Note the elevation. Note when the chair ceases operation. Note the time on the clock. Hmmm….
Peter chairing down. I should have been on that chair.
My last good picture on my way down. Geez - what was I thinking???? It’s steep! Of course, I had no intention of going all the way to the bottom - just to the top of the first chair. Only an idiot would walk all the way down….
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