I have the beautiful privilege of witnessing the majestic mountains that frame Southern California. This opportunity to view the earth’s greatness is also a seductive temptress that lures me into the woods and above the clouds each week. This weekend, I found myself drawn to the top of Mount Baldy, the highest peak in the San Gabriel Mountains at 10,068 feet. 

The hike from the trailhead up the Baldy Bowl route is about 8 miles long with a gain of 3,891 feet. If you research the trail online, you’ll see that it usually takes about six and a half hours on average, making it a pretty challenging hike during the regular hiking season. With the addition of winter ice and snow, the trek to the top becomes even more dangerous, as many hikers have even died while traversing up the mountain.

Every person I passed up to the summit mentioned how windy it was towards the top. Strong breezes churned dirt into the air and up my nose near the bottom of the mountain. However, I wouldn’t experience how windy Baldy could get until I slipped on my microspikes and snow gear at the Ski Hut. In hindsight, I really should have also had a helmet and ice pick, as the snow, ice, and slush made the trek a little intense. However, I continued until I ran into a nervous hiker.

“Are you continuing up the mountain?”  A woman had approached me without face coverage for the increasing wind.

I started to answer and then paused to pull down my comfy wind guard so she could hear me. “Yeah, I mean, I’m already all the way up here,” I said. “I might as well keep going.”

I tried to encourage her at first to finish the hike since she, too, had made it so far along the trail. A fairly toxic trait of mine is to finish any hike if it won’t end in my death even if I’m pretty uncomfortable about it. However, I took a step back, reevaluated the situation, and showed more grace.

She told me that she wasn’t expecting the 30-mile-an-hour winds that were whipping past us and that it had already taken her about 6 hours to reach that point on the trail. I told her that winter is the worst time to try to climb Baldy for the first time and reassured her that it was her call at the end of the day to turn around and head back down the mountain if she felt unsafe.

“Yeah, I’m nervous about making it back before dark.” She had already made up her mind and was already slowly making her way towards the trail behind me. “I’m pretty satisfied with how far I’ve come.”

Her response made me rethink my view on completing long hikes. Not everyone needs to be on the same level of agility to enjoy a hike. You are never obligated to finish every hike, and you can be proud of wherever your feet eventually take you. I looked out at the beautiful surrounding snow-covered mountains and noticed the amount of ground and elevation we covered. “We are pretty high up.”

The woman followed my gaze to see the view with appreciation. “Yeah, we’re pretty high up.”  

The woman was nervous about losing the path on her way down, and I attempted to ease her mind by reminding her to follow the human footprints that disturbed the large blanket of snow. I watched as she began her descent and then turned to face the rest of the trail to the top. 

There was a brief moment when a gust of wind roaring down the summit’s surface nearly lifted me off the trail. For a moment, I thought about turning around, but I, being the most stubborn person I know, kept moving forward up the steep mountain face covered with snow. I thought about how any normal person would turn back at that point and realized then how insane I might actually be as I continued to the top.