Hike

My friend was visiting me from Connecticut, so I decided to show him what a California mountian looks like. While I would have preferred to hike the full loop, he preferred to shorten the hike by taking the chairlift. The lift ticket was $35 roundtrip, and enabled us to park in the Notch Lift parking lot (34.26993° N, 117.62290° W) which does not require an Adventure Pass. We arrived at 7am (when Chair 1 opened) and signed the obligatory waiver before getting a wristband for the lift. Chair 1 takes you from the parking lot to the Baldy Notch (elevation 7,822ft), a nice little pub midway up the mountain. Lunch is served starting at 11am. Another chairlift, Chair 4, picks up from the Notch and takes you to the start of Devil's Backbone. That chairlift was not in service that day.

We set out walking northwest towards the Devil's Backbone at 8am and, of the multiple route options from the Notch, we apparently chose the more difficult route. There are many trails that meet at the Notch which are clearly meant for skiiers during the winter season. The slope we chose had the characteristics of a Black Diamond. A couple taking that route down noted to us that there was an easier, more meandering option for the ascent to the Backbone, and that we had taken the "shortcut."

After about an hour we made it to the end of the out-of-service Chair 4. Only a short distance away was the beginning of the famous Devil's Backbone. We took a break in a clearing to delay our arrival on the summit. I had set an alert on SOTAWatch for 12 noon, and Tom (KE6SRO), Carol (KE6SRN), Mike (K6STR), and Lorene (W6LOR), were all planning to activate other summits at that time as well. The previous evening, we hatched a plan to try to make S2S contacts among all of us at that time. Since our hiking pace was faster than envisioned, we took the opporunity to have a snack and contact Jon (NT6E) on the NO6BS repeater (449.700– PL 131.8). He came through loud and clear and I mentioned that we were on track to make it to the summit around noon. Charles (KM6CEM) was also monitoring that repeater. Both Jon and Charles offered to spot me when I made it to the summit, which was very kind of them.

At this point, you are hiking along the ridge of the mountain due west. The views are absolutely stunning on each side, but also somewhat unnerving. While most of the Backbone is reasonably wide and has some boulders at the edges, it is when Mount Harwood begins to rise that the hike becomes rather challenging. The Backbone is vaguely etched into the side of Mount Harwood, and because of centuries of wind gusts, the trail (and the mountain itself) are greatly eroded. While some attempts have been taken to widen parts of the trail (most recently in August, 2026), there are still segments of the trail that are no wider than your two feet placed together (so about 1ft wide), and there are 500+ ft. drops beside it with nothing to catch your fall. Let me put this simply: If you are afraid of heights, this is not the hike for you. We hiked very slowly and steadily on this segment, and used trekking poles. My friend found it easier to essentially sit down and move forward inch by inch while clinging to the mountain. I used my poles to stabilize myself, but we were consistently blasted by wind gusts.

Oh, about the wind. The wind gusts ranged from 15-20 mph, but seemd higher. These blasts were strong enough to push my body, which was certainly frightening while navigating a very steep and narrow path. We were under-equipped for this. While my hat has a chin strap, it was no match for the gusts. I decided to put my hat in my pack, and promptly received sunburns on my face. The wind caused windburn as well, and chapped lips. The gust caused my vision to blur slightly and at one point some gravel got into my eyes. We noticed some experienced Baldy hikers with full Jason Voorhees-style masks which must have significantly helped in those conditions.

As we passed by Mount Harwood, we began to see the steep final ascent to Mount Baldy come into view. This last stretch is shadeless, and near vertical. There were quite a few hikers on the trail, and everyone respected each other's space and need to take breaks or slow down. It is not an easy climb. But there is nothing like reaching the summit after essentially a final test of one's endurance. Once we were on top, we noticed lots of wind-breaking rock pile formations for hikers' use. We chose one and sat down low so that the wind would blow over us, but there was no real escape from the gusts. The views, of course, were stunning.

Activation

I brought only my Quansheng UV-K5(8) to the summit, with an Intellitron HA-1711 half-wave telescoping whip and a Nagoya NA-771 2m/70cm whip. I ended up using only my Nagoya, as I seemed (strangely) to be getting better signal with it. I arrived at the summit around 11:30 so I figured I might listen to 146.520 and 146.580 for a bit before beginning my activation. A man in San Diego, Grant (KO6IHG) was busy activating a park on 146.580! I managed to hunt him from the Baldy summit, which was quite the thrill. I then heard an Aeronautical Mobile station on 146.520, Michael (KM7CIV/AM). Around 11:45, I flipped back to the NO6BS repeater and called Jon (NT6E). He answered, and I asked him to go ahead and spot me on 146.580. I managed to pick up 5 contacts on FM before switching to SSB: KM6CEM, N6AJP, NT6E, W6CMY, and KE9BAH. After asking Jon to spot me on 144.200 (SSB), I got: NT6E, K6YYL, KM6CEM, W6TED, KE6SRN, KE6SRO, KM6RNJ, KK6WLD, and NH6AE. It was so wonderful that I succeeded in contacting Tom and Carol, who were activating Gold Mountain (W6/CT-053). After finishing SSB, I decided to call it quits on the activation, and check 144.100 for Mike and Lorene on CW. Unfortunately I could not hear them, as they were on a mountian in the Eastern Sierras. Likely out of range for my Nagoya NA-771. I started scrolling through the weak signal portion of the 2m band and heard CW on 146.110! It was Carol! I decided to send my callsign in for some mountaintop CW fun. We made contact that way and after that, my friend and I were ready to leave.

Postlude

The way down was harder—and more beautiful—than the way up. We descended Baldy to Devil's Backbone and were struck by the sheer majesty of the view. Descending Devil's Backbone is even more frightening than the ascent, given that you are viewing the tremendously steep drops the whole way. My friend was fully trembling as we again navigated the tightrope trail. We joked that we now know what the life of a mountain goat is like. After 6 hrs (inclusive of an hour mid-mountian break and an hour at the summit) we made it back to the Notch around 2. Our legs were ready to collapse under us as we stood in line to order a Bleu Cheese Burger, fries, and a Baldy Beer. I ate my burger in 90 seconds. After enjoying a few minutes of glitchy Wi-Fi to tell all our friends that we survived, we took Chair 1 back down to the parking lot. We headed to the Baldy Lodge restaurant (est. 1914) and enjoyed some wine and ate dinner at 5. We were grateful to have survived such an awesome trek to such an iconic peak.