Mount San Antonio routes

This is a meta post showing the most common official and unofficial trails to Mount San Antonio (Mount Baldy).

The official trails:

• Ski Hut trail (aka Baldy Bowl trail)
• Devil's Backbone
• North Backbone
• Bear Canyon

The unofficial trails:

• Register Ridge
• San Antonio Ridge

Here is my take on difficulty in ascending order:

• Devil's Backbone
• Ski Hut trail
• Register Ridge
• North Backbone
• Bear Canyon
• San Antonio Ridge

The Devil's Backbone and Ski Hut are the most popular by far. If you want solitude, any of the other trails get you some.

The single ascent I did in winter was the Ski Hut trail, and it was quite a bit more challenging with snow and ice. The Devil's Backbone is notoriously dangerous and fatal when covered in snow.

Register Ridge used to be a faint use trail, but it's well groomed now and seems more like a maintained trail.

For the San Antonio Ridge, I went up the Ski Hut trail, then descended from Mount San Antonio to Iron Mountain #1 and finished at Heaton Flat. The trail along the ridge is good until you get to Gunsight Notch, then it becomes technical and harder to follow. It remains one of the most difficult and dangerous hikes I've done.

An uncertain future

A couple of weeks ago, I started getting severe pain in my left shoulder. It built up over four days, and I woke up one day with limited ranged of motion. Multiple trips to the doctor, including a PT and orthopedic, showed arthritis and deterioration of the joint. The orthopedic recommended a shoulder replacement and I am waiting to complete the MRI and CT before scheduling the surgery. It will be a very long a difficult recovery with some permanent loss of strength. It's unknown whether I will be able to get back to the challenging scramble routes I enjoy the most. I knew the day would eventually come, just not this soon. I am left with mixed feelings about whether to continue my peak bagging adventures or call it.