Islip Peak (San Gabriels) 2-25-16

[overheadx2]

I have been looking to do some winter hiking locally and happened across Cali trails description of Islip Peak loop. It seemed like a perfect hike with about 8 miles and 2500' elevation so I decided to go take a look. What a great spot, very little snow up the south facing side from Crystal Lake to Windy Gap. Over the ridge it was a different story. Full coverage of packed snow and ice to the peak, but easily done with micro spikes. We saw two guys trying it with the spring traction things and thought they were going to die coming up the ridge. They hit a relatively icy area and would slide down about 10 feet before the snow would loosen up and they could grip. After about 5 attempts, they were able to get above the icy area. They finally made it up to the ridge, but their traction devices where so tweaked that they decided to turn around. We only saw 3 people the whole day and the conditions were perfect.

[robow8]

Someone slipped and fell in that area a couple of weeks ago and died, unfortunately.