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I am considering climbing Baker in the third weekend of September, presumably via either the Easton or Coleman routes. Is this a great idea or is it foolish? I've read the climbing notes but I don't know how much worse conditions will get in the next 3 weeks. Has anyone here climbed Baker this late in the season?

But... it's not a circle, it's a parabola, right?

I started leading this year, my approach was to spend some time paying close attention as a follower, and then lead some easy routes with a more experienced partner following up and critiquing my placements. It's nice to have bolts at the top, obviously. If you need to build some confidence before you do this you can always practice placing pro on the ground, examining it, tugging on it from different angles, and having someone look at it. As in most life-threatening activities I've never done before, I wouldn't have wanted to try it without someone more experienced around.

Fascinating analysis. I am going to call it post-awesome.

Yesterday in the lab, I accidentally told a coworker she could "have her way with my box". At least I didn't say "unit".

Yeah, we definitely got some bad beta and probably took the worst route regardless of traffic. Thanks for the advice!

Last weekend there were no crevasses, I believe that it's just a snowfield the whole way and crevasses aren't a possibility. Soloing it sounds reasonable to me. There was some running water available around the lunch counter if you looked. Above it there was really no chance because everything was covered in snow.

Dunno the mileage but it took us about 3.5 hours.

Climb: Mount Adams-South Spur Date of Climb: 7/23/2005 Trip Report: My friend Oriana and I climbed Mount Adams on Saturday. Getting down there was a mini-epic, on account of horrendous traffic. If anyone thought it would be a good idea to take I205 down to I84... it's not. They're doing construction on the bridge across the Columbia and it took us a full hour to cross. Combined with an egregious routefinding error in the dark that left us about 10 miles down the wrong dirt road, we didn't get to the trailhead until around 3AM. So we slept in until 7:30. The day was beautiful, cloudless, warm, with just a slight breeze, and the climb was uneventful. Snow-free until around 8,000 feet. The climb up to Piker's Peak was a grueling slog, as expected, then a quick breather before heading up the true summit (it was covered in snow, which I guess is somewhat surprising?) 4:00 PM found us on top. I snapped some photos at the highest altitude I've ever been. After about 10 minutes on top I started feeling a little bit sick, and didn't really feel better until we'd gotten back down to the lunch counter. But I didn't blow chunks right at the summit flag, like someone else had done before us. Yuck. The descent was similarly uneventful. The glissade chutes were pretty icy and I wish I had been able to enjoy the descent more. Oriana found that an inflated Cascade Designs LiteSeat in the seat of her pants made it a nice ride, but I had no such aid. I saw some people coming down with those little plastic sheet sleds, that might be a good idea. We were back at the car by 9 PM, at which point Oriana volunteered to cowboy up and drive home. Good trip. Gear Notes: I used only trekking poles. There were about 100 feet where I wished I had crampons. Something to spare your butt on the glissade might be nice. Summit in jeans and plastic boots for the ultimate fashion statement. Approach Notes: Road is good. Snow starts at 8000 feet.

I summited on Saturday, when the weather was perfect. Sunny all day, no clouds. Windy on top as you'd expect, but just a little breeze on the whole approach.

I'm planning to climb Adams from the south on Saturday. Has anyone been up it lately?

I haven't read the letter, but I suspect the writer doesn't care about the distinction between hiking, hunting, and climbing.

I can personally attest that this is not the case...

I like it when I go to the gym and see people hunting around for the best possible parking spot, closest to the door.

Impreza's are only for sleeping if you are 5'6" or below. I'm 6'2" and it's tolerable, but just barely.

I have a WRX. It's fast and fun, and handles perfectly in the snow, I love it. I've never tried putting 3 people and full alpine packs in it, but I think there is enough room. I took a trip up to Whistler once with 4 people and all their gear, and it was pretty comfortable. FWIW, there have definitely been times I wish I had the wagon though, it would make sleeping in the car much nicer, and would unquestionably have enough room for 3 and gear.

This reminds me of something I encountered at Leavenworth this weekend- what is 5.8+ supposed to mean? Our theory was that it meant... 5.8.

Thanks for the warm welcome! What's next is a lot of rock climbing this summer, I think, I don't know what exactly yet. Leavenworth this weekend, Squamish in a little bit. There's been talk about Stuart and Argonaut. We'll see how it plays out. I'm also planning to do Rainier in August.

