Lost on Mount Baldy

by Nathaniel Bluedorn, Copyright February 27, 2008, all rights reserved. 77 views

From 2005-11-19 Climb Mount Baldy

Mount Baldy is in-between Los Angeles and Lancaster. It is actually called Mount San Antonio and is 10,064 feet high.

Saturday morning, November 19, 2006, Mario Currado, Toby Darrington, Jonathan M., Hans Bluedorn, and I drove as close as we could to Mount Baldy and stopped at a wide spot in the road. We hiked the ridge up to Pine Mountain and had lunch.

We could see a lot of landscape: desert on the east, LA on the west and mountains all around us. We could vaguely see Mount Whitney and the Sierras in the north. Next, we had to climb Mount Baldy. We should have realized our return hike would be in the dark. But, none of us wanted to seem concerned about this. Mario noticed his compass wasn’t working.

The sun sets early in November. The sun was cold as we climbed, trying to find footholds in the gravel. The wind was strong. At the top, Mario and Toby performed some ceremonies involving pushups and handstands.

As we descended, the sun began to set in the sea. Pine Mountain was dark as we climbed it for the second time. We made some phone calls to let everyone know we would be home late.

Lost is a Feeling

I had trouble keeping a foothold in the steep gravel. The trail wasn’t like this. I noticed headlamps ahead were spreading out. We shouted back and forth in the wind and agreed to look for a shortcut back to the trail. We must have missed it.

I think everyone assumed everyone else knew the way back to the trail. We headed south,as we learned later. It got steeper. The gravel was loose and rocks tumbled downward at every step. I felt disoriented. Where were we going? The distance between us grew. The risk was uncomfortable.

We stopped and held onto a dead tree to keep from falling. We discussed crossing a steeper slope to a place that looked safer. I had a Surefire flashlight that showed us what was ahead. But we noticed one of our guys was gone. He must be scouting. Around this time, we decided to pray. Prayer forced us to get together and be quiet. We started thinking.

The scout reported it was less steep above us. Anything was better than clinging to that tree. We climbed up to the best flat ground in the world.

From 2005-11-19 Climb Mount Baldy

Leadership is a Choice

Getting lost on the mountain was the fault of our group as a whole. We were impatient to get home and so we did not communicate at the important moment when we first got lost. I didn’t speak up when I thought we should stop. Analyzing the situation afterwards, I had the choice to: (1) be silent, (2) speak up in a complaining way, or (3) speak up in a constructive way. I took the first road.

It’s easy to be silent. It’s also easy to complain. However, the best choice is to give a suggestion or say something positive. But it is hard to find this energy. Most of the time, I just complain about the situation and not offer solutions.

Back on the Trail Again

Mario spread his map on the rock and we reevaluated our position. We decided his compass was working. We were headed in the opposite direction we should be going. We looked at the lights from LA and Lancaster laid out below us. The night was crystal clear.

We quickly hiked back to the top of Pine Mountain, found our trail, and climbed down the correct way.

We were hungry when we got home.

From 2005-11-19 Climb Mount Baldy

Comments

No comments yet.