weblink1:http://www.summitpost.org/mountain/rock/150975/iron-mountain-1.html
weblink2:http://www.summitpost.org/route/264070/heaton-flat-trail-and-south-ridge.html

John Robinson, author of Trails of the Angeles, states that "8007 ft elevation Iron Mountain is by far the least accessible peak in the San Gabriels....No trail approaches its isolated summit, and to climb it you must start miles away and thousands of feet below." In this SoCal hiking legend's view, "Big Iron" is the most strenuous one-summit hike in the entire San Gabriel range.

The route along the Heaton Flat Trail, then along its south ridge is the most frequently used route to Iron Mountain, a.k.a. "Big Iron". But the route is demanding....a round-trip by this route is over 14 miles with 7,200 feet of elevation gain. The last mile to the summit packs 2,000 feet of gain itself.

My own words and take on this hike......well....."difficult", "strenuous", "demanding", "aggressive" all come to mind.....how about "ABUSIVE"....that seems to fit pretty well! Total time invested from the trailhead was 13 hours 17 minutes, including three meal breaks and (as always) lots of photo stops. There is an extra 1/2 mile each way from the parking lot to the trailhead, making the total hike distance closer to 15 miles. Temperatures started out around 58-60 F at the San Gabriel river trailhead, but steadily dropped down as I climbed hitting 30 F at the top with a stiff 30 mph SW wind blowing, and wind chill around 15 F. I got rained on once, and snowed on twice during this time as well! Needless to say, I did not hang around too long, plus needed to start back from an "overspent time" standpoint.

The trail itself was straightforward on route finding, except a few areas on the several thousand vertical feet of "bumps" along the ridgeline between the main trail and summit, and the main climb to the summit itself. The trail was tough going up, rock chutes, scree, and crumbling clay etc, but I was actually having an excellent "vertical" day, personally. However, coming down with all the slime created from the rain and snow was both difficult and very slow, especially as night took over and the headlamp came out. Having started the hike at 9:56 am it felt really good to be back at 11:13 pm that evening, with the accomplishment of BIG IRON behind me!