The question should be is why does Mt. Baldy take lives, not that it takes lives. Most of the hikers and mountaineers were doing things they should not have been doing...like not putting crampons on their feet when they should have, or having them like Michelle Yu.
I don't go up that mountain all that much because it is not much of a challenge, it's exercise with 50 of your nearest and dearest friends. It is a fun glissade when conditions are right.
Blase attitude? Maybe. Irresponsible? No, Baldy is a I came, I saw, I conquered kind of mountain in the winter once things consolidate. You start climbing in the bowl, you stop climbing on the summit and you glissade down. Sorry, if I don't find an 1,800' climb all that interesting. The most dangerous thing about is the rockfall and the clueless who climb the bowl in the winter...not saying everyone is clueless just that there is a higher percentage there than I want to deal with on Saturdays. Taking noobs up that mountain in the winter, going up the bowl with trekking poles and Microspikes, going up without a helmet, going up lined up like tin soldiers...that's irresponsible and I don't do any of those things.
Going up Falling Rock Canyon or Lost Creek Canyon in Ice House Canyon are more dangerous and fun, so is Cucamonga Peak.
Could you tell me why I should go somewhere else for stating an opinion based on experience on that particular mountain and most of the mountains in that piece of federally owned real estate?
