We were up before 6a, having spent the night in our cars on the side of Highway 138 at Lake View Point in the middle of the San Bernardino Mtns. We hadn't slept all that soundly due to the holiday traffic coursing back and forth along the highway and our own (ok, my) less-than-brilliant choice of a bivy spot. No matter, we had some climbing to do.
Today was a designated snowshoe affair after the silly hikes to a bunch of easy peaks the previous day. Crafts and Butler had been ground zero for a major fire two and a half years ago that swept over the area, dubbed the Butler Fire. On a previous visit the approach routes had been closed by the Forest Service and I had to skip these two peaks. Back for a second time, Tom and I planned to take the scenic route up from Lake View Point (named for the view of Big Bear Lake to the east).
Our snowshoes were strapped to our packs as we headed
up the firebreak just
before 6:30a. We were only hiking for about ten minutes before we ran
out of dry ground
and had to make our way over snow. It had gotten to just below
freezing overnight, so the snow we found was hard with just enough traction to
walk easily over with boots. Another ten or fifteen minutes later and we were
starting to punch through occasionally and I quickly called a halt to pull out
the snowshoes.
Under the trees the snow had not been subjected to the same
freeze-thaw cycles that the more exposed slopes had undergone, making it less
consolidated - but decent for snowshoeing as we found out.
Once we had the snowshoes on, we spent the next hour motoring our way up to
Crafts. It was a fine, 
sunny day with views 
to Butler
as we 
gained altitude and 
better views
once we reached Crafts. We signed into 
a register
we found in a small cairn, taking in 
the views
and a break at the same time. Ten minutes later we
were heading down the 
east side of Crafts on our way
to Butler a bit more than
a mile further east. We dropped to a 
shallow saddle
before starting our 
back up
the north side of the ridge with the
sun in our eyes. To our left swept out the
dry northern peaks of the range and the far drier Mojave desert, in marked
constrast to the ample snow we were treading. The HPS guide suggests
this route
can be quite brushy without adequate snow coverage, but the fire seems to have
made the snow optional for the next few years.
The 
rocky summit
of Butler is crowned with an old wooden lookout tower, saved
from destruction in the fire by a few well-placed aerial drops, no doubt. This
was made evident by noting the trees immediately around the tower were the only
ones in the wide area that were untouched by the flames. We took off our
snowshoes and 
climbed
to the upper deck surrounding the cabin, with even 
better views
in 
all directions
than Crafts. We took a longer break on 
the south side of the cabin,
using the tower 
to block
the chilly wind blowing over the crest from the north.
A nearby benchmark is labeled "CRAFTS NO.1". I spent some time trying to talk
Tom into continuing east (solo)
to pick up Grays Peak, the third of three HPS peaks
along this crest. Since I had already climbed the peak previously,
I offered to return to the car and pick him up at Big Bear
Lake. Our maps did not quite cover the region around Grays, but we
were able to guess fairly well which of several possible bumps was the summit.
Tom gave it much consideration but decided against the venture as a bit too
unsure.
After half an hour at the summit we beat a retreat via the same route. The only
significant elevation gain was the climb 
back up
to Crafts and we managed to
get back to our vehicles within an hour and a half of leaving Butler. A
USFS officer
was busy writing tickets to nearby cars without Adventure Passes
displayed on their windows. Another one was on the opposite side of the highway
doing the same. Luckily, we had ours and he simply wished us a good day.
We drove on to Big Bear where we stopped in town to get some hot water
for our shower later in the day. The holiday traffic was evident on the drive
and the crush of folks milling about town doing those things one does before
Christmas and while enjoying their holiday. I found it all rather stifling and
was glad to get away from this favorite LA vacation spot. We headed east out of
town and then south on SR38 on our way up to
Onyx Summit. At over 8,400ft it is
the highest paved through-road in Southern California. Our objective was on the
east side of the road, Onyx Peak. There is a large turnout here,
a popular stop for snow-play to and from Big Bear. We used this as
our starting point for the 3/4 mile trek to the summit.
Using snowshoes from 
the start,
we headed up the 
snow-packed road being used as
a sled route by one enterprising family as we went by.
Where the road turns sharply left we
continued straight, 
past the PCT and climbing 
a gully
leading up the southwest side of the peak.
We began to run out of snow as we landed on the sun-exposed
south slope and made
our way up. I must have taken off and then put back on the snowshoes a half
dozen times in the last two hundred yards to the summit. Tired of following my
lead, Tom struck off in a slightly different route, less direct but fewer
changes of foot gear. There was no real time savings for either approach to the
problem.
The summit is large, somewhat flat, and peppered with trees to prevent
views of
more than about 120 degrees at any one point.
There are several 
communication installations and
we found 
the benchmark and an 
HPS register
at 
the northernmost of these amid a
small pile of rocks. Not an impressive peak, we decided. It had taken all of
40 minutes to reach the summit and about 25 minutes to get back down. We avoided
the dry patches of ground by heading off the
northwest side of the peak where the snow was more plentiful.
It was 1:30p when we returned to the 
parking lot
at Onyx Summit and we spent the
next hour driving to the trailhead for Contance Peak. It is located about 20mi
further west down SR38 at the town of Angeles Oaks. We left the van in the
post office parking lot and took Tom's car out on the dirt road leading to the
peak, according to the HPS guide. There was some significant snow on the road
making us surprised that it hadn't been gated shut, but Tom managed to negotiate
the worst of it without mishap to reach
the drier parts of 
the road immediately east
and below the peak. It took us not quite 30 minutes to claw our way up the
short but steep
distance between our car and the summit. No trail, only a little
snow on the side we climbed, and little bushwhacking thanks to the
use trail we found once we reached the chaparral-covered
southeast ridge. We found 
a register to
sign and took in the sights - Keller, Crafts, & Butler to 
the north,
East San Bernardino Peak to 
the east,
the hazy LA Basin to the south. Another ho-hum peak, but better than Onyx.
Driving south from Angeles Oaks we stopped at the 
last bridge
over Mill Creek,
before the road straightens out and enters the more suburban landscape. The
bridge was colorfully inscribed in classic LA graffiti, and it was under the
bridge that we took our showers out of view of the passing motorists.
We had a delicious Thai dinner in Mentone and made plans to visit the east side
of the range the next day for another group of HPS peaks found there. After
dinner we headed east to Beaumont on I-10 where we spent the night in a
deserted dirt lot off SR78. It was not the quietiest choice (not far enough off
the highway), but better than the roadside spot we'd spent the previous night,
and I slept much better.
Continued...