Climb: Mount Shuksan-Sulphide Glacier Date of Climb: 6/4/2005 Trip Report: Two weeks after completing the Boealps basic course, I found myself committing to Shuksan-in-a-day with a couple of my more experienced friends, Robert (fenderfour) and Sarah (lylabob). I was a little apprehensive about my fitness level, and had visions of being the reason we had to turn around before the summit, but they told me I could do it and I was eager to try my “skills” on something tough. We set out from the Shannon Creek trailhead at 5:30 AM. The weather was cool and overcast. The sign at the trailhead included a warning that the trail had not yet received maintenance this year. Robert remarked "Funny, I think that's what it said last year too." The trail wasn't too bad, a little shrubby and uneven at the beginning. After the first half hour I was dying. We came to a short rest and found out that we had ascended 1000 feet in that time. We reviewed our personal goals: Robert: To beat the Beckey time to summit Sarah: To be capable of walking in the coming week Eric: To not have my heart explode It seemed like we might have slowed down a little bit after that. Around 5000 feet we broke out of the trees and onto the ridge, and into unexpected sunlight. There was Mount Baker wreathed in clouds, it was the best view I had gotten yet this year (all my previous climbs were in crappy weather). All around us were clouds, but where we were was open blue sky (which would turn out to hold for most of the day) I snapped a few pictures and we continued up to the notch that would take us to the glacier, hitting snow around 5000 feet. Kicking up to the notch, we found the snow to be somewhat icy, so once in the saddle we strapped on our crampons. It turned out to be ill-advised, as the snow on the east side had already been softened up by the sun, so we took them off before too long. We proceeded up to the campsite at 6500 feet and found a bit of a mystery there, there were tons of fresh tracks and signs that someone had camped there within the last day or two, but no trail actually leading up the glacier. We also saw a trail leading out to the southeast for a few hundred feet, then doubling back, and a big X stomped in the snow across it. We didn’t come up with a likely scenario to explain it. We roped up and began the glacier slog with Sarah leading. With the full sun beating down on us, and no wind to speak of, it was rough going. The snow was pretty hard, I could walk on top of it most steps without actually breaking the crust but every fourth or fifth I’d sink in 4-5 inches. The glacier itself was in good shape, we saw one crevasse and signs of a couple more, all down close to the camp. We made it to the base of the summit pyramid around 11:30, feeling pretty wiped out, about 6 hours after we started. We dropped our packs, ate some food, drank some water, and took a nap. The nap was critical, I higly recommend it. After about 45 minutes we all felt much better and ready to tackle the pyramid. There was a bit of debate on how to go up- we didn’t think the route suggested by Beckey looked so great, due to some sketchy-looking hanging glacier type stuff on the west edge. Sarah thought the rock edge on the southeast side looked appealing, and Robert preferred the idea of just kicking up the snow to the gulley in the middle of the south face. Since I started leading and couldn’t make up my mind, we ended up taking a hybrid approach (aka “the hard way”) of alternating between rock and snow the whole way up. The snow itself was medium crappy, four or five inches of soft snow followed by a hard icy layer that was difficult to kick through. We reached the summit 9:15 after we left the trailhead, including nap, so Robert got his wish (Beckey states 10-11 hours). The weather was great, bright and clear, though the wind had begun to pick up. Getting down proved to be much more annoying than getting up, as the icy layer made kicking steps difficult. Robert had brought his crampons and they proved very helpful, as he kicked some bomber steps most of the way down for us. The descent was predictable and without drama. Clouds rolled in as we reached our packs, and Robert got to test out his new GPS in medium whiteout. We didn’t bother to rope up for the glacier, figuring that we had seen the terrain and we’d be fine if we stayed on our tracks. We encountered a group of Mountaineers and a couple of other climbers back at the camp, and shared our beta with them. Then back through the notch, onto solid ground, and back out to the trailhead. We reached the car 15 hours after leaving and headed home. Lessons Learned: - Apply sunscreen early and often - Naps rule - Bringing one set of crampons “just in case” is a good idea - GPS is good - At the trailhead, even Budweiser tastes good - Chugging a liter of diet coke in the car = roll windows down Gear Notes: Ice axe, crampons (very useful on the pyramid) Approach Notes: Road clear to trailhead. Trail clear of snow to near the notch in west Shuksan ridge at 5000 feet. Glacier relatively crevasse-free.