Rolling Meditation

Mont Blanc and the Bossons glacier over the rooftops of Chamonix, the evening before the start Friday, July 31: a pack check, a briefing, and tartiflette No hiking today. Day 0 is the night before: the official briefing with our guide, the group coming together for the first time, and a first dinner in Chamonix. This is the first of the day-by-day Tour du Mont Blanc posts; the overview and the all-days map are in the trip summary post . Settling in Got into a friend's flat in town and spent a while figuring out how to turn the electricity on, which is a great way to feel competent right before a mountain trek. Then groceries, and a first proper look up at the massif from the middle of town. It is right there. It is enormous. The Aiguilles de Chamonix from the valley floor The briefing Over to the Maison de la Montagne on Place de l'Église for the official briefing from the Compagnie des Guides de Chamonix . Our guide is a very experienced trekking guide and a senior figu...

I've tried to climb San Jacinto four times, and I've turned around four times. The closest I got was about 350 feet below the top. This fall I set out to climb Southern California's three big peaks: Mount Baldy, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. Baldy went on September 26. Gorgonio went on October 9. San Jacinto, at 10,834 feet, is the one left, and it's the one I know best for all the wrong reasons. Before I go back, here's how I got here. All four attempts and the tram day on one map. Each dot marks that day's high point and turnaround. Terrain © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA), data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Where it started: April 12, 2024 – My first time on San Jacinto wasn't a climb at all. JS was in town, and we were getting our legs ready for the Laugavegur in Iceland that June. We rode the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway out of the desert heat to the top. Up top it was full winter, a real winter wonderland. We had no microspikes and no plan for the peak, so we w...

Southern California's Three Saints – Southern California's three tallest peaks are all named for saints: San Antonio (everyone calls it Mount Baldy), San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. This fall I set out to stand on top of all three. Mount Baldy came first, two weeks ago. On October 9 it was San Gorgonio's turn. San Gorgonio Mountain – At 11,503 feet, San Gorgonio is the big one: the highest point in Southern California. I did it as a single-day loop from the South Fork trailhead. I drove up the evening before, got to Barton Flats Campground around 9:30 pm, and slept in the van. The plan was a 5:30 start by headlamp; the reality was boots on the trail at 6:28, just as it was getting light. From there it's a long climb through pine forest, past Poopout Hill and South Fork Meadows, to the fork where the Dollar Lake and Dry Lake trails split. The stream running right at the fork is the South Fork of the Santa Ana River, still flowing this late in the year. South Fork trailhead...

Southern California's Three Saints – Southern California's three tallest peaks are all named for saints: San Antonio (everyone calls it Mount Baldy), San Gorgonio and San Jacinto. This fall I set out to stand on top of all three, one hike at a time. First up was Mount Baldy (10,064 ft), on September 26. Mount San Antonio – I drove up from home that morning. There were a lot of cars parked by the trailhead, but I found quite a bit of parking farther up the road, between the trailhead and the resort parking lot. I started from Manker Flats at 9:20. The directions are simple: walk up Falls Road past San Antonio Falls to Mt. Baldy Road, then turn up the Baldy Bowl Trail, which climbs past the Sierra Club Ski Hut. The spring there was still running in late September. It's a steep one: 4.1 miles of nearly nonstop climbing to the summit, which took me 3 hours and 10 minutes. From the top I could see the other two saints, San Gorgonio and San Jacinto, lined up to the east and waiti...