San Gorgonio, 11,499ft, also known as Greyback, is the highest peak in Southern California. It is located in southern part of San Bernardino mountains, within the San Gorgonio Wilderness area. The best view in Southern California. To the south you can see the Joshua Tree National Park, Salton Snea, San Jacinto Mountains and Palm Springs. To the north, you can see Big Bear Lake, Mojave Desert, Cucamonga and Mount Baldy. In good weather, you can see the ocean and Catalina.
Our plan was to hike to the San Gorgonio peak, 11,450ft. The storm, the week before the hike, left lots of snow in the mountains. Climbing San Gorgonio in one day is not easy even in the summer. So we knew it was going to be tough. We didn't know how tough ... We started at approx. 6am from the trailhead in Forest Falls. Abdallah did not feel too well, and after about a mile he decided to not to go with us and hike around the Forest Falls area instead. While we were gaining altitute, the snow was getting deeper and deeper. We followed the trail to the Halfway Camp, where we had a snack. From there we went straigh up across the snow. The snow there was 2-3 feet deep and soft. Ice crampons were not very useful. We met several other hikers and tried to make it through the snow together. We reached High Creek around 1pm, where we had lunch . We left the backpacks at High Creek, and started climbing up. After one more hour we realized it was hopeless ...
We went down to High Creek, took our backpacks, and started heading down. At 5:30pm we reached the trailhead in Forest Falls.
