Throop Peak, Mount Burnham, Mount Baden-Powell, Ross Mountain

24 June 1995

By: Theresia Glover

Leaders: Theresia Glover, John Connelly

After much intrepidation and discussion about snow conditions (would there still be snow?), this trip got underway at 7:45 am, with 12 strong participants. Those of us who live in L. A. had carpooled from La Cañada, meeting at 6:00 am. John Connelly, Betsy Horgan, Harriet Edwards, and Neal Cosand joined us at Dawson Saddle at 7:15. The slopes of Throop and Burnham contained some patches of snow, but all were safe to cross and provided much amusement on the return route with snow ball fights and slippery slides to cool us off. (Yes, Ross was its usual hot, hot self!)

We started and finished at Dawson Saddle, completing the outing (14 mi, 5500' of gain) in 10-1/2 hours. The weather was glorious and even on Ross we had an occasional cool draft of wind. Many sailplanes were in the air taking advantage of the thermals and the nice weather. Throop was our first peak, next came Burnham, then Baden-Powell, and finally Ross. On the return hike we traveled the same route (in reverse) but omitted actually re-climbing Burnham and Throop. In between snow escapades, Paul Vainauskas entertained us with Lithuanian lessons.

The group had many individual achievements. One person checked out at Baden-Powell, but for 10 people it was their first time on Ross. In fact the leader was the only person in the group who had ever been on Ross before. Peter Bryant completed his 25th peak on Baden-Powell and is going to become an HPS member. We hope to see him on another peak soon. For four people (Anne Lee, Alex Ortiz, Peter Bryant, and Paul Vainauskas) it was their first time on all four peaks. Harriet Edwards, John Connelly, Robert Young, and Rich Pierce only needed Ross having previously hiked the other three peaks at various times. It was a very happy, elated group that returned to the cars at 6:30 pm to imbibe some icy-cold sodas from the leader's cooler, chat about the day's accomplishments, and make plans for future excursions.