Gerhard Schneide

Trip: Mount Baker - Coleman/Deming Date: 11/5/2011 Trip Report: David and I climbed and skied (from 9200ft) the Coleman/Deming Route of Mount Baker this weekend. The approach up the trail went fast and we set up camp at 5700ft (Hogsback camp (?)). We left camp the next day at a leisurely 9AM and followed the skin track of a party we talked to the night before to around 8000-8500ft. From there we continued up towards the Bergschrund which was well bridged up to the Coleman Deming col. We stashed our skis at the col because the snow on the Roman Wall looked wind-blown and it was unlikely that the dry powder from Wednesday/Thursday would have been able to stick well to it. This was a good call as much of the wall was a hard crust with some really icy sections in it. Especially the top section that can be seen from the col was solid. We got to the proper summit at around 2PM. Weather was overall excellent, a bit on the cold side once you added the wind chill in. On the down climb a plane flew over us three times, every time a bit closer. I wonder if they took pictures of us – if so, I want one . The down climb went smooth. When we started skiing from the col it got unfortunately a bit foggy, but that did not take even a bit away from the amazing skiing on the super dry powder up high. Lower down I put the skis a couple times onto the crust, but that could be corrected with a bit of speed adjustment. Overall great day out with the most amazing early season skiing for me yet. Approach in fall colors Mt Approaching Coleman/Deming col. David coming up from Coleman/Deming Col. Crevasses on Deming. Looking up the Roman Wall. David cramponing through powder (why he was wearing crampons became obvious higher up ) Our tracks coming back from the summit. Cool light looking down the Roman Wall. Me on lower part of Roman Wall during down climb. Gear Notes: Crampons, Ice Axe, 30m rope used for glacier travel only.

Trip: Sherpa Peak - West Ridge Date: 7/31/2011 Trip Report: The hike across Long’s pass went fairly quickly (2h). The trail gains about 2000ft and then drops down to 4800ft for an elevation loss of 1400ft. We camped right after crossing Ingalls creek.(Beverly/Turnpike trail is another option that is supposedly mellower - never done that though). The next morning we left camp at around 6:30AM. Hiked for about 3/4mi along Ingalls Creek trail towards the junction with Turnpike Creek trail. The climber’s path starts outside the forest and is pretty easy to find and mostly in good condition. The only tricky spot is where it goes into the forest as it is a bit overgrown there. Once we got to 5800ft, we made an ascending traverse onto the ridge between us and Sherpa basin following a much less obvious and sandy trail. Once on top of the ridge (~6100-6200ft), we dropped down on the other side about 200ft and contoured around the edge along the rock walls. From that point everything is really straight forward. We climbed left of the waterfall towards table rock at roughly 7200ft. Then from there west of Sherpa towards the col between Stuart and Sherpa. Once we got up to the ridge, the wind was really strong and clouds had started to drop down on us. I almost got thrown over by a wind gust when I started out on the gully. We discussed the situation for a bit and then decided to move ahead while keeping a really close eye on the weather. We climbed following the path of least resistance. First on the North side of the ridge, and then dropping over to the South side. Three pitches of low 5th class climbing put us onto sandy ridges which we simul-climbed to the base of the south face. The south face is somewhere in the low to mid 5th class and two and a half pitches put us onto the summit. Overall really nice rock, though there were some sections were we had to take care not to drop any loose rocks. Overall the climb went really smooth, no rock fall, no dead-ends. Raps are straight forward. Further down, there is the option to go back an airy traverse on the south side or rap down on the north side of the ridge. Both work, though the south side is a bit more straight forward. ] Gear Notes: We placed BD #2, #1, #.75 cam, a few large nuts, and a 60m half rope (doubled over). Two to three medium to large size hexes might have been nice to have. Also two smallish cams would be good. There is lots of natural protection that can be slung, so bring a good number of double lengths runners. Approach Notes: Approached via Long’s Pass. (Drive I90 West from Seattle to Cle Elum (exit 85), then turn on US970. Drive about 7mi and turn left onto Teanaway Road. Follow Teanaway Road for about 22.5mi to the parking lot at the trail head). Registration at trail head. NW Forest Pass.

The summit snow patch was still pretty solid and easy climbing. We climbed the second snow field from the top to almost the horizon into an obvious gully (class 3-4ish). Once up the gully (10ft-ish) there is a small traverse over loose rock and then onto the summit snow patch. The biggest challenge was switching between rock and snow and vice versa. The snow got pretty soft later in the day and the thinly covered rock made the transitions tricky. For me the trickiest spot was the transition from the rock onto the second snow field from the top. The hand holds right at the transition were not the best, though not terrible either. On the way down we rapped to that spot and then stepped onto the rock while being on rappel (the ropes just reached). Two half ropes would have made this and other spots much easier since you could have done full 60m raps past many challenging areas (and it would have been faster). Let me know if you would like more detail or if anything is unclear.

Hey, I have done the yodelin tour up at Stevens when i did the avalanche course with mountain madness back in January. If you are looking for a partner drop me a mail: Grhrd@hotmail.com