Skied Mt. Baldwin with a great crew on Thursday. Here's a shot from the top of Bloody 2 years ago. I wasn't sure which route I"d use at this point. We stayed on the northeast side of the mountain, skiing the angled couloir below the summit snow ramp.


This pic is from a recent shot of Granjero from the Factor's camera, taken from the top of laurel. Baldwin is in the middle. Love these guys. Red Slate over on the right.


Mini Morrison with Mt. Morrison peaking from behind.


Crossing Convict Lake in the morning. Temps dropped to near zero at night.




Hard not to stare at Red Slate's North Couloir.


I got beta from John M to climb it earlier as you come up Convict Creek Canyon, and bang a left by the old washed out bridge site. A short climb takes you up to a beautiful lake below the northeast slopes. So basically climb left of this tall sharp pyramid of rock. The shot on the right is our first peak at the South Side of Bloody Mountain. I skied that one in corn 2 years ago from Convict Creek, only that sliver of white reaching the creek was a waterfall.


Ahhh what a sight! nothing looked that easy or safe yet to climb. We knew we wanted to ski the steeper couloir below the summit on the right side. We went up two gullies over, on the right of the picture. The snow looked wind hardened everywhere, but turned out to be a shallow and mostly faceted layer of snow. Skinning was difficult, and walking wasn't much easier. Skiing was very good actually with far deeper snow mid mountain and lower.






That huge northwest or west slope comes off of Mt. Morrison, and no that's not the top. This looked pretty hard to climb given our snow conditions. Quite steep, you'de want firmer snow and cold temps.




There were a few moments of steep slabby rock. Don't fall.


I kept looking for the "family man's" entrance to Red Slate's North Coloir, but never saw it (Roger's Term). I followed a friend into the couloir one time from the top traverse, which I don't think I'd do again. I've seen this other angled couloir on our Red Slate thread, coming off the north ridge on the right. Maybe there isn't enough snow this year, or I just never had the right vantage point.
Here's Chris Czyz making a strong showing. 3 boys age 8 and under and 2 jobs.


Convict Lake at the parking lot is 7580'. The summit is about 12,600'. When we ran out of snow we couldn't tell how long the walk would be to the summit, so we dropped skis and found a faint summer used path. Turned out to be only 20 minutes or so to the top for a fantastic 360 degree view.


Me, Susan Sheffield, Roger Slavin and Greg Loring


Looking approximately southeast


looking towards Redslate to the northwest.




I went down a little for a better side view to make sure we didn't end up in the wrong spot The entrance worked out fine, not really corniced or super steep like it looked from the lake below.




















We probably shouldn't have crossed the lake at the end of the day.

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

Awesome Mike. I really want to get up Convict Canyon in the winter - it has to be so much easier to just skin up the canyon rather than side hilling hard snow in the morning.

I remember scoping Baldwin on our way in and out of Red Slate thinking it was worth going back for. I know it has a really nice line dropping down into the McGee Creek side too.

The 'family man's' entry into the Red Slate couloir was used by both Toby and I (and Buddy) in April of 2006 when there was a PHAAAAT snow pack. I think it is only in play in those big years. Even though I am the definition of family man, I feel I have some unfinished busines with that death traverse. Of course that's easy to say from here.

Thanks for the great TR.