Mount Baker
Michael’s trip report for this route is a photo essay. Indeed words may not suffice at conveying the grandeur of this route. It was certainly one of my favorites of all time. I’ll do my best! Aidan, Michael, and I drove out to Mount Baker late Saturday afternoon (a nap gone too long made me rush to get there about 20 minutes late). The plan was to have a big dinner in Bellingham and catch a few hours of sleep before setting out from the trailhead. We ate at a pizza place and I ended up eating more than I should have; I had no need of breakfast the next day. The drive up to Mount Baker was fraught with potholes now and then and I entertained Michael and Aidan by swerving in and out to avoid them. At the trailhead were already several cars. It might be a noisy bivy. We decided to at least drive up further to get a good view of Mount Baker. About a half mile around a switchback we had a most impressive view of Mount Baker – a classic awe-inspiring view. Michael had the bright idea of just sleeping here in solitude with nice views. We were all for that. We bedded down rather quickly with sunlight to spare and I fell asleep right away and awoke to Michael’s faux alarm (his screeching imitation of an alarm 10 minutes early)! Well, that was about 3 hours of solid sleep at least. We got ready and coasted down to the trailhead and headed out around 1:10am.
The trail was nice, wide, and worn and we passed over black creeks here and there in the darkness. Soon enough we had a major stream crossing that we negotiated without too much trouble. It would prove to be much easier in daylight but in pitch black, it sometimes hard to determine the depth of where you’re stepping and how potentially solid the step is. After checking our altimeters, we still thought this wasn’t the major stream crossing. However, we soon found ourselves in the snow, still in darkness. It that wasn’t the stream crossing, we were going to be crossing it on snow. With snow now accounting for the trail, it was easy to make good time – a steady pace of one foot in front of the other gained us the glacier quickly. I was amazed at how warm it was out here. I was still wearing only a t-shirt and wasn’t cold even when we stopped. Both Aidan and I were a little worried about the warmth and the snow wasn’t in the best of shape for a snow climb. Michael and I argued back and forth about the quality of the snow for a while (you’ll just have to come with me to Colorado for a spring climb to experience really good snow, Michael)! I’m not a good judge of temperatures but it felt that it was at least in the 50’s. After a long vertical slog we began heading across the Coleman Glacier.
The crossing of the Coleman Glacier was one of the great memories of this climb. The sun was barely beginning to illuminate the east as we began crossing crevasses growing bigger and bigger. Travelling en echelon for a while got us safely through a section of gill-shaped parallel crevasses. The next section involved negotiating huge crevasses with large seracs that dead-ended from time to time. We were turned around by dead-ends at least twice and jumped a crevasse or two to continue along the way. We finally made up our minds to take the direct route up steep snow to gain the ridge. At least this way we wouldn’t have to negotiate more crevasses. We started up and then took a break about a third of the way up. We continued up the remaining two thirds and the slope decreased before a final small crevasse near the base of the crux of the climb. We took a comfortable break here as well as another party arrived on the crest of the ridge from the standard route. We then got ready for the technical section of the climb and headed up to meet it.
Michael led up the first pitch handily and didn’t place an ice screw until near the top. He then appeared a little more relaxed then continued on, cresting the ridge and getting to a comfortable belay stance. Aidan and I then headed up, separated by about 12 feet of rope. Being new to ice climbing, I found this pitch really thrilling and fun. I felt very secure with my crampons and two ice tools, although I once tried to “french technique” (stepping with the side of my feet instead of the toes) my way up to spare my calves but this wasn’t secure at all and my feet slipped out but my axes held strong. No more doing that.
The crest of the ridge was steep, exposed, and fun. Looking down and to the left revealed immense exposure on the broken Roosevelt Glacier. Soon enough, Aidan and I topped out. Looking for a place to stand at the small belay, I poked a boot through a covered crevasse revealing blue ice. OK, no standing there so I moved just underneath Michael. Aidan led out next. We weren’t quite sure of the route from here. We thought it was indeed to the left underneath a large ice wall but the straight direct route looked doable. But, we weren’t sure if that would leave us topped out on teetering ice so we took what looked like a safer route.
Our route turned out not to be the best one but there was no way to know. We ended up in a very sunny and soupy spot of the North Ridge. We needed to press on quickly. There were only two options: descend the route and take the direct route (the other party did this and it turned out to be a simple option, much less technical than ours), or ascend a short but near vertical section to the right to gain the upper ridge. We decided to quickly take the really steep section. Aidan passed the gear down the rope and I transferred it to Michael who headed out quickly and established an admiral route to the upper ridge. Aidan and I followed it with no problems.
Our surroundings were absolutely spectacular. We were in an airy alpine place with the Coleman and Roosevelt Glaciers way below us with views of the Cascades reaching out to the north. I was able to point out the group of peaks around American Border Peak to Aidan and Michael – hey, starting to know my way around somewhat! We took a short break on top of the technical areas and then headed up the still steep slopes. We placed gear here and there on our running belay up this 50 degree slope. We had to pause for pictures a lot!
The large ice cap of Mount Baker was very near now. We traversed under it in a very spectacular manner. A few more yards got us to the level plateau and a view of the summit on the far left. The ascent was done!
The view from the top was of course spectacular and we spent a long time on the summit calling out peaks and hypothesizing about ones far in the distance. We also wondered what it would be like to be in some of those deep valleys that we were able to see as well. The general consensus was, “Hmmm…probably not very cool.” Well, I guess that’s in contrast with our fantasic location at this moment.
The descent was another matter of delight. We descended the standard Coleman Demming route. Getting down the Roman Wall was a pain – the snow was super messy and stepping in someone else’s footsteps frequently nearly sent me rolling down the mountain. The most comfortable way was to make my own path. Still, being roped up was a huge pain. We took off the rope since there was little crevasse danger here which made the descent a little more tolerable. Of course, since Michael and Aidan carried the gear, I carried the rope and they handed it to me in a tangled mess. I spent too much time trying to untangle it and gave up in frustration. I then bounded down trying to catch up glissading at times. Near the base of the glacier we all finally converged again and hiked out together. The hike out was uneventful (Michael glissaded over a crevasse though). We talked a lot about how good we felt.
“Man, I still feel really good.”
“Yeah, I’m wide awake.”
and so on.
Sitting in the car though on the drive out was another matter. Aidan succumbed first, his neck turning into a noodle and falling into his own lap practically. Michael and I had a good laugh and then Michael did the same thing. I guess the adrenalin was out of our systems now. I started having to fight off wanting to shut my eyes. Fortunately, caffeine in the form of Cokes took care of that and we drove home. We introduced Aidan to the caterwauling and shredding of “Racer X”. Fun times!
Tags: Baker, Coleman, Glacier, North ridge, Shuksan
