The sun rises over the shoulder of Saddle Peak illuminating a shallow layer of fog in Malibu Canyon.
Category Archives: nature|clouds
Mountain Weather II
Mt. Baldy from the North Backbone Trail
According to my car’s thermometer the temperature in the west San Fernando Valley was 86 degrees. To the east a large patch of middle-level clouds had morphed into a large lenticular cloud. Over the course of a few minutes the wave cloud continued to transform, dividing into a train of alto-cumulus waves.
I just shook my head. A few hours earlier and 60 miles away, I had been freezing. The plan had been to do a “Baldy Over the Top” run to the old juniper on the north side of Pine Mountain. Around 8:45 am, as running partner Ann Ongena and I crested the cloud-capped, 10,064′ summit of Mt. Baldy, the wind chill temperature had been around 30 degrees. The air temperature was in the low 40s, but with the wind blowing at least 40 mph and gusting to over 50 mph it had been brutally COLD. Especially in running shorts.
Spending zero time on the summit, we waved to the hikers huddled in the rock windbreaks as we sprinted by. The hope had been that the wind (and temperature) would moderate as we descended the North Devil’s Backbone on the back side of Baldy.
It didn’t. Wind-driven clouds continued to sweep past the ridge as we ran down the steep path. At the first opportunity we stopped in the wind shadow of a clump of stunted lodgepole pines and put on wind/rain shells. The shells were three ounces of magic — without them it would have been foolhardy to continue.
As we descended to the Baldy – Dawson Saddle and then climbed up to Dawson Peak I kept looking back over my shoulder to the cloud-shrouded summit of Mt. Baldy. Were there more clouds? Was the ceiling lower? Was there more vertical development?
The day before I had checked the forecast from the NWS and the forecast models. A dissipating cold front was approaching the area from the north, but wasn’t expected to pass through until sometime tonight. No measurable rain was forecast for the Los Angeles area. The last time I had checked no clouds had been forecast for Saturday morning — but there they were. I had expected some southwesterly winds ahead of the front, but nothing like this.
I didn’t like being on the back side of the mountain in potentially bad weather knowing that “home” was on the front side. We had just enough gear to deal with the current conditions. I didn’t think it was very likely, but if the weather deteriorated…
Many of the incidents that occur in the outdoors are the result of a series of misjudgments. If you’re already on the edge it’s usually best to call it before things get REALLY complicated.
And that’s exactly what we did. After descending a short distance down the ridge from Dawson Peak we turned around. Even if the outing was going to be a bit shorter than planned, it was still going to be an outstanding hike and run in extraordinary conditions with over 6000 feet of elevation gain.
It was just as windy, cold and cloudy on the second trip over the top of Baldy as it had been on the first and we spent about the same number of milliseconds on the summit before picking up the Devil’s Backbone trail and running down.
Some related posts: Mountain Weather, Atmospheric Dynamics
Wave Cloud Sunset
Tuesday afternoon during a run to Las Virgenes Canyon a series of extraordinary wave clouds developed in the skies of Southern California. Over the course of the 90 minute run the clouds slowly shifted and changed, eventually beginning to dissipate and provide fuel for a fiery sunset.
As mentioned in the post Lenticular Wave Clouds, the unusual “flying saucer” appearance of wave clouds has long drawn attention, the clouds having been depicted in 15th century art.
Here are a few additional photographs of the wave clouds as they developed and then dissipated. More photographs and information about wave clouds will be found in the links below.
Related posts: Lenticular Wave Clouds, Atmospheric Dynamics, Mountain Weather
Out and About
Mid January Trail Run from Islip Saddle to Mt. Baden-Powell
It’s been warm in Southern California. Thursday Bob Hope Airport reached a high of 90 degrees and it seems every couple of days another high temperature record is broken or one SoCal city or another is the hottest spot in the nation.
Not only has it been really warm, it’s been really dry. Downtown Los Angeles recorded only 0.2 inch of rain in December and not a measurable drop of rain has fallen so far this January. We already set the record for the driest calendar year, and at the moment we’re vying for the driest water year on record.
The PCT just west of Mt. Hawkins. January 18, 2014.
The unusually warm and dry weather made me wonder what the conditions were like in the Angeles high country. Might the PCT be runnable between Islip Saddle (6650′) and Mt. Baden-Powell (9399′)? As warm and as dry as its been, how much snow could there be?
At Islip Saddle there was very little snow. Here and there tiny remnants hid under the snowbush, but for the most part the north slopes of Mt. Islip looked more like July than January.
I encountered the first larger patches of snow and ice in the deeply shaded corners of trail before Little Jimmy Campground and Spring. It was easily traversed, but reminded me of November runs on San Jacinto Peak and San Gorgonio Mountain, when early season snow had melted and refrozen, turning sections of trail into a skating rink.
The thing is, it doesn’t take a lot of snow to transform a straightforward trail run into a slip and slide adventure, especially when the snow is icy. As warm as it was in the sun, several sections of the PCT between Islip and Baden-Powell never see the sun in Winter and were surprisingly cold. Even if it was 80-something degrees in the lowlands.
In this case if you wanted to bypass most of the snow patches you could do that by following the crest. On the way to Baden-Powell I tried to stay on the trail to see what sections were clear. On the way back I climbed Mt. Burnham, Throop Peak, Mt. Hawkins and a couple other peaklets, so stayed on the crest.
Here’s a very short video (under 2 minutes) that will give you an idea what the conditions were like.
New Year’s Eve Spectacular
With some long runs looming in the not too distant future it seems many of my runs are ending after dark — even on New Year’s Eve.
There’s an extra measure of involvement when the sun is setting and it’s an hour back to the trailhead. Yes, it’s easy to carry a headlamp, but it’s more fun to try and get along without it. Without the headlamp you become part of your surroundings, with it you’re just a visitor